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Show (1) but it seems to them like a large sum for what they have is so little. The lace they make is sold to foreigners here in China: as yet the girls have made hardly enough to make it pay to send it to America and since the duty is so high it seemed best to sell all that was possible right here in China. If there are any friends who would, like to help our work by sending pictures, scraps of cloth, etc,, we would.be' thankful* We continually use pictures,large and small,in our Sunday Schools: scraps of cloth are useful for piecing in the sewing lessons at school, and larger pieces can be used by the girls in making garments,as they did this year,some of which will do for poor children,while others are of a sise to fit dolls only. They get the practice of making garments this way and they can not yet be expected to furnish their own cloth for these sewing lessons, We are wishing for some pencil boxes for the little girls in the first and second grades for ..their slate pensile are always dropping out of the desk onto, the brick floor where they break into a na. aer of not very useful pieces. Tablets are very useful in their school work but they can not be hot here,and good pencils are hard to buy. Tn fact,we find use for most of the things that ore sent out and we want to let you know that we do appreciate and thank you for the loving thot that goes into each package sent to us. We are still hoping and praying for the needed money for the new school buildings planned for our west yard,and are glad to hear that some money is in hard. We hope to have some of it here soon so as to buy some of the materials which will go into the buildings. Meanwhile we are doing our best to get the yard into good shape,by filling the hollow when possible,planting trees,smoothing down the uneven places,and trying in every way to make the yard worthy of the buildings we can see there in our imagination. The hollow has had several feet of v/ater in it all year bat the man who does the buying for the school has spent his spare time in bringing dirt from outside and slowly making a bank on the west side so that,at least,the tennis and basket balls will not fall into the water,as they did earlier in the year. In this damp place many trees spring up and we have planted them around our yard as well as furnishing many every year for use in other parts of the compound, We hope to get this hollow filled up so that there will be no danger of water standing there and so that place may be used for the children's gardens. Just now there is a women's study class being held in the present girls' school yard,which makes us wish more than ever that the new girls' school were built so that the women could always use this yard,which was built for them. They are enjoying this time there and it is much easier to supervise their work and easier for them to do their proper studying. At the close of another school year we still can say that we have made some progress,and have hopes for more improvement in the corning one. We are grateful for the he!;: of our friends,which means more tc us than we can say,and still want to ask for your prayers that we may go forward in the Master's work. Sincerely yours, Ethel M. Long |