ISJJ imm- ... ^ PR i row BV zUb/ Bo4 lboo Bainbridge, 1843. Self-giving William F. b ; : . v/ SELF-GIVING A STORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS % WILLIAM F.^INBRIDGE Author of "Around the World Tour of Christian Missions," "Along the Lines at the Front," etc. BOSTON D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY 30 AND 32 FRANKLIN STREET Copyright, 1883. D. Lothrop & Company. PREFACE Since return lately from a two years' study of the evangelizing work of the Church in many lands, the author of the following pages has pub- lished two volumes of results, entitled " Around the World Tour of Christian Missions," and " Along the Lines at the Front." The former was designed as a universal survey of missions, from unusual famili- arity with the home work, and from personal observation of more than a thousand stations in Japan, China, Siam, Burmah, India, Tur- key, and on a previous tour in Egypt, Italy, Russia and other countries. The latter volume was confined to the evangelizing enterprise of one of the great denominations of the Church. As additionally, Mrs. B , who accompanied her husband, has published '" Round the World Letters," to be followed soon by " Glimpses of Mission Life in Many Lands," it was thought that the report upon these exceptional oppor- tunities would thus be finished. Therefore attention was turned to a promised survey of Bible Lands, entitled " From Eden to Patmos," for which the preparation of previous tours and researches seemed in a measure completed by recent visits to Babylon and Nineveh, Arabia and Persia. But the thoughts of the writer were restless over a growing convic- tion of incomplete work upon Missions. The duty and privilege of direct recital had been discharged, but there remained much untold of interest and profit to the public, and helpful to the cause, that would require, however, a veil of fiction to the extent of concealing many names and locations, and of disassociating many home references. With great timidity the task of authorship in this direction was under- taken. Every incident linked into the following story, is substantially a fact. The writer has drawn upon his imagination only to relieve embarrassment on the part of a large number of missionaries and executive officers, and of mission friends and enemies, who will recog- nize many scenes and incidents in their own lives, often related confi- dentially, and many questions of mission policy, which are either kept from the public, or very unsatisfactorily considered, because of various personal susceptibilities and ambitions. With desire only to help the cause of world-evangelization, and prayer that any harm done may be overruled for good, this volume also is given to the public. WILLIAM F. BAINBRIDGE. Providence, Rhode Island, 1883. C O NT E N T S I.— Llewellyn Litchfield II. — Junior and Senior .... III. — Cleora Lyddell and Margaret Kilburne IV.— The Girls at College. V. — Over many Lands and Seas . , VI. — The Lyddells in Japan VII.— Shadows of Speculation . . . VIII. — China, and the Missionary's Call . IX.— A Battle with Unbelief . X. — Thwarted Plans, and Kansas Colportage XI. — With the Array of the Potomac XII.— Tempted from Duty . k * XIII. — Taken Prisoners . XIV. — Boston and New York Society XXV. — Supplying and Candidating . . XVI. — "Washington or Agra ? . . ; XVII.— The Duke of Trafalgar's Son XVIII. — Accepted and rejected XIX. — Rescued and betrothed XX. — Preparations and Wedding XXI. — Home Farewells and India Greetings XXIL— At the Dak Bungalow . XXIII. — Visits to Delhi and Cawnpore XXIV. — Retrenchment ordered . XXV.— A little hindering Helper XXVI. — Translation and Out-Stations XXVIL— Hindered to be most helpful XXVIIL— Zenanas and Bible Women . XXIX.— Girls' School and Home Correspondence 9 23 35 50 62 71 80 90 102 113 125 135 148 160 169 178 187 198 208 218 225 235 244 252 260 267 276 287 297 6 CONTENTS, XXX.— Fruits, bitter and sweet .... 307 XXXL— Two Months in Europe . . . . . 318 XXXII— The Meeting in Calcutta .... 329 XXXI1L— Self-Support and Hindu Caste . . . 339 XXXIV.— Miss Kilburne's Mission Work . . . 347 XX XV.— Native Preachers and erratic Missionaries . 358 XXXVL— In Conflict with "The Rooms" ... 369 XXXVII.— Vacation in Burmah and Southern India . 377 XXXVIIL— The Prince of Wales in Agra . . . 385 XXXIX.— The Taj and the Mission Grave . . . 395 XL.— Necessity and Preparations for return Home 404 XLI. — More Heroism at Cashmere Gate and Lucknow Residency ... . 415 XLIL— Four Weeks In Palestine .... 422 XLIII. — Addressing Churches and publishing a Book 427 XLIV.— Mrs. Litchfield at Women's Meetings . . 434 XLV. — Maintaining the Status Quo .... 444 XL VI.— Disturbing Hornets' Nests . . . . 452 XLVIL— The Children Difficulty .... 457 XL VIII. — London Mildmay Conference . . . 4(54 XLIX. — Benares Conference of native Christians . 469 L. — Tour of Villages in Rajpootana . . 474 LL— Miss Kilburne's Turn at the Home-Work . 480 LIL — Church Discipline and missionary Martyrdom 488 LIII. — Showing the Work to American Travellers . 494 LIV. — Cashmere and the Himalayas '. . . 500 LV.— From Agra to Glory 506 LVL — Famine and Pestilence 510 LVIL— The Burial at Sea 514 LVIIL— A Part of the First Resurrection ... 518 SELF-GIVING CHAPTER I. LLEWELLYN LITCHFIELD. LLEWELLYN, I see by this letter of reply from Doctor Arnold, that he thinks you will be able to pass an examination for the second term of the Freshman year, and that, while there are no available scholarships at present, you can rely upon one the coming autumn." " That is good news, indeed, father, for I feared the illness which detained me this term would throw me out a whole }rear. But as to the expenses, I have made up my mind to one thing, and that is, to board myself I have helped mother a great deal in the kitchen, and I am very sure that with a few utensils, in some small room in Washington, I can run my own board- ing-house, and pocket all the savings." "No, my son," replied the village pastor with an income of eight hundred dollars a year, look- ing proud ty at his eldest, yet with tears in his eyes, "no, I do not think that is necessary. 9 10 SELF-GIVING. Your board-bill may rim us a little behind this year, but we shall make it up the next, when you will receive your hundred dollars from the scholarship*" Llewellyn walked to the window, and saw his mother gathering the clothes which they had washed together that morning. His .younger brother and sister were helping her with the stout basket. As they trudged toward the house, he noticed that she stooped twice, as if suffering with pain, and immediately his purpose was firmly fixed not to add any burdens to that home during his collegiate course. " Please let me try it, father, for one term only," he said. " I made enough in the last vacation with those sewing-machine hemmers to pay all the extra cost of this experiment. I shall not starve. At home I help get the breakfast every day, and though mother can excel me in bread and pastry, you know those things can be bought at a bakery, and — " O, mother ! " he exclaimed, turning to her as she entered with the study-lamp trimmed for the evening, "cannot I make pancakes -and porridge, and broil meat and stew oysters about as well as yourself?" "Certainly, you can," she replied. "I am sure no hired help could do better. When I was on that three weeks' visit to Philadelphia, you ran the house splendidly, and father said you were well served all the time." LLEWELLYN LITCHFIELD. 11 A few weeks passed, and Llewellyn was a student in Franklin University. His youthfulness — as he was only fourteen, — was in the way, but his examination had been unusually satisfactory, and an exception to the rule of admission had been made. Indeed, exceptions of various kinds were now almost the rule in the sharp rivalries between the multitude of American colleges. His father accompanied him, and they found a cosey little room for Llewellyn's housekeeping in a public block on Pennsylvania Avenue, at seventy-five cents a week. All the rooms in the college dormitories had. been taken at the com- mencement of the year, and this was the best arrangement they were able to make. They had applied at several homes where great interest was said to be taken in struggling students, but all hearts were closed by the information that Llewellyn intended to board himself. Cooking in their rooms could not be allowed. The floor of the little apartment finally engaged, was furnished with a rag carpet from home. The stove had an ornamental cover to con- ceal its character. Empty packing-boxes were pro- cured, which Llewellyn supplied with shelves and coveud with chintz; and no casual visitor could have suspected other than a study and sleeping- room, unless the call had been made at unseason- able hours, or some onve had unfortunately stum- bled against the chintz cupboards. Llewellyn's boarding himself was a decided sue- 12 SELF-GIVING. cess. He did not live on the choicest cuts of beef, or tender fowl and game, but he had enough of wholesome food, and it was very palatable. At the end of the term he had gained ten pounds of flesh. With the baker and the butcher he had become a favorite, notwithstanding his small purchases , and the latter, who sympathized with the struggling student, would cut him a quar- ter of a pound of round steak as politely as he would serve his best customer. The cost of his food averaged one dollar a week. In the class his standing was considerably above the average. He marked very high in all the departments except Latin. He had been encour- aged to commence that study before he was ten years of age, and had contracted a dislike for it which he never overcame. In mathematics he failed only once during the entire course to make perfect recitation. Always in his place and punc- tual, beginning his studies every morning at five o'clock, walking an hour regularly before sunset for exercise, writing his mother every week, receiving monthly a few dollars from his father, and respected by all, the Freshman year went by, and he had his first vacation home. Its weeks were full of various industries. In the field and shop, and in going from house to house selling small wares, enough was secured for a full supply of winter clothing, for the new books of the next term, and for travelling expenses on the return to college from Rochdale, the home LLEWELLYN LITCHFIELD. 13 village near Newburg on the Hudson. A few days before the close of the vacation, the young col- legian and his father were strolling together upon the bank of the river, when the former exclaimed : " Oh ! please do not disappoint me ! I planned for it all last term, and it has been in my mind every day, almost every hour of this vacation." "But, my son, it is too much of a load for }Tour young shoulders. People would blame me for con- senting. Besides, you do not take into account many of the contingencies which may arise. You had a hard time last year, and now you may have it a little easier." "I do not want it any easier. I believe in hard times. At our last debate in the Society Hall, I took the ground that college life ought to be like a grindstone, hard and rough all round. When I have graduated and go to studying law, it will be time enough to ' turn from the grindstone to some soft, oiled whetstone." "But girls at school cannot be as economical as boys. If your sister should enter Cowles' Female College, she must board in the institution, and will require more in the way of dress." " I thought of that," replied Llewellyn, " and to meet such extras I have secured a place where I can saw wood for an hour a day, all through the next year. You know I must have some out- door exercise, and I can substitute this for my long walks i and it will be just as good and perhaps better than the gymnasium and the boating of the 14 SELF- GIVING. other boys. Besides there will be fifty dollars' income, and no outgoes." " But will it not discourage you to know that a whole month's work has gone for ribbons, or artificial flowers, or a pretty sash?" "I can trust mother and sister for that. And you know my scholarship is coming in — one hun- dred dollars solid every year; only think of it, father! And I am to have two dollars a week for making the fires and sweeping the Professor's rooms ; and have also the promise, the following year, of being assistant librarian, with one hundred and fifty dollars salary." "But I am afraid, Llewellyn, that you will then lose too much time from your studies." " O, no, father ! I shall keep my books on the librarj'-desk all the time, and when I am not checking off for the boys, I shall be studying all the same as if I was in my own room. You remember how much I have studied while working for mother." % "After all, my boy, your plan of getting Lucy and Charles off to school this year is impractica- ble. It is not simply a question of your putting into the common family-purse one hundred and fifty dollars over your own expenses. I believe that the preparatory department of your institu- tion is better than any school in this vicinity, but Charles ought to wait another } place there were several other intolerable bores. One had a very lengthy, commonplace prayer, which he always insisted upon repeating. Another was sure to tell us how it was when he was in Louisiana. And several religious vagrants were harbored there, on account of the timidity of the church leaders, who were afraid both to insist upon order and to call in the police." " Here, Llewellyn," exclaimed Lucy, coming into the room with a letter in her hand; " here is an introduction to my school-friend from Wash- ington, of the last graduating class at Cowles' 22 SELF-GIVING. College : I want you to become acquainted with her when you return. She was the most beau- tiful girl in the institution ; and so sweet in spirit and charming in manner. She did not lead in scholarship, but is a splendid singer." "Is she a Christian?" asked the mother, whose quick mind took in all the possibilities which might follow that letter of introduction. "O, yes, mamma j in good and regular stand- ing in the Presbyterian Church." CHAPTER II. JUNIOR AND SENIOR. AFTER the brothers had been at work a month, Llewellyn in the Junior class, and Charles in the Collegiate Institute, it became evident to the former that they would run behind in their finances unless they could man- age to secure a little additional income. Llewellyn had supposed that his brother would readily fall in with his own extremely economical habits, but he had been mistaken. "Charley," he said, "we must have more money to support this establishment." "Well, my fatherly brother, hand me a pen, and I will give you my check for any amount," "No joking now. There are breakers ahead, and we must steer clear of them." "Perhaps father and mother can help us a little more." "I would rather leave college a year, and teach, than to ask them for another dollar." And Llewellyn's manner showed some indignation that his brother should harbor the thought for a moment. 