Made Only Of Desert Dust 107
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that spring the long-threatened political upset descended upon them.
Rumours came that the Communists had arrived at Paoshan, where Ma-pa had gone en route to help the southern Lisu field.
Then suddenly a villager who had been to Luchang to carry corn returned with the news that the Reds, about thirty of them, were already at Luchang. (One should say that these were not Reds, but brigands masquerading under that name. The Communists have since repudiated them, but all during the danger the officials in the canyon thought there might be a connection at least.) They made an attack upon Six Treasuries town, took the lairds there by surprise, captured some of their women-folk, and the lairds themselves only escaped with what they wore on their backs.
These invaders confiscated everything—thousands of dollars. And last night, the rumour continued, they had arrived at Luchang and publicly said they were corning on to Olives!
Everybody guessed it must be to get Ma-ma and Brother Three; no one else was worth looting except perhaps the headman Yi-hwey-pa, who had some guns.
Lu-seng came home flushed with excitement. "Mary, you and Paul must run and hide in the cave. They won't touch an old woman like mother, so she may stay. Asaph is packing up to take his wife, and Andrew is getting Rhoda out of the way.
Timothy and I will help carry your rice, pots and whatever you need.
I will stay home, or rather I will return home.
I am going down the road to see whether these rumours are true or false. I will go toward Luchang, but I will be back by Monday night/ "Is Ma-ma hiding too?"
"No, but she has packed up some of her things and had them hidden—medicines, kerosene and such things. Maybe we are going to finish the Bible School which has begun, but— wonder."
That year Rainy Season Bible School was held from April to June, and this occurred in the middle of the session at a weekend, when the students had scattered to far villages to preach.
They were due back on Monday night. With such danger abroad, would they dare to return?
io8
STONES OP
PIRB By night-time Mary and Paul, along with many of the other young women of the village, were safely hidden in a cave high up a rocky cliff, of whose existence no one else knew but the villagers. They stayed a whole week, Timothy or someone bringing them fresh supplies of food as needed. Every day it poured with rain, the streams in between Luchang and Olives rose and flooded until they were uncrossable, which was the only thing that saved them from a visit by the brigands. These had divided into two bands, one for the east bank and one for the west. The group on the east had approached young Laird
Dwan at Place of Action. They demanded guns, clothing and shoes, besides much pork and liquor. He had acted very submissively, killed a pig or two, poured out keg after keg of native whiskey, made no demur when they demanded more leather shoes. Married the previous year, he had many new garments, and to his secret chagrin his own best man (Dai-yi-gwan by name) was with this group, and of course knew just what the laird possessed, even to his seventeen pairs of leather shoes
They were rather surprised at his meekness, for he had a reputation for courage, but concluded that it was their unconquerable character which had quelled him. To tell the truth,
Laird Dwan himself did not know whether these men were Communists or robbers, but when they began to demand so many things he quietly concluded they were the latter and made his wily plans accordingly.
For a long time now he had had a Captain Tseng, hired from the soldiery disbanded at the end of the Japanese war, as his personal retainer. Unknown to anyone but Tseng, he had hand-grenades, also left over from the war, hidden behind his castle. When the brigands first arrived and asked for his guns, he had given them a couple, but only Tseng knew he had better ones concealed in another place.
All afternoon Laird Dwan acted quite humbly but chagrined.
When evening fell, most of his guests, who were well under the influence of his potent liquor, went to bed to sleep heavily.
After midnight, when snores and deep breathing proclaimed that all were unconscious to this world the laird tiptoed around his yamen, carefully locking every door but his main front one.
Already secret messages had gone to all the villages within three
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hours' walk o( his yatnen, with the order that every Lisu who owned or could procure a gun should arrive silently at dawn next day, surround his yatnen and shoot or capture any trying to escape by the front door! He knew the Lisu would not dare to disobey him.
This laird, called Grandpa by the Lisu as a term oi respect, was only twenty-three years old
At dawn, therefore, having procured the hand-grenades from the mountainside, Captain Tseng and the laird climbed up on the roof of the yatnen to an advantageous spot and—threw the grenades on the sleeping guests!
The carnage and pandemonium that ensued can be imagined.
Remember, there is no electric light button to turn on and see what the disturbance is about.
The Lisu visitor at Lu-seng-pa's fire, who told this story, described the yatnen as a lake of blood by the time faint daylight came to reveal the sad scene. About thirteen were dead or dying.
Six, who had tried to flee through the front door, were caught by the Lisu waiting outside and tied up. The best man, Dai-yigwan, crept on his knees to the front threshold, presented his gun butt foremost through the opening, and cried out to the laird outside. He used the Lisu covenant name of gwa-cho, for he was a covenant chum of Dwan's, and that name temporarily secured his life. They said that when he was allowed to come out of that death trap, his face was ashen and he shook all over, sobbing and crying, as he flung his arms around the laird. One other was caught whose foot was so badly shattered that he cried for death and swallowed opium.
"What will Grandpa do now?" questioned Mary.
"He would not dare to sleep in the yatnen after all those people died ,, Chya is laying oneself open there! That would be chya to him. to the demons' revenge and can only be overcome by animal sacrifice and incantation.
"He says he is going to move over to Olives," said the visitor.
"The runner who brought this news prepared us. Yi-hwey-pa must make arrangements to receive the laird's household. His women arrive tomorrow.
They are sleeping in Beheaded Tribesman Village to-night.
In fact, they had already taken refuge there before these brigands got to Place of Action."
no STONES OF FIRE "Ai-ya" groaned Lu-seng-ma. "If the laird moves over here, then we'll be bothered greatly. Messages have to be taken for him day and night. All his poor relations have to be fed, and they will go out at night and filch corn and beans from our fields. Ai-ya, that is bad news for us. Why does he have to come to Olives?"
"Because he is afraid of revenge. If these men are Communists, then the Reds in the Mekong Valley will come over the hill and take revenge. Grandpa wants the Salween River between him and them. And all rope bridges over the Salween have to be cut except the one at the bottom of this village. The order has gone forth already. Then no one can get here unless they cross our bridge. The river is already so high that rafts would perish.
