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Show plain, nearly four thousand feet below, lay spread out in hazy green, dotted with the darker green of villages and crossed by yellow winding rivers. There were dim blue mountains in the distance, and white clouds that sailed across the sky and were followed by gray shadows on the plain. We sat under the trees and enjoyed it all while someone read aloud from ''Bob Son of Battle'' or Hugh Black's ''Friendship''. Such sunrises as we had and sunsets scarcely less brilliant. When the damp clouds rolled down upon us from the summit, hiding it and the valley below, and the pines sighed and wept, then too it was beautiful. And when the-clouds shifted and broke, giving us glimpses past the dark pines of the sunlit plain, it was more beautiful than ever. Pictures they were never to be forgotten. On my way back to Lintsing I spent a few days in Tsi (Chi) Nan Fu, the capital of the province, meeting new friends and learning of plans and methods of other missions that might be of use in improving our work. I was especially interested in the new Union Medical College, in which we hope men from our part of Shan Tung may some day receive medical training. The course is one of five years and requires at least one year of college work for entrance. The teaching is all to be in Chinese. It was interesting to see the progress in construction of the rail-road from Tientsin to Shanghai. In this region the track-bed is for the most part thrown up, lime is being burnt and bricks made. South from Tsi Nan a number of miles of track has been laid and a construction train goes puffing aud whistling back and forth. It is expected that in two years the line will be completed except for the great bridge over the Yellow River, and there steam launches will take passengers across until such time as the bridge is ready for use. The station nearest Lintsing will be more than a day's journey away, but will still not be so far distant as the nearest station on the Peking-Hankow line west of us. I enjoyed my vacation, but there was always a restless desire to be back in Lintsing where I knew my poor sick people were wanting me, and then too I didn't like to be missing the excitement of the rebuilding that was going on. When Mr. and Mrs. Ellis and I came down to Lintsing three years ago there was a question whether the |
