CHAPTER FOUR
owe '
CHAPTER FOUR
HOW TO DEVELOP A TASTE FOR BEANCURD
ie had been agreed between us that for the first five months after our marriage John should run the housekeeping, with 29 help of his cook-boy, Yin-chang. There were good reasons or starting out in this topsy-t way:
The China Inland Mistion ee eh missionaries be two years on the field before uniting in marriage. This rule has been called in question from time to time, and it just had happened that we struck a period when the Mission revoked the two-year rule in favour wf a trial of one year. Later they returned to the two-year rule, believing in it more firmly than ever. But John and I came in on this one-year trial period and decided to take advantage of it. By this time, of course, John had been in China three years, but our superintendent, Mr. J. O. Fraser, was disappointed. "I had hoped," he said, "that you two would set an example and wait the two years anyway. Now Miss Miller will never get the language well."
If his wife's freedom to study Chinese was all that was against our marrying at the end of one year, John cheerfully offered to run the household until my third language examination was finished. He had run it in his bachelor days, so it would merely be continuing with his old routine. And with wonderful Yin-chang as cook, we anticipated no problems. (As a matter of fact I did et my language exams written off in less than the allotted period,
Ses ite Mr. Fraser's prophecy.) Our real reason for desiring an : ate marriage was to ei me for country work and witness.
Brigandage abounded in the country areas those days. Kunming had been besieged by a oo brigand and all the single ladies had been quickly called in from the outer parts, and word was given that only married women with their husbands would be allowed to work outside the city gates. There seemed no prospect of the situation clearing soon and, as workers within the walls were many and those in the country places pitifully few,
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we felt we had the Lord's permission to marry and go to these needy ones. So we got married.
Good servants were scarce in Yunnan. I remember that as far back as our language school days, our principal, Mrs. Alice
Macfarlane; had counselled us to begin to pray for domestic help. I had told her proudly of Yin-chang, and how fortunate I was that I would not have the servant worries such as young brides often had. She did not say much in reply, but gave me a quizzical look, for which I could not account at the moment, but remembered with understanding later.
Our days were well filled. Early every morning John held a Bible class for the converts, of which the Lord had given us a fine group. An ex-actor, Mr. Yang, had been brought to Christ largely through John's witness, also a Taoist priest named Deng, and a slave girl and others. All morning I studied the language,
John also having some time with the teacher; there was street chapel in which he preached and I played the folding organ. In the afternoons we often went into the villages on the plain outside the city gate. Souls were won to Christ those days who remained true to Him through later years of testing.
It was John who suggested our first trip afield together.
Some months before our marriage, he and Tom Mulholland had heard of another valley-plain about seventeen miles from Chengchiang called Yangtsung. They lrad paid a quick visit to it before going to Kunming for our wedding, but no one had been there since. They found a farming population with about twenty villages, and as far as we know, no white man had ever been there before. The gospel message was absolutely new to them. John now proposed that we make up an evangelistic party _ and give a week's preaching to Yangtsung and plain. Yin-c and his bride roel go with us, and one of the recent men converts (I think it was actor Yang) to add his testimony to ours.
"This is what I've long looked forward to doing, darling," said John, "'to lead you over the beautiful hills of Yunnan!'*
And in truth the joy of those treks for Him, with Him, and with one another, continued to highlight our married life for many ears. y Arriving on Yangtsung plain we went to the market town.
There was no hotel in such a small place, so they sent us to an old
HOW TO DEVELOP A TASTB FOR BEANCURD
a where we could sleep in an upstairs room, and Yin-chang could cook for us downstairs. I was the first white woman those
Chihese had ever seen, and they simply thronged us day and night. We could not eat or sleep without an audience. Boys climbed the temple walls and appeared at our window. Others climbed neighbouring roofs to look in and watch. Exhausted after being on display from morning to night, I would go to bed, only to have women request that they might come up and talk to me while I was in bed! I would preach my one little sermon and then John or Mr. Yang would give them a good talk on the way of salvation.