The rains are very early this year you know."
Mary and Paul were home again now, for the brigands had suddenly left. The laird's victory had given a sense of security, while the Chinese magistrate had skipped over the mountain into Burma, hired a group of Kachin army men who had good rifles, and with these he was attempting to encircle the brigands.
This made them retire to the eastern bank where they cut the Luchang rope bridge. Rope bridges cannot be made in the flood season; once cut, the crossing is hopeless until autumn, when the river goes down low enough for a raft to venture over, carrying the end of the new bridge to be tied to that bank.
So the next day it happened just as the visitor had said—a long line of refugees were seen coming up from the Olives rope bridge.
Early that morning the towncrier had gone calling orders. "A man or woman from each house to the rope bridge immediately! We must help carry the women and things of the laird's household up from the river."
Low murmurs of resentment were his only response, but no one dared refuse. Lu-seng was studying in the Bible School still, for all the students had returned; Mary was not strong enough to carry such heavy loads now; Lu-seng-pa and the mother were both over sixty years, too old to carry; so that left Timothy as the only one to represent their family. IfTimothy carried for the laird, Mary must watch the cows, for oxen, which
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III are indispensable to ploughing those steep and rocky hillsides, must be carefully herded or they fall over the cliffs. As Mary opened the door under Lu-seng-ma's shanty, for the cows to come out, she could see the path up from the rope bridge to the village. The east side of Olives rises in an abrupt ridge of rock which juts up perpendicularly making the village into an oval bowl, but at its south end falls away suddenly, leaving a passage between the ridge and the mountain proper. Through this defile, with its background of mountainside towering up across the river, slips the trail from the village down to the river bank. Already a long single file was laboriously ascending.
The laird's wife, her mother, her mother's other children, the laird's brothers and sisters which numbered five or six, and various cousins, slaves, servants and soldiers were climbing up into the village. Two or three rode horses, the laird's wife and mother-in-law must ride a mountain chair, which is equivalent to a sedan chair carried on men's shoulders, and the villagers of Olives must leave their field work and do the carrying free of charge. They were serfs. Mary could make out Abigail, Susanna and some of the other girls bent over with the heavy load put upon their backs, labouring up the slope below. They looked like bent pins and the horses like pinheads crawling up in between the great craggy rocks. Mary sighed, but at least she was glad that the laird's party were going to stay at the north end of the dell—that was almost a mile away from the chapel.
It was better than next-door or in their midst.
That night when she returned home Timothy was talking about it. "This is only the beginning,'' he growled. "Grandpa himself comes to-morrow and all his soldiers and retinue!
They have already been to borrow our tables. We can eat on the floor, of course. They must have tables. Yi-hwey-pa figures there will be seventy of them when they are all here. Seventy people to find food for twice a day!"
"But our village does not have to supply all that," put in old Lu-seng-pa. "Runners have already gone to inform the villages around how much each has to bring of beaten-out rice and beans."
"Yes?" drawled Timothy. "And who are the runners? We
STONES OF
FIRE are. Running on his errands day and night now, carrying our own food."
"And it is farming time," moaned Lu-seng-ma. "Mary is sick and there is only Timothy. If he sends Timothy, what will we do?"
"When R.S.B.S. is over I will go sometimes," said Lu-seng comfortingly. And this conversation was being repeated in every hut in the village that night. Entertaining Grandpa is a well-known affair in Lisuland and it is not enjoyed either.
The next morning at daylight the town-crier was again plodding up the mountain to his post in the middle of the village beside Ma-ma's house, and once more his voice rang out harshly, "One man from every house to go to the rope bridge ! The laird and his men to cross to-day !" And once more a trickle of grumbling sleepy men and women, their carrying yokes slung over their shoulders, started down the trail. That afternoon as R.S.B.S. was dismissed, Ma-ma spied the long single file climbing up to the dell. The laird and several men .were riding bare-back; they had not taken time to find their harness.
Lu-seng, standing beside Ma-ma, said in disgust, "Now our village becomes the focus of attention from the Reds or brigands or whatever they are.
If they don't make him pay for that midnight massacre, I'm mistaken."
Jonah, his load delivered and so free to go home, passed them on his way up the mountain. "He brought over those six men he captured in his yamen that night. Says he's going to kill them to-morrow."
"Oh no!" cried out Ma-ma. "Oh why does he have to do that? Why didn't he do it before crossing the river? Why do we have to witness such a thing?"
"Well, maybe it was only talk," said Jonah quickly, seeing that Ma-ma was very upset.
"Is Dai-yi-gwan, his best man, among them?" asked Ma-ma.
"No; he is dead. The laird told him that if he would behave himself and not try to escape he would spare him and even give him fifty dollars to get home. But a group of armed men have arrived at Be-heh over the mountain from the yamen
; they came from the Mekong, and Dai-yi-gwan ran away at dawn to join
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them and lead them in against the laird, I suppose. Anyway he was missed; the laird sent two soldiers after him to shoot him on sight, which they did on the mountain pass."
"Oh I do hope there is going to be no killing here," moaned Ma-ma.
"Maybe it was just talk, Ma-ma. Don't worry," said Jonah kindly, passing on to his mud house at the top of the village.
But Ma-ma could not get rid of the horror of it. She went to seek Brother Three, for Ma-pa was still out in Paoshan, now besieged, people said, by this same group.
Brother Three thought carefully. To go himself and ask to see them the moment they arrived in the village might be to throw suspicion on himself, for it was still being whispered that these men were Communists, and in any case the affair was political. Finally, Brother Three decided to ask one of the R.S.B.S. students who had studied Chinese in the church school and Teacher
Jeremiah, who had picked up Chinese whilst living in Paoshan for some months at one time, and send them down to Hanna's house where the prisoners were quartered, to see if an opportunity might not be given them to speak. They went on Saturday morning early before their week-end assignments (for Rainy Season Bible School was in session, you remember) and before noon they were back, their faces shining with joy.
