end of each chain. Her feet were encased in tiny slippers. Their small, childlike feet look very pretty when one sees only the feet; but the clump of deformity, caused by breaking the instep upward until the heel and the great toe are brought together, is far from sightly or beautiful.

"The day before the marriage, they had pulled out all the superfluous (so-called) hair from the forehead of the bride as well as that on the back of the neck, and a part of her eyebrows also.

"The day after the wedding ceremonies are com pleted, it is customary to permit the newly made wife to make a special visit to her parents, but as this day was Sunday, she came to worship at the mission instead. When requested to choose a hymn, she selected that beautiful one beginning: Take my life and let it be, consecrated, Lord, to Thee.' This astonished the missionaries as it had not been used much, if any, at the mission, but Fu-tsie evidently had carefully read her hymn-book, though she would not be permitted to sing at home. She had told her husband, however, that she would be a Christian, and she prays most earnestly that God may use her life to bring her family to Christ."

In some parts of China the practice of placing infants, especially females, in pits or in some exposed place to die is still practiced. This revolting practice of heathenism is gradually disappearing, especially wherever Europeans have occasion to live or travel. It has, however, been taught for centuries in their books that such a disposition of an unwel come infant under some circumstances was not only allowable and justifiable but even commendable.

Miss Leffingwell gives some of her experience on this subject as follows:

"Once when walking with the missionaries on the inside of the city walls, I noticed several deep pits. I went near one of them to pluck a flower and discovered a dreadful odor as if some animal had been left unburied. Into these pits the mothers cast the infants that are not wanted, or for which there is no prospect of sufficient food. As we approached another pit the missionary said: "This is the pit out of which Miss A- got a baby.'

"So upon inquiry, they told me the story. One morning as this lady missionary was walking out, she heard the faint cry of a baby. She stopped by the pit to listen, but did not hear it again. However, some children playing near there told her that the mother had put a little baby into the pit that morning. Miss A- desired to get it out, but was not allowed by the missionaries to do so. They told her so many little girls are left to die in one way or another, and the Chinese tell such frightful stories about missionaries digging out the eyes of Chinese children to make medicine, that they must be very cautious.

"Miss A said she could not bear to let the infant die there in that pit, and she must return to get it. The children, however, having seen by the expression on her face as she stood looking into the pit, that she wanted the baby saved, had themselves gotten the baby out and were bringing it to her. Its only clothing was a small rag. She cared for the child about two months, but it finally died, either from some injury received when it was cast

into the pit, or from exposure to the chill of an early morning.

"Once at a feast I took particular notice of a sweet little girl. The people seeing I was pleased with her and thinking I wanted a child, told me where I could buy a nice one for about twenty cents; which I found, upon inquiry, was true, though I did not purchase her.

"It would not be right from what is here said to conclude that Chinese mothers have no affection for their children. My experience is that they do have a strong love for their babies, but the customs of the country arising from extreme poverty, and associated with the oriental idea as to the small value of human life, force these mothers to do what they would not otherwise do.

"In our country the grandmother comes in and says: 'How pretty she is! Looks just as its mother did when she was a baby! In China the grand'You must kill that

mother comes in and says:

baby at once. We have not enough rice for it.' Is it any wonder that suicides are common and that many are insane? Nothing but the gospel will put an end to this in China."

Miss Leffingwell was much interested in the work carried on in the Lov-ren Fong (old people's home). She refers to it many times in her letters:.

"To-day I have been at the Lov-ren Fong, a Chinese almshouse, founded two hundred years ago. As I was telling the story of the prodigal son, two poor, old women broke down and wept. So much. of the work here, especially among the aged people, is breaking up the fallow ground. They are so

firmly set in their own ideas, that it is difficult to uproot these old beliefs, and to get them to receive the true religion. It takes so much courage and patience to sow and sow, and not to faint, but to work on with faith and diligence till the reaping time finally comes.

"How glad I am when Wednesday arrives so I may go to the almshouse and see those dear old faces that are so often before my mind's eye! One snowy-haired old woman with sightless eyes appeals to my sympathy. I had told her before that I was an invalid from the time I was fifteen years old till I was twenty-one, and that Jesus had healed me. Now she wants me to tell it again. Then she asks me, 'At what time of the day may I worship the true God? In the evening? You worship Him in the evening, do you not? (She uses the words worship as we would use the words 'pray to.') 'You may pray to Him any time,' I explain to her. 'He will hear you if you pray to Him with a sincere heart. I pray to Him morning, mid-day and at night, or at any time.' Then the old woman asks: 'Shall I use incense?'

"They do not seem to know how to separate the spirit of true worship from the outward act. Το be penitent is an idea difficult for them to comprehend."

CHAPTER XVI.

ITINERATING.

Do good by stealth and blush to find it fame.

-Pope.

She hath done what she could.

-Mark 14:8.

The Chinese are very religious and seem to depend much upon what they call "the favor of heaven." They do not have their sacred practices along lines in harmony with our ideas, but some of these views are worthy of notice.

Miss Leffingwell speaks about a fast in one of the cities as follows: "Because of the famine, the mayor has proclaimed a fast, and this may last quite a time. The people are not allowed to eat as usual, but are only permitted to eat a little rice. They go barefooted and bareheaded. The officials, the gentry and the common people make a long procession. They prostrate themselves and cry out: 'Pray, heaven, send rain!' Then they go a little ways farther and again prostrate themselves and cry: 'Pray, heaven, send rain! Even the little children as they run along cry in their sweet, childish voices: 'Pray, heaven, send rain!'

"The Chinese who are Mohammedans, who will not go into the temples where there are idols, are