23 24 SELF-GIVING. "What, then, do you propose?" " There are two projects in my mind. You know that I understand shorthand writing, and had hoped to make it of considerable service. But when I report verbatim an evening's lecture or a Congressional or political speech, it takes the remainder of the night to copy for the com- positors, and then my lessons suffer in conse- quence, and a whole college day is lost." "It is a pity that the compositors do not understand phonography." "If they did, they would have a hard time reading other people's notes. I cannot read all mine after they are cold, especially if I have been following a very rapid speaker." " But I thought you had some plan for our relief." " Yes ; I propose having a class in shorthand writing. Several have told me they would join. It will take only part of the evening once or twice a week, and I can have our Society Hall. Twelve or fifteen pupils, at two dollars a quarter, will be a great help to us." "I can be sexton," exclaimed Charles, with a fling of his book on their study table. " You can be more." " Whew ! I am glad of that. What is it ? " " You have a pair of boxing-gloves, and also a couple of rapiers; you appreciate that kind of sport." " And you do not." JUNIOR AND SENIOR. 25 " Correct ; yet perhaps it "will be well for the cJass to have a half-hoar intermission during the evening, when you may instruct them in 'the noble art of self-defence.' " " Three cheers for the royal tact of my brother Llewellyn ! The probabilities are that the boys will care more for my instruction ^than for yours." " My other plan is, that we take boarders. Two poor Sophomores are trying to make a dollar a week each cover their food, but they have had no such training as we have had with mother, and they are nearly read}r to count their experiment a failure. Now let them bring their cots into our room, and with a division of expense and labor all around, you and I can add a dollar and a* half a week to our income." Charles promptly fell in with these arrange- ments. The boarding-house plan worked admira- bly for nearly two years, and the shorthand writing class, with the boxing and fencing accom- paniment, numbered eighteen that winter. Llewellyn presented his note of introduction to the beautiful Providence graduate, and thereafter for months, the acquaintance with his sister's friend monopolized much of his time. It was one too many irons in the fire, and his studies began to suffer. Frequently in recitation he marked a notch below his previous record. He partly realized the situation ; but then she was evidently, to him, a remarkable young lady, and any man who had the opportunity to culti- 26 SELF-GIVING. vate her society, should do so, even to the sacrifice of a degree of standing in college. Laura Hamilton's parents were pleased with their daughter's new acquaintance, and extended to him many courtesies. Llewellyn was charmed with Laura's singing, and with her piano-playing. He turned her music by the hour, and wondered how it could possibly have been half the time. Both were fond of skating, and over many a mile they glided hand in hand. Few conld pass them on the ice, and they enjoyed flying far away from the others. One evening after music and wine, Laura drew from her pocket a well-filled envelope, saying : — " I was reading this letter when you came. It is from two girls, whose acquaintance I formed in Saratoga, and who are now in Yonker's Female College. One of them is Cleora Lyddell of Boston, and the other is Margaret Kilburne of Chicago." " The first name," observed Llewellyn, " is very poetical : the other has the sound of sterling character." u I do not understand them. There are a great many absurd reflections about missiona- ries. I really think that both would like to go to the heathen. But they would get enough of it in three months. Do you not think, Llew- ellyn, that this whole missionary business is perfect nonsense?" JUNIOR AND SENIOR. 27 "Indeed, Laura, I must confess that my con- victions of late have been drifting in that direc- tion. Were not these young ladies your friends, I might imagine them disappointed in society at home, and turning their attention to another field of conquest." " O, no ; they are perfectly charming in appear- ance and manner, and both their fathers are very rich. They live elegantly. I wish you knew them, only you would fall in love with both and I should be lonesome. No one to turn my music! No one to skate with me!" "Do they say they intend to be missiona- ries ? " " No ; but that a missionary has been visiting the college, and they think that such a life is the highest ideal in the world. They declare there is no such giving as the giving of self; and, would )rou believe it ? they even suggest that I — I should consider the question of throwing myself away upon 'ignorant black savages ! Take another glass of champagne with me, Llewellyn, and let us drink to the health of those silly girls." Junior exhibition came, and Llewellyn was one of the speakers. His theme was self-reliance. None upon the platform had a more manly bearing. He had not all the graces of oratory belonging to one or two others of his class, but lie was much more than ■ an ordinary speaker. His oration was thoughtful. He lost himself in 28 SELF-GIVING. his subject, and secured a real grip on the audi- ence. Many said, "That young man will make his mark iu the world." Laura Hamilton was quite sure of it; and she had arranged with a florist to have presented to him, before he left the platform, an exquisite and expensive bouquet. But Llewellyn suffered a terrible mortification that evening, and he felt that he never could rise above it. The ridiculous and somewhat wicked mocl<-scheme which the Sophomore class had dis- tributed, represented him washing dishes. He could not blame the under class for taking its turn, especially when he remembered that the year before the mock-schemes were arranged in his room, as the place least likely for the Faculty to suspect, and that from thence the distributing committee marched to the hall. Yet this was cutting too closely, this picture of himself washing dishes. The boarding plan he had tried to keep a secret. Laura had known nothing of it. But now she knew all, as did also everybody else. Oh, what a disgrace! He did not wait for her at the door that evening, but hastened to his room, threw his bouquet upon the table, and indulged in a fit of mortification and melancholy until the return of his room-mates. Laura and Llewellyn did not meet for two weeks, and then casually in front of the Corcoran Art Gallery. She was crossing the walk to her elegant barouche, and .he was on the way to the University to sweep the Professor's rooms. JUNIOR ANT) SENIOR. 29 He felt that her greeting lacked the old cordi- ality, and surmised that it was because in her estimation he had fallen from a gentleman to a poverty-stricken student. The grand young girl from Massachusetts avenue, with her liveried driver and footman, would have to stoop very far to one who washed his own dishes, cooked his own food, and earned his living by making fires and sweeping rooms. " Miss Laura, I have not met you lately ; please pardon my not calling. I have been very busy, and for a few days really ill." " We shall be pleased to see you at our house, Mr. Litchfield." " May I do myself the honor of calling to-mor- row evening, Miss Hamilton?" "Please delay a few days more, as we are in the confusion of house-cleaning." " Ah ! that accounts for your appearing unusu- ally weary to-day." " No, indeed, Mr. Litchfield, I have nothing to do with the house-cleaning. Father and mother never allow me to touch any kind of mean work. I bid you good-afternoon, sir ! " And the highly insulted young aristocrat sprang into her carriage and was whirled away. " What a fool I am, and have been all this last winter!" exclaimed Llewellyn to himself. "That Vanity Fair had thoroughly bewitched me. Before Junior exhibition I resolved to propose to her, but now I see she would be the poorest 30 SELF-GIVING. kind of help to me in trying to get on in this world. O, thank you, Miss Laura, for showing yourself so plainly to-day. I could not be hired to call upon you again for all the wealth in yonder treasury vaults!" One evening during the first term of the Senior year, Llewellyn had his curiosity excited sufficiently to attend a missionary farewell ser- vice, in the Tabernacle Church. He said to himself, " I will go in and see how these monomaniacs upon the salvation of the heathen, perform." The house was full, and the speaking was good. The pastor eloquently enlarged upon Christ's great commission, and upon the opening opportunities for the Gospel in China. For this country the two missionaries present were to start that evening on their return. They were to leave their three children in America, and in one of the front pews all of the family were together for perhaps the last time. Before the exercises were half through, the youngest, a boy of eight years, leaned upon his mother's arm and fell asleep. It was to be his last sleep as a child upon that arm of love. Llewellyn looked down from the gallery upon the scene. At first his heart was touched, and tears gathered in his eyes. But then came a reaction, and a thorough revulsion of feeling toward the whole cause of Christian mis- sions which required such sacrifices. JUNIOR AND SENIOR. 81 "Those parents ought to be sent to the insane asylum," he whispered to a classmate by his side. " I do not think so," was the reply. " It seems to me they are preaching the best sermon I have ever heard upon Christianity. Those parents would not do this except at the bidding of God, and with the support of the Almighty." " God made natural feelings, and he cannot ask anything so unnatural as this," persisted Llewellyn. " For reasons, doubtless of infinite wisdom, he is daily asking multitudes of parents and children to separate at the gates of death; why may he not ask a few upon the threshold of world-evangelization ? " "Anyway," insisted Llewellyn, "I shall not remain to see any more of this exhibition. I would like to report it to a society for the prevention of cruelty to children. Good-night ! " Ah ! Llewellyn had, indeed, lost all interest in the mission-cause. He had no sympathy for it, and could not appreciate such sacrifice. He was still a Christian, though very formal and unfeeling. And while he had not forgotten, he thought little of the Heavenly Father's unnatural and cruel parting from his only Son, that there might be salvation. It was his last college vacation home, and Llewellyn ran nearly all the way from the 32 SELF-GIVING. steamer's dock to the parsonage. Under his arm was a large bundle of surprise presents: a sermon-case and a new book for father, a muff for mother, a sash for Lucy, who was home on vacation, handkerchiefs for Charles, who had returned the week before, skates for Frank, a drum for Eddie, and a doll for the baby-girl, Roxy. It was the first time he had ever been able to make such a display of love-tokens. How happy the dear ones would all be in a few minutes. "Hurrah! there is the house!" Llewellyn exclaimed to himself as he rounded a corner. "Be ready with your kisses and hugs!" He flew from the gate to the veranda, and then as the door was locked, kept ringing the bell until it was answered. "Hush!" whispered the wife of the Sunda}*- school superintendent, speaking through the partially opened door. " Step in as quietly as possible. Your father is very ill. The doctors think he cannot live through the day." Llewellyn felt as if he had been shot. It wras a thunder-bolt in a clear sky. The affection he felt for his father was unusually strong and tender. Upon his judgment the son leaned with great confidence, and upon his counsel chiefly relied in preparing for the battle of life. "Will he know me?" asked Llewellyn with quivering lips. " O, yes ! His mind is perfectly clear, though he is sinking very fast." JUNIOR AND SENIOR. 33 "Is he expecting me this morning?" "Yes; and anxiously too. He knew it would be a great shock to you, and so requested my hus- band to meet you at the landing, and break the news gradually." " He missed me in the crowd, and then I took a short cut. But how considerate in father; it was just like him. Oh, dear! I cannot — cannot endure this! I hear father's voice. He is singing." "Yes; he is singing half the time," replied Mrs. Belcher. " He is perfectly happy, and is doing all he can to comfort your poor mother and the children." "Who is at the door? I cannot see. Llew- ellyn ? " " No, father," replied Lucy ; " it is Mrs. Belcher. Brother will soon be here." " He is here, father," sobbed Llewellyn, as he stepped into the room and knelt by his mother at the bedside. " Do not cry, my boy." "But how shall we live without you, father?" ''The Lord has promised to be a father to the fatherless, and the widow's God. Dear ones, all of you, lean hard on the promises. That is right, Llewellyn, take my hand, and, mother, keep tightly hold of the other. I must sing again: When through the deep waters I call thee to go, The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow; For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless, And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress. 34 SELF-GIVING. The voice faltered. The eves were becoming dim. "Draw the curtain so that I can see you all." "It is drawn, father; and the sun is shining upon us,"' sobbed Lucy. " Blessed sunshine ! I cannot, then, use it any more. But the light of the Gospel grows brighter: in it I see more clearly every moment. O, I am glad I have been a preacher of the Gospel these twenty-eight years! Llewellyn, there is nothing God so honors as self-giving in his service. I wish you were to be a minister or a missionary ; but I leave it with the Lord. Whatever your calling, do not be satisfied with giving your money and time and influence to. Christ; give yourself! give yourself! Remember it was the self-giving of Jesus that makes this dying bed Feel soft as downy pillows are; While on his breast I lean my head, And breathe my life out sweetly there." His words were now almost inaudible. The kneeling family-circle could distinguish only such faint expressions as "Sweetly there;" "nearer my Father's house ; " "rest for the weary;" "the shadow of a great rock;'' "immortality," "Thine cannot die-," "beautiful land;" "no storms ever beat ; " " meet one another again." His lips moved as if he would kiss them once more. Each in turn — baby first, and mother last — bent over the loved form, and, pressing the pale lips, kissed good-night. CHAPTER III. CLEORA LYDDELL AND MARGARET KILBURNE. ON Beacon Hill, in Boston, the Lyddell man- sion was one of the most imposing. A brownstone front, four stories and a French-roof in height; it had a central hall with spacious rooms on either side, bay-windows, and an ascent from the street of solid and elaborate workman- ship. The owner, for many years an importer in the silk trade, had amassed a fortune. None had more honestly acquired wealth, or were more generous in its possession. Mr. and Mrs. Lyddell moved in the cultured society of this " Athens of America ; " for, though he was a mer- chant, they had improved their opportunities of instructive reading and intellectual entertainments. Their daughter Cleora, an only child, was a beautiful girl of fifteen. Her beauty, however, was not of that superficial kind which dazzles the frivolous, and comes and goes with the bloom of youth, and which fashion-plates reproduce to recommend new styles of dress. Her features and form were pleasing, though not classic ; her eyes were full of expression, though neither black nor 35 36 SELF-GIVING. blue ; and though a little over height, it seemed to be needed to cany that thoughtful counte- nance and dignified earnestness and wealth of affection. Had $he been made more beautiful, she would have been less beautiful. Her hair was golden, her teeth perfect, and her emotions, as with those of her complexion, played over her features like sunbeams upon the clouds of the morning. "What an intelligent and interesting daughter you have," was frequently said to the fond parents. She was a real mother's child, already showing the same common sense and personal magnetism. Life being spared, she was sure to make her mark with both head-work and heart-work, and to become more and more attrac- tive, while others were losing their charms. Mr. Lyddell, with all his excellencies of char- acter, was under one serious delusion which had influenced the judgment of both mother and daughter. He considered money an equivalent not only for manual labor, but for all kinds of philanthropic and religious personal effort. A man who could give money could thus meet all his own obligations to the poor, the benighted, and to God. " Father,*' said Cleora one evening as she saw him drop the newspaper, " my Sunday-school teacher, the missionary of our church, was relat- ing yesterday some very interesting stories of her work among the poor ; and when I told her, after school, that I longed to see those scenes CLEORA LYDDELL AND 31 AUG ABET KILBTJRNE. 