"Oh Ma-ma!" they cried. "The prisoners were delighted!
We explained the way of salvation to them and read some verses from the Bible. They understood our Chinese and four accepted the Lord! The two older men laughed, but four are young—three of them about sixteen years of age—and the four said that they were 'pleased to death,' and they thanked us bending their knees and knocking their heads on the ground to us
"Praise the Lord," said Ma-ma.
"After a while I will go and see them myself," added Brother Three, "and teach them further if it is allowed," which promise he kept.
"The youngest boy knows Ma-pa. He asked if Ma-pa is in the village now. He says Ma-pa stayed at his uncle's inn often and preached to him, but he did not pay any heed to him then. He is sorry now."
STONES OF
FIRB "Was there any talk of execution ?" asked Ma-ma.
"No; they aren't even tied up. Hanna cooked breakfast for them this morning.
But at noon there was a sound of shots. Mary and Lois ran quickly along the upper trail and saw that the six men had been lined up in the middle of the dell. The laird ordered his soldiers to shoot a certain three, whilst the other three shattered in nerves and weeping, were led back to Hanna's house. One of the three dead was that youngest boy. It was horrible. Everyone in the village felt upset.
"And I expect he will make us bury them!" said Lu-seng fiercely ; which he did. Abigail's mother and two men villagers were ordered to dig a deep hole in a field nearby ; one of the diggers was bribed to cut out the tongues of the dead so that they might not be able to tell God who had killed them
! A man clever enough to capture his captors was yet so blinded by superstition as to think he could fool the God of the universe as to who had slain these poor, misguided children.
"Why did he kill the young ones?" moaned Ma-ma.
"He says that when they first arrived at his yamen they swaggered in front of him, brandished their revolvers at him, and he decided then, in his heart, to get even," replied Lu-seng grimly.
"Then that is why God let him bring them over here,"
Ma-ma mused. "I should rejoice and not be so upset. It was that they might hear the Word of Life before they were hurried into eternity. Man would not give them a second chance, but God did. Oh, how grateful we ought to be that we did not delay in attempting to teach them the way of salvation
! And how good to be God's man in God's place !" Ma-ma was still unnerved and heart-sick over the pitiable affair, but this thought was some comfort to her.
Lu-seng and Timothy were both under orders now from the laird to take messages across the river to Cow's Hump Village.
He needed two men to go, and as it was the week-end Lu-seng offered, thinking to minister the gospel to the Christians there on the Lord's Day before returning. They were commissioned to bring back a report of what the laird's spies across the river
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had discovered concerning that band of armed men just over the eastern mountain-tops.
Lu-seng came back grinning.
"I'm glad we are not rich !" he chuckled. "There was Sasi-nyio-pa's family in awful trouble. Everyone in Cow's Hump has gone into hiding, because they fear an attack. One man in each family sneaks back in the daytime to see if everything is all right, otherwise the village is deserted. They are living in caves and small booths in the woods, or anywhere. But rich Sa-si-nyio-pa, possessing bushels and bushels of grain
! Where could he hide it? No one could ever carry it all to a cave, and, if there is no attack, back again! And his pork hams!" Again that merry chuckle. "About ten of them were dangling around his head while he stood in the midst of his many belongings and shouted orders, and countermanded them, and his family scurried here and there grabbing this and finding it too heavy to carry and then dropping it, while Sa-si-nyio-pa shouted again and mopped his brow!" By this time Mary and the whole family were in laughter.
"It is true what the Bible says, 'Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you/ "
"Did anyone come to service?" Mary asked.
"Yes; they came back when they heard I had arrived. But it is true that there are armed men at Be-heh—there are about one hundred there.
Spies go and come all the time."
"Grandpa has bought two machine guns from Tengchung, quietly put in old Lu-seng-pa. "His youngest brother has gone to get them and is expected here to-morrow—two villagers have been ordered to help carry them."
About ten days later, at dusk, the town-crier ascended to the middle of the village, crying, "A man from each house must go to Ba-ju-de and guard all night.
Fifty men have been seen advancing on us! One man from each house go!" A muttered storm of remonstrance was his answer. That day every villager had been labouring in the corn-fields hoeing for some thirteen hours, only stopping long enough to eat lunch. They had just returned home when this order came, and it was raining, the steady, regular pat-pat of a whole night of rain in the rainy
n6 STONES OF FIRE season. But Grandpa's orders may not be questioned, and after a leisurely meal the poor, tired fellows were seen going down the trail, crossbows over their shoulder, long knives hanging from their belts, no protection from the wet but a big straw hat.
At breakfast-time Mary saw Timothy walk into their shanty and throw himself wearily on the bed.
"All for nothing/ ' he said shortly.
"It was just a bunch of traders from Tengchung. Now that all the rope bridges are cut across the Salween the only place anyone can cross is our village.
They are a ragged, pitiful bunch, those traders. They will be here shortly.
All their profit in trade has been spent in food for these days of delay in getting home, and some have had to sell their clothes already ; and after they get across our rope bridge they will still have over a week's journey to walk—and eat."
And then began a long line of refugees coming to Olives, among whom were a group of Tibetans. The rope bridge had to be guarded night and day now, and the Lisu must do that also. Each home must send one man for four days and nights of watching. Lu-seng-pa was able to do this, so Timothy could be spared for the farm work. The armed men across the eastern mountains were reported to be getting ready to attack, so Laird
Dwan took his young captain and went personally into the mountains to supervise a barricade. The Lisu on the eastern bank had to watch all the trails into the canyon from Be-heh night and day, so those of Olives knew that they were not the only ones who were suffering for lack of time on their fields.
Lu-seng-ma had a new grievance. The laird had decided to fortify the western bank at the rope bridge of Olives, and he ordered trenches dug round it. That plot of land was Lu-sengma's cotton-field, but it was dug up without even consulting her and with no remuneration.
All their planted cotton, the family's new clothes for next year, gone at one sweep—and for nothing, for no attack was ever made.
