A Thief Who Laboured To Give To Others 169
A THIEF WHO LABOURED TO GIVE TO OTHERS
behold, Aristarchus and Secundus in the name of the triune Father, Son, and Holy Spirit greet all you Christians with a letter. Are you
Christians of the church at Oak Flat all safe and strong, dwelling peacefully in the Lord Jesus? We would like very much to know and we thank all the brethren for praying for us.
As Secundus and I came from Oak Flat country to Ya-pi market we saw some Lisu homes and people. But leaving Ya-pi on our journey to Lichiang we crossed much country where we saw no Lisu homes or folk. Eight d4ys after arriving in Lichiang we went with the missionary and two evangelists from the Lichiang church into the country round about to teach. Leaving Lichiang without accident and travelling peacefully in the Lord we reached Yongpeh country, thank God. It is three days from Lichiang to Yongpeh and we had to cross a mountain range. From our Oak Flat to this place is some little distance! Yongpeh is a city like Paoshan, with a big market and the people around are all
Chinese. There are lepers also in the city.
There was no preaching of the gospel there, so we pity them. Therefore the Lichiang missionary borrowed a house and now they have services. On the evening of January 30, the gospel began to be preached in this church. Please pray for the Chinese of this place.
Also on Chinese market day countless Lisu come. A half-day's journey from the Chinese city brings you to the Lisu villages and there are so many Lisu you cannot describe them! Moreover, the men and women resemble the Lisu of the Luda district. Many of them have a knowledge of Chinese. Please, brethren of the Oak Flat church, village by village all of you, pray more and more for these Lisu of Yongpeh.
My companion Secundus and I on February 2 went to the villages where the Lisu live. We went to village by village and preached the gospel. When we taught them they said, "We have never heard this story before nor seen any kind of Lisu book. Please pray for us!" Their words and our Lisu words are about one-third different. Kindly pray for us while we are in this country that we may walk in the Spirit and sow the seed of God's doctrine. Now there is another thing; in this country the money we formerly used we never see here. There may not be any traffic in opium. People have been killed for planting it. Over a thousand soldiers have gone from this place but none has ever returned home. How is our Oak Flat country now?
Now there is one more thing with which I would like to acquaint you brother Christians. In the middle of this Yongpeh district there is a eople called the Lolo, over one hundred thousand of them. They are like wild people and steal and rob all the time. More than this, when they seize Lisu and Chinese, man or woman, along the road, they lead
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them away and make them slaves in their own country. None of the Chinese officials dare discipline these people. Pray that these folks may cease to be robbers and their hearts become tender—and constantly pray for us two, please. Now that is what we have to say. We are well and strong in the Lord. Many thanks to God.
The one who walks and writes to you is the Christian,
ARISTARCHUS.
I was perfectly thrilled over that last paragraph, for he had undoubtedly come upon the forbidden territory—that tribe of Lolo which the Chinese have never been able to conquer and for which prayer has gone up in our Mission since before I came to China, at least.
R.S.B.S., 1939 (when Gad first came), did not bring the two boys back to us as we had asked. Mr. Andrews wrote us the reason.
Requests for a teacher had come pouring in on Aristarchus and Secundus. To cope with the spread of the work, they had separated, but still there were calls they could not answer.
To leave at such a time with no one to replace them seemed disastrous. As it was, all they could do was to make clear the way of salvation, teach a simple prayer and perhaps a hymn, then pass on to others. How they longed really to establish the church in the truth. When their backs had to be turned on the new believer, Satan would send out his sharp Winds from the Bitter Height, and if they had not been taught how to shelter in their Rock, how would they ever stand? So of course we wrote our consent that they wait at Yongpeh until reinforcements could be sent to relieve them.
Mr. Andrews paid the little infant church a visit and wrote to us of the happy time he spent there. "How they hunted the mountains for idols!'' he said. "Some thirty-five families have cast out their demon altars . .
. this means that about two hundred have confessed Christ as Saviour. It was a blessing to see how they came to the meetings and to hear their singing. Seeing a Lisu with his Catechism, I asked him to read it to me, which he did with such liberty and joy that the tears came to my eyes as I sat and listened. Wonderful indeed. "As soon as they hear of me they shall come; and thy people shall be willing in the day of
A THIEF WHO LABOURED TO GIVE TO OTHERS
thy power.' The Lolo also have asked the evangelists to come to their villages and teach them."
In this way began something which we hoped would grow— the Lisu tribe reaching out to evangelize other tribes. The white man cannot hope always to be in China; the native church should be trained to care for and evangelize its own countrymen.