37 with my own eyes, and to help the helpless with my own hands, she invited me to go with her at any time my parents gave permission.'1 "My child, it is not best for you. In every department there must be division of labor in this world, and work is best done by each one attending to his own business. Your teacher is a missionary ; that is her calling. I pay a hun- dred dollars on her salary; it is my calling to earn that hundred dollars toward her support. You are of my family, not hers; and, while we are prospered, you also should confine your attention to giving to the various deserving char- ities." "But, father, it seems so much like our not doing any good ourselves, and merely hiring others to do it." " O, no, daughter. They lift one end, and we the other of the same load. It may be necessary for you to exercise a little of the grace of self-denial in conforming to this wise arrangement ; but it is best, do you not say so, mother ? " "Well — yes — but I must confess, husband, that when we had only little to give, and I went myself with that little to the poor and the suffering, I found more joy, more assurance of God's blessing, than now, when we merely lead subscription papers and put the largest bills into the collection boxes." The minister of their church had frequently 38 SELF-GIVING. conversed with Mr. Lyddell upon this subject, and had done what he could to counteract the home-influence of the father's mistaken theory. Still, his wealthy parishioner would do nothing but give. The preacher must do the preaching, the choir the singing, the sexton the care-taking of the building, and the various missionary agen- cies the missionary work, and he would sign his checks ; nothing more. Christ did not thus ; and his spirit cannot be pleased with any such isola- tion from personal contact with a suffering, dying world. Never was there a home more hospitable to ministers and missionaries. It had a suite of rooms, furnished expressly for them. In the bookcase was a well-selected library of theologi- cal and missionary literature. The writing-desk was fully supplied with stationery, and all the envelopes were stamped. The coachman had orders always to bring out the horses at the call of these guests, and mother and daughter were never happier than when entertaining and being entertained by returned missionaries. No wonder that these worn and weary ones from foreign lands enjoyed visiting in this home. And there are many such homes awaiting them, if not as elegant, yet equally comfortable, cordial and restful. It is the working of the great law of compensation , and if the labor of missionaries among the benighted heathen is the most tire- some and tearful, yet none others have as many CLEOBA LYDDELL AND MARGARET KILBURNE. 39 friends, as many homes, and as much eager hos- pitality. One missionary woman from Burmah spent a week at the Lyddell mansion, whose presence did not prove a benediction. The difficulty was, she had taken too sombre a view of mission life, had gathered only its shadows, and had no sunbeams to scatter around. She appeared to be afraid all the while that her life of self-sacrifice was not appreciated. " Do you ever have anything good to eat in Burmah?" inquired Cleora one day, as they turned from a turkey dinner to the family library. ''Very seldom. It is rice and curry, and curry and rice, until one really loathes the sight of it." "But I like rice very much. And once father sent home a bottle of curry, which he said is used extensively in India; an^l we thought it was very delicious." " Rice is different from wheat. When you have to use it all the time, you soon tire of it, dread- fully." u Do you not have any meat ? " " Very poor stuff, and very costly. With our small salaries, we cannot afford much of it." "Are there O, mamma, I wePhder what really poor people do : " "Here is a grand young lady come to see you! Wake up!" "I've been dreaming." "What have you been dreaming, darling?" in- quired Cleora, her heart already won. M That a beautiful angel came to see me, and took me up in her arms and kissed me; and she told me of a father and a brother in the skies who always love little girls; and she said that this brother had bought a new dress for me ; and — I forget the rest. O, it was the sweetest dream I ever had ! " "If you will come to my Sunday-school class next Sunday, I will tell you the rest of it," said Cleora, hardly able to restrain her own emotions. A bundle was left by an expressman the next morning for the little dreamer's Sunday outfit, including shoes, stockings, a warm plaid dress, and a hat. Margaret's proteges were boys. She had a hard time with them, but it paid well in the end. A dread fid oath in an undertone from one of them, connected with an observation regarding the new teacher, was her introductory greeting. For a long time it was very evident that two or three of the boys came only for fun, and that they meant to 54 SELF-GIVING. have most of it out of her. But eventually her heart and tact conquered, and through her class she gained access to several homes which were made far better and happier by her sunshine and benefactions. One especially, the little attic retreat of her brightest boy. There lie lived alone with his mother : he said he had never seen his father, and knew nothing about him. For a year nearly, Mar- garet could secure no invitation, not even permis- sion, to call from the once celebrated theatre actress. " Mother says she prefers' to be alone," was the invariable reply to her repeated solicitations. At last came a beautifully written invitation, with added regrets, that one who had been so kind to her child, had been so rudely treated. " I desired to meet you, Miss Kilburne," said the actress, after giving Margaret the only chair in the room, and seating herself upon a box, " not to solicit any charity ; that we refuse from every person. My son does errands for one of the stores, and his employer occasionally sends me a little sewing. But I have noticed that Henry has lately taken special pleasure in learning pieces and speak- ing them here to me, and my anxieties are aroused lest it be the commencement of tempta- tion to the stage." "That taste, Mrs." " Do not say Mrs. ; I was never married. Say only Antoinette." — " that taste for memorizing and recitation from THE GIRLS AT COLLEGE. 65 standard literature is one which my room-mate is very earnest in cultivating, and I am beginning to find myself quite inspired with her enthusiasm." " Better it were not so. I was once a student at Clifton Hall, and well along in my course. Several of the congregation of a theatre-loving minister of the town arranged for an amateur per- formance. I had a leading part, was very suc- cessful, and it turned my head. The next day's paper eulogized me as a coming star of the first magnitude. I gave up my studies and home and moral associations, and joined a stock company in Rochester at five dollars a week." "I should think that with so many extra expenses for wardrobe, you would have soon starved," observed Margaret. " I was determined to succeed. And look at my success ! See the elegant paintings upon these walls, the artistic frescos, these Persian rugs upon the floor ! See my piano, and my library ! Notice the gorgeous robe in which I am attired. Look! is my Henry driving home with the bays or the the grays? "Yes, I was bound to succeed. But who talks of me now? The flowers are all faded that once fell in showers at my feet. You think I am forty- five; I am on!}7 thirty -two. Wrecked at thirty- two! My God!" "But the 'wrecked' are often saved," said Margaret, laying her hand upon the bowed head of the groaning Antoinette. 56 SELF-GIVING. " Not such as me ; but save yourself, and save my child ! Never go to the theatre. Let ama- teur theatricals alone. Beware of managers: ah! how many of them manage to ruin girls! ' " Do all, Antoinette, who are in the theatrical profession, lead immoral lives ? " "Not every one. But as a rule: the exceptions are like the fireflies in- a dark night, only flit- tine here and there. Rarelv does our life fail to destroy body, mind, and soul." " I had not thought that the prospect beyond the foot-lights is so terrible." ■ "All! the wrecks are mostly unknown. The world talks of Charlotte Cushman, but has thrown me to the dogs. My companions crowd to-day the dens of every city and town in the land. Thousands of them will be walking the streets to-night. And their victims, ha, ha! we have thrown them by the thousand into hell ! " Margaret shuddered. She had at times enter- tained the quixotic idea of giving her life to the reformation of the stage. Siie felt that she might win a high position, and with unsullied character and earnest endeavor could be a missionary to the profession. Antoinette had helped to dissipate such foolishness, for which Margaret afterward was profoundly grateful to God. The young collegian persisted in her efforts for both, until Henry was in a Christian school in Albany, and his mother was appointed matron of its boarding department. THE GIRLS AT COLLEGE. 57 Cleora and Margaret were invited by a class- mate from Rochdale, to spend a Thanksgiving at her home. They accepted, and had " a royal time," not forgetting, as do the vast majority of Christian people, the hour assigned to the house of God. The three evangelical churches had arranged for a union service, since at Rochdale, as almost everywhere, it was necessary thus to gather the scattered fragments in order to make a fair con- gregation. It was the year before the death of Rev. Mr. Litchfield, and he preached the sermon. His sub- ject was Self-Giving , the Measure of true Gratitude. Both the young ladies felt greatly strengthened in their determination to lay themselves upon God's altar. At the dinner-table reference was made to the struggles for an education on the part of the preacher's eldest son, Llewellyn. Mrs. Darrow, the hostess, seemed to know all about his boarding himself, and sawing wood, and sweeping floors, and sending his sister to Providence. " I admire such young men," said Margaret. "Every one of them is worth a dozen of the kid- gloved, perfumed dandies, who are ashamed of any work except that of the toilet, and understand only the arts of cosmetics and flattery," added Cleora with a gesture that unfortunately upset her saucer of cranberries. "Never mind," said Mr. Darrow, UI would much rather have missed my dinner, than lost that speech. 58 ' SELF-GIVING. Say, Hattie, the only sensible girl the world was ever to see, did not take my name thirty-two years ago." " No, indeed, William ; it was only thirty-one years ago. #You are making me out an old woman, when I feel as young as ever." " That is because i have taken good care of you.5' " Well, even if you are a little conceited, I hope each of these girls will get as good a husband." "Do you think, Mrs. Darrow, that we must be married?" asked Margaret. " O, no ! many single women live most useful and happy lives." " I suppose," observed Cleora in all earnestness, " that in each case this should be left to Him who will not fail to guide the prayerful spirit aright." An epoch in the young ladies1 lives at college was created by the fortunate visit over Sunday of a mis- sionary woman of the American Board, who had spent twenty-five years in Asia. She had been a widow for two years, but was soon to -return to com- plete her life-work, as if it had depended not on a husband, but on Christ. Invited by the Society for Missionary Inquir}', she had addressed the young ladies in the chapel, and met many of them socially in the parlors. She was a most cheerful person, and all the while scattered sunbeams around the great subject of heathen evan- gelization. She spoke of trials, yet as only incidental to the greater opportunities, privileges and blessings. She described the parting from home, }"et so as to leave her hearers not beside the tearful parents, nor THE GIBLS AT COLLEGE. 59 at the steamer's dock, but in the shadow of the cross on Calvary. She made mention of some of the de- lightful attachments she had formed among the natives, of the intelligence and culture which frequently sur- prised her, and of the indescribable satisfaction of see- ing constant progress made in the great work. She said times had changed materially since she first went out, and that now it was usual for the mission- aries to be comfortably housed and fed, to have in many places at least pleasant English society, and to feel that with prayerful care of health, the probability was for as long life in Christ's service as in any of the absorbing, wearing occupations of the home-land. This visit was very opportune. With Cleora it almost entirely removed the unfavorable impressions of foreign mission life, left by the gloomy, shadow- gathering and scattering missionary from Burmah, who was entertained that week two years before, in her father's house. Both Cleora and Margaret, from a private interview with this fairer and more prudent representative of the foreign work, felt a strength- ened conviction that their parents' wealth and social position did not relieve them from personal obliga- tion. Still they should inquire, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" It was by no means settled that they would become foreign missionaries, but they were quite decided that they stood before God alone in this matter, and that it was their duty to take under prayerful consideration the question of giving them- selves, beyond all possible giving from home and in the home-land. 60 SELF-GIVING. It was directly after this visit of the missionary, that the joint letter was written to Laura Hamilton at Washington, over which the latter and Llewellyn Litchfield made so merry with sparkling wit and sparkling wine. It was a part of the discipline of the young Christian toilers at Yonkers College, that they should try their best with their friend Laura, and fail. Many a pleasant and profitable hour was spent at the pbservatory, until the astronomical professor in charge, a young man of pleasing address, became in- fatuated with Cleora. Promptly and decidedly, how- ever, she repelled all his advances, for, among other reasons, she could not endure his blank materialism and hostility to evangelical Christianity. Margaret also was called upon for a similar consci- entious decision. The son of a wealthy New York banker, who had large business dealings with her father, pressed his attentions upon her. But, although he was everything in intelligence and heart and social position, that any young lady could desire, his not being a Christian was in her judgment an insu- perable obstacle. As might be expected, both Cleora and Margaret were very exemplary in their general deportment. They indulged in no clandestine interviews with young gentlemen. The}T engaged in no correspond- ence which they were unwilling their parents should see. Yet they were not perfect, and occasionally showed, as in the following incident, that the}r both needed more reverence, thoughtfulness and years. THE GIRLS AT COLLEGE. 