Then one day a long line of people were discerned coming down the eastern bank from the north—about thirty-seven but there being no binoculars in Olives, no one knew just who they were, but an attack on the rope bridge was suspected. The Communists had already entered the canyon to the north and
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won over to their side the local schoolmaster, who happened to be a Christian of the northern church, a young man named
Thomas, whom Ma-ma designated Red Thomas to distinguish him from Homay's husband. Red Thomas had sent messages that the Reds were planning to come down and "liberate". Was that long single file of silent people the advance guard of the Communist army? Once more the weary farmers were called to leave their beds and go down to guard at the river bank. And once more it proved for naught. Morning light revealed that the thirty-seven were Lisu salt-carriers, many of them women, who were trying to get across the Salween and carry salt from the salt wells in the Mekong Valley to Tengchung, where the price was high. The laird happened to be returning and met this group and—refused to let them cross. He had also planned a salt trade with Tengchung and wishing to keep the price up, he told them at the river brink that they might not cross. All their poor little funds were sunk in the salt on their backs. They begged to be allowed to sell it to villagers of Olives, many of whom now had no salt at all, but the laird refused. Villagers of Olives could buy from him, at his price, in a day or so when his horses, carrying salt, arrived. The poor Lisu. They had just descended two thousand feet of unusually steep mountain; now they must retrace it with their heavy loads, and many of them were women. To force women to carry over one hundred pounds of salt up a climb so steep that one's knees came near one's chin, and two thousand feet high!
It was iniquitous. The only alternative was to sell to the laird at almost cost price and go home empty, with no cloth for the children's winter clothes, as they had hoped to obtain. Many sold to the laird rather than injure their bodies for life with such a climb and such loads. And the laird forced the villagers of Olives to drag the salt across the rope bridge and carry it to his house, without wages
! Later when his own horse-loads of salt arrived, Olives villagers had to toil unremittingly for two days, carrying his salt from the river bank to his house, a fifteen-hundred-foot climb! Every house had to be represented, and they must continue to carry until all the salt was up. Many of the girls had to carry several times in the day. And the only reward—the privilege of buying some
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FIRE from him at the usual price ! There was no other salt to be had.
During these days of high-pressure living, Mary's trouble from her nose got worse and haemorrhages occurred not only every day, but several times a day. None of Ma-ma's efforts or Samuel Ju's was of any avail. When at length she got very weak
—for two weeks on end she had lost much blood every day Ma-ma, in growing anxiety, suggested that they have an anointing service over her. While the group in evening chapel prayed, the deacon, Ma-pa and Brother Three anointed her.
Ma-pa was now back. The bleeding stopped, except for once the next day and then none at all. How everyone rejoiced! Even the heathen had been in great concern, for this little stone of fire, so long taken for granted in the community, was missed to a degree that surprised them. Lu-seng was amazed at the earnest inquiry from heathen. And this was a chance to testify to what the Lord alone could do. But strength had gone and it would be a long time before Mary could do normal work. No one spoke of it, but it was Lu-seng now who herded the cows, and it was impossible for him to make his pastoral visits.
In August another sick one drew the focus of attention from Mary. The white missionary at Mya-Goo, Sister Four, 1 had taken seriously ill. A runner came in with letters from her husband, Oldest Brother, telling of her dangerous complications and sufferings, which only hospitalization could relieve. At length she begged to be sent down to Ma-ma and perhaps later get to the hospital in Chinaland. Oldest Brother could not accompany her, for they had three small children, and their Rainy Season
Bible School was in session; so the runner had come saying that Sister Four had started out alone with the Lisu, and would Brother Three come up the canyon and escort her? He left early the next morning. There followed a few days of concerned waiting before another runner arrived with the news of an accident in a Lisu hut which had increased her suffering; and she had run out of powdered milk: would someone please bring some? The letter came as dusk and rain were falling, but two R.S.B.S. students offered to go all night in spite of the very serious danger of falling rocks, if they could have a lantern to 1 Leila Cooke.
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sec the way! Two lanterns were provided and the brave boys started out, whilst the ones at home prayed. Every now and again the ominous sound of rocks tearing out of the softened soil above them and crashing down the mountainside over their path was heard. Not knowing where the rocks would hit, they stood and prayed, but God saw them through and the precious missionary's life was saved. Two days later she was carried on a stretcher into Olives.
Although confmed to bed the whole time she was in Olives (for the appendix burst after she arrived), Sister Four's life among them was a blessing they will often talk about. She was so interested in them. By this time Mary was able to walk, and as she came shyly in to see the white woman invalid, they had sweet fellowship together. Sister Four, for all her suffering, was very observant.
"Mary is a nice girl," she commented to Ma-ma. "She ought to get medical care.
If she is well enough to walk now, why not let her go out with me to Paoshan city to the Holy Light
Clinic there? When Oldest Brother and the children arrive in October to take me out, I will take Mary with me."
This kind suggestion gave Mary a new lease of life. Ma-ma had studied all the medical books in the station and come to the conclusion that Mary had a polypus in her nose. Ma-ma had never heard of polypus before, but Sister Four had.
"I knew a man who had one," she said. "It is not very serious and can be removed quite easily. Yes, Mary must go out with me;
I will have two Lisu girls with me to care for the children, so Mary will have companions." Ma-ma asked Mary if she would ride in a mountain chair like Sister Four, but Mary would not hear of it. No Lisu would ride such, except they were unconscious, or at least too weak to stand. Nobody knew that Mary had anything more than a polypus, and even if they had, she would not have accepted a chair. That would be "hunting
,, ; in other words, placing oneself on a par with the laird's glory wife. The Lisu despise a native who seeks to elevate himself above his station in life, and can be very stubborn about it.
Then there was great talking in Lu-seng-ma's house. Mary to go to the big Chinese city! No other girl in Olives had been
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FIRE there, but the men who carried Ma-pa's flour and sugar in had brought many tales of its wonders, of the shops and the glitter of things on the big markets! Lu-seng had been; and Timothy, without consulting anyone, had asked Oldest Brother ifhe might go and carry Sister Four's loads, and he had been accepted!