Now to go back to Yongpeh. The very first of these thirty-five families to turn Christian was a local official, Chiu Teh-tsi by name. His is a wonderful and rare story of a heart prepared. If I remember rightly, the two evangelists were having rather a lonely and defeated time of it, when they "happened'' upon this man, who, immediately he heard the gospel, was thrilled with it. He invited them into his own home and questioned them eagerly, and with great intelligence; then made his decision telling Aristarchus that he had long been seeking after the truth.
Upon casting out his idols and ancestral worship, this dear man wrote us his testimony in Chinese, but alas, that letter is lost.
Another from his pen will appear later. A quotation from a circular will introduce it:
"AN HANDFUL OF CorN . . . UPON THE ToP OF THE MOUNTAINS"
Twilight—the day's responsibilities over—I turned once again to the orange-brown path which slips in and out among green foliage until it falls away into Sunset Ridge on the banks of the Salween.
There, at the end of the day, I like to keep tryst. The ridge is growing old . . . just as I am. Its rounded youthful form has been stripped of so many trees and bushes that it is thin and spare now, but it is still a quiet spot and it possesses a forward look which is incomparable in grandeur and never fails to silence the soul into worship. As I sit on my favourite grey stone, the opposite bank of the river towers up before me into jagged peaks, navy blue in the falling dusk, but with soft wreaths of ure white cloud wistfully clinging to their great shoulders. Peak behind peak—they trail away into the steel-grey skies with an enticing lure—Come, find me! Come, find me! and you feel quite sure that heaven and the Prince of Glory and all the host of loved ones gone on ahead are just over the border, and so in the quiet of the evening you feel close.
That is the time and place to lay all the day's ruffles out before Him and ask His dear hand to smooth them out. And when the inner peace is matched to the outward, I sometimes ask Him for a word, and often, so often—with unfailing kindness He has given it. He knows just what
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word will mean most, and that evening He opened the Book for me and pointed to Ps. bxxii. 16—''an handful of corn . . . upon the top of the mountains . . . the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon."
"An handful of corn"—it just described them. Our little handful of ~ corn-kernel students who we hope will fall into the ground and die to self and bring forth a harvest of other kernels for Him. But the handful of corn was getting slimmer every day—how could one believe that its fruit would increase until it was like the great trees of Lebanon?
Do you remember we told you of an official in the Yongpeh district who had turned Christian under Aristarchus' exhortations? Well, the very next letter from there told that this dear "'first-fruits" had passed the border country, and now is with the Lord. As I sit and look at that sky trail, and in the evening dusk feel "close" to those on the other side,
I remember that Mr. Fraser's last request to us before he went Home, was that we would try to send a messenger of Christ to Yongpeh district.
And now he and that new convert have shaken hands—isn't it wonderful? We aren't so very far separated, are we? We never know when it will be our turn to slip heavenward. A letter from that new convert is a voice, now, from beyond the sky trail.
May 20, 1939.
To the Oak Flat Church:
The two teachers you sent to Yongpeh, namely Aristarchus and Secundus, are now in the Sha-pa village teaching God's clear road. We are very fond of one another. In the Lord Jesus we have peace.
These two are working very hard for God, changing our superstitions and lifting us up to walk the great clear road. Up to now there are over forty families trusting Jesus and of men and women over two hundred are studying the books. But then there are still a few thousand who do not believe in Jesus. These unbelievers are all in the hands of the devil; please pray to God for them.
That everything is in God's hands is our great joy. (They say he died with his testimony still on his lips.) Thank God and thank you.
I would like you to announce to the church that the most important thing in this note is that Aristarchus and Secundus are going home in a short time. We have only escaped from the devil's hands a few months; and we of Yongpeh do not know anybody who can read Lisu characters and we cannot do without them. We thank you because you have been expending your hearts in order to bring us into the faith.
Curu TEH-TsI.
The following is an extract from Aristarchus' letter announcing Mr. Chiu's decease:
A THIEF WHO LABOURED TO GIVE TO OTHERS
.. Now among the brethren who have believed there are some Lisu but most are Lolo . . . of individuals about two hundred and fifty. They are now at this time working on building a chapel. They have already finished two chapels of about thirty feet in length. Thank God.
Moreover, after they had believed, the Lisu official (the one whose letter is above) and another Christian went home to God. But the believers were not saddened. In fact, it was the duty of Secundus and me to comfort their hearts from the scripture, but some of them comforted us saying, "Don't feel badly." This is a sign to us that we have cause to thank God.
