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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Lotus Buds, by Amy Carmichael
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Lotus Buds
+
+
+Author: Amy Carmichael
+
+
+
+Release Date: July 16, 2009  [eBook #29427]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOTUS BUDS***
+
+
+E-text prepared by the Bookworm, Emmy, and the Project Gutenberg Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from digital material
+generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries
+(http://www.archive.org/details/americana)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 29427-h.htm or 29427-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29427/29427-h/29427-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29427/29427-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive/American Libraries. See
+      http://www.archive.org/details/lotusbuds00carmiala
+
+
+
+
+
+LOTUS BUDS
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration: The Great Rock. (_Page 338._)]
+
+
+LOTUS BUDS
+
+by
+
+AMY WILSON-CARMICHAEL
+
+Keswick Missionary C.E.Z.M.S.
+
+Author of
+"Things As They Are"; "Overweights of Joy";
+"The Beginning of a Story," Etc.
+
+With Fifty Half-Tone Illustrations
+from Photos Specially Taken for This Work
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Morgan and Scott Ld.
+12 Paternoster Buildings
+London MCMXII
+
+Copyright, Morgan & Scott Ld., 1909
+
+First Edition, _Quarto_ (_Fifty Photogravure
+   Illustrations_)                              2,000 _Nov., 1909_
+Edition De Luxe (_Fifty Photogravures on Japon
+   Vellum_)                                       250 _Nov., 1909_
+Octavo Edition (_Fifty Half-tone Engravings_)   5,250 _July, 1912_
+
+
+
+
+_TO THOSE WHO CARE_
+
+
+          DOHNAVUR, TINNEVELLY DISTRICT,
+          SOUTH INDIA
+
+          _Christmas, 1909._
+
+          Each for himself, we live our lives apart,
+            Heirs of an age that turns us all to stone;
+          Yet ever Nature, thrust from out the heart,
+            Comes back to claim her own.
+
+          Still we have something left of that fair seed
+            God gave for birthright; still the sound of tears
+          Hurts us, and children in their helpless need
+            Still call to listening ears.
+
+                                            OWEN SEAMAN.
+                                   _From_ "In a Good Cause."
+
+
+
+
+_FOREWORD TO THE PRESENT EDITION_
+
+
+_WHEN first "Things as they are" trod the untrodden way, it walked as a
+small child walks when for the first time it ventures forth upon young,
+uncertain feet. It has to walk; it does not know why: it only knows
+there is no choice about it. But there is an eager looking for an
+outstretched hand, and an instant gratefulness always, for even a
+finger. A whole hand given without reserve is something never
+forgotten._
+
+_It was only a child after all, and it had not anticipated having to
+find its way alone among strangers. It had thought of nothing further
+than a very short walk among familiar faces. If it had understood
+beforehand how far it would have to walk, I doubt if it would have had
+the courage to start; for it was not naturally brave. But once on its
+way it could not turn back; and thanks to those kindly outstretched
+hands, it grew a little less afraid, and it went on._
+
+_Then another small wayfarer followed. It also was very easily
+discouraged; an unfriendly push would have knocked it over at once. But
+nobody seemed to want to push so unpretentious a thing, so it gained
+courage and went on._
+
+_And now a more grown-up looking traveller (though indeed its looks
+belie it) has started on its way; more diffident, if the truth must be
+told, than even its predecessors. For it thought within itself--Perhaps
+there will be no welcoming hands held out this time; hands may grow
+tired of such kind offices. But it has not been so. And now the sense of
+gratefulness cannot longer be repressed._
+
+_All of which means that I want to thank sincerely those kings of the
+Book World--Reviewers--and those dwellers in that world who are my
+Readers, for their insight and the sympathy to which I owe so much._
+
+_Once I read of a soldier who wrote a letter home from the midst of a
+battle, on a crumpled piece of paper laid upon a cannon ball. His home
+people he knew would overlook the appearance of the paper and the lack
+of various things expected in a letter written in a quiet room upon a
+study table. And he knew he could trust them not to bring too fine a
+criticism to bear upon the unstudied words hot from the battle's heart._
+
+_I have thought sometimes that these books were not unlike that
+soldier's letter; and those who read them seem to me very like his home
+people, for they have been so generous in the kindness of their
+welcome._
+
+                                               _Amy Wilson-Carmichael._
+      _Dohnavur,_
+        _Tinnevelly District_
+                _S. India._
+
+   _Feb. 19, 1912._
+
+
+
+
+THE WRITER TO THE READER
+
+
+THE photographs (except two) were taken by Mr. Penn, of Ootacamund,
+whose work is known to all who care to possess good photographs of the
+South Indian hills. The babies were a new experience to him, and
+something of a trial, I fear, after the mountains, which can be trusted
+to sit still.