Usually quiet and submissive in the home, this time Timothy asserted himself. He had never been to the big city and now he was going—no matter what ! Well, that was a comfort to Mary, for Timothy was just like a brother. Ma-ma said she would pay for Mary's food and expenses and so it was settled. Hope burned high; Mary began to eat better and put on a little weight, and everyone was interested and praying for her. Ma-ma was coming out later, for she had contracted an eye disease in treating the N quite the same since.
The laird's strong stand against the silent Communists in the Mekong seemed to have been effective: the countryside was villagers, and her eyes had never been peaceful. Now was the time to go out for medical attention.
Ma-ma, having lent her mule to Oldest Brother, would wait until it came back ; then she and Danny would also come to Paoshan.
So in high spirits the caravan started out. Though it was a pull to leave little Paul, Mary did not weep at parting as much as she had feared, she might. The carriers, boys from Olives, helped to make the trip enjoyable, even though it rained for several days. Having small children in the party they could not make very long stages, and the walking through new countrysides with merry Olives boys was interesting. Being harvest-time, they saw many Chinese and Nosu tribespeople cutting grain and sleeping in the fields in improvised shelters. Then what was
Mary's amazement, on leaving the Burma Road, to see the familiar life-on-the-perpendicular fall away into flat plain country—life-on-the-horizontal. Ah-beh! Ah-beh! She and the other Lisu girls would cry at the sight of miles of level land, the beautiful, mountain-skirted Paoshan plain.
Even before they reached the plain, while walking the Burma Road, they heard a queer sound, honk-honk, and a house on wheels came whizzing by ! This was their first view of a truck "mo-to-cah" they heard was its name! Oh what would it be like to ride one! Eagerly the Lisu carriers asked: how much
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would it cost to ride? Would they let Lisu ride? Not one of them but would have given some of his precious wages for a chance to get on that house with wheels ! However, when they reached the edge of the plain they saw another kind of vehicle, a horse cart ! This they hired for Sister Four, Mary and the children, so that they might ride into the city. Oh what fun, but rather alarming too, for it jolted over the rough road squeaking and whining, so that Mary held on tight lest it collapse. And the thousands of people! This little maid from the mountains had never seen more than a few hundred together: the six hundred at Christmas festival would be reckoned few among the teeming hundreds of this plain. She remembered Lu-seng's description of the many people in Chinaland, and there came a tug at her heart as she wondered how long she would have to wait before she saw her dear, quiet shanty home again. Where were the carriers, those familiar Olives faces? She tried to look back, but could not discern them. Arriving at the city, she was impressed with those monstrous gates and feudal city wall
! She saw soldiers guarding them. Now they must descend and walk, over the cobblestone street lined on either side with those shops Lu-seng spoke of, full of beautiful, glittering things. The little mountain maid was dazzled into silence. Suddenly a soldier came from a tiny square hut, pointing his gun at them he demanded, "What people?"
Terrified Mary and the nearest Lisu girl shrank together but Oldest Brother not the least afraid, calmly answered in Chinese, "Americans' ' and walked past.
Entering a tiny narrow alley they knocked at a door in a high wall. As she passed through it Mary found herself in the most beautiful garden she had ever seen, with a Chinese house, something like the laird's, only smaller, in the background. The missionary who landscaped and planted it herself came running out to greet them, and as the white people shook hands, an old, kindly Chinese man beckoned to the Lisu and led the way to their quarters
Mary and the girls were in an upper room above the native kitchen.
Before dark noises below proclaimed the arrival of the other carriers and one said in dear, familiar Lisu, "Where are we going to sleep?" Mary looked out to see the boys from Olives, putting down their loads, their long trek over, the joy of spending their
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FIRE wages looming up close. Mary, soon in their midst, greeted them as if she had not seen them for a year, and everyone talked of the wonders of Chinaland and what they meant to buy
! She intended buying some good cloth for a suit for Lu-seng, a bright cap for Paul and a mirror for herself! And so they talked around their open wood fire, as happy a group as you would find.
The next day Sister Four said that Mary was to go with her to the Clinic. A white doctor examined Mary's nose, announced that it was a polypus, but as he did not have the proper instrument he could not remove it. First Mary must be built up physically; she must wait also until Ma-ma and Danny came out to Paoshan, when they would discuss the next step. After a blood test, she was given a tonic and Oldest Brother saw to it that she had good food, expensive though it was. The Clinic was like a labyrinth to Mary with its halls, courtyards, white-robed nurses and smell of medicines. She was glad to get out into more open spaces where she could see the sky. But her purchases must be made to-day for the Olives boys were leaving shortly, as they could not afford to stay too long in the expensive city, and she must have her things ready for them to carry back. Timothy and Solomon went with her down the crowded market-places.
The cloth was plentiful, but oh, the price ! As each stall calmly stated the cost, Mary's face fell. "I could get it cheaper at home, from the merchants who come from Burma?" she consulted with Timothy.
"Yes; you could.
Lu-seng will understand," comforted Timothy. So she bought the cap for Paul and the mirror and some other things, and by that time was strangely weary. There was so much to look at, it was bewildering, and then the constant hum of that unknown tongue, Chinese
! She was glad to get back to her loft over the kitchen and he down.
The next day came the separation. Such a hustle and bustle of the tribesboys getting their loads tied up to start the homeward trek ! That large iron pot, so useful in the little mountain shanty, was such an unhandy shape to get into a back basket! That earthenware jar, just the thing for pickles, and not obtainable the mountains; would not the wife rejoice to see it, and it m only cost forty cents. But how to pack it so that it would not break? And then these shoes and red stockings for the children:
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they must not get near the sooty cooking pot or their beauty will be ruined. And so on. To an unacquainted onlooker they are a torn, dishevelled, ragged, noisy lot. But to the white Ma-ma who has lived among them and shared their joys and sorrows, and seen their poverty and their brave courage, it is easy to be patient and hard to say goodbye.