During the day we went on to the plain, preaching from village to village; but each evening we held an open air meeting in Yangtsung market, where our temple-inn was. I had my
Hawaiian guitar along and I chorded as we sang choruses and sacred songs in Chinese. One evening as I was accompanying the singing, I looked up to find our little group at the bottom of what seemed a cone of eager, living, yellow faces! The Chinese had climbed on benches, window sills, roofs, anywhere they could, to watch the guitar. As I looked up at them, all I could see in any direction were Chinese—Chinese—Chinese; until immediately overhead my eyes at last met the tranquil beauty of the dark, star-spangled sky. Oh, what deep joy thrilled my heart!
All these were listening to the old, old story—many for the very first time.
By the end of that week's effort, a little group of inquirers had been called out for the Lord.
Yin-chang and his wife had nothing to do all day except cook our meals, but as we ate Chinese food with them, that was no arduous task. But meal after meal there appeared only rice and beancurd; maybe some meat but always ident Soya beancurd. It tasted to me like squares of flannel boiled, or scorched flannel fried. At first I thought maybe that small town produced nothing else, but as I went out early and looked I saw a lovely variety of potatoes, carrots, onions, cabbage—indeed many things for sale and quite cheap. So I asked housekeeper John to suggest to the cook alittle variation from beancurd! But inevitably when we arrived at the table, there was the old thing again. Evidently
Yin-chang and his wife liked it, it was easy to prepare, no peeling
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ri like potatoes or carrots, and they had long been accustomed to cook only what they pleased.
The last day of the week arrived, and we left early in the morning to work the far end of the plain, so we knew we might not be baek until dark.
"Tll be very hungry by supper-time, John. Please make sure that Yin-chang buys some potatoes and carrots! Something I can eat," I pleaded.
¥ "All right, dear," said John and I heard him give the order. So I set out complacent that by night time I would have a square meal, It was.a beautiful morning: the golden air had a cheery nip of winter in it, and the little lake at the far end sparkled its blue waters into the yellow sunshine. In the centre of the plain spread the rice fields, and at the rim little hamlets were marked out by feathery green clusters of bamboo growing beside adobe houses.
From farm to farm we went. I played the guitar to draw a crowd, we all sang in Chinese, and when a group had gathered
John and Mr. Yang preached. I talked with the women and children and we gave out tracts before moving on to the next clay-walled farmyard. Everyone was friendly, but when noon came no one offered us anything to eat. I began to feel very hungry for I had not been able to eat a big breakfast when it was just rice and beancurd.
"Oh, just endure a bit, dear," said John. "This is missionary life. It takes time to walk as far as this, and I want to visit every farm at this end of the plain before we go back. Perhaps we can
~ buy some food at the next place."
But we never could. So it continued all day long. John was four years younger than I and at the beginning of our married life he had a tendency to drive me beyond my strength, not realizing that I really did not have the physical reserve he had.
~~ Once we were able to buy some Chinese toffee, but my empty stomach resented sweets. By the time we had returned to the inn
I was faint as well as weary. I kept struggling on, thinking of meat and potatoes, with perhaps some carrots.
Up the stairs of the inn we went and I was able to sit on my bed while John brought me a basin of water to wash off the dust.
"Ts supper ready, Yin-chang ?"
"Yes, Pastor. We will bring it right up."
- HOW TO DEVELOP A TASTE FOR BEANCURD
_65 Tt felt good to wash the dirt off, and Ying-chang and wife were arranging bowls of a steaming something in the middle of the table. I came over and looked. Beancurd. Even the meat had not been cooked separately but mixed in with the gray flannel squares!
_ "Where are the potatoes and carrots?" I asked.
Yin-chang looked at his wife and she looked at him. Obviously neither had paid any attention to that order.
"We didn't see any on the market today," they answered unitedly.
"Is there nothing else to eat?" I asked, desperately disappointed.
"Nothing."
, It was too much for me. I fell on my face on the bed and wept.
John urged me to self-control but I was too tired. I cried and cried, and finally cried myself to sleep.
Before midnight I woke up, my stomach gnawing with ar heme until it hurt.
Isat up and hubby came over to me and said anxiously, "Won't you try to eat a little rice, at least, dear!
I'll get Yin-chang to heat some up for you."
"All right, I'll try a little," I said weakly. A few minutes later John handed me a bowl of warm rice with beancurd on the top! But do you know, it did not taste so scorched-flannely this time. In fact, one bowl downed, I held it out for a second hel ing! And from then on, in my missionary life, beancurd and I were friends. I never grew very fond of it, but it was no longer obnoxious. As it was very nutritious I often had it on our own table at home, with a dish of some more tempting vegetable alongside.