Another thing, the believers here are meeting with trial and seduction from some people Satan is using. This country where Secundus and I are, is close to that governed by Szechwan. And in that place, here and there robber bands are continually stealing people. Seven years ago about seven hundred of them. (Wild Lolo of the Forbidden Territory!) came to this village where we are now, and burned their homes. They drove before them their cattle and many of their young men and women.
Needless to say, we did not request that Aristarchus and Secundus come home immediately; still it was not wise to let them continue on without Bible study under a competent teacher, so all during 1939 R.S.B.S. we were hunting in our hearts for the two students whom we should ask to go and relieve
Aristarchus and Secundus to come back to us.
Again the 1939 circular gives a description of each member of the student body, but as repetition becomes wearisome we will quote only what relates to our story.
... And next to him sits a young fellow, face lowered, looking up at you with such a black scowl you would think he was planning your murder. Oh, no, dear friend, this is just poor Gad trying to concentrate.
He reminds us of Aristarchus—such an unattractive surface, a slow working mind behind it, but, we trust, a sincere desire to do what is expected of him. I hope some of you take a liking to Gad—a prayer liking.
The women's bench is over at the back next the door—right next to Gad. Gad is not the type to distract a girl's thoughts. (Is that naughty?
I'm sorry. I really like Gad, even if the girls don't.) Homay, Dorcas, Rhoda, Elizabeth, come as they can, and women visitors also but the only enrolled females are Mrs. Yang and Nosu-Mary.
RSBS:, 1939, was a happy school. I quote from the circular which reviewed it at the close.
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Quite without our intending it, last year's R.S.B.S. held the keynote "regeneration," and quite without our planning it this year's one had a keynote also—it was "identification," our union with Christ in His death and resurrection. Many were the testimonies of what a blessing this study had been to our dear laddies. I listened to them with gratitude but with no excitement, for I know full well that to learn it in the classroom and to experience it alone on the field are often far apart.
They do not need to be, but they often are. After a class on Rom. viii, Andrew said to me, "Ma-Ma, are there Christians nowadays who remain carnal all their lives?" Blessed innocence; may it always be that to learn a truth is to practise it, in their lives. But to put identification into practice necessitates suffering—there is no easy path to dying to self and living to God. My prayer for them is—may they recognize the opportunity to die, when it comes. I was myself blessed by these few sentences in a letter from our revered Miss Frances Brook: "Brokenness is the place of blessing. Broken personalities letting the fragrance of Christ out; broken purposes meaning power; broken plans meaning life; broken periods meaning glory. The corn of wheat breaks when it has let itself go to the ground and the embryo is free."
As I sat listening to the closing exercises I thought how much we had for which to thank the Lord. No student failed. Brand-New, Levi and Mrs. Yang did not write examinations and so were not "graduated," but of the other twenty, ten got over ninety-four per cent. There were no spectacular ones, this year, but several little incidents made us feel there was real progress. For instance, there was not one dissension between the students, large enough to come to our ears; last year there were three. We had no worries about misbehaviour; there was only one exhibition of temper on the playing field, Rufus the culprit. And with many there was a gradual growth which has been a quiet joy to us. I would like to mention Gad, Ephraim, Pade-John, Daniel and A-che as gladdening our hearts, these in addition, of course, to those who have been an undiminished joy all along. This summer A-che won a woman to the Lord in Water-Buffalo-Mountain Village and telling us of it later she said, "Now that's a fellow who loves folk." Little things like that show us the study of His Word is not in vain. Also we would like to praise the Lord for the safe journeyings made every week-end through stormy and dangerous weather, yet not a student was hurt by falling rocks, of which there were more than usual. Can you not see how God has been answering your prayers for us? And not least was the way the food supply kept up. In fact, I fear the "shepherds" were better fed than the flock, this summer.
A THIEF WHO LABOURED TO GIVE TO OTHERS
I79 Heading the list of unexpected joys was Gad! And now the designation of evangelists, their work and field for the coming year, was before us. Who were to be the exchange teachers with Aristarchus and Secundus?
Tall, good-looking, clever Luda-Peter had led the school that summer in marks, and my husband suggested him for Yongpeh.
"He is expecting to be married this winter. I do not believe he would like to be sent so far away,"' I demurred.
"Oh, that is an American thought, not a Lisu one,"' answered my husband impatiently. "I don't think he'd mind in the least.