+
+The book has been written for lovers of children. Those who find such
+young life tiresome will find the story dull, and the kindest thing it
+can ask of them is not to read it at all.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER                                                  PAGE
+      I. LOTUS BUDS                                           1
+     II. OPPOSITES                                            5
+    III. THE SCAMP                                           15
+     IV. THE PHOTOGRAPHS                                     23
+      V. TARA AND EVU                                        31
+     VI. PRINCIPALITIES, POWERS, RULERS                      41
+    VII. HOW THE CHILDREN COME                               51
+   VIII. OTHERS                                              61
+     IX. OLD D�VAI                                           67
+      X. FAILURES?                                           75
+     XI. GOD HEARD: GOD ANSWERED                             85
+    XII. TO WHAT PURPOSE?                                    95
+   XIII. A STORY OF COMFORT                                 103
+    XIV. PICKLES AND PUCK                                   113
+     XV. THE HOWLER                                         121
+    XVI. THE NEYOOR NURSERY                                 129
+   XVII. IN THE COMPOUND AND NEAR IT                        141
+  XVIII. FROM THE TEMPLE OF THE ROCK                        153
+    XIX. YOS�PU                                             159
+     XX. THE MENAGERIE                                      169
+     XXI. MORE ANIMALS                                      183
+    XXII. THE PARROT HOUSE                                  191
+   XXIII. THE BEAR GARDEN                                   201
+    XXIV. THE ACCALS                                        213
+     XXV. THE LITTLE ACCALS                                 227
+    XXVI. THE GLORY OF THE USUAL                            235
+   XXVII. THE SECRET TRAFFIC                                245
+  XXVIII. BLUE BOOK EVIDENCE                                253
+    XXIX. "VERY COMMON IN THOSE PARTS"                      261
+     XXX. ON THE SIDE OF THE OPPRESSORS THERE WAS POWER     269
+    XXXI. AND THERE WAS NONE TO SAVE                        279
+   XXXII. THE POWER BEHIND THE WORK                         291
+  XXXIII. IF THIS WERE ALL                                  301
+   XXXIV. "TO CONTINUE THE SUCCESSION"                      309
+    XXXV. WHAT IF SHE MISSES HER CHANCE?                    321
+   XXXVI. "THY SWEET ORIGINAL JOY"                          331
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+                                                           PAGE
+  THE GREAT ROCK                                  _Frontispiece_
+  LOTUS FLOWERS                                               3
+  "GOD'S FIRE"                                                8
+  "AIYO! DID YOU THINK I WOULD HAVE DONE IT?"                12
+  CHELLALU WATCHING THE PICTURE-CATCHER                      18
+  "OH, IT'S A JOKE!"                                         20
+  "THAT THING AGAIN!"                                        25
+  PY�RIE AND VINEETHA                                        26
+  "DISGUSTING!"                                              28
+  "LOOK AT THE POSE!"                                        30
+  TARA                                                       33
+  STURDY AND STOLID, AND LITTLE VEERA                        63
+  PEBBLES                                                    66
+  LATHA (FIREFLY) BLOWING BUBBLES                            72
+  SEELA, MALA, AND NULLINIE                                 105
+  THE COTTAGE NURSERY                                       108
+  "PICKLES" AND HER FRIENDS                                 115
+  THE DOHNAVUR COUNTRY IN FLOOD                             124
+  PAKIUM AND NAVEENA                                        126
+  ON THE ROAD TO NEYOOR                                     131
+  ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF NAGERCOIL                             132
+  THE NEYOOR NURSERY                                        136
+  THE OLD NURSERY (THE "ROOM OF JOY")                       143
+  THE COURTYARD                                             144
+  A COMING-DAY FEAST                                        146
+  THE RED LAKE                                              148
+  AT THE DOOR OF THE TEMPLE                                 150
+  THE WATER CARRIERS                                        161
+  THE BELOVED TINGALU                                       164
+  TWO VIEWS OF LIFE                                         171
+  MORE ANIMALS: DEPRESSED                                   185
+  TUBBING                                                   188
+  RED LAKE, AND HILL AS SEEN FROM THE TARAHA NURSERY        193
+  CHILDREN WADING                                           196
+  CHILDREN WADING                                           197
+  ESLI, AND LITTLE KOHILA                                   198
+  PREETHA AWARE OF A FOE                                    200
+  JULLANIE AMONG THE GRASSES                                203
+  ARULAI AND RUKMA, WITH NAVEENA                            210
+  PONNAMAL, PREETHA, AND TARA                               215
+  SELLAMUTTU AND SUSEELA                                    216
+  SUHINIE, AND HER BABY, SUNUNDA                            218
+  THREE CONVERT WORKERS: SUNDOSHIE, SUHINIE, AND JEYANIE    220
+  SEWING-CLASS IN THE COURTYARD                             222
+  THREE LITTLE ACCALS                                       229
+  PREENA AND PREEYA                                         230
+  AFTER HER BOTTLE                                          237
+  NORTH LAKE AND HILLS                                      238
+  FROM THE ROCK, DOHNAVUR                                   338
+  THE PLACE OF BAPTISM                                      340
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+Lotus Buds
+
+[Illustration: LOTUS FLOWERS.
