sent. No one ever appreciated the value of a few dollars more than our subject did that donation from Vermont. There were only a few times. during the eight years he spent in school when he had money enough to stamp a half dozen letters at once.

During his college life he was teacher and superintendent of one Sunday-school four years, and organized another; was instrumental in the organization of three Young Men's Christian Asssociations, and one Christian Endeavor Society. Immediately after graduating in 1891 he was given the charge of a church in North Carolina under the American Missionary Association. A little later a building was erected, and he was made the principal of a normal school under the Association.

THE INDIANS.

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FROM SANTEE AGENCY, NEB.

It is wonderful to see how quickly the Indians take up with civilized ways. We have a nephew of Sitting Bull here. He was an interesting specimen when he came ; he looked as though he had never been comfortable in his life. His hair was long and partly covered his face. From his miserable, dirty, broad, felt hat, tied under his chin with a leather string, to his torn moccasins, there seemed to be little hopes of doing much with him. That was in the middle of October. Now (three months later) he wears his hair pompadour, and came to me to-day in distress, because about three inches of the hem on his Windsor tie had unraveled. His highest ambition. is to learn to read the Dakota Bible. He will soon succeed, too.

We believe in keeping the pupils in sympathy with the home people, feeling sure that the children will succeed in teaching the parents and leading them to the light.

The following is part of a conversation one of our boys had while at home last summer. This is just as he told it to me:

"One evening eight old men came to see me to ask me questions. After they came in they kept nudging each other and saying, 'You ask him first,' 'No, you ask him first.' So pretty soon the shortest man said, 'Well, who is this Jesus, anyway?' Then they all looked hard at me. 'Jesus is the son of God,' I said. 'Where does He live?' He lives up in heaven, but he can see all over.' 'Did you ever see him?' 'No.' 'Well, how do you know all this, then?' 'By this book, the Bible,' and I showed them my Bible. 'Now, how do you know sure that this is God's book?' 'By the ten commandments and many other things.' Does this book tell about Jesus? 'Yes, four different men all tell the same things about him.' 'What did He do?' He did many wonderful things, raised the dead and healed the sick.'

Then I read the story of Lazarus and translated it for them. They all looked straight at me except the short man. He sat with his head bowed and thinking. Once in a while they would fill a pipe and take a smoke. I talked to them a long time, then I asked them, one at a time, if they believed anything I had said to them. They all said no but the short man. He said that he believed some, but wished that he could understand it all. Some of them could not believe anything because they did not believe that anybody could be raised from the dead. When a man was dead he was dead, and that was the end of it."

This boy's father is not a Christian, but is trying to understand the new teaching. During the summer my boy prayed with his father, read to him and talked a great deal about the Bible and the new things that he had learned. His father had been persuaded to drink several times, and Chester found it out. He told his father the moral effect, and then reviewed his lessons in physiology for his father's benefit, and succeeded in thoroughly convincing the man that drink was to be shunned on all accounts. This boy is a Christian Endeavor boy. Through the summer he kept his pledge, sometimes finding it difficult to do so, miles from any sympathizing friend, and surrounded by temptations of the worst possible kind.

THE CHINESE.

ITEMS.

Dr. Pond, in a recent letter, furnishes the following interesting items:

To-morrow I start on my annual tour of visitation among the missions. We hold our anniversary in Sacramento on Sunday, the 5th inst.; then Fresno and Hanford; then Sunday, 12th, at Santa Barbara ; then Ventura, Los Angeles and Vernondale; Sunday, 19th, at Riverside; then San Bernardino, and Sunday, 26th, at San Diego; then home again as speedily as possible.

Woman's work for woman has begun to open up better than I expected. Our visitors have already gotten hold of some cases of much interest, and have found open doors sufficient to engage all the hours that I have asked them to use. They find more women than I supposed they could who can understand something of English. One has already asked to be taught the Bible. I look forward to more than usual comfort and encouragement in my visitation.

Later. I am able to report a grand anniversary service at Sacramento. The house was crowded, and close attention was given. The offerings pledged amounted to $136, about $26 paid. I postpone my anniversary in San Francisco till my return; expect to hold it March 29th; am promised a specially good collection, which certainly will be much needed. Three are to be baptized here next Sunday, and three were baptized last Sunday at San Diego.

BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK

MISS D. E. EMERSON, SECRETARY.

EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS FROM MISS COLLINS.

We have now a parish nearly a hundred miles up and down Grand River, and at our Christmas festival people came from the two extremes. Our tree was a success, and the people were very happy. These little excitements mean much to a people who so recently laid aside the dance and the war dress. They do enjoy a large gathering together of people and any kind of meeting. The drum is heard no more on this part of the reservation, and the almost nightly call from the hilltop in Grindstone's familiar tone is not a call to the dance but a call to prayers So at our Christmas tree only one man, Buffalo Ghost, was dressed in old Indian dress. He had on all the paint and feathers, blankets, etc.

We had three hundred and ninety-six names written and pinned on articles. Some of the names were so long and so strange that Miss L—— is quite surprised that they should know their own names, especially one old lady whose name is Wanble sun nahwe-mani win, which means, "she walks breaking eagle feathers with her feet."