Any et our boys would be thrilled to go. Whom did you think to ask?"
"T thought of Daniel and Gad," I replied quietly.
"Gad! Why he's only a beginner! What on earth! Why, I want to send our very best to that great field! You know it was just about Mr. Fraser's last request before he died, that we should respond to that call for help. Gad! Humph."' And in some disgust John turned away.
But I had been noticing the once-upon-a-time thief—noticed how hard he worked, how blamelessly he tried to live. Life is a powerful testimony, more powerful than clever words. Gad's daily life impressed me more than Peter's.
The next day my husband approached me with a rather sheepish grin. "Guess you win, Belle! I suggested Yongpeh to Peter yesterday. His face fell and he answered slowly, 'If it is
God's will, Pll go, of course——' but his face told enough for me. Daniel, on the other hand, is glad to go. So I think I'll send for Gad and sound him out."
Gad limped in, and stood looking with a hang-dog expression from one to the other.
"Don't be afraid, Gad," cheerfully assured the missionary.
"Nothing wrong. We've just called you in to ask if you would like to go with Daniel to Yongpeh for this next year?"
It was like pressing an electric button. His form straightened and his face flooded with light. "Oh, I'd like to so much!" he cried. But J had noticed his limp as he came in, and on inspection saw that one leg was just a row of ulcers from knee to ankle.
"How can you go, Gad, with a leg like that! There are twelve
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days of hard mountain walking before you get to Yongpeh, you know!"
"Oh,'' says Gad, looking down at his leg, "'it will soon heal up. We don't have to go immediately, do we?' and he turned from kill-joy Ma-Ma to scan anxiously Ma-Pa's face.
"Oh, no," was the answer. "Job has to escort you and he is not going for a month or so yet."
"Well, I will be all healed by then," he replied with great relief. "Thanks ever so much!"' And he limped off joyfully to communicate his good fortune to the others. The circular merely records:
To exchange with Aristarchus at Yongpeh: Daniel and Gad. Job will escort them over there, as they must pass through Chinese territory and neither speaks much Chinese; then Job will remain to give the new believers a month of study before returning to his post at Luda.
One fine autumn day, the little band of three set out on the long trek to a pioneer field, where many of the people were of a different tribe. "Go ye forth," He said.
I do not possess copies of any of the correspondence that ensued during that year of hard, faithful labour. Up and down the mountains the two plodded, teaching little groups of inuirers here and there, or entering heathen villages to proclaim their wonderful Word of Life. There was no hand-clapping or praise of men to urge them on, or comfort when the way was hard and lonely. They must adjust themselves to a different dialect, different food, and different customs, and all without any human help, except what they could give one another. And the field was so large that more often than not they had to separate in order to meet the calls for service. We, on the other hand, were so busy with a very full programme that we did not write to them as frequently as we would have liked to, and as they deserved.
Now back to the circulars. May, 1940, says:
The safe return of Gad and Daniel from Yongpeh brought the news of over a hundred more souls won to Christ there, and one of them was coming along for teaching—Yongpeh James. There are now some six hundred Lisu in the Yongpeh area who have turned to Christ. Isn't that wonderful? In your joy do not forget that this is a mass movement.
A THIEF WHO LABOURED TO GIVE TO OTHERS
I8I . .. God willstart His winnow going some day, but let's not be afraid of that—even in a mass movement all is not chaff.
That summer of 1940 we had four different tribes represented in our R.S.B.S.: Chinese, Lisu, Nosu, and two Lolo, one of whom Gad brought back with him, and all had to study the scriptures through the Lisu language!"
There were three from Yongpeh: John and Peter have already been mentioned, so there is only James to describe. He was one of the newest converts—out of heathenism only about nine months. He could read but had not yet learned to write very well.
He was only a laddie of twenty years, with a rosebud mouth and, the first few weeks a very worried brow. To ask him a question, even the simplest, was to petrify him. Poor laddie! He was a picture of Atlas—in Lisuland—with all the world on his shoulders. It was a joy to see the care smoothing out and smiles beginning to come. He sat next to Luke, whose duty it was to mother him!
Gad was with us all that summer, and it was easy to see that the year's preaching and testing, so far from home, had done him good. His hang-dog look had largely disappeared, and when it came to his turn in practice preaching, although he never was an outstanding speaker, he had something to say.