+
+From that same pool, afterwards gathered by permission and given to
+us.]
+
+
+
+
+LOTUS BUDS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+Lotus Buds
+
+
+NEAR an ancient temple in Southern India is a large calm, beautiful
+pool, enclosed by stone walls, broken here and there by wide spaces
+fitted with steps leading down to the water's edge; and almost within
+reach of the hand of one standing on the lowest step are pink Lotus
+lilies floating serenely on the quiet water or standing up from it in a
+certain proud loveliness all their own.
+
+We were travelling to the neighbouring town when we came upon this pool.
+We could not pass it with only a glance, so we stopped our bullock-carts
+and unpacked ourselves--we were four or five to a cart--and we climbed
+down the broken, time-worn steps and gazed and gazed till the beauty
+entered into us.
+
+Who can describe that harmony of colour, a Lotus-pool in blossom in
+clear shining after rain! The grey old walls, the brown water, the dark
+green of the Lotus leaves, the delicate pink of the flowers; overhead,
+infinite crystalline blue; and beyond the old walls, palms.
+
+With us was a young Indian friend. "I will gather some of the lilies for
+you," he said, with the quick Indian desire to give pleasure; but some
+one interposed: "They must not be gathered by us. The pool belongs to
+the Temple."
+
+It was as if a stone had been flung straight at a mirror. There was a
+sense of crash and the shattering of some bright image. The Lotus-pool
+was a Temple pool; its flowers are Temple flowers. The little buds that
+float and open on the water, lifting young innocent faces up to the
+light as it smiles down upon them and fills them through with almost a
+tremor of joyousness, these Lotus buds are sacred things--sacred to
+whom?
+
+For a single moment that thought had its way, but only for a moment. It
+flashed and was gone, for the thought was a false thought: it could not
+stand against this--"All souls are Mine."
+
+All souls are His, all flowers. An alien power has possessed them,
+counted them his for so many generations, that we have almost acquiesced
+in the shameful confiscation. But neither souls nor flowers are his who
+did not make them. They were never truly his. They belong to the Lord of
+all the earth, the Creator, the Redeemer. The little Lotus buds are
+His--His and not another's. The children of the temples of South India
+are His--His and not another's.
+
+So now we go forth with the Owner Himself to claim His own possession.
+There is hope in the thought, and confidence and the purest inspiration.
+And, stirred to the very depths, as we are and must be many a time when
+we see the tender Lotus buds gathered by a hand that has no right to
+them, and crushed underfoot; bewildered and sore troubled, as the heart
+cannot help being sometimes, when the mystery of the apparent victory of
+evil over good is overwhelming: even so there will be always a hush, a
+rest, a repose of spirit, as we stand by the Lotus-pools of life and
+seek in His Name to gather His flowers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+Opposites
+
+
+BALA is nearly four. There are so many much younger things in the
+nursery, that Bala feels almost grown up: four will be quite grown up;
+it will be nice to be four. Bala takes life seriously, she has always
+done so; she thinks it would be monotonous to have too many frivolous
+babies. But Bala's eyes can sparkle as no other eyes ever do; and her
+mirth is something by itself, like a little hidden fountain in the heart
+of a wood, with the sweetness of surprise in it and very pure delight.