This episode became a family joke. From then on, whenever some new Chinese dish appeared which did not appeal to me, my husband would be sure to say, "Maybe if you cried a little first you would enjoy it, Belle!"
The day was to come when I would learn to meet life's disappointments dry-eyed. There would even be an hour when my husband himself would say wistfully that a few tears were sometimes a good thing. But it takes time to grow. And it takes more than one season to mellow,
CHAPTER FIVE
HIS WONDERFUL COOK—AS VIEWED BY HER
N-CHANG'S laziness, however, continued to be a sore oint.
I had started out meaning to be a very kind mistress. Chinese never gave their servants time off, but I arranged that Yin-chang and wife have a half day a week, and in every other way I watched for their comfort—until I found it was quite unnecessary! Their comfort was their own prime concern.
Once ona piercingly cold day, sitting motionless studying with the Chinese teacher, we both became so chilled that I ordered a brazier of burning charcoal. Yin-chang was a long time bringing it, and finally appeared with a tiny thing which I had never seen before, and in it a few black coals just beginning to ignite. It gave out almost no heat so the teacher and I continued to shiver.
Knowing we had a good-sized new brazier I grew suspicious, excused myself and went in search of our helpers. It was early morning and there were no servants in sight at all. So I made for their bedroom. Sure enough! There, doing nothing, sat the two of them around our big brazier piled high with red-hot coals, toasting their toes in luxurious ease. The origin of the tiny pot was obvious—they had given us theirs and spared only a coal or two to start it. No, there was no need for me to be anxiously solicitous for their welfare!
In fact their demands increased. In that area country Chinese never took baths in bathtubs—they did not possess such thin but these two had decided that they must have everything which John and Isobel Kuhn had. So I found Yin-chang one day carry-» ing my zinc tub to their bedroom.
"What are you doing with that, Yin-chang?" I asked.
"My wife wishes to take a bath," he answered blandly. But his wife had the itch—I was treating her for it!
"Let her use the tub downstairs, then," I said, "She has the
ae, > oie > 2 nt s '
+ t _ HIS WONDERFUL COOK—AS VIEWED BY HER
itch and it is catching. I do not wish you to use ours." He made a sour face but had to comply.
A day or so later, after she had been into our bedroom, she came out smelling strongly of my perfume, one only bottle which I had brought from home to ip me over moments when certain odours were a little too much for me, and that particular brand of perfume was not sold in our part of China! The inference was obvious, but she most indignantly denied it, saying it was her own perfume. I asked to see her bottle; as a bride she had some but it was packed away carefully in her suitcase and the scent was very different. When I pointed this out, she went to bed for two days and sulked, refusing to do any work whatever.
Yin-chang declared she was ill.
Climaxes are not geysers that suddenly appear. They are mountains of small incidents, gradually piling up until they reach a This time the topping experience was so trivial, that I do not remember the matter at all. Yin-chang had failed in some duty, and when I pointed it out to John in the boy's presence
(hoping to get it corrected) John turned on me, siding with Yin-c , :
Hot with temper, I said nothing, but put on my hat and coat and walked out of the house. Down through the town and out on to the plain, angry resentment boiling within. I was not going to live in a house where a lazy servant was condoned.and preferred to the mistress! And so on. For hours I walked, blind as to direction, not caring what happened to me—but just determined to get away from it all.
Finally I was brought to myself by the curious glances of the Chinese. Little villages studded that plain, and I must have been in one of them when dusk fell. A woman alone on the road as _ dark was falling! It was not done. Good women were in their homes at such an hour. And for the first time, the tumult of my own feelings fell into enough quiet for that still small Voice to be heard.
"You have not considered Me and My honour, in all this, have you?" said the Voice. ""You came to this land to make Me known. How much of Me has anyone learned from you this day, do you think?" I was appalled.
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"Oh dear Lord, I'm sorry. It is true. I've been full of myself and my hurt feelings. What can I do?"
"You can go back," said the Voice relentlessly. I thought again of Yin-chang's smirking face and groaned and flinched.
"But, oh Lord, how can I endure the humiliation? The servants are laughing at me."
