place when the storm clouds suddenly burst in the
early summer of 1900.

The first indication we had of coming danger was when our mail carriers
running to and from Tientsin were stopped and our mails returned. Thus,
cut off from the outside world, we had to depend solely upon the wild
rumors afloat among the Chinese for information. The country around us
became daily more disturbed; day by day we could hear the beating of
drums and the cries of the people for rain. The darkness and horror of
those days, in the midst of which sickness and death entered our home,
can never be forgotten. On the nineteenth of June our eldest daughter,
Florence, after a week of intense suffering, was released from pain. It
was while her life was still hanging in the balance that we received the
first communication from the American Consul in Chefoo urging us to
flee. This message was quickly followed by another still more urgent.

The question was, where could we flee? Our usual route was by river boat
two weeks to Tientsin, but this way was blocked, the whole region being
infested with Boxers, and Tientsin even then in a state of siege. The
only possible route left open to us was southward by cart,--fourteen
days to Fan-cheng,--then ten or more days by houseboat to Hankow. We
faced such a journey at that time of the year with fear and trembling
because of the children, the danger from heat and sun being very great.
Gladly would we have stayed, but the Chinese Christians urged us to go,
saying they could escape more easily were we not there.

We had with us our four remaining children: Paul, nine; Helen, six;
Ruth, under three; and baby Wallace, eight months. Their faithful
Chinese nurse, though weeping bitterly at parting from her old mother of
almost eighty, decided to come with us. There were altogether in the
party five men, six women, and five children, besides the servants and
carters.

Many were the difficulties in the way of getting carts and other
necessary things for the journey, but one by one all things needed were
provided as we besought the Lord to open the way. There were many
indications on that journey that God's purpose was to save us; one of
the most striking of these happened just as we were about to leave.

The day previous to our departure a message passed through the city of
Chang Te Ho, the messenger riding at breakneck speed. This messenger, we
learned later, was en-route for the Provincial Capital with the seal