61 At midnight the mouse-trap sprung in one of the young ladies' rooms. The little intruder was caught, and, despite the rules of absolute quiet at that hour, the news soon spread along the corridors of the insti- tution. Cleora suggested that they come into her room, and lay out the deceased in state. Soon it was crowded with more than fifty white-robed young ladies, full to overflowing with merriment; only they had to be still almost as the dead mouse himself, lest the teach- ers should be awakened and spoil their fun. The corpse was placed on a stand in the middle of the room, and four of the girls with brooms at shoulder-arms, stood at the corners as guard of honor. Cleora with mock gravity read the burial service from Worcester's Dictionary, commencing with mouse ; and Margaret followed with a solemn eulogy upon the deceased — his kindness to his wife, being probably at the time of his fatal accident, in search of food for her. Perhaps she was a confirmed invalid, awaiting now his return, alas, in vain. Then she exhorted her sisters to be instructed in fidelity and to proceed with the solemn services as still as a mouse. All appeared to weep. Especially were Cleora and Margaret inconsolable. In their extrem. ity of grief they pretended to faint, and were carried to their beds, where restoratives were successfully administered. Then with " dust to dust, ashes to ashes, waiting until the next mouse nibbles in our trap," Cleora and Margaret opened the window, and with their hair-crimpers pitched it into the dark. CHAPTER V. OVER MANY LANDS AND SEAS. AT the time of graduation, Llewellyn Litch- field was in great perplexity. Lie desired to study law. Bat for a year or two now the necessities of his widowed mother and her fam- il}r required that he should secure an income above his own living. The only opportunity which presented itself, or the rather, which he was able to secure after a most diligent search for mouths, was to accompany as assistant that inde- fatigable scientific traveller of Rochester, Professor Draw, upon an eight months' geological and zoological tour in South America and Africa. Llewellyn had shown special taste for these depart- ments of natural science, and the celebrated col- lector of cabinets, on acquaintance begun at a casual meeting, felt that he could afford to offer him his expenses and a thousand dollars. Llewellyn's great fondness for travel helped him to decide in this direction. He had no idea of idling away his time by going around to dif- ferent cities and countries. Travelling, to him, was a school only less valuable than college and the OVER MANY LANDS AND SEAS. 63 stern experience of practical life. To him people and landscapes, social and political institutions, the triumphs of genius in architecture and sculp- ture and upon canvas, and all the applications of the beautiful arts to industry the world over, were books, a vast library of standard volumes, inviting the earnest study of all, and to the thoughtful and serious holding out inducements it would be difficult, except as already suggested, to overestimate. Several of Llewell}7n's most clearly loved relatives endeavored to persuade him to give up going abroad. They urged that it would be throwing away the education and habit of close application he had already acquired. He never could be good for anything afterward. Even his own mother, whose life had been spent chiefly in a little round of domestic duties, utterly failed to appreciate the intellectual advantages of the opportunity offered, and was induced to a reluctant consent only by the family necessities and the several hun- dred dollars advance money which the arrangement would place in her hands. Llewellyn visited his father's grave the day before embarking from New York for Havana. "Ah, father!" he exclaimed, as he picked the little stones from the mound, and patted the sod into better shape, " when I lost you, I lost my wisest, if not my best friend. Mother loves me, but she cannot understand this crisis in my life, as you would have understood it : you saw some- 64 SELF-GIVING. thing of the world, once walking all the way to Washington to visit the capital, and working your psasage on canal-boat and steamer to Chicago, to know something for yourself about the great West. Oh, if I could only see you now, I believe I should have your cordial benediction ! " After a week in Cuba, Llewell}Tn and the pro- fessor sailed for Jamaica. It was leaving a Roman Catholic for a Protestant island. There was no difficulty in seeing that in the latter the people had made the greater social and political advance- ment. Gentlemen in both civil and military ser- vice assured the young graduate, that neither reli- gion nor the missionaries made the difference, but Anglo-Saxon civilization. They did not appreciate that Christianity is the head and heart and power of that boasted civilization ; that the Bible is its light, and evangelization its opportunity. Llewellyn heard of no Protestant missionaries in Cuba, and it was long after, his visit that the law tolerated any other religious meetings than those under Roman Catholic auspices. Had lie been more persistent in his inquiries, he might have found every Sunday while in Havana, an Epis- copal service on board the American man-of-war stationed in the harbor. Tt was unfortunate that the social circle, into which Llewellyn was introduced at Kingston, was thoroughly out of sympathy with all mission enterprise, and largely retained the prejudices of OVER MANY LANDS AND SEAS. 65 the old anti-slavery times. He was told that the English missionaries were a very low-lived, worth- less set ; that the negroes among whom they pro- fessed to labor were incorrigibly lazy, their eleva- tion a hopeless task, and their religion hypocrisy. Tims he was blinded to the fact that, notwith- standing the late troublesome times and lingering prejudices and superstitions, the Jamaica-creole peasantry were rapidly becoming more intelligent, more truly religious, more industrious. One evening Governor Eyre invited Professor Draw and his assistant to dine at the Executive mansion. Several British officers and prominent planters of the vicinity were present. " Americans have shown their good sense," re- marked the Governor at the table, "in not sending: any missionaries to Jamaica." "How so, if you please, sir?" inquired Llewel- lyn. " Missionaries are the most dangerous people to turn loose among a mass of beastly heathen. They have done us more harm here than the cholera and small-pox epidemics." "I have heard," said the professor, "that dur- ing these terrible scourges to which His Excellency refers, the missionaries from England were the dis- pensers of thousands of pounds sterling in medi- cines and clothing and food." " Only the sugar-coating for the bitter pill we have had to swallow," replied the host. " These creatures come here, living on the charity of deluded 66 SELF-GIVING. people at home ; they do nothing but build grand houses and hire natives to serve them. If I bad my way, I would put them all in irons and send them to London on the next steamer." " I was riding past one of their houses this morning," remarked "Llewellyn, "and noticed that it was rather a grand mansion for a humble mis- sionary." " But we are told," explained the professor, "that these mission buildings, often for the sake of economy, combine under one roof a chapel, a school, and a printing establishment as well as the living rooms of the missionaries." " That cannot be so," insisted the Governor. " To be sure I never have been inside of one of their hypo- critical dens, and never expect to; as soon go to a brothel." Some knowing glances and half-suppressed smiles passed around the table, for the suggestion of the so- cial evil reminded of the principal ground of their difficulty with missionaries. Their own immoralities were being brought out too strongly in contrast by the social purity of the mission families. When Llewellyn sailed for Rio Janeiro, it was with strengthened prejudices against foreign missionary work. He had not become acquainted with an}' of the heroic, toiling band, had never visited a school or chapel, and had heard only a volume of slander which lie was more than half-inclined to believe. Their steamer had first to touch at Vera Cruz before turning its course toward Brazil. Here, after paying OVER MANY LANDS AND SEAS. 67 their respects at the American Consulate, their few days were fully occupied in searching for geological and zoological specimens of value among native col- lections. In the great variety of rich minerals from the high lands of the interior, they could see evidences of wealth and prosperity yet for Mexico, when anarchy should give place to a settled government. But they scarcely anticipated that in a score of years the rail- road and manufacturing capital of the United States would become largely interested in the regions beyond the Rio Grande ; and Llewellyn, at least, did not dream that soon Mexico was to become a grandly {successful mission-field for Episcopalians, Presby- terians, Methodists, and a hopeful one for Congrega- tionalists and Baptists. Several weeks were spent in Brazil, and Llewellyn gathered a small vocabulary of Portuguese, through which to communicate with the mongrel population. Indeed, so successful was he in two months in mak- ing himself understood in hotels and stores and on the highways of public travel, that he felt quite in- dignant at the stories lie had heard from missionaries about the difficulties of acquiring a foreign language. " They must, indeed, be a lazy gang, of small men- tal calibre," observed the young traveller to himself one day, after an hour of successful shopping in Rio Janeiro, and that without the assistance of any inter- preter. Ah ! he little appreciated what a different matter it is to masier the heart-language and relig- ious vermicular of a foreign people, to become able to trace all the subtleties of their thought, and to 68 SELF-GIVING. qualify for the clear explanation of all the cardinal doctrines of Christianity. When Llcweellyn sailed for the African coast by way of Lisbon, in one of the Royal Portuguese line of steamships, he*eouid tell of a great many things he had learned in South America. He had seen the vast " selvas," or forest-plains, of the Amazon, had noted the delightful climate and rich soil of the Mis- sissippi-like valley of the La Plata, had handled sil- ver from Peru and Bolivia, copper from Chili, and visited some of the diamond-fields of Brazil. He had hunted upon the " pampas," seen the india-rub- ber and the caoutchouc, and studied the character of Spanish and Portuguese colonization. But he had not gone very deeply into the question of the histori- cal contrasts between North and South America, and especially he had given no attention whatever to those needs and encouragements to missionary labor which had enlisted the Moravians in Dutch Guiana, and were beginning to attract the evangelizing enter- prise of Presbyterians to Colombia, Brazil and Chili, of Methodists to Uruguay and Buenos Ayres, of Baptists to Brazil, and of English missionaries to the Falkland Islands, Terra del Fuego, and Patagonia. "None, indeed, are so blind as those who will not see," and no will is stronger than that of a traveller prejudiced against the work of foreign missions. A few weeks, and the energetic cabinet collectors were touching at the uninteresting ports of Western Africa. The coast is low and malarious, and when- ever they went ashore a few hours, while their steam- OVER MANY LANDS AND SEAS. 69 ship was exchanging mail and cargo, they were glad to finish their bartering for whatever they could find in their line among the natives, and to return on board. At Sierra Leone Llewellyn thought he made a discovery, though history is full of the information, that Christian missionaries are good for something to the cause of science. In Liberia he was impressed with the enormous cost of life with which missions there were carried on, not think- ing, even as few in Christendom had yet thought, of preparations thus being made at many points ali around the coast for speedy advance into the uplands of the great interior. As they passed the Congo, it had not the interest to them it has had since Stanley and the missionaries who have followed in his footsteps. Cape Colony seemed already a Christian country, and the name of Livingstone was honored. Burton, Speke, and Grant had been making important discoveries in Eastern Africa, but the English and Scotch societies had not commenced their famous evan- gelizing enterprise in the neighborhoods of N}-anza, Tanganyika and Nyassa. From Zanzibar they took steamer for Suez. We cannot linger with Llewellyn in Egypt, though we would gladly accompany him all over Cairo, and from Heliopolis to Thebes, but will only cross the Nile and linger with him a moment at the great pyramid of Cheops, where an inci- dent occurred which changed the current of his life. The United States minister to China was & 70 SELF-GIVING. on his way to the court at Peking. His party- was but a few minutes iii advance of Llewellyn, and was overtaken by him when but half-way up the side of the vast astronomical mausoleum. The diplomat and the young scientist recognized each other as Americans, their nationality being distinguishable the world over as easily as that of any other people. Upon the summit Llewelyn's replies and observations proved him the best read upon Egyptian topography and history, and the minis- ter plenipotentiary was glad to draw him out upon the worship of Osiris, Serapis and Isis, and upon the papyri, obelisks and hieroglyphics. As they were standing together upon that giddy height, looking up the valley of the Nile toward Abydos and Luxor, the envoy slipped and fell over the edge three feet to the next tier of stone. The accident was not serious, but extra help was required in the descent. Llewellyn's kind atten- tions, added to the favorable impressions already made, soon brought him the offer of private sec- retary to the ambassador at a salary of twenty- five hundred dollars a year. CHAPTER VI. THE LYDDELLS IN JAPAN. WE are almost in Springfield, father, and you have hardly spoken to us since we changed cars at Albany. Are you in a brown study to know what to do with your daughter now that she is through college ? " u Not you alone, Cleora," replied Mr. Lyddell. " It is a question as to the disposal of all three of us for the coming year. Our firm decided last week to open a branch house as soon as possible in Yokohama. I am thinking whether I had better go on and give personal attention to the enterprise for a few months.1' " And take mother and me with 3Tou ? O, father, that will be splendid. We could help you in select- ing silk — " " You mean in wearing it. But I have quite made up my mind, mother consenting, to be off as soon as we can get ready for a six months' residence in the Land of the Rising Sun. If mother objects, I will let one of my partners go." " You will not object, will you, mother?" pleaded Cleora with most anxious eyes. " For father's sake and your sake I am willing to 71 72 SELF-GIVING. go ; but I am very much attached to home, and I cannot throw off the dread of the sea." Business, pleasure, and duty conspired to the real- ization of the plan. They went by way of Panama and San Francisco, and in seven weeks from leaving Boston, they were off the coast of Japan. It was nine years since Commodore Perry with President Fillmore's letter, had anchored his squadron in the Bay of Yedo, and demanded official recog- nition. Meanwhile other nations had followed up this breach in the wall of Japanese seclusion, and Great Britain had secured by treaty the opening of six ports to foreign commerce. The Shogun and his government, the Bakufu, daily felt the earthquake of the coming revolution rumbling beneath their feet, but the exhibitions of violence at this time were mostly in the south and around the person of the Mikado at Kiyoto. The Lyddells immediately secured a residence upon the Bluff at Yokohama, an estate they found all fur- nished and to let, while for the new branch house, or silk " hong," as it was to be called, the Boston im- porter rented a convenient stone building upon the main street close to the Consulates. He did not hang out any sign-board or do any advertising, for that would have deprived him and his family of the best foreign society. He hired his " compradore," a Chinese middle-man with a working knowledge of both Japanese and English, and then bent every energy to the establishment of the new bus- iness enterprise, among customers he never met, THE LYDBELLS IN JAPAN. 