The end of R.S.B.S. came, and again the evangelists were allocated for the year. To Gad fell the honour of a field to himself. Previously he had always been just a cadet-evangelist; now he himself was to be in charge. He was sent to Hollow Tree district, about four days' journey to the south, a large area containing Shan and Lolo, as well as Lisu. We like to send the evangelists two by two, but this time there were not enough to go round. As always, Gad was quite happy to be given the difficult place.
"Don't worry," he said, smiling. "T don't mind. I'll be all right." Knowing how plucky he had always been, we let him go.
Yet not in solitude if Christ anear me Waketh Him workers for the great employ!
1All had previously learned it, of course; many of the tribes are bi-lingual.
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Oh, not in solitude—if souls that hear me Catch from my joyaunce the surprise of joy.
Gad was hoping for this kind of companionship, and we felt _ if once he got there, God would surely give it to him. Nevertheless, he was going far from home, so our "alone-boy"' was much on our hearts.
That winter, we ourselves hoped to visit Little Daughter in Chefoo. As we must pass near Stockade Hill, we had decided to stop off there and give a short time of Bible teaching. That district had been given no teaching help since the New Testaments arrived, except the school at Longchiu conducted by Mr.
Peterson and Mr. and Mrs. Crane. It had been a good school and appetites were whetted for more study. We could give them only three days, but about one hundred gathered from all over the district. One result was that Claude, a Lisu who had received a good Chinese elementary education, offered to go into the Lord's vineyard. We immediately told him of Gad's need of a companion, and off he went to Hollow Tree. Little did we dream how much Gad would need Claude, as soon as he arrived.
"Gop's CouNnTRY" FOR CHRISTMAS It was a crisp, fresh December morning when very early we started out from the dark little Lolo hut where the past night had been spent.
It was cold, riding muleback on that high mountain-top before the sun was up, but there was the hope of reaching home that day, and when the pale yellow beams glinted on the great quiet peaks across the canyon from us, warming the grey rocks and tinting the tree-studded sides into genial colour, we thrilled and were glad to be alive. Our path took us over a great cap of mountain whose fawn grass velvet sides dropped down from beside our feet some two thousand feet to the green, winding
Salween River below. Everywhere the beauty of God's country, its meditative quiet, its kindly hospitality, its open-trailed freedom was spread around. I took a deep breath of the untainted air and said to myself, Back in Lisuland! I feel as if I could write a circular again! For | had a slightly guilty conscience—I had not written from Chinaland that last month. Somehow the noisy rush of city life, with its conferences and truck-travelling in between, had left my pen dry. There had been blessing, but somehow no leisure to think out its record. But during that early morning ride I knew what that exiled Israelite of long ago meant when he cried, "How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?"
A THIEF WHO LABOURED TO GIVE TO OTHERS
Back in God's country the desire to chat with prayer helpers about Him and His work once more flooded my heart.
But why Christmas in Lisuland when we had planned to spend it with Little Daughter at the coast? War conditions, including the bombing of a bridge on our route out, seemed to close the door. Though heart-strings tugged for little girlie, trusting the wisdom of His faithful love who has never failed us in the past, we came back to spend the day with our Lisy children, and their love and welcome certainly comforted us. God is always so good to us—Charlie Peterson had reached home just a day and two nights before we arrived, but he had cleaned house, unpiled stored-up furniture and boxes, spread his own lovely new bedspread and other fresh-from-furlough possessions all throughout our rooms—well, the only rooms that had not been dressed up to welcome us nor fixed in any way were Charlie's own! Then we had brought a grand present for everybody in the person of Orville Carlson!
"Tue Least oF THOSE You Love'
"All our joy is touched with pain,' someone has said. Christmas Eve, as the line-up from the south—Horse-Grass-Level
Village and Hollow Tree district—waited to come under the arch, I eagerly looked for Gad. Claude, I saw, and so thought for sure Gad would be there too, but I could not see him. So when all the greetings were over, I asked where Gad was. A quiet fell over them, then they answered, "Gad has gone home to God.
He died around the first of December."' (Probably, as I learned after, from relapsing fever.) The news was an awful shock, and could not be forgotten. As he was the first of our Rainy Season
Bible School students to fall asleep we held a memorial service for him on the morning after Christmas. Orville Carlson had been appointed to speak by interpretation at that meeting and it was peculiarly fitting, for two of Gad's brothers were present.
One, at least, had come purposely to meet Gad, not having seen him for over a year, and the news made him very bitter against the Lord at first.
