cumbered with two coats. I felt so cut loose from everything. I am dressed in full Chinese costume, dark skirt, loose robe with wide, flowing sleeves, Chinese shoes and my hair combed in Chinese manner, eating rice and native vegetables with chop-sticks, hearing my Chinese name called with no one to break the spell by calling my English name; crowds of immortal souls around me, and no duties at hand but the one duty of telling them about Christ and His wonderful salvation. I have my Bible, hymnbooks and tracts. Pieces of bleached muslin, inscribed with texts of scripture in large characters, are hung up near me; and nearly all day people come and go in groups, all seemingly ready to listen to the gospel. The chair which I use is of bamboo and cost less than ten cents, while my table is also of the same material and cost less than twenty cents. Two large scrolls that seem to me most impressive, are lettered in Chinese, 'I go to prepare a place for you,' and, 'I will come again and receive you unto Myself.' I like this life very much, for it accustoms me to speak and act in a natural Chinese manner."

CHAPTER XXVII.

"OVER THE ALPS LIES ITALY"-1901-2.

The night has a thousand eyes,

And the day but one;

Yet the light of this bright world dies
With the dying sun.

The mind has a thousand eyes,

And the heart but one;

Yet the light of a whole world dies,

When love is done.

-Francis William Bourdillon.

Miss Leffingwell enjoyed at all times the work that was given her to do. Her sense of duty was broad and well cultivated, so that she always took delight in doing even unpleasant things that came to her in the line of duty. Her love for the Chinese, moreover, was so strong, so absorbing, that she could easily find pleasure in doing what to some others would be dreary drudgery. The missionary work, however, that she had during the years 1901-2 was particularly agreeable and pleasant to her. She had now acquired the language, so that she could move freely among the Chinese quite as a native would do. So adapted had she become to their ways that she could more easily secure access to their homes and their confidence. In fact, she mentions that in one place where she was reading

the scripture a man came up, and, after closely examining her, said: "She is one of us; and she can read!" Then also her enjoyment in the work was increased by the fact that she had now obtained her senior certificate, and this necessarily also added to her pleasure by giving her more freedom and independence in action in missionary work, as well as additional regard and respect from her associated missionaries and from the natives. Then, again, she was working in a fertile field, where the spiritual soil readily responded to missionary labors. This was, as far as actual results were concerned, in striking contrast with the province of Yun-nan, where the results were most meager; so much so, that after many years' work there were scarcely more native converts in the province than missionaries; but now in the province of Kiang-si she saw converts by the hundreds, together with many native pastors, evangelists and Bible women. There were also in this province ten stations supplied entirely by lady missionaries, and this seemed especially congenial to her.

Immediately after the riots she seems to have had some idea that she might be sent home, and this thought increased when on her arrival at Shanghai she found that the China Inland Mission were sending home more than one hundred of their missionaries. This feeling soon passed away, however, and it was no disappointment to her to be sent to the interior early in the year 1901.

About the same time also one of her friends had written, asking her if she did not wish she had the money on hand to be kept by her for her home

coming. To this she replies as follows: "No, I do not wish I had the money to keep with me for coming home. I have God with me for coming home, and it would take more faith to trust God to keep that amount of money from being stolen or lost, than it would to take care of me and provide for my getting home at just the right time. If I had that much money which I could only use for my expenses home, the Lord might not regard it as a good thing, but rather as a rival and a snare; and I am not at all certain but God would let it get stolen or lost in some way. When one has been face to face with what I have, money seems so impotent and so useless, except to use just as one needs it under the direction of the Spirit.”

A few additional incidents of her itinerating during this time seem to be worthy of being recorded here. "I am feeling very rich these days, for I have a district set apart for myself in which I may visit and work, spreading the gospel and praying for the people. For quite a long time I have greatly desired a Bible woman and an evangelist; and now I have them both, and I can go out on itinerating trips and remain two weeks, if it seems best to me to do so. We left Ho-Keo, where I am now stationed, last Thursday morning for one of these trips. I have with me a Bible woman, a colporteur, or evangelist, and two wheelbarrow men. My bed and bedding are rolled up on one side of a barrow, while the Bible woman and myself occupy the other side.

"We have been traveling from village to village, telling the story of the gospel; now, on Monday,

after our stop at a native inn over Sabbath, we are traveling towards the mountains, on the other side of which lies a district where they told me at the mission house at Ho-Keo no Christian had ever been with the gospel. 'Over the Alps lies Italy,' was the thought that came to me again and again this morning as we started towards that region where they have never heard the name of Jesus; and now we are to have the privilege of carrying to them the offer of eternal salvation through that name. We stop at every house and inn wherever we can get a hearing; and, as a rule, find the people most friendly. We stop at one place, however, where we cannot procure food, and so must press on to the next inn. The barrowmen look hungry, and I prefer walking to riding when they need food, and so walk on till the inn is reached at the next village. After our meal we go to one of the nearest houses to tell them about Jesus. An aged mother and her son receive us kindly. After listening quite a long time and asking many questions, the son gravely said, 'I will embrace it,' or as the literal translation of the word he used would be: 'I will eat it.' I like this Chinese word, as it makes more real and homelike the expression where Jesus speaks to His disciples of eating His flesh, and also in the last supper where Jesus says, "Take eat; this is My body,' and again in Revelation, "Take the little book and eat it up.'

"Every district has some custom peculiar to itself, and one thing here has attracted my attention that I never saw before. It is the way that infants are cradled. A basket holding about as