73 and to the installation a few months after of a nephew who came to take his place. At the same time Mrs. Lyddell and Cleora were equally industrious in becoming, acquainted with the strange world by which they were surrounded. The servants of the house, whom they had re- engaged upon recommendation of the former occu- pant, relieved them almost entirely of domestic care, and every pleasant day they were of! early and late searching the curio shops, watching the quaint ways of the people, visiting the temples, riding upon the neighboring Tokaido, and occasion- ally going to Tokio, Kamakura, and even as far as the Hakone mountains, the beautiful setting of the matchless Fuji yama. "Mother," said Cleora one bright spring morn- ing, when the air was full of the fragrance of the cherry blossoms, "I have so often heard the English residents here speak of Asakiisa, the most popular Buddhist temple of Tokio, that I wish very much we could go there to-day." They went ; but the excursion resulted in more than the gratification of Cleora's curiosity, even the opening of her heart, as it never had been opened before, with pity for the idol-worshipping heathen, and with longing desire to do something herself to bring them to the knowledge of the true light, the only Saviour of mankind. "Yes* there they are, as I was told the other evening, buying paper prayers, and making them into spit-balls, and throwing them at Kwanon's 74 SELF-GIVIXG. guardian idols, believing that if they stick they will be heard." " Poor deluded creatures, indeed," responded the mother. " And yonder, what a crowd under that immense, black tiled-roof! Let us see if we can find our way among them so as to catch sight oi what they are worshipping." "I wish that some of our Boston friends, who think so highly of Buddhism," observed Cleora, "could watch this terrible scene with us one hour. This swarm of Buddhist priests moving around, how hypocritical and selfish their looks. There can be no parallel between a system which they represent and the religion of Christ." " Yes, daughter, and there would not be phil- osophy enough even in Concord to set off attrac- tively these hundreds of prostrations before Kwanon and her surrounding idols, in this great pantheon of Buddhism." "Everybody throws in money, and there must be a large amount of it beneath those grates in front of the chief altar. But look, mother, at that hideous old side idol ! it must be Binzuru, who cures diseases." " We must not get too near, Cleora, for those sick people around it may have some contagious disease." "But, oh dear, how pitiful; see them, mother, rubbing their faces and hands upon the old black wooden image, thinking that it is a god with power to save them from death." THE LYDDELLS IN JAPAN. 75 In the spacious grounds of the temple, they saw the sacred Albino ponies fed as an act of merit and worshipped as gods; all kinds of side shows known to the Japanese, presenting a scene very similar to that around an American circus, and among the throngs and the various altars and the gilded images, constantly those whose steps take hold on death, evidently plying their immoral avocation in partnership with the Buddhistic priest- hood. When they were seated again in their phaeton, which Mr. Lyddell brought from San Francisco, and were well out upon the Tokaido toward Kanagawa and Yokohama, Cleora broke the silence of a long reverie with the exclamation : "It is a shame, mother, that Christian people are so little interested in foreign missions! This heathen darkness is perfectly dreadful. I have read translations of some of the traditional sayings of Buddha, and they have made me think that perhaps Asia and Africa might wait until Christ- ianity can reach them without special effort. But I did not dream that the situation is so terrible." "We have much that is as bad as this heath- enism at home, Cleora : and there, you know, is where charity should begin." " But, surely you do not think that it should end there, mother clear ? We have our many thousands of churches and ministers, our Bible and Christian literature and Sunday-schools; and what have they here among these thirty-four 76 SELF-GIVING. millions? What have three quarters of the popu- lation of the world ? Ignorance, superstition, idol- atry, licentiousness, intemperance, slavery, and only a few years when they and we shall pass into eternity." "But you must not take too much of all this upon your heart, my dear. God does not ask us to lift these mountains. When we return to Boston, you can interest others in foreign mission work by telling the stoiw of to-day, and I think your father would have no objections to your sup- porting a missionary here, or in China, or in India." " I would like to support myself as a mission- ary here. It would be a heaven to me to go to these homes and tell the women and children 4 the old, old stoiy of Jesus and his love.' ': " You be a missionary, Cleora ! What could father and I do without you ? " " Ah, mother, what did the Heavenly Father do without Jesus, when the Well Beloved gave himself for us? That love unutterable has touched my heart, and I would rather work for the salvation of the wretched heathen than shine in Boston society as the reigning belle of Beacon Hill." At that moment the conversation was suddenly broken by an incident of not infrequent occur- rence during the few years which preceded the revolution of 1868. None were more hostile to the foreigners than THE LYDDELLS IN JAPAN. 77 the samurai, or two-sworded retainers of the feudal daimios. For centuries they had sustained their territorial nobles in the pride of almost regal power. Accustomed to exact for their lords the cringing homage of all the common people, they felt that the indifference of foreigners was intol- erable. Many lives had been endangered by these high-spirited retainers of the jealous and turbu- lent daimios, and a number of English and Amer- icans had been cut down because they assumed to have equal rights with any of the gentry upon the public highways. About half-way from Tokio to Kanagawa, the ladies' driver turned close to the side of the Tokaido to allow a daimio with a score of sa- murai to pass. That he should keep his seat, how- ever, remaining bolt-upright, when all common Jap- anese were expected to bow with their faces to the ground, was too much for three of the indig- nant retainers, and they sprung at him with drawn swords. Too quick for them, however, the driver escaped upon the other side, leaving the reins on the ground, and the ladies at the mercy of the infuriated samurai. Whether the disappointed knights were equal to the assassination of women on that occasion or not, Cleora did not wait to see, but with a bound seized the reins, and in an instant was in the driver's seat, whipping the horses into their utmost speed for at least a mile away from that scene almost of blood. 78 SELF-GIVING. Mr. Lyddell was upon the veranda awaiting . their return, and Cleora's position as driver im- mediately introduced a full description from both mother and daughter of their afternoon's excite- ment upon the Tokaido. But as soon as dinner was over, Mrs. Lyddell, who had evidently something more important upon her mind than such exploits with exasperated samurai, followed her husband into his private library, and closed the door. "I tell you what is a fact, sir; unless we leave Japan immediately, we shall lose our daugh- ter." "What! has any of these upstart Englishmen begun to supplant us in her affections? I am sure I have not seen any attentions that should give us serious alarm." "No, sir; worse than that; far worse than that. Cleora wants to be a miserable missionary to these miserable heathen. Why, it is perfectly absurd, and ungrateful to us; and who would have thought it in our daughter? But it is a fact that she is getting the low-lived sentimental craze, and we must take passage on the next steamship." " It will be difficult for me to arrange my business to leave immediately, but this calamity must be avoided at every cost. The daughter of the Lyddells becoming a missionary !- all Bos- ton society would be inquiring if there is any hereditary insanity in our family." THE LYDDELLS IN JAPAN. 79 The return was by way of Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Point de Galle and Suez. From Brindisi they took a run across to Athens, and then hastily visited in succession Rome, Flor- ence, Venice, Munich and Switzerland. They lin- gered for nearly three months in Paris. Cleora could not understand the reason, when her parents had been all along thus far in such a desperate hurry from Yokohama to this gay, fashionable metropolis. They kept their secret well, deter- mined to divert her mind from the missionary cause. They retained for every night, one of the highest-priced boxes at the Grand Opera House. Every pleasant afternoon they drove out upon the Avenue and Bois de Boulogne. One of the most celebrated musicians of Paris was engaged as Cleora's instructor. They encouraged no end of shopping, and of visiting the art galleries, and of social entertainments. Before leaving for Lon- don, Liverpool and New York, they paid all their society debts by one of the most brilliant enter- tainments ever furnished at the Grand Hotel, which was their home in the city.- They insisted upon music for dancing, and a liberal supply of wine, despite Cleora's wishes. Paris was not Bos- ton, and her Puritan ideas were now impractica- ble, they assured her. And thus upon the field of a young opening life these worldly parents fought the Spirit of God. CHAPTER VII. SHADOWS OF SPECULATION. IT was a Monday morning. Rev. Doctor Arm- strong, the talented and successful pastor of the Michigan Avenue Calvary Church, Chicago, was trying to decide whether he could rest him- self better, after the exhausting labors of Sunday, by staying at home, or by going to the minis- ters' meeting, when the following letter was brought by the postman: 4 My dear Pastor: — Stocks, in which I have been dealing heavily of late, are looking up. I have not the slightest doubt that in another week there will be a regular boom New York Central and Lake Shore. We have the squeeze last on Commodore Whaterstoke, and he must pass back some of his millions. I am confidentially telling my best friends that now is their chance for certain wealth. And if you can intrust ten thousand dollars with me by to-morrow, I will make it one hundred thousand dollars for you in a fortnight. Your grateful parishioner, B. B. KlLBURNE. It was a great temptation. From no other one would a proposition of that kind have had such weight with Doctor Armstrongc The minister's savings had been largely because of several five 80 SHADOWS OF SPECULATION. 81 hundred dollar checks as New Year presents from this generous parishioner. More than half of all he had in the bank came in this way, and thus far Mr. Kilburne was suggesting investment for money which was once his own. Mrs. Armstrong did not favor the plan at all. She was not able to give many satisfactory reasons, at least in her husband's judgment, for declining to run any speculative risks ; but she was very emphatic in protesting against their turning aside from the singleness of service, the economy, prudence, and thorough business integrity which hitherto in their lives together God had abundantly blessed. But there were several from whom the Doctor knew he could borrow* enough, on thirty or sixty days, to make up his bank account *o the ten thousand dollars requested by Mr. Kilburne. And then, to have no more anxiety about support in old age, no more fear of what would become of his wife and children if he should be taken away, no more inability to respond generously to the various calls for benevolence : what a temptation indeed ! " My dear husband, what has been the matter with you to-day?1' inquired Mrs. Armstrong at the close of the following Sunday services. ""You have not seemed yourself either this morning or this evening in preaching. Perhaps the people did not notice it, but you appeared to me several times to lose your thread of thought, and to be 82 SELF-GIVING, covering your .confusion under a shower of loud- so uncling words. And I never heard you offer such cold, formal, public prayers. There was no feeling, no unction in them at all." And then as her heart smote her because she had ventured to be so severely critical, and that of all times in the week when he was the most exhausted and sensitive, she quickly drew her chair to his side, took hold of his hand, and leaned her whitening head upon his shoulder. Never is matrimonial love more beautiful than when it has become fully ripe. Silver and golden weddings have more of attraction than the first. Snow-white locks are the most adorning ; and as landscapes of hills and vallej's are more delightful than the smoothly undulating prairies, so are the broken* features of the after-years the more truly beautiful, inspiring and satisfying. Doctor Armstrong » did not answer her ; but presently a great tear dropped from his face upon her hand. Instantly she was kissing away the other tears, and begging him to forgive her for maid: g him, feel so sadly when he was so very tired. "It is no fault in you, dear , I must tell }rou all. I borrowed, and drew our bank funds , and yesterday there were some fluctuations in the stock market; and — and Mr. Kilburne sent me word that I must double my margin, but that it would be all right. We must mortgage this house, or lose those ten thousand dollars. Indeed, if SHADOWS OF SPECULATION. 