Sister Four's eyes filled with tears when bidding goodbye to them whose shoulders were still sore from carrying her and her loads.
"Hwa-hwa!
I wish I were going back with you," she said.
And little Mary, standing near, had a sudden desolation sweep over her. They were going, her friends from Olives, and she was to stay behind! In a week's time they would be at Olives, coming in around the long curve, and up the trail beside Mark's house, and they would see her little Paul and Oh she must go back with them too ! But no, orders were otherwise.
"We are keeping Solomon behind to help us with the children, so you will have one Lisu that you know nearby to talk to," said Oldest Brother kindly.
Everybody was kind but oh, to return to the loft over the kitchen and find no Lisu girls there now, and to look down the ladder and see only Solomon mending the fire! Oh, it was a terrible feeling. During the day the Chinese Christian boy, who when off duty cooked for Li Ma-pa, came and sat down beside Solomon.
"I want you to teach me Lisu," he said.
"I like the Lisu of whom Eva Tseng has told me.
I study the Bible each evening with Li Ma-pa, and when they have to go on furlough my wife and I will not be working here and wish to come to Lisuland and be Chinese home missionaries to the Lisu!"
"Thank you to death !" answered Solomon, pleased and flattered that a Chinese would want to learn anything from him.
"I'll be glad to teach you Lisu." And there followed lots of laughter, and a short lesson in "Come and eat" and such phrases.
Everyone was as kind as could be, but Mary's heart became more and more homesick. Each day in thought she travelled with those returning carriers. At the end of the week, the day they were due to arrive in Olives, it seemed as if she had been in Chinaland a year. How could she endure it?
It would still be a
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FIRB few days before Ma-ma and Danny could get ready to start, no doubt, and then it would be another week before they even arrived at Paoshan, and after that maybe they would take her still farther away to a hospital and—she would have died of this ghastly homesickness by that time!
,, she confided in Solomon. "They say they cannot take out the polypus here. What is the use of my waiting? There is the buckwheat to be gathered in at home, and "I want to go home, the winter's spinning, and I just sit around here every day and do nothing. Tell Oldest Brother that you and I are going home?"
"Made only of desert dust." The little stone of fire had lost her shine. Her whole soul seemed to have been engulfed in a panic of homesickness.
"Oh, she may not go home now," Oldest Brother remonstrated to Solomon. "Ma-ma is just about to start. She will be here in just a few days, and then Mary can consult with her and perhaps get to a hospital."
Back went Solomon with the white man's message, but Mary's mouth set grimly.
"I have no assurance that Ma-ma will take me to the hospital at Tali. Tell him I want to go home, and maybe I can come out again next spring—perhaps Lu-seng would bring me. I'm wasting time here.
I want to go."
Rather shamefacedly Solomon went back to talk again with Oldest Brother.
"Why, Solomon, Ma-ma has already started out.
It is just a matter of a few days now. Exhort her to be patient.
Isn't she having good things to eat? She is getting stronger with this tonic and the meat each day; she's not wasting time. Besides, it would not be proper for you and for her to travel a week's journey alone together ! She must stay. If she is bound to go, then let her wait until Ma-ma comes and she can return with Ma-ma's earners.
1 To live within the present tense And show a heavenly glimpse of blue To all with whom I have to do" yes, that is what a stone of fire should do. But
MADE ONLY OF DESERT DUST
"Within an unknown land Alone where no familiar thing May bring familiar comforting" what are you going to do then?
Principle had gone overboard, only passion, a great strong upsurging desire to get home and get little Paul into her arms once more had taken possession of her. What if she were gone so long that little Paul refused to come to her, as he had to his father? What if he only loved his grandmother now? Mary's mouth set.
"Solomon, I've got to go.
Please don't desert me.
I can't live another day down here. I'm going to-morrow.
Tell him so. I'm sorry to offend him, he has been so good to me, but he does not understand how I feel inside.
I don't understand it myself.
I can't explain.
I just know Yve got to go !"
And loyal Solomon, ashamed and yet obedient, went back to Oldest Brother and gave her ultimatum. Oldest Brother and Sister Four could hardly believe their ears. "I never met anyone so obstinate in all my life!" Oldest Brother later told Ma-ma.
And when they finally, Solomon and Mary, appeared packed to go, the next morning, Oldest Brother was so annoyed that he refused to shake hands. He thought perhaps that might change them, for the white missionary's displeasure is a very terrible stigma in Lisuland. But it didn't, and the pair of them, Solomon carrying her bundle and his, started off on foot for the long trek home. Oldest Brother and Sister Four were really alarmed.
It was Lu-seng's wife and it was not proper. The only thing they could do now was to pray. And so down on their knees they got and asked God somehow to stop that couple, somehow to save
Mary from the disgrace she was too blind to discern. And God, in His pity, answered as only God could.
Ma-ma and Danny had had a lovely trip out. The weather was perfect, and gloriously invigorating as only autumn in the mountains can be. The joy of harvest, the stacks of ripened grain being hauled into the homes of the people, the sense of plenty which comes with that season of the year, the deep blue skies, the golden fields, the crisp air—how good it was to be alive!
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FIRE The morning they struck the motor road they made good time, and hearts were merry, for Ma-ma had promised that if they met an empty truck gomg to Paoshan she would pay half their fare if they would pay the other half, and that brought it into possibility for each of them. About half-past ten in the morning as they were rounding a sharp curve with mountains striking straight up from their right and falling precipitously away from their left, one of them stopped and said. "Shi I heard a halloo and it sounded like Mary's voice !" Immediately everyone stopped and turned toward the mountain bank at their right. "Ho-o-o!"
Yes, someone was calling them. Everyone started to search the wild mountainside with their eyes, and there, right near the top, they discerned a tiny thread of a trail and on it two human figures, no bigger in size than a pin-head. But again came the voice, this time calling a name, "Mark-k-k!"
"It's Mary and Solomon!" Mark exclaimed excitedly. "They must be going home! The trail for Olives leaves the motor road just
!" fifteen minutes' walk from here "Hi!" he called back. "Come down and talk to us. Ma-ma's here! What are you doing?"
