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Show American Board Mission, Lintsing, Shantung, February 17, 1931. Dear Friends: Please do excuse rae for having waited such a long time to send a letter to you. I often think of you, and I am grateful for the letters I have had from many of you during recent months. Many of you know already something of the suspense and anxiety we had for many weeks during the autumn because of Dr. Alma Cooke's serious illness,-typhoid fever. She must have had an overwhelming infection that she could have been so ill in spite of frequent inoculations against typhoid. Her illness began the last week of August; and it was not until the day before Thanksgiving that she was strong enough to walk from her bed to a chair. You will know how very, very thankful we all are for her recovery after such a siege. She has been convalescing in Peking for the past six weeks; and it is probable that she will be able to come back to Lintsing to take up her work in the hospital by the end of this month. I had planned to visit a number of our outstations during the autumn; but for many weeks I was needed here at home to help in the care of Dr. Cooke, so I made only one country trip during the fall. A few days before Thanksgiving I went to Ku Hsien for a weekend, and stopped for a day at Shao Ku on the way back to Lintsing. Mrs. Hugh Robinson went with me on this trip*-her first visit to our country field. She carried some medicines with her; and when the people learned that she is a nurse, there were crowds who came asking for help, so that she held a clinic of several hours at both places. I never get quite accustomed to seeing the large number of people who suffer from preventable diseases; and we long for the time when raore of the elementary principles of hygiene may be known and practised in the country villages of China. During the month of December my time was divided between preparations for Christmas and helping in a station class that was held for three weeks here in our compound. The score of men and women in this class came from homes in or near Lintsing. There were a few who lived too far away to walk back and forth every day, so they stayed here during the time the class was in session, but most of the members lived at home. We divided the class into two groups, those who were already church members but wanted more instruction, and those who were interested inquirers but not yet baptized church members. There was a very earnest spirit in the class, and I enjoyed the work with them. One of the two periods 1 had with them each day was used for practising hymn singing. If you could have heard us as we sang "Glory to His name," "Come to my heart, Lord Jesus," and the other songs, you wouldn't have mistaken our singing for that of a trained chorus; but we made up in earnestness what was lacking in scientific correctness. The Christmas celebration came a few days before the class work was over; so I taught the members a Christmas song beginning "Glory to God in the highest" to use as one number of our Christmas program. |