+
+When Bala came to us first she was between one and two, an age when most
+babies have a good deal to say. Bala said nothing. She was like a book
+with all its leaves uncut; and some who saw her, forgetting that uncut
+books are sometimes interesting, concluded she was dull. "Quite a
+prosaic child," they said; but Bala did not care. There are some babies,
+like some grown-up people, who show all they have to show upon first
+acquaintance and to all. Others cover the depths within, and open only
+to their own. Bala is one of these; and even with her own she has
+seasons of reserve.
+
+Her first remark, however, shown rather than said, was not romantic. She
+was too old for a bottle, and she seemed to feel sore over this. But
+she noted the time the infants were fed, and followed the nurses about
+while they were preparing the meal; and when they sat down to give it,
+each to her respective baby, Bala would choose the one of most uncertain
+appetite, and sit down beside it and wait. There was an expression on
+her face at such times which suggested a hymn, set it humming in one's
+head in fact, in spite of all efforts to escape it. More than once we
+have caught ourselves singing it, and pulled up sharply: "Even me! Even
+me! Let some droppings fall on me."
+
+[Illustration: "God's Fire."
+
+Taken on the bank of the Red Lake, near Dohnavur.]
+
+Most of our family remind us very early that they trace their descent to
+the mother of us all. Bala, on the contrary, was good: so we almost
+forgot she was human, and began to expect too much of her; but she got
+tired of this after a while, and one day suddenly sinned. The surprise
+acted like "hypo," and fixed the photograph.
+
+The place was the old nursery, which has one uncomfortably dark corner
+in it. Something had offended Bala; she marched straight into that
+corner and stamped. We can see her--poor little girl--as she rumpled her
+curls with both her hands, and flashed on the world a withering glance.
+"Scorn to be scorned by those I scorn" was written large all over the
+indignant little face.
+
+After this shock we were prepared for anything, but nothing special
+happened; only when the demands made upon her are unreasonable, then
+Bala retires into herself and turns upon all foolish insistence a face
+that is a blank. If this point is passed, the dark eyes can flash. But
+such revealings are rare.
+
+When Bala was something under three, she was very tender-hearted. One
+evening, after the first rains had flooded the pools and revived the
+mosquitoes, the nursery wall was the scene of many executions; and Bala
+could not bear it. "Sittie, don't kill the poor p�chies!" she said
+pitifully; and Sittie, much touched, stopped to comfort and
+explain. The other babies were delighting in the slaughter, pointing out
+with glee each detested "p�chie"; but Bala is not like the other babies.
+Later, the ferocious instinct common to most young animals asserted
+itself in a relish for the horrible, which rather contradicted the
+mosquito incident. Bala visibly gloats over the gory head of Goliath,
+and intensely admires David as he operates upon it. Her favourite part
+of the story about his encounter with the lion is the suggestive
+sentence, "I caught him by the beard"; and Bala loves to show you
+exactly how he did it. But then that is different from seeing it done;
+and after all it is only a story, and it happened long ago.
+
+I have told how the ignorant once called Bala prosaic. Bala knows
+nothing of poetry, but is full of the little seeds of that strange and
+wonderful plant; and the time to get to know her is when the evening sky
+is a golden blaze, or glows with that mystic glory which wakens
+something within us and makes it stir and speak.
+
+"God has not lighted His fire to-night," she said wistfully one evening
+when the West was colourless; but when that fire is lighted she stands
+and gazes satisfied. "What does God do when His fire goes out?" was a
+question on one such evening, as the mountains darkened in the passing
+of the after-glow; and then: "Why does He not light it every night?"
+
+"Amma! I have looked into Heaven!" she said suddenly to me after a long
+silence. "I have seen quite in, and I know what it is like." "What is it
+like? Can you tell me?" and the child's voice answered dreamily: "It was
+shining, very shining." Then with animation, in broken but vivid Tamil:
+"Oh, it was beautiful! all a garden like our garden, only bigger, and
+there were flowers and flowers and flowers!"--here words failed to
+describe the number, and a comprehensive sweep of the hand served
+instead. "And our dolls can walk there. They never can down here, poor
+things! And Jesus plays with our babies there" (the dear little sisters
+who have gone to the nursery out of sight, but are unforgotten by the
+children). "He plays with Indraneela--lovely games."
