g her curiosity. Then at dawn the longed-for
dose of medicine is administered, after a prayer that the "medicine may
heal her body, and the blood of Jesus cleanse her soul," and she may
settle to a doze which daily becomes more natural and peaceful as the
body returns to a normal condition of being.

Mrs. Fan saw that much was introduced by the foreigner in the wake of
Christianity which her alert mind recognised as being all to the
advantage of women. Even the old Refuge-keeper could read a little, but
she was quite dull and slow, whereas without much trouble Mrs. Fan
herself could master quite a number of new characters every day, and a
few hours had been enough for the initial lesson of reading the large
print rhyme:

"There is but one true God, the Heavenly Father He,
Who feeds and clothes and pities me.
The only Saviour, too, who can my sins forgive,
I trust and hearken to His word, Jesus my Lord and Saviour.
Jesus loves the sinner, Jesus pities me,
He gave His life, He washed me clean, He verily hath loved me."

It was quite evident that a certain amount of education lay within her
own grasp, and quite unlimited possibilities were open to her three
daughters. The sinfulness of binding up the feet of girls was touched
upon, and a strong determination took form in her mind that her girls
should be among the first who would have natural feet in the
neighbourhood, in spite of the lurking fear that all three might be left
as old maids upon her hands if no man might be found bold enough to risk
the disgrace of a wife with normal feet. A short length of white cotton
material was procured, and the three little ones were soon free of
compressing bandages, each wearing a pair of calico socks and little
red-and-yellow shoes, ornamented on the toe with a grinning, whiskered,
tiger's face.

These girls were all destined to lives of signal usefulness in the
Church. Two of them labour still as teachers and evangelists among their
own people; the third was early prepared by intense suffering and deep
wrongs to be removed by death to the realm where the "wicked cease from
troubling and the weary are at rest."

THE GREAT FURNACE FOR A GREAT SOUL

"Happy the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

"A white bird, she told him once, looking at him
gravely. A bird which he must carry in his bosom
across a crowded public place--his own soul was