"It's too far to go back," came Mary's voice again, but they had seen her stop and talk with Solomon.
"Unless Ma-ma promised to take me to Tali Hospital !"
Well, a conversation back and forth up and down five hundred feet of mountain is not very satisfactory.
"I can't promise to take her there," said Ma-ma.
"Didn't she go with Sister Four? Didn't Sister Four go to the hospital?
I do not know what happened in Paoshan after the carriers returned. Try to get Mary down here."
"I know," said Samson.
"Tell them to come back to the noon eating place; it is just down the trail from them and only fifteen minutes' walk for us." So Mark shouted this suggestion back. The group on the road saw the two pin-points on the high trail again in consultation. Then came Solomon's voice, "Mary's coming !
I'll wait here. We've already eaten lunch."
Then the pin-points separated, one running back over the slender trail and soon lost from sight by bushes and the other sitting down to wait patiently.
MADE ONLY OP DESERT DUST
A few more curves and Ma-ma's group arrived at the noon stopping place: one lone hut by the side of the Burma Road, but a clear stream nearby provided water, and plenty of dead sticks on the wild mountainside supplied fuel. Soon little fires were gleaming here and there, and the clank of copper cooking kettles and the swish of rice being washed filled the air pleasantly.
Soon there was a "Coo-ee" from the trees above and Mary dropped down the steep trail and ran up to shake hands. Ma-ma thought she had never seen Mary look so beautiful. She was much plumper than when she left home, her cheeks were pink with healthy exercise, and her face was wreathed in happy smiles at meeting fellow villagers once more. Her lovely teeth gleamed like pearls as she ran up joyously to this and that " brother' ' to shake hands, until she came to little Danny, who was Paul's playmate at home. Then the long pent-up homesickness found a vent and the tears fell. "I'm so homesick for Paul," she explained, wiping the wet off her face, ''and the sight of Danny brought it back."
While the rice cooked, Mary sat down by the fire at the side of the road and told her story. The doctor had not thought that Sister Four needed to go to the hospital, at least for a few months.
And he could not operate on her polypus because he had no instrument in the clinic. Then she told, quite frankly, of her unbearable homesickness and how she and Solomon had started out. Already the change from the confines of the city to the wild free life of the mountains had done her a lot of good. She was much more open to reason.
"Mary," said Ma-ma to her, drawing her aside so they could talk privately, "You know you left a note behind for me, when you left with Sister Four. And it contained most interesting news.
I have told nobody, as you asked, but stop and think a moment. You said the baby is due next March. How can you think of coming out again another time for the polypus operation? Once your baby is in your arms you are a prisoner at home—you cannot travel. To me it seems as if it is now or never for your operation?"
Mary flushed, but did not wait long to answer.
"All right, Ma-ma," she said.
"I will go back with you if
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you want me to. But Solomon says he can't be bothered walking that road again. There is a village up over the trail and he says he will wait there until your carriers return, then join them, and they can all go back together/ ' So God answered prayer.
Mary was a different girl. To walk with the dearly beloved brethren of Olives and get all the village news. To hear that Paul had not forgotten her, that he longed for her, was delighted with his new cap, and would wear no other; to hear that Luseng had gone off to Burma, driving their refractory old bull to market, hoping to sell him for a good price and bring back a more manageable one and also medicines and things for the family.
It was all as water to a thirsty soul; she did not notice the miles of road that they were walking.
As it began to grow late, Ma-ma announced a stop. "Tomorrow is Sunday and we will just spend it here, so watch for a good place to camp!" The carriers looked at one another.
Nobody wanted to stop a day so close to the great city, yet not in it!
"It is not far to Paoshan now," one suggested gently.
"We could get up early and be in for the noon service?"
"Yes, but there is no need to do that," Ma-ma expostulated.
"There is a village over that hill where they understand a bit of Lisu; I have slept there before—years ago. We can witness to them to-morrow. Everybody passes them by, anxious, like you, to get to the city. No, we stay here tommorow." But God took it out of Ma-ma's hands.
A truck came whirling down the road. Now, a truck would take them into the city in just two hours, and Ma-ma's promise of help with the expense of riding still could be claimed. Some of the Lisu held out their hands hopefully, but the truck swung by as if without eyes. However, when it got to the bottom of the hill it unexpectedly pulled up, stopped, and two men got out! Immediately the Lisu pelted down the slope hoping that, at the last moment, they would get the desire of their hearts, a truck ride, and into the city on Saturday night to boot. Ma-ma saw them talking with the two men, then the whole crowd turned and pelted back as hard as they could run.
"The driver says he will take Ma-ma and Danny and one other—he has not room for more ! Oh, Ma-ma, you know I've
MADE ONLY OF DESERT DUST
never been on a truck !" came from several panting throats at once.
Ma-ma was taken aback. She had seen that the truck could not accommodate all of them and mentally had decided to let these anxious youngsters have their longings satisfied, send them on ahead, and she herself come along on Monday.
"No," they said. "The driver is a Christian, he says, and he knows Li Ma-ma, and he will take only you and Danny and one other, as we told you!"
Whom to take? Never was Ma-ma in a harder place than when she faced those eleven pairs of longing eyes. "It must be someone who knows Li Ma-ma's house," she answered slowly. Then as her eye fell on the Lisu maiden, "I'll take Mary." And the decision was made. Somehow Mary had never expected it.
Always in Lisuland men come first and it was the habit of her life to expect to be only after them. You should have seen the way her face lit up as the truth dawned on her, until she fairly radiated excitement and joy. Ma-ma and Danny were being ushered in to a seat in the cab, a kind Chinese gentleman relinquishing his own for it, he having to stand on the footguard in consequence. Mary was told to climb up behind, but, being a mountaineer, that presented no difficulties
; so soon, with shining eyes, and a wave of the hand at her comrades who were left so quickly by the side of the road, the truck was off.