"How do you think I endure the humiliation you have brought on Me before these people?" said the Voice. "You have not invited Me into this servant situation. You've just tried to manage by your own wits." Then and there I invited Him, humbly pleaded with Him to work it out for me and—turned my steps homeward.
What happens when the Irresistible Force collides with the Immovable Object? The first reaction was to bounce off on a path of its own.
Back in the little wooden upstairs the Immovable Object sat still at his desk. Outwardly he was studying Chinese but inwardly a gloomy feeling that something had gone wrong with the universe was depressing him. This wife of his—if she was angry, why had she not said so? In his good Pennsylvania Dutchland people spoke their minds out, talked it back and forth, you know, then a fellow could explain his side. But to flash you an angry look and then just walk out! He squirmed uncomfortably in his seat.
Where had she gone anyway? An hour or more had passed.
Why did she not come back? What if she did not come back?
— The thought made him go hot all over. Mighty embarrassing to ~ have to explain to people. If there was anything that he hated it was a thing like this. But maybe he had been a little at fault too.
If he had only waited until Yin-chang had left before he rebuked her. That was probably what had vexed her—to side with the servant in that servant's presence. Of course he had not actually excused Yin-chang; it all happened so suddenly. And why did she always have to be noticing the things that were wrong with®
Yin-chang ! Got along with him perfectly well before marriage— why not after? Of course he had never checked Yin-chan closely, and Yin-chang's wife did not seem to be very helpful, that was sure. Well, it was getting dark. What if she did not!— but at that moment she did! Conquered by the really Irresistible
_ HIS WONDERFUL COOK—AS VIEWED BY HER
'Force, in the door walked the so-called Irresistible Force, a humbled and grief-stricken wife.
"Qh! You're back!" What a relief! Looking at her curiously he asked, "Where did you go?"
"Out the west gate." An unusual quietness was still upon her.
"Well, it is past supper time. I've already eaten, but I'll call Yin-chang to heat up yours."
Little was said either during the meal, or for the rest of the evening over Chinese study books. But each felt a gentleness in the other that had not been there before.
After their Bible reading together and prayer together before retiring, the Immovable Object suddenly said, ""You may dismiss
Yin-chang and his wife, if they bother you that much. But I do not know whom you can get in their place to help you—servants are hard to find."
Wonder of wonders, how did such a renunciation come about!
The really Irresistible Force had been at work in this heart also.
What a difference when we invite Him into the situation!
"Thank you, dear. I know it costs you to say that. I know it would mean a lot to you to turn Yin-chang out; but really, if he is going to cause trouble between us—nothing is worth that much is it? I don't mind doing the work myself. We will just have to ask the Lord to find us another helper. Anything is better than what I've been through today."
And then the bridegroom got a tender kiss in token of love's sacrifice.
It is only fair to point out that Yin-chang had not been so difficult to deal with before his marriage. When John and he were both bachelors, they did much travelling and preaching together. John encouraged him to take his turn at public witness for Christ. Thus they often stood shoulder to shoulder in openair meetings, or sat side by side in tea-shops, talking of Christ to others, This inevitably led to regard and mutual affection.
As we watched later events, it was obvious that Yin-chang got the wrong wife. She was a nominal Christian, but had joined the church only to please her family. Following the Chinese custom of engaged couples rarely seeing each other, he did not know her well, but her pretty face satisfied him, and did not reveal the proud, lazy and selfish nature behind it. Once married,
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all her counsel was for self-advancement; and it was not iat to push Yin-chang into taking advantage of his intimacy with John. To dismiss his old comrade 1 the preaching trail was truly hard.
The next morning I told Yin-chang and his wife that their service was not satisfactory, and that they might go home. Of course Yin-chang went immediately to John, expecting the triumph of the day before, but did not receive it.
Yin-chang and his wife went off to their bedroom and closed the door. They did no work, but néither did they make the slightest move to leave! I could hardly wait to see the last of them, clean up the place, and get it into the order which my soul longed for. But I had yet to learn that dismissing a servant in the Orient was not the simple matter it is at home.
The following morning I had my first experience of trying to light an open grate fire and cook breakfast on it. As I was struggling with the smoke and coals that would not ignite, John came up to me, took the fan, and said gravely, "I'll fan this. You are wanted downstairs." Wondering who could want me at that early hour, and quite forgetting the regular morning Bible class,
I descended the wooden stairs to the chapel beneath our two rooms. To my consternation, there was the whole church board of deacons seated looking at me, with Yin-chang, triumphant, in the background.