83 not now to possibly save all and gain much, we shall have to do it in a few weeks to pay my thirty and sixty cla}rs' notes." Two anxious business meetings were held the following evening, the one of the Calvary Church trustees in the parlor of the president of the Jackson National Bank of Chicago, and the other in the committee room of the Illinois University at Springfield. The church had lately built an expensive sanctuary, and upon it there rested a one hundred thousand dollar debt, which Mr. Kil- burne had been carrying. On the other hand, half of the assets of the University were promissory notes for a quarter of a million of dollars,' which Mr. Kilburne had given five years previously, due along from six to ten years, interest payable semi-annually. " Of coure, it is out of the question," said the president of the church meeting, " for us now to vote those two thousand dollars we had intended for home and foreign missions." " Well," declared another, " we may put off the inevitable a year or two ; but in the end the mortgage must be foreclosed upon us, and perhaps the Roman Catholics will think that our grand architectural flourish will make a good cathedral." The Springfield meeting was equally gloomy. The president of the institution had sent in his peremptory resignation, as he saw no possible way out of the embarrassment. The question of addi- tional professors in the departments of chemistry 84 SELF-GIVING. and of the modern languages was taken from the table and indefinitely postponed. Motion was passed to notify one half the beneficiaries that they could no longer receive assistance from the college funds. The library committee was directed to purchase no more books, and the treasurer was requested to consult a lawyer as to the validity of the mortgage that was crushing the University. Mr. Kilburne did all he could to save to his pastor his home ; but in vain. " This is the hardest part of my failure," he said to Dr. Armstrong, as he called the evening before retreating with his family to his wife's little farm. "If only I had not drawn you into this terrible maelstrom of speculation ! " " Is Margaret going with you to the farm ? " " Yes, the brave girl ; bravest of us all. She keeps up her spirits wonderfully : said yesterday she had applied for position as teacher to fill the first vacancy in one of the ward schools. She would rather stay with us on the farm, but feels that a little money must be coming in soon." " How about those five thousand dollars you subscribed last year at my request, for a prize fund in the Manhattan Theological Seminary at New York?" "Thank God, I paid that before the crash! I wish I had done so with our church debt, and the Springfield endowment." It was a great come-down from the Michigan SHADOWS OF SPECULATION. 85 Avenue palace to the humble farmhouse. He who had often lifted and depressed the Chicago stock- market at will, and sometimes had shaken Wall Street as by an earthquake, now was compelled to take hold of all the hard and plodding work of barn and field. At first he could not afford any help, and when Margaret returned to the city to commence school-teaching, Mrs. Kilburne was left alone with the housework. This severe manual labor was a godsend to them both. They found that one of the greatest possible blessings in this life was close upon their greatest trial. Health, which is indeed better than wealth, they had ' been losing of late years to a very alarming extent. Mr. Kilburne had grown very heavy. Heart disease had often indicated its presence, and their family physician had warned him of the danger of apoplexy. At the same time Mrs. Kilburne appeared more and more delicate. Frequently her coughing and unnatural paleness suggested the danger of consumption. But the farm exercise soon changed these appear- ances. What all the physicians of Chicago could not have done, the barn did for Mr. Kilburne, and the kitchen for his wife. Margaret was very fortunate in securing a thou- sand dollar position as first teacher under the principal of the Illinois Avenue Grammar School. Her associates among the instructors were very agreeable, and her fidelity and tact with the pupils made her relations to them pleasant. 86 SELF-GIVING. But she had one specially heavy load of disap- pointment to carry. The thought of giving her- self as a missionary to the heathen had been growing very rapidly since her grandmother's death. Yet now she could not leave the country, for none of the single women missionaries, who were beginning to be sent, had much over half the salary she was receiving, and she had been told that it was utterly impossible for her parents to make a living upon the little farm. Providence had evidently shut the door of opportunity in her face, and bolted it very strongly. The life of Mrs. Ann H. Judson filled her with an enthusiasm which nothing but the seeming home obligation to her parents could resist. She subscribed for several of the missionary periodicals, preferring them to any other literature, and denied herself in many ways to meet the little expense. "Young men," said she to her Sunday-school class of boys, "I have a more ambitious desire for you all, than that you should become Mayors of Chicago, or Governors of Illinois, or Members of Congress, or even Presidents of the United States. I would have you so filled with the spirit of the Matchless One, as to go forth as he did far from home to save a lost world. To be a mis- sionary to-day to the thousand millions of our fellow creatures who know nothing of Christ, is an honor outshining any that in this life can be given or taken away." A letter she received at this time from Cleora ft SHADOWS OF SPECULATION. 87 Lyddell, written the day after the visit to Asa- kiisa in Tokio, helped to fan the flame of Marga- ret's desire sometime to be a missionary to the heathen. She replied to her friend, though the letter, forwarded from Japan, did not reach the Lyddells until they were in Paris, declaring 44 All aspirations of my life, beyond the discharge of obligations to my parents, are centring in the thought of ' woman's work for woman' and for the children in heathen lands. I pray daily that the obstacle in my way may be removed, and I am becoming more and more careful of my health, for I may yet be the Lord's chosen vessel to carry the water of life to those who are thirsty and dying by the tens of thousands daily in Asia and other desert lands." Meanwhile Margaret was not satisfied with simply waiting upon her longed-for opportunity which might never come. She was very studious, to be the better qualified for the work when it should be assigned her. Her experience in mission Sunday-schools taught her that to instruct the ignorant and degraded in the truths of Christianity requires more intellectual power, and resource, and wisdom, than to lead the conversations of fash- ionable life, or even to hold one's own in the most cultured society. Several evenings each week were devoted to composition. She was encouraged to believe that she had a special gift at word-painting. After having written a great many sketches in clescrip- 83 SELF-GIVING. tion of common daily life, she ventured to send one of them to the Chicago Globe. There was no reply, and she tried again. Still no insertion ; no acknowledgment , much less any money. She resolved to go with her third contribution, and talk with the editor about it. He received her very politely in his sanctum, begging her to wait a moment until he finished a few lines of copy. Meanwhile her eyes caught sight of an enormous waste-basket at the side of the editor's table, and of one of her articles — she knew it bjr the rib- bon with which she had tied the paper — so provokingly rumpled together, and peeping at her through the open wicker-work. A moment after a clerk brought from the counting- room a whole armful of manuscripts, reporting, as he dropped them on the table : " Twenty-three poems and forty-seven prose con- tributions this morning." " An unusually small number. Perhaps I will have time to glance them over," observed the editor to his lady caller as he turned toward her, adding, " And what, please, can I do for you to-day ? " With a little hesitation, and a world of suppressed embarrassment, she replied : " I am a teacher at the Illinois Avenue Gram- mar School, and am very much interested in public exercises' which are to take place there next Friday ; and if you will be so good as to make a local of it, and have a reporter" — SHADOWS OF SPECULATION. 89 " O, certainly, certainly, madam ; that is as to the notice ; bnt whether we can spare a reporter from the police courts, and from the regular criminal court, which opens next Monday, I cannot promise. Is there any more I can do for you ? " "No, sir: I thank you. Good-day!" « Good-day ! " CHAPTER VIII. CHINA AND THE MISSIONARY'S CALL. LLEWELLYN LITCHFIELD, as private secre- tary to the United States Minister at Peking, had many special advantages above the ordinary tourist or the merchant, in becoming acquainted with the capital of the Flowery Kingdom. He could always travel in the Legation cart, in true mandarin style, with driver and outrider both wearing the official button, and this gave protec- tion which was still important, notwithstanding the treaty of Tientsin and the recent convention of Peking. Often he could accompany the min- ister in his formal calls upon Prince Kung and the heads of departments, and always he was present, when these rulers of the Celestial Empire made their stately ceremonial visits to the Lega- tion. He found ready access to the temples, to the English and Russian palaces, and to the ruins of Won-sho-shan and of Yu-en-ming-yu-en. There were two exceptions to the rule,; two places where even ambassadorial dignity could not gain him any access. The first was the imperial or forbidden city, a vast, wall-enclosed quadrangle 90 CIIINA AND THE MISSIONARY'S CALL. 91 in the centre of the northern or Tartar portion of the city; the other inaccessible " lion " of the capital was the southeastern quarter of the Chinese portion, a five hundred-acre area, surrounded by double walls, and containing the Altar to Heaven with its accompanying temples and ceremonial buildings. It was utterly out of the question for Llewellyn to break through the barriers which Chinese, or rather Manchu custom, had thrown around the home or prison of the Emperor. Even when the triumphant foreign powers insisted in 1860 upon audience with his august Majesty, there was probably only a nominal compliance. As the wily Japanese palmed off the Shogun for the Mikado upon Commodore Perry, so it is more than possible that a false show of Emperor was made upon that stately occasion when in the park outside the forbidden city, the English and French generals and diplomats thought they were looking upon the sovereign of four hundred millions of people. But at the Altar to Heaven there was oppor- tunity for Llewellyn. The grounds were in charge of the priests, and a corrupt priesthood is always more easily bribed than the secular ' officials of the most wretched civil service. He could have gone directly in the first day that he made application, had he been willing to pay the eight- tael, or ten-dollar bribe demanded. But the responsibility of the support of mother, sisters and brothers still rested so heavily upon him that he 92 SELF- GIVING. could not throw away money. When subsequently in the shadows of the evening he scaled the walls, wandered alone over the whole area, and inspected the great altar of imperial worship, he little thought it was an event that was to con- tribute materially* to the shaping of his whole future course in life. In the Chinese Foreign Office was a mandarin who could speak English well, and with whom Llewellyn became familiarly acquainted. " What do you think of the missionaries ? " inquired the latter one day, fully expecting a con- firmation of his own prejudices. " They are the only foreigners " — the Chinaman replied ; — rt the only foreigners who are doing any real good to my fellow-countrymen." " Indeed, Shung Ling, both parts of your state- ment surprise me." " We are generally accounted by Christians so stupid as not to distinguish between the self- denying, plillanthropic efforts of the missionaries, and the mercenary, hypocritical and domineering conduct of all others who have forced themselves upon China." " I suppose," interrupted Llewellyn, " that you refer chiefly to those who forced the opium traffic upon your country. But there are two sides even to this question." " Perhaps," replied Shung Ling, with a most contemptuous expression upon his usually placid face, "you Christians have a very convenient CHINA AND THE MISSIONARY'S CALL, 93 moral code. You always adjust it to suit your actions. The great Confucius taught us better. Judged by his standards, there could be nothing- more wicked than this persistent opium crime against China. And the same spirit seems to actuate all other financial and diplomatic dealings of foreigners with us.'1 " You make an exception of missionaries." " Decidedly ; that is, of those especially who have nothing to do with the Roman Pope ; and this again is a distinction you think we are too stupid to make.'7 " But, to change the subject, Shung Ling, as I have some business at the Legation to which I must hasten, it is the height of my ambition in China to have sometime a few minutes' visit with Prince Kung, and His Excellency, Li-Hung-Chang. I cannot claim any audience as a mere private secretary to an ambassador, and during the formal calls at the Legation, it is not proper for me. to say a word." " They are here frequently, and are both very unceremonious at times. I will see what I can do for you." Several months passed before the opportunity arrived. Meanwhile Llewellyn spent two hours every day with his Chinese teacher, pressing on in the study of the mandarin. As he sought only to be able to converse socially in official circles, his task was very much easier than that of the missionary, and when finally Shung Ling sent 94 SELF-GIVING. him word to hurry over to the Foreign Office, he felt quite able to hold his own, without any interpreter, in conversation, with the Prince and the Viceroy. " Ah, then, you are from America," said Prince Kung to Llewellyn, after a studiously casual in- troduction ; S4 and there is where you Christians are killing each other by the wholesale." 44 Our government is engaged in the overthrow of a gigantic rebellion, Your Excellency." 44 That is right," added Li-Hung-Chang, who had been the leader of the Chinese forces in the overthrow of the Taiping rebellion. 4; And after the war is through, I wish you would whip Eng- land again — the Christian opium-cursing nation." 44 Christianity," observed Llewellyn, 44is not re- sponsible either for the slaveholder's rebellion, or for the terrible opium curse." 