+
+"What games, Bala?" I asked, wondering greatly what she would say. There
+was a long, thoughtful pause, and Bala looked at me with grave,
+contented eyes:--
+
+"New games," she said simply.
+
+Bala's opposite is Chellalu. We never made any mistake about her. We
+never thought her good. Not that she is impossibly bad. She was created
+for play and for laughter, and very happy babies are not often very
+wicked; but she is so irrepressible, so hopelessly given up to fun, that
+her kindergarten teacher, Rukma, smiles a rueful smile at the mention of
+her name. For to Chellalu the most unreasonable thing you can ask is
+implicit obedience, which unfortunately is preferred by us to any amount
+of fun. She will learn to obey, we are not afraid about that; but more
+than any of our children, her attitude towards this demand has been one
+of protest and surprise. She thinks it unfair of grown-up people to take
+advantage of their size in the arbitrary way they do. And when,
+disgusted with life's dispensations, she condescends to expostulate, her
+"Ba-a-a-a" is a thing to affright. But this is the wrong side of
+Chellalu, and not for ever in evidence. The right side is not so
+depressing.
+
+It is a brilliant morning in late November. The world, all washed and
+cooled by the rains, has not had time to get hot and tired, and the air
+has that crystal quality which is the charm of this season in South
+India. Every wrinkle on the brown trunks of the trees in the compound,
+every twig and leaf, stands out with a special distinctness of its own,
+and the mountains in the distance glisten as if made of precious
+stones.
+
+Suddenly, all unconscious of affinity or contrast, a little person in
+scarlet comes dancing into the picture, which opens to receive her, for
+she belongs to it. Her hands are full of Gloriosa lilies, fiery red,
+terra-cotta, yellow, delicate old-rose and green--such a mingling of
+colour, but nothing discordant--and the child, waving her spoils above
+her head, sings at the top of her voice something intended to be the
+chorus of a kindergarten song:--
+
+          Oh, the delight of the glorious light!
+            The joy of the shining blue!
+          Beautiful flowers! wonderful flowers!
+            Oh, I should like to be you!
+
+"But, Chellalu, where did you get them?" for the lilies in the garden
+are supposed to be safe from attack. Chellalu looks up with frank, brown
+eyes. "For you!" she says briefly in Tamil; but there is a wealth of
+forgiveness in the tone as she offers her armful of flowers. Chellalu
+wonders at grown-up hearts which can harbour unworthy suspicions about
+blameless little children. As if she would have picked them!
+
+"But, Chellalu, where did you get them?" and still looking grieved and
+surprised and forgiving, Chellalu explains that yesterday evening the
+elder sisters went for a walk in the fields, and brought home so many
+lilies, that after all just claims were met there were still some
+over--an expressive gesture shows the heap--so Chellalu thought of her
+Ammal (mother) and went and picked out the best for her. Then by way of
+emphasis the story is attempted in English: "Very good? Yesh. Naughty?
+No. Kindergarten room want flowers? No. I" (patting herself approvingly)
+"very good; yesh." With Chellalu, speech is a mere adjunct to
+conversation, a sort of footnote to a page of illustration. The
+illustration is the thing that speaks. So now both Tamil and English are
+illuminated by vivid gesture of hands, feet, the whole body indeed;
+curls and even eyelashes play their part, and the final impression
+produced upon her questioner is one of complete contrition for ever
+having so misjudged a thing so virtuous.
+
+[Illustration: "AIYO!"
+
+(Fingers and toes curled in grieved surprise.)
+
+"Did you think I would have done it?"]
+
+But Chellalu wastes no sympathy upon herself. She is accustomed to be
+believed; and perfectly happy in her mind, casts a keen glance round,
+for who knows what new delights may be somewhere within reach!
+"Ah!"--the deep-breathed sigh of content--is always a danger signal
+where this innocent child is concerned. I turn in time to avert
+disaster, and Chellalu, finding life dull with me, departs.