Orville had been through the same thing. His first arrival in Yunnan had been filled with the joy of an unexpected meeting with his loved brother Earl, only to be met with the news of Earl's Home-going at Luda. As Orville movingly recalled his own grief, questionings, and how the Lord tenderly met them,
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there were many wet eyes in the audience and I am sure Gad's brothers got an answer to their why?
After Orville Carlson, Gad's fellow students and workers one by one gave short testimonies of different things in his life that had blessed them. Some of them have already been recorded in this chapter—his confession of stealing a book-bag from us and the restoration of the money, which began a new life for him.
His fearless and faithful work at Yongpeh were mentioned.
Rather an austere, very exact and unemotional character though he was, his faithfulness to his appointed task was almost everyone's testimony.
Claude had been with him at his death. He said, ""Gad knew he was going. Many of his people came crowding in to see him and he spoke to them, gave instructions as to the disposal of his things and then said, 'I know for a certainty that I am going
Home to God. All of you behave as you should,' and with that he fell unconscious, and passed away."" Wasn't it lovely that he died exhorting men and women to walk in the light of Calvary's sacrifice? It was typical of him that he could not put it beautifully.
He was not a gifted teacher, but one of the testimonies concerning him was that his fellows grew to know that he never was flippant—he always meant what he said, and he said it.
The last letter we ever had from Gad, not thinking it would be his last, we did not keep, but it ended on a note that none of his letters had ever had before. He never exhibited affection, yet this letter had a love-longing phrase at the end, a nontranslatable Lisu love-sigh which means, "Oh, you dear ones."
Then after it he wrote, "The writer is the least of those you love—Gad." One of the reasons the news of his departure brought tears was that I never had showed him how much his faithfulness and willingness for hardship were prized. But there is One with him now, who will see to his reward. In thinking of Gad I am reminded of a verse my grandmother loved and wrote in my autograph album:
A noble life is not a blaze Of sudden glory won.
But just an adding up of days In which good work is done.
A THIEF WHO LABOURED TO GIVE TO OTHERS
What is love to Christ? F. B. Meyer says, "You would like to love with a strong, undying flame—but perhaps you fail to distinguish between love and the emotion of love. They are not the same. We may love without being directly conscious of love.
... They love who obey."
Gad never could gush. Even if he felt "a strong, undying flame,"' he would not have known how to put it into words, or even into nfanner, but he did know how to obey.
Gad died, trying to "give to him that needeth."' The great Abyss of Sin had once made him shudder, and the tender shelter of the Cleft Rock (the forgiving grace of the Lord Jesus) never ceased to comfort his soul. But comfort was not all he desired.
He was ashamed of that past; he wanted to express gratitude.
With that thought in his heart, Gad set his face towards service.
The raw Wind of Sickness whipped against him but did not stop him. The moaning Wind of Loneliness made him shiver
"but it also taught him to snuggle into the Shelter of his Rock.
Thus when unexpectedly (he was still in his twenties) that bleak Wind of Death came whistling over the Abyss, he was so disciplined to self-forgetfulness that it failed to produce any terror, just concern lest the younger nestlings around him, who had had less opportunity to study their Rock, might be needlessly overwhelmed.
The Unseen Missionaries "TI.
ELLE!' My husband looked up from a letter he was reading. ""We shall have to go to Luda after this R.S.B.S. is over. Here is another letter from Mr. and Mrs. Cooke"' (they were on furlough then—it was 1939) "'asking us again to give their Lisu a little oversight. I'm just ashamed we have not gone yet. And it is such a wonderful field. I've always wanted you to see Luda; you know that."
"Well, my dear"'—I sighed a littlek—"you know we tried to go last year, but the rains drove us back. I'll go now if you want me to, but you know what Mr. Fraser said once, that that trail up the canyon is the hardest travelling in all China. I could never walk it.
"You don't have to walk it—we have Jessie and Jasper!"
"But the Cookes say you can't use a mule on those mountains!"
"That is because they are both such splendid walkers. I don't believe they have ever tried to use an'animal much. Probably felt safer on their own feet. But I've been up there too, and I believe our Jessie and Jasper can do it!"'
"All right, I'll go then," I agreed.
"Three cheers!' exclaimed Friend Husband, jumping up enthusiastically. "Then I'll go over and talk with Luke, and we shall arrange a grand party of deacons and Christians to go with us. The last letter from Job said that Village~of-the-Three-Clans is split with quarrelling, and it is having a bad effect on the community. Cath and Vic Christianson are here now, and they can look after Oak Flat. Do you agree?"
"All right," was the answer given more cheerfully. And now I'll let the circulars of those days tell most of it.