44 O, that is your missionary philosophy," re- plied the Prince, 44 fallacy and imposition! I wish all you diplomatists would go back to your own countries, and take your opium, and your mis- sionaries." %4 1 should agree to that," added the Viceroy, '4 only I would like to have them leave behind their machinists, whom we are employing in the Shanghai, Fuchow and Peiho arsenals. The fact is, the only respect in which .Christian foreigners excel us, is in the use of iron and steam." ♦4 That gives them advantages," said the Prince, 44 in commerce and war , but I would not ex- CHINA AND THE MISSIONABY'S CALL. 95 change with them oar superior morality and phil- osophy and religion." " That is my conclusion after careful investiga- tion," added Li-Hung-Chang, as he arose to indi- cate to the young American that this casual inter- view could not be prolonged ; " I have seen their holy book and been quite charmed with it. I have talked with a few of their missionaries, and if I had never met any foreigners but them, I too might be a Christian. But never now in view of the foreign Christian greed, and hypoc- risy, and opium outrage." From this interview it began to dawn upon Llewellyn's mind, that if China is ever to be Christianized, it must be chiefly through the evan- gelizing enterprise of the missionaries, and of those native agencies which are the product of their labors. After these commendations of the mission- aries, he felt half ashamed of his own prejudices, and resolved that he would know more about them himself. If possible, he would make no excuse to the next invitation to any mission home or school or chapel. He did not dream that before another week he would be compelled to anticipate an invitation, and to go to the mis- sionaries for advice and help in a great perplex- ity. "There is no other way," said the American Minister, "than your summary dismissal. Nothing less will satisfy the enraged Chinese officials. They say it has become generally known at 96 SELF-GIVING. court, that an attache of this Legation has forced his way into the sacred enclosure of the Altar to Heaven. In the presence of their fury, it will not do for me to seem in the slightest degree to countenance your act." " Many have bribed the priest, or scaled the walls as I did," replied Llewellyn. " Very rarely does a foreigner fail to secure access in some way." " That is true," continued the Minister , " and when I visited Peking, while Consul-General at Shanghai, I stole a march on the priests, and clambered over as you did. But it has happened that the trouble has arisen over your act , and if I do not dismiss you to-day, I am afraid the Court will send orders for the withdrawal of its embassy at Washington." What should he do ? There were no hotels, or foreign boarding-houses. He could not start off at once for America, or even for Hong-Kong or Shanghai, for he had drawn all his salar}7 the day before, and forwarded half of it to his mother, and the other half to his savings-bank account in New York City. He had hardly pocket-money enough left to hire a donkey to Tung-cho, and a boat thence to Tientsin. There was no other way but to go to the mis- sionaries. All ! many a young man, far away from his native land, has been saved from ruinous tempta- tions and from blank despair, by the hospitable homes and loving hearts and wise counsels of Chris- tian missionaries. If for no other purpose than CHINA AND THE MISSIONARY'S CALL. 97 as beacon-lights along the shores of other continents, to save from shipwreck our own world-wide travelling young men, Christian missions are worth all they cost. Rev. Dr. Bower, of the American Board, greeted Llewellyn as if he had been his own son. There was no apparent remembrance of the many times the young Legation attache had failed to accept invitations to the mission premises. " You must certainly make your home with us until we see some way out of this perplexity," said the faithful Congregational laborer. "And if, meanwhile, you can study our work, and learn to appreciate it, I shall feel that this has been a very providential embarrassment to you." The next day Llewellyn spent two hours with his host in the native chapel. The faithful preach- ing of the Word to adult heathen favorably im- pressed him. He saw that the missionary's task was no easy one; no simple repetition of the story of Jesus to child-like hearers. Questions, many of them very hard ones, were frequently pro- posed to the missionary by the members of the constantly changing congregation. There was no hesitancy to interrupt him with inquiries about opium, and foreign dress, and the comparative merits of Christian ethics and those of Confucius, Fo (Buddha), and Laou-tsze. To Llewellyn much that was said was unintelligible, but l)e saw the missionary was doing hard, honest work, and that many of his hearers were receiving impressions thoughtfully and conscientiously. 9S SELF-GIVING. Llewellyn's room was not as sumptuous as his old one at the Legation, nor was the table as bountifully supplied as that to which he had been accustomed. He saw daily evidences that it required very close economy, and a great deal of household tact, to make salary cover expenses. Part of the building he found to be occupied for school pur- poses. The daily conversations and prayers opened up an entirely new world of interests and respon- sibilities. A little information scattered all his prejudices as chaff before the wind. One day they went over to the London mission to call upon Rev. Dr. Maundrell. "I have procured a situation for you, Mr. Litchfield," was the pleasant greeting. "It is only for three or four months, but you will be able to turn }^ourself, and to decide the question of remaining in China, or of returning to America. " It is hardly worth while for you to tell me about the situation," replied Llewellyn, his heart bounding with gratitude , " for I am inexpress- ibly anxious to do anything, especially what may be recommended to me by such kind and thought- ful friends as you two missionaries." But all was explained; and in a few days Llew- ellyn was off upon a commission of the Dutch Minister, to gather from all the treaty ports of China certain statistics, which the government of the Netherlands desired in the interest of Japan- ese trade and immigration. This business required his presence a few days each in Tien-tsin, Chef 00, CHINA AND THE MISSIONARY'S CALL. 99 New-chwang, Shanghai, Chin-Kiang, Kiu-Kiang, Han- Kow, Ningpo, Fa-chow, Amoy, Swatow, Taiwan, Takao, Canton, and Hong-Kong. We cannot follow him upon this extensive tour of China, full of interest and of information. In a land of such rigid conservatism, where changes are so slow to take place, although Llewellyn's opportunity was almost a score of years ago, he saw nearly everything as recorded by the author of these pages in his late volume, entitled Around the World Tour of Christian Missions. Only this especially, evangelizing enterprise was far from being as advanced as at present. Beginnings merely were being made, foundations for the grand structure that is now appearing before the eyes of all who are willing to see. Wherever there were missionaries, it proved no loss of time for Llewellyn to call upon them. He found them better informed in regard to the facts he was seeking than any of the foreign offi- cials or merchants. He saw that several of them were making valuable contributions to different sciences, and yet evidently all such work was very incidental to the absorbing passion of their lives, to convey the saving knowledge of Christ to the teeming millions of China. Llewellyn's heart was more and more enlisted in the cause of Christian missions. The need of Christ in the heathen world continually strength- ened as a conviction, while he visited the different parts of this vast empire. His admiration for the 100 SELF-GIVING. missionaries was constantly on the increase as he studied the spirit of their service, the exemplary character of their lives, the thoroughness of their consecration, anil the painful, plodding self-sacrifice with which they were prosecuting their holy enter- prise. "Why not I?" came to him again and again, as if it were a whisper from the spirit world. " Why not I ? There is no greater need for Chris- tian work than in heathen lands. I have come to appreciate it and to love it, and the plans of my life are all unsettled. Why not I become a missionary ? Perhaps I might, and continue to support mother and her family." At Hong-Kong he received the unexpected news of his mother's second marriage, and into a home that solved entirely the question of support for herself and her dependent children. 44 Why .not I give myself to this great cause of world evangelization ? " came back now with double force to Llewellyn. It followed him by day and by night, giving him no peace, until he yielded obedience to God's Spirit, who had been instructing his mind and warming his heart, and leading him by wonderful providences. The next mail for America carried a letter from Llewellyn to the President of the Manhattan Theo- logical Seminary in New York, relating his conversion to the cause of Christian missions, and his desire to qualify to enter upon such work for life. "I am coming by the next steamer," he added ; " and CHINA AND THE MISSIONARY'S CALL. 101 shall delay neither in Japan nor California. I have no encumbrance, and have sufficient money saved to carry me with rigid economy through a three-years course. May God bring us together and enable you to counsel me aright." CHAPTER IX. A BATTLE WITH UNBELIEF. MARGARET KILBURNE became very much interested in the preaching of Professor Parker. His polished language and manner, the depth and breadth of his philanthropic sentiments, and his heroism in loyalty to his own convictions, which had already began to arrest the attention of multitudes in Chicago, completely charmed her. Though a long distance to go every Sunday, the attraction was so great that her attendance was quite regular. Doubtless she received much good; restings of her wearied spirit, incitement to onward struggling, clearer appreciations of the character and life of Christ. But at some points there was an abandonment of the old orthodox faith. Miss Kilburne would have combated the unscriptural vagaries, had they been presented in any other form. But while her attention was off guard, and she was dazzled by the light of human genius, scepticism stole in and swelled in volume until it became a devastating flood. At this very time, when an experience of bril- liant religious sentiments was taking the place of 102 A BATTLE WITH UNBELIEF. 103 a genuine abiding of the heart in the power of the Son of God, the young schoolteacher was passing under many clouds. Not at once did she fully realize the great change which had taken place in her social position. She had accepted the situation of the loss of property, but was not prepared for such a rebuff as she received upon the boulevard one Saturday afternoon from the wealthy Mrs. Norcross, for whom only one year before Margaret acted as bridesmaid. " O, Belle, I am glad to see you ! " exclaimed Margaret to her old friend, who had just alighted from her beautiful carriage in front of a splendid mansion. " Indeed ! ah — Miss — Kilburne, I believe." " Have I changed so much in one short year that old friends can hardly recognize me?" inquired Margaret, with mingled feelings of sur- prise, indignation and sadness. " O, no ; the change has not been so much in yourself as in — in — Patrick," she exclaimed to her coachman in her confusion, " you may drive around the square ; I will be out in a few minutes." " Then our old friendship, Mrs. Norcross, was but the creature of circumstances ; it was the meeting-place of our parents' money, instead of our two hearts : can it be there was such a burlesque ? " " Societ}^ has its laws, and they are inflexible. I think I have heard you are earning your liv- ing by teaching in one of the common schools." 104 SELF-GIVING. "But it is the same Maggie who has often driven on these boulevards with you, and dined with you at your father's and my father's homes, and with you read many a book and arranged many a party." " Is there any way I can help you, Miss Kil- burne ? My husband is very benevolent." " In no way, madam, but to hear me one moment longer, while I relieve my wounded and indignant heart. You have money still, but you are in wretched poverty of soul. I would not exchange the wealth of my affections for a thou- sand times all the property you expect to inherit. Changes have come, and you are no longer my friend. But there is an unchangeable friend, One who loves to the end." Margaret's last words were not heard by the haughty aristocrat, who had already turned and slammed the iron gate behind her. " Ah me ! Am I becoming a hypocrite ? " solilo- quized Margaret a few moments afterward, as she checked her rapid gait and sauntered along toward her humble boarding-house. " My religious words were what they should be, but I do not half believe them. God also has changed to me, and the heavens over my head are brass. I do not doubt that Christ's teachings are the way of life; but the doctrine of providence — providence — I think the materialists are half right." It added much to the embarrassment of her situation to be the object of the gentleman prin- A BATTLE WITH UNBELIEF. 105 cipal's special regard. She could scarcely explain the reason, and yet she knew she never could be more to him than a friendly associate. The thought of remaining single, that she might some- time go as a missionary to the heathen, was not now a controlling consideration. It was only that she was sure that while she respected him as a gentleman, and admired him for his talents, and was grateful for his assistance in many ways, she could not love him. She told him so very decidedly. Nevertheless he persisted in his attentions during all the many months of their association as teachers, and this contributed to Margaret's misery as she was now too much of a woman to find any enjoyment in flirtation. Perseverance in newspaper correspondence began to meet with some reward. Frequently her con- tributions were accepted and generous payments made. To write a book was now her ambition, and, after burning the midnight oil continuously for several months over her story of sunshine and shadow, selfishness and love, she was able to carry her completed manuscript to one of the Chicago publishers. " I am very sorry, Miss Kilburne," said the gentlemanly publisher, " but we cannot undertake any more books at present. Perhaps the firm across the street may not be so crowded." She tried there also, but received the reply : " We noticed your coming with your manuscript from the opposite house, and we make it a point 106 SELF-GIVING. never to accept what has been rejected by other publishers." A member of the third publishing house on whom Margaret called consented to receive her manuscript for examination, but two weeks later at the time of his promised answer returned it, saying : u We cannot publish your work unless you will reduce it one third, and re-write the closing chapters, and choose a different name, and pay the expense of the plates, — " " How much would that be ? " inquired the far from happy authoress. " Perhaps six hundred dollars ; but then we would give you a royalty after the first thousand are sold." " How much would be the royalty ? " " Ten cents on every book." " You might as well ask me, sir, to lift a moun- tain, as to raise six hundred dollars ; and then, too, for the author to receive nothing for the first thousand books sold, if at all, and only ten cents per copy after that, seems to me perfectly absurd." It was very discouraging, but Margaret was wise enough to use the criticisms which had been made, and upon renewed application at the place where she last called, the publishers consented to accept her work, to meet themselves the cost, of plates, and to give her a royalty of fifteen per cent on all sales. Various judgments upon her new book were A BATTLE WITH UNBELIEF. 