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Show 3. r e c i t a t i o n rooms are already full and crowded but thev are such an improvement over the old rooms. The assembly room i s large enough for many besides the g i r l s and at Christmas time the church women were asked to come in to a very delightful entertainment given by the older g i r l s. The Boarding school g i r l s continue their work of teaching in the P.M. Sunday School on Bamboo Street and even on stormy days there have always beai l i t t l e children waiting for them there* Tfiere i s a Day School held in the same place and many of the children y$ have f i r s t become acquainted thru the Sunday School, The teacher here i s one of the former pupils of the shurch schools. The first; two years of prlnary work are given. Both boys and g i r l s attend; an arrangement rather unusual in China. In the autumn term i t was a help to have one of the teachers from the Boy's Boarding school give an hour each day to the writing with a Chinese pen and to a doling on the abacus. The Kindergarten has rejoiced in the great advantage of a smooth floorl No longer do the l i t t l e feet t r i p and stumble over the uneven bricks but a fine new floor of cement has taken their place. Skipping games are in ord^er I t is possible to use the Kiddy Garment out by l i t t l e children in America every day and best of all i t is possible to keep the floor clean and .revent the children from breathing dust as they play. Two untrained teachers,both of them former pupils in our schools have given their time to this work. i$£t There i s always a happy group there and their songs and games are a pleasure to the grown-ups of the church as well as to the children. That there i s a field for growth in the work for children i s evident on Sundays . For then the rooms and sometimes the yard too are f i l l e d to the XM l i m i t . Two -hundred is a number not uncommonly reached,and there i s always a fringe of grown-ups whom lack of space makes i t impossible to invite in.Here too the g i r l s of the Boarding School are helping with the teaching. Some normal training is planned for them that they may know how tfe teach the l i t t l e - ones. No report of this years work could leave out the Relief work for the po:>r suffer!ng ^from the famine conditions about , Besides the industrial work for 0£j$^$ women another form of jfti help has been that of opening a home for l i t t l e children whose parents can not provide^ for them. They are to be kept for the winter and sent home again after the spring harvest. They are given food clothing and bedding,and baths too, none of which their homes cai furnish.The lovely roomy sunny Sargent Ward of the Women's Hospital has been borrowed for their home. Straw spread on the floor with mats over i t makes a bed quite as soft as the/ usual brick Mkang" of theChinese home.Here long fffl rows of blue quilts tuck in l i t t l e black-eyed kiddies by twos and threes and after the f i r s t days they have been wonderfully happy. Hiss Van Kirk has a $1 Dig job petting and loving them a l l for the number'increase fast. They opened with twenty-five but as special g i f t s have come and been available for this home over eighty have been provided for. Their food i s simple,two meals a day of millet or corn^meal gruel with a steamed corn^ and-bean flour bread. Salt turnip for a r e l i s h completes the menu. In two of the church out-stations similar homes for the children of the poor have been opened. Another court of the hospital has also housed about forty orphans or children whose parents do not enpect to taxe them back. They are to go to an Orphans Home of the Pentacostal Mission at Tai An. In the Girls School i t has been possible to keep the pupils there by-giving them crocheting to do to help make up the tuition money. Many g i f t s fai have helped too. One of them made possible the adding of five l i t t l e g i r ls who are old enough to read but are as poor as the children of the "Home^. Others whom we wanted to add , g i r l s of eleven and twelve,were already ai^l&a engaged,because their parents had seen no other way to provide for them!*"^'"" , . A ? 0 t h e r " i f t of f l f t y dollars provided over forty winter garments and paid the women who did the sewing. |