Never in her life had she been swung so swiftly through space, as she was now. What had taken her and Solomon many hours to traverse was covered before dark! The truck stopped some distance short of the city, but the kind Chinese Christian procured a horse-cart to take them, and paid the whole price of it himself! He was a refugee himself from Peking during the Japanese war, he told Ma-ma and he was now trying to earn money to finish his education. He had been a Christian only a year or so. As he had to get off at his school he gave many instructions to the horse-cart driver how to care for the party before he himself descended. Now it was late at night, for the cart did not travel at the speed of the truck. But eventually Mary steered Ma-ma and Danny through the dark streets, nudged Ma-ma when the sentry challenged them, told her what
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FIRB to answer, and got them all safely into Li Ma-pa's compound.
What excitement when the household learned who had arrived! "Wherever did you meet Mary?" asked
Sister Four wrapping her housecoat snugly around her as she came downstairs.
"It's an answer to prayer! But how did it happen?"
"It was a miracle," replied Ma-ma simply. "There is only one point where you can see the Burma Road after the trail leaves it, and at that place the road is only a few yards in length.
We were walking those few yards when Mary and Solomon were crossing over the mountain. They looked down and Mary,
!" recognizing Danny and his carriers, called to us But unknown to them, another miracle had been silently wrought on their behalf that night! The next day a runner entered the city with bad news. A Communist column had been marching down the Mekong Valley as Ma-ma and her group came down the parallel Salween Valley, and the Reds had taken and burned the bridge on the Mekong and were making for Paoshan. The city was fortified immediately. Then came word that the Salween bridge was destroyed and by Monday morning the way to the hospital had been cut off! Ma-ma's carriers had not stayed at that place all Sunday, but made an early start and were in Paoshan by the time for Sunday service.
If they had not done that, and if Ma-ma had not been brought on that truck on Saturday night, they would probably have fallen into the hands of this regiment now making for Paoshan
On Monday morning the direction the Reds were taking was not yet known, but that Mary could not now get to any hospital was obvious. The road was cut on each side, and no one knew when such big bridges could be recaptured and mended. Oldest
Brother, Sister Four and Ma-ma had a consultation about Mary. Mary herself had made a decision—she wanted to go back with the carriers from Olives.
"It looks as if that is best, under the circumstances, Mary," said Ma-ma reluctantly. "But I want you to know that we have done what we could. We are wiring to Ma-pa" (who had gone out to Kunming city to see to the reprinting of the Lisu catechism and other such books and who was due to return now)
"to bring with him a nasal polypus snare, and Dr. Toop says that
MADB ONLY OF DESERT DUST
he could operate on you in your own home at Olives, if he had that snare. They are hoping to come in and pay us a visit some time, so we will pray that it will work out tnat way." Mary was happy about this and the group shook hands.
"Don't you think that you should take the Middle Salween route home?" asked Ma-ma.
"Maybe,* ' answered Junia, "but there is Solomon, who is waiting for us ! Without heavy loads, we will walk fast." And with that, the little group started off.
They met many trucks of Nationalist soldiers going to the Mekong to fight, but themselves were undisturbed that first day and night. By the morning of the second day they could hear firing, and decided to make for the mountains as soon as possible. Just above the spot where Mary had seen Ma-ma's group far below on the Burma road, the firing became so loud that the little group huddled together like a flock of sheep. A noise in the bushes below them made them crouch lower. Then the bushes parted and the scared face of a Nationalist soldier appeared. He looked so frightened to see them that they grew courageous, and Junia, who could speak Chinese said, "What's going on?"
"We're fighting the Reds," answered the soldier, drawing himself up to the trail. "But I'm clearing for home. Don't you
"We won't. But who is winning?" asked Junia curiously.
"Don't really know, but I think we are. The battle is hottest report me if you see the rest of my gang at Wa-yao. Where are you fellows going?"
"We're from the Salween," said Junia, "and came by here to pick up one of our number who was to wait for us, but we don't see him."
"Oh he won't be here now," said the soldier. "He will have gone. The battle has been raging since last night. And you will walk right into it if you go your usual road.
I know, because my home is near here. Go to that village and ask for a guide to take you up over the top of this mountain through the woods.
That is your best plan." And he disappeared.
The Lisu grouped close together, asking Junia to interpret what the man had been saying, but the shooting began to get
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FIRE thunderous and much closer, so Junia took command. "Everyone to the top of this mountain; we must hide in the woods there."
And with that they ran. Mary could run too, as fleet and surefooted as a mountain goat, especially as she had no load to carry; the "brethren'* had seen to that. By late afternoon they had reached the top, found a place deep in the woods where they would be hidden from view, and attempted to build a fire large enough to cook some rice yet small enough not to be noticed. They could hear sounds of distant firing, so knew that the battle was still in progress.
There they spent that November night, and long before daylight were up cooking breakfast, so that they might be on the road by the first streaks of day.
A native promised to guide them over the top and on to the Tsaogien road, from where their path would be familiar. This he did, and when they descended into that ravine where the Tsaogien River flows, their hearts were elated, feeling that now they were safe and the battle behind them. They had not gone far when someone discerned another Lisu on ahead, all by himself! A second look and they recognized that it was Solomon!
Oh what a shout awakened the rocky echoes of the ravine.
Oh the joy of poor Solomon to find himself once more in the bosom of the Olives family ! That is such a comfortable feeling, to be surrounded by well-known faces and voices and manners.
Then their tongues wagged as they compared notes. Solomon waited, he told them, as under agreement, until he heard the sound of firing, and natives running by warned him of the approaching battle. Then, taking to his heels, he followed these fugitives as they led him past The-Meeting-of-the-Streams town and other usual stopping-places, which were in the line of fire. They had pointed out the general direction of Tsaogien and he had gradually found the road.
As they walked and talked, rounding a curve of the road brought them without warning upon three soldiers sitting by the roadside resting. Up went three guns. "What people?"
"Poor Lisu who carried loads," faltered Junia in his strongly accented tribal Chinese. "We are just going home."
"Oh, then we will walk with you, for we are going toward