107 rendered by the press. The Chicago Globe con- gratulated the author. The New York Journal saw no reason for putting such schoolgirl compositions into book form. The Boston Times thought the plot interesting and the style remarkably brilliant and polished. The Philadelphia Tribune said the story was very insipid, the style commonplace, and that the reading public could never be enter- tained by such trash. The most noteworthy result of all this literary experience was the introduction of Miss Kilburne into the social circle of men and women of letters. The majority of them she found to be very worldly, and far more sceptically inclined than herself. Their reading-circles and societ}r-mee tings and club-entertainments became so exacting upon her time, that she first gave up the Wednesday evening religious service, and then resigned her Sunday-school class. Often would come back to her the memory of former days, when she enjoyed a simple child-like trust in God, when prayer for daily guidance and protection seemed delightfully real, and when it was so easy to believe that all things were work- ing together for her good. She had not surren- dered such confidences without many fierce conflicts of spirit. But her new religious and literary associations, powerfully influencing her at a time when she was being called to pass through some of the most trying of all possible experiences in this life, added to the facts that her early Chris- 108 SELF-GIVING. tian character had been cultivated in a garden of luxury and that she had never had any true religions nourishment from father or mother, secured within her heart the final victory for unbelief. She wrote frankly to her friend, Cleora Lyddell, at this time : " My old every-day piety is almost entirely crushed out of me. I still believe that the only way to heaven is through Christ ; that is, for us, though I am not so certain as formerty of the necessity of sending the Gospel to the heathen. I have not had a special prayer answered the last year. Nothing has come to hand but can easity be traced to the unthinking, unfeeling, inevitable laws of cause and effect. I have tried and tried to adjust our old theory of providence to the stern, ugly facts of my present life ; but have failed, and give it up. Do not tantalize me, please, in any reply, by indulging in religious poetiy. This life is prose, not poetry ; and prov- idence and mythology should be laid aside together." On the return to her boarding-house room, or prison-cell as she called it, after dropping this letter into the street post-box, her attention was arrested by a little company of men and women .around the steps of an old tumble-down dwelling on a side alley, listening to the earnest words of a young man, who seemed to be holding a Bible in his hands. It was Mr. D. L. Moody in the beginnings of his work, which has since become famous throughout Christendom. Margaret moved A BATTLE WITH UNBELIEF. 109 up a few rods toward the strange scene to lis- ten. " I tell you, friends," said Mr. Moody, " when God says he will never leave nor forsake his children, he means it. Have you abandoned your hoy, father, when you are out of his sight awhile, working at the shop for his food and clothing? Mother, your baby is very lonesome and often cries for you, when you are off washing, but it is the only way to keep a roof over 'your heads, and food in your mouths, and clothing on your bodies, and do you really for a moment ever for- sake your child ? We can no more look up and understand God, than our babes in their cradles can understand us. But lie tells us that he loves us. Do you doubt it ? Look at his own Son dying on the cross for you and me. God says to his children, 'All things shall work together for their good.' Do you doubt it ? Look again at the cross on Calvary. Can such love fail to fulfil such promise? Can such a heart hold itself aloof from our daily trials and perplexities? Oh, think of it ! Can the Father of Jesus Christ be the god of our unbelief?" Margaret had not thought of flanking her unbelief in any such way as that. She had always tried to meet the enemy directly in front, and therefore frequently had failed. She had not learned that in spiritual warfare there was need of strategy as well as of heroism. Not long after, Margaret was taken seriously 110 SELF-GIVING. ill. Her extra literary work, the unrelenting trials of her life, and particularly the painful disquietude of her religious nature which had turned away from a living, restful, daily faith in God, made her ready upon the occasion of a slight cold for long anxious weeks of typhoid fever. For some days it was very uncertain whether she could live. " Do you wish any minister to come and see you?" inquired the anxious mother. "No — yes." "Shall I send for Professor Parker?" " I want something more than literary satisfac- tion now." " You have often enjoyed hearing the Pro- fessor." " I prefer now Mr. Moody." M Dear sister in Christ," said the summoned lay-preacher; "do I find you looking up or down to-day ? " u Down sir; and that is the difficulty; I cannot help it." "Cannot help it? O, I am so glad to hear you say this, for God delights to help the helpless. He tells us that it is his way to leave the ninety and nine and go out after the one who is the farthest off from comfort and from safety." " That is my condition, sir. For almost two years I have been cherishing a hope of salvation while rejecting more and more the proffered benefits of religion in this life." A BATTLE WITH UNBELIEF. Ill " Then you see its folly, do you ? " " Yes, I begin to see it. But how can I realize God's presence and care through the horri- ble life I have been called to live, and now here when by my sickness I am using in advance every dollar I can earn for months, may lose my sit- uation in the school, shall disappoint my publish- ers as to my new book, and everybody has been made to forget all about my continued story in the Globe ? " "You cannot of yourself realize it. Such feel- ing is the gift of God's Spirit in answer to prayer." "I have prayed for it." "But you have set the time, and told God that he must come within such limits, or you would not believe him." " Two years are a long, long time." " Not too long for the ripening of some of God's most gracious purposes with us. It was longer with David, and with Ruth, and with Mary the mother of our Lord. You are sorely tempted to distrust God. But there must be some way of escape ; the Bible says there always is. Let us close our eyes in prayer and find it." And then Mr. Moody prayed as he knelt by her side, even as so often since in the crowded inquiry room, " the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man that availeth much." He asked that new wisdom and strength might come to this one, who had been worsted of late in the conflict 112 SELF-GIVING. with unbelief. He entreated that she might be brought forth from this crucible pure gold for the Master's use ; that she might be as reconciled to all the dealings of Providence as to the plan of salvation through Christ, and that even that hour she might have the sight of faith to pierce the clouds over her head." " Amen ! " whispered Margaret, while the smil- ing tears in her eyes told that she had caught a glimpse of the sunlight beyond. CHAPTER X. THWAETED PLANS, AND KANSAS COLPOETAGE. THE president of the Theological Seminary in New York welcomed Llewellyn Litchfield with the utmost cordiality. He was very much pleased with the young man's personal appearance, his intelligence and his religious character. Evi- dently he was more than a college-graduate. He had seen the world, won some of its battles in a spirit of manly self-reliance, and did not come in the effeminate, irresolute and lolling manner in which many students present themselves for admission to our Theological Seminaries. " And, $o, Mr. Litchfield," continued the pres- ident, " you feel quite settled in your conviction, that it is your duty to prepare to be a mission- ary to the heathen. Why are you not now pre- pared, without any farther study, to enter upon such labor ? " " I have come into contact, sir, with many of the leading minds among the natives of Asia, and have found that it is not safe to meet them in battle except with the sharpest and best-tempered weapons. They know how to handle with great 113 114 SELF-GIVING. dexterity and effect their false principles and religious systems. I have seen missionaries con- fused in argument and compelled to retreat by the superior skill of heathen men." " But then, the masses of the populations, among whom you would do most of your work, are very ignorant and degraded." " O, sir , it has been among them especially that I have felt my deficiency. I could argue with a mandarin upon the relative merits of Christianity and Confucianism, much more easily than I could explain to my servant in Peking what Christians believe." " You are right, Mr. Litchfield. It is one of the greatest mistakes which many make, that we are educating ministers and missionaries for edu- cated people; that the' demand for thorough train- ing in the ministry is specially on account of the increased intelligence of the laity. The demand is supremely involved in the very character of Christianity and in the complexities of every human soul." " Who is the professor in the missionary depart- ment of your seminary ? I know I shall enjoy and greatly profit under his instruction." "I am sorry to say, we have no such professor or department as yet. It is a shame that we have not even arrangement for a course *of lectures upon the great science of Christian missions. It is a reproach our Theological Seminaries cannot very much longer endure." TH WASTED PLANS. 115 The next morning Llewellyn had hardly time or inclination to glance at a newspaper, so filled were his thoughts with the realization of the plan which had matured in China and then brought him hither so many thousands of miles. At nine o'clock he was to meet with his fellow-students fur the first time, in the chapel of the seminary. What cared he about New York and Washington hotel and street-gossip, When commencing prepara- tion to be a messenger of God to heathen mil- lions? Still he looked for a moment to see the news from the war. 41 What is this? Can it be possible!" HEAVY DEFALCATION. WASHINGTON SAVINGS' BANK RUINED. Cashier Confesses. Loss of All its Funds in Wall Street. "Then I have nothing," sobbed Llewellyn, after he returned to his room, where he broke com- pletely down; the first flood of tears he had shed since his father's death. "Nothing; all lost! Not enough to pay my board bill here for the rest of this week ! "O, God," he exclaimed, as he fell upon his knees, "let me not lose Thee in the terrible darkness of this calamity ! "' He readied across the table for his Bible, and as if angel-fingers had opened it, his ej*es rested first upon these words of Job. 116 SELF-GIVING. " Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." The rattling of a key in his door reminded Llewellyn that his room was wanted, and as there was no other suitable place for him to linger in the boarding-house, he was compelled to take to the streets. Here he wandered aimlessly for hours, till wear}^, he sought the rooms of the Young Men's Christian Association. Without reading, his eyes traced the lines of many columns of the newspapers, until his atten- tion was arrested by a contributed article in the Chicago Globe, entitled, "My Wounded Bird." It was a prettily told story of a canary bird which had been singing sweetly in chorus with several others of her kind in other cages of the room, until an old cat sprung against her cage and knocked it over on the floor. The little songstress was not caught in the fatal claws of the monster, but one of her wings was broken b}r the fall. Then the writer tells how the broken wing was splintered , how carefully a nest of cotton was made and how for many days she had more attention from her owner than all the other canary birds together. In the moral it was urged that society should give more attention to the unfortunate and distressed, and that this lesson of nature must be the revelation of God. The article was signed " Elfrida," nom de ■plume, under which Margaret Kilburne began her contibutions to the Chicago press. It was like a cooling zephyr to a feverish THWARTED PLANS. 117 brow. Could Margaret have known what help her words had been to one young man in a far-off city, when sorely wounded in spirit and almost helpless with despair, she would have felt ready to take a great many rebuffs from the newspaper editors. Greatly refreshed with the thought, that now in his extreme plight he was the object of God's special solicitude, and that, whatever was before him, God was nearer to him and cherishing him more tenderly than ever, he returned to his boarding-house, and early in the evening called again upon *the seminary president. The welcome was not as cordial as it had been the evening before. " We have not seen you to-day at the chapel or in your class. What is the explanation? " The story was soon told, and Llewelljm found quick sympathy and wise counsel. " I had my misgivings, Mr. Litchfield, about your beginning in the middle of a theological seminary year. Work ever so faithfully, you can hardly make good the opportunities lost, and besides it is a year and a half since you left the drill of college walls. However earnest your pur- pose, it will be some time before you, from your journeyings round the world and desultory studies, can adjust yourself to a rigid routine of school life." " If now I wait until next autumn to begin with a new class, then I am kept back for one whole 118 SELF-GIVING. year from entering upon foreign missionary work." "That is not so important as you imagine, Mr. Litchfield. Among }'oung men who feel called to the work, there is a great deal of undue anx- iety to hasten precipitately into the preaching of the Gospel at home or abroad. Christ did not begin his public ministry till he was thirty years old." As the result of this conversation, and of an interview the following day with the Secretary of the Bible Societ^y, Llewellyn accepted a six months' commission as a colporter in Kansas. This would enable him to gain some experience* in mission- ary work; to thoroughly test the reliability of his " call," and to add probably three hundred dol- lars to the income of the scholarship promised him in the fall. It was very hard work for Llewellyn to sell Bibles from house to house throughout the rural districts of Central Kansas. He had not known that there could be any evangelistic labor in America so comparable with the hardships of foreign mission toil. The experience of his father in village-pastorate had shown him that the min- isters at home also had their heavy crosses to bear, bat he went away to college so early in life that he did not receive the full emphasis of such impressions. His new experience was there- fore very instructive, and it became quite certain that in his future correspondence from a heathen land, as also in his public addresses daring vaca- THWARTED PLANS. 119 tions, Llewellyn would never say, or even seem to say, that the foreign missionary had the right to monopolize the sympathy of Christian people. At a little village named Lebanon, he was stop- ping over night with a home missionary there located. For supper they had nothing but corn- meal porridge with molasses. But it tasted