I hope you will never see such a sad sight as our little children saw this evening. A Turcoman who has his tent in our yard was beating his poor wife, and the little children—his children, I mean—were running away screaming. You would think their houses very curious were you to see them. His wives build his house for him in a very short time when the fleas become so plenty that they are compelled to move. The materials consist of a ridgepole, some boards, and two wooden troughs, one for each side. Crotched sticks are driven in to hold the ridgepole, the pole laid across, and the boards set up against it with the ends placed in the troughs which are for the purpose of carrying off the rain. This man's mother lives in a tent of black cloth made of goat's hair. Poor old woman! She has quite a number of grandchildren whom one would think she might pet, but she sits nursing and fondling a little kid. It is a pretty sight to see the great flock of goats go out in the morning, and come home in the evening. There are black, white, gray and mottled. Some are huge fellows, as large as a calf. A few nights ago a wild beast of some kind caught a kid. The kid made an outcry, and the dogs came and rescued it. We heard afterwards that the beast was a leopard, which has its den about half a mile away from us. It has carried off seven goats from one of our neighbors.

Now I must tell you a little about our schoolgirls. There are nine. Two of these are Moslems and had heard nothing about the true religion except what little they may have learned from their brother, who was last year baptized into the Christian church. Since coming here in the last of June they have committed to memory all of the Short Catechism known in English as Brown's, and ten Psalms. The eldest a few days ago when taking some gum arabic to her teacher, took a lump and hid it away. Some of the girls saw her trying to hide something away, and found out what it was. Her teacher then talked to her, and told her how wrong she had done. Since then she asked if it was stealing to taste the food as she was cooking it. It is so new to them to be taught that it is wrong to break the Sabbath, to tell lies or to steal, if the article stolen is of little value. The man of whom I told you above says of us, "Ah, you have everything very nice here, and we have nothing, but hereafter you will be tormented, and we will be happy in the Paradise that Mohammed has prepared for us." Is it not sad to think of such delusion? This very man cheats on all hands, and is even said to be connected with a gang of thieves.

And now I will give you an instance of an Arab's self-respect. A day or two ago a man brought three quails, and said such a man had sent them as a present to the doctor. The doctor thanked him, and then the man wanted a present for bringing them. "Give him the quails," said the doctor, and off he went with them again.

I could fill pages with accounts of the dreadful effects of heathenism on this people, but it is only what is seen in every place where the Gospel has not yet gone. This is the hardest trial of the missionaries' life—more than any physical deprivation—the being compelled to live among such people. It always makes me think what a long martyrdom the life of our blessed Saviour must have been on earth. It was not only that he saw and heard such things, but he knew every thought in the wicked hearts of those about him. Dear little sisters, will you not begin even in your childhood to work for Him? To deny yourselves that these benighted miserable people all over the world may have this Gospel light? And you can always pray for those who are engaged in this work. I hope some of you may grow up to go far away to the Gentiles yourselves.

A little Moslem child accounted for her preference for the Christian religion by saying, "I like your Jesus because he loves little girls. Our Mohammed did not love little girls." With unerring instinct she had seized upon at least one of the great differences between the two religions.