"Please be seated, Mrs. Kuhn," said the town postmaster, who was also the leading elder. He was very solemn and immediately began a long grave dissertation. My heart beat with panic—it has always been easier for me to speak a foreign language than to understand it—and being nervous I was soon lost in his flow of speech.
"Excuse me a moment,' I said, "I do not understand. May I go for Pastor Kuhn to interpret for me, please!" and turning I flew up the stairs.
"John!" I gasped, "you've got to come and help me! Do comes down and interpret for me! How can I answer when I do not understand what they've said?"
"Well," said my spouse slowly, "guess I can ve that much."
So down the two of us went, and the solemn diaconate proceeded to review this rather serious affair. The sum of the post-
HIS WONDERFUL COOK—AS VIEWED BY HER
master's remarks was this: they, the church deacons, had helped Pastor Kuhn secure these two Christian servants. And they understood that Pastor Kuhn himself had been quite satisfied with Yin-chang's services in the past. Was that so, Pastor Kuhn?
Face grave, Pastor Kuhn bowed his head in affirmation.
But now Mrs. Kuhn says they must be dismissed. Would she kindly explain why? Had they stolen anything? A profound silence, every ear turned to hear the answer. No, they had not been dishonest.
Had there been any immoral conduct? No. What then was their crime? And eight pairs of disapproving black eyes were fastened upon me. I felt like a culprit at the bar, and Yin-chang was grinning broadly now.
Humiliated and trembling with excitement, I tried to explain their laziness and impudence. I related the story of their usirig our big brazier and giving us their tiny one. But the Chinese mouths merely curled in derision. Of course servants were lazy, else they would not be in that class but would have the enterprise to set up business for themselves. What else did you expect?
Just when my hope had ebbed, and life seemed to have lost all its savour, the postmaster turned and addressed Yin-chang. "You had better pack up your belongings then, and go home." The relief which that word brought me gave strength to see the meeting to an end. That day Ym-chang and his wife packed their things and left us.
And now I was to find out that Yin-chang had been of some use after all. My early morning prayer time was broken into by having to light that fire on the primitive Chinese cooking stove.
I had to learn from experience that when I did not balance the pots carefully and one tipped its water a little, a cloud of ashes would rise in the air and descend all over me, the stove and the _ meal, And if enough water happened to spill, it would put out the fire! Breakfast finally accomplished, I must go to the market and buy the meat and vegetables for the day. There were no fixed prices in those days and every single thing had to be bargained for. This gave some language practice but took far too much time. I might return home to find there had been women visitors, but after long waiting for me they had left.
John, of course, pitched in and helped me with the lighting
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of fires and marketing. For that first morning he felt it would be good if I learned the seriousness of dismissing servants whom the church had provided for us. And it was a lesson which I needed.
But there was washing and ironing which proved time-consuming. To haul up every drop of water in a bucket from the well, try to get some heated, then sit and rub clothes by hand— hours went by. And the ironing, with flat-irons heated on open charcoal—as often as I wiped them off it seemed that a speck of soot would dance down on the shirt before me and get ironed into a black streak before I knew it had landed! I wondered how Mrs. Yin-chang had ever turned out such clean clothes for us! And often in the midst of these busy days I would hear an echo of the deacon's voice, "There are worse things than laziness."
As days went by and I felt myself unduly tied to secondary things, we began to make the servant problem a matter of prayer.
The Lord needed to be invited into this affair, and when He was, He took command as only He can. He sent to us a young married woman who had been deserted by her husband and left so destitute that the very clothes she had on her back were borrowed! She was a heathen and her family notoriously crooked.
To show me that there were able Chinese servants in this world, she proved to be the cleverest, most industrious helper I ever had until I went to Lisuland. I had to show her how to re things only once, and my burden in that regard was lifted permanently.
Best of all, I was able to lead her to trust the Lord Jesus as her personal Saviour. Unfortunately for me, when we were soon called to move to the west, Mrs. Chang's husband, finding her well clothed and with money in her pocket, claimed her are and I had to leave her with him. I put her in touch with the nearest missionary and never saw her again ; but I trust I shall, in heaven.