The winter was so mild up to the last of January that we did not realize how cold it could get, but we now know that when the mercury is down to forty-eight degrees below zero it is cold. When all night long we fill the stove with great oak knots that in ordinary weather would send out such heat that we could not endure it, and yet we cannot raise the mercury above forty degrees right by the stove, and eight feet from the stove in the same room (our warmest room) it is ten degrees below, then we know what it is to be cold. We pile so many covers on the beds that we are tired out with the weight. We put on our outside wraps in the morning-overshoes and fur cloaks— and yet we hover over the stove, and wonder how it would seem to be thoroughly warm clear through.

Last week I went with an Indian in a little sled down to Fort Yates to see a sick man, Running Antelope, who, when I reached there, had gone away; and to see the agent, Major McLaughlin, on business. I wore a buffalo coat, with collar turned up as high as my ears, and beaver mittens and calf-skin boots coming up to my knees-calf-skin tanned by the Indians, with fur on. I think I looked fully as bad as the Alaska missionaries

I returned home on Wednesday, and went Friday twenty-five miles in an opposite direction to see a sick woman. She had been ill some time, and anxious to see me. I am glad I went. I am sure I can help her. She has a very pleasant and neat (for an Indian) little cabin. Her husband's name is Scarlet Bear. They seemed so grateful to me that

I felt repaid for the long ride. On the Sabbath, Miss Lord and I went up to Elias's station, eight miles away. The services were well attended, and we enjoyed it very much. I spoke to them, and their earnest eyes and eager expression made me feel at my best when I spoke. One man, Drivesthe-Bears, came to me to say that he wished to be married, and that the woman wished to join the church at the next communion. None of our native teachers are ordained, so we have to wait until Mr. Reed can come out to perform marriage ceremonies. He is thirty-two miles away, and often finds it impossible to come at the appointed time. Four couples are waiting to be married, and eight or ten persons waiting to unite with the church.

If the A. M. A. can have the needed funds for their Indian work for a few years to come, we may be sure that the Indian problem will be no longer an unanswered one. We need that the givers of little double their gifts, and we need to have some wealthy man endow Santee, then we can work, knowing that our work is not in vain. We had a hundred accessions to the church last year. We can double the number this year if our out-station work is supported. Pray that the Lord will be patient with us and still hold the doors open, and give us strength and grace to go in and possess.

A FEW WORDS FROM OTHER FIELDS.

I came across a queer superstition to day. One of our girls stayed after school to practice a recitation, and when she was through she told me some of the troubles that hinder her from being a Christian. She said she told people that she did not mean to be married, and they said there was no use in her trying to be a Christian then, for people that were not married could not go to heaven. I told the other teachers, and we agreed that we must be a hopeless set, so many unmarried women together.

Since our pastor came, not having as many duties on Sunday, I have decided to devote more attention to the Saturday night Bible class. At this time all the students in the house gather together for the study of the Bible lesson, and many outsiders who choose to come are made welcome, nay, urged to come. This is only one of the ways in which we have a greater hold upon our boarders than upon the day pupils.

Last night two of us went over to a prayer-meeting held by two good colored brethren, ignorant but devout. The faces of the people were unpromis ing, stupid, hopeless and sullen. They sang by roaring out, bellowing with all the power of their strong lungs, till the walls vibrated with the strange, weird cadences. Then the leader said, pointing to some individual, "Take up the cross, my brother," and all knelt in prayer. Such prayers! Here is part of one: "We don't come because we is holy, and needer do we come because

we is righteous, but oh-o-o Lord sen' down fire from heaven a burnin' an' a burstin' on de main altar of our hearts, an' when we has done all you have signed to our hands to do. bring us down to our dusty graves in peace!" Some of them seemed glad to see us, and to hear what we had to say, so perhaps we may go again.

There are lights and shadows in our work. One of the lights is cast by the King's Daughters, a circle of about twenty or thirty girls. They have raised a little sum of money, and are trying to help where they find lack of coal or food or clothing. One of our former King's Daughters has gone home to her heavenly Father's house, leaving twin babies for the grandmother to care for. Her husband was a worthless boy who does very little for the children, and remembering the mother, her former associates sometimes make things for the babies. One of the girls went with the teachers to visit a poor family where there was a sick father, a day-old baby, and several little ones. The young girl was disgusted with the filth and the heap of rags on which they lay. She said there was no need of living that way if they were sick.

Our scholars greatly enjoy the industrial work, and show much interest in hemming, back-stitching, basting, etc. The work of the cooking-classes is very interesting, showing the students the uses of the different kinds of food in repairing the waste of the human body; also giving them an idea of the furnishings of a kitchen, and then, too, as they sit and partake of the food they have compounded, they are taught table etiquette. We are in this way all working together, to make of our scholars useful men and women, and when I say our I mean yours as well as mine, or those of any teacher, as you are to do your part while in your own homes. In one sense we are your agents, and may God make us all more faithful in doing His work.

Our highest aim is to develop true Christian character, and it is "precept upon precept, line upon line." One of the teachers who has been long in the work said to me a few days ago, "The longer I stay here, more and more I think of the text 'Wise as serpents, harmless as doves.'"

Will you take me into your hearts and pray for me, that God may give me true wisdom, that no soul may be marred by my unskilful touch?

A MISSIONARY VISIT.

There are so many by-ways leading here and there through the woods, we may easily get lost, but as we wish to visit every family about we do not usually care very much, for whichever road we follow we come to some home in time. After riding three miles from the school-house through the woods