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Show severe bronchitis. She was most grateful for all that I did for her. From her home I went to see blind Mrs. Chang, the beggar woman. I found her in a dark dreary room. The cold north wind came in through the cracks around the door. The place was destitute of furniture, so they borrowed a bench from a neighbor's for me to sit upon. She was lying on a rend mat on the earth "kang" and her bedding was very scanty. But she welcomed me with the brightest of smiles, and told me that the Lord had been very good to her in giving her strength to go daily to the temple where free food is given out to the very poor. She was sure that her cough would soon be well, and that the next Sunday she would be able to worship at the church. Calls on the official ladies are not at all like this except that the ladies too are glad to have me come. There is one family where I go very often. They come out to meet me with dignified bows, but when I am within the house and seated in the place of honor they gather around in the most friendly way, and tell how they have missed me since my last call. The old grandmother will ask, "Have you had a letter recently from your venerable father ? Are he and all the members of your family well?" They ask many questions about American customs and are politely curious about my foreign clothes and everything about my person. They seem glad to hear all I tell of our religion, about which they already know something. There is a charming little girl in the family, who, decked in her pretty clothes, limps about on her tightly-bound feet. She herself made proper Chinese garments for the doll we gave her. They tell in quaint phrases about their illnesses, and I gladly do all I can for them whether the ailment is the chapped hands of a slave-girl or the serious heart lesion of one of the ladies. Before I go they serve me with some tasty dish which I eat with ivory chopsticks. The country trips are often long and tiresome and sometimes accomplish nothing of what the patient has hoped. One recent call was to see a woman who was suffering from a tumor of more than ten years' growth. After her examination the family was told that she might be taken to the hospital where we could possibly give her some relief by aspirating part of the fluid, but that the tumor could not be removed. Then Mr. Chiao, the nurse, felt called upon to explain that our hospital was not completed, that there was no suitable operating room-a suitable operating room must not have the "least dust. Then too," he added, "here in Lint-sing we have only one doctor and to do an operation such as this patient would require there ought to be eight or ten doctors." I tried to soften and modify his blunt exaggeration. So far as we could, learn no foreigner had before visited this village and the house and yard were crowded with the neighbors eager to see all that they might. I chatted with the women and answered their questions, and then most of the crowd listened quietly while Mr. Chiao and I tried to tell them why missionaries have come to this land and of the healing which the Great Physician wishes to give Page sixteen |