+
+Then the little scarlet figure with its crown of careless curls scampers
+across the sunny space, and dives into the shadow of a tree. There it
+stays. Something arresting has happened--some skurry of squirrel up the
+trunk, or dart of lizard, or hurried scramble of insect, under cover out
+of reach of those terrible eyes. Or better still, something is "playing
+dead," and the child, fascinated, is waiting for it to resurrect. And
+then the song about the lilies begins again, only it is all a jumble
+this time; for Chellalu sings just as it comes, untrammelled by thoughts
+about sequence or sense, and when she forgets the words she calmly makes
+them up. And I cannot help thinking that Chellalu is very like her song;
+here is an intelligible bit, a line or two in order, then a cheerful
+tumble up, and an irresponsible conclusion. The tune too seems in
+character--"Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing"; the swinging
+old Jacobite air had fitted itself to a nursery song about the brave
+fire-lilies, and something in its abandon to the happy mood of the
+moment seems to express the child.
+
+It is not easy to express her. "If you had to describe Chellalu, how
+would you do it?" I asked my colleague this morning, hoping for
+illumination. "I would not attempt it! Who would?" she answered
+helpfully.
+
+"Chellalu! Oh, you need ten pairs of eyes and ten pairs of hands, and
+even then you could never be sure you had her"--this was her nurse's
+earliest description. She was six months old then, she is three and
+three-quarters now; but she is what she was, "only more so."
+
+Before Chellalu had a single tooth she had developed mother-ways, and
+would comfort distressed babies by thrusting into their open mouths
+whatever was most convenient. At first this was her own small thumb,
+which she had once found good herself; but she soon discovered that
+infants can bite, and after that she offered rattle-handles. Later, she
+used to stagger from one hammock to another and swing them. And often,
+before she understood the perfect art of balance, she would find
+herself, to her surprise, on the floor, as the hammock in its rebound
+knocked her over. She felt this ungrateful of the baby inside; but she
+seemed to reflect that it was young and knew no better, for she never
+retaliated, but picked herself up and began again. These hammocks, which
+are our South Indian cradles, are long strips of white cotton hung from
+the roof, and they make delightful swings. Chellalu learned this early,
+and her nurse's life was a burden to her because of the discovery.
+
+"She could walk before she could stand"--this is another nursery
+description, and truer than it sounds. Certainly no one ever saw
+Chellalu learning to walk. She was a baby one day, rapid in unexpected
+motion, but only on all fours; the next day--or so it seems, looking
+back--she was everywhere on her two feet. "Now there will be no place
+where she won't be!" groaned the family, the first time she was seen
+walking about with an air of having done it all her life. And appalling
+visions rose of Chellalu standing on the wall of the well looking down,
+or sitting in the bucket left by some careless water-drawer just on the
+edge of the wall, or trying to descend by the rope.
+
+Before this date such diversions as the classic Pattycake had been much
+in favour. Chellalu's Attai (the word here and hereafter signifies Mrs.
+Walker, "Mother's elder sister") had taught it to her; and whenever and
+wherever Chellalu saw her Attai, she immediately began to perform "Prick
+it and nick it" with great enthusiasm. But after she could walk,
+Chellalu would have nothing more to do with such childish things. "Show
+us Edward Rajah!" the older children would say; and instead of standing
+up with a regal dignity and crowning her curls with the appropriate
+gesture, Chellalu would merely look surprised. They had forgotten. She
+was not a baby now. Such trifles are for babies.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+The Scamp
+
+
+"PAT-A-CAKE is a thing of the past, but the stage from the highest point
+of view is still distinctly attractive"; so decided Chellalu, and
+resolved to devote herself thenceforth to this new and engrossing
+pursuit. She chose the scene of her first public performance without
+consulting us. It was the open floor of the church, on a Sunday morning,
+in the midst of a large congregation. This was how it happened.
+
+Chellalu's Attai, who in those days was unaware of all the painful
+surprises in store, had taken her to morning service, and allowed her to
+sit beside her on the mat at the back of the church. All through the
+first part of the service Chellalu was good; and as the sermon began,
+she was forgotten. In our church we sit on the floor, men on one side,
+women and children on the other. A broad aisle is left between, and the
+Iyer (Mr. Walker), refusing to be boxed up in the usual manner, walks up
+and down as he preaches. This interested Chellalu.
+
+That morning the sermon was to children, and the subject was "Girdles."
+The East of this ancient India is the East to which the prophet spoke by
+parable and picture; and, following that time-worn path, the preacher
+pictured the parable of Jeremiah's linen girdle: the attention of the
+people was riveted upon him, and no one noticed what was happening on
+the mat at the end of the church. Only we, up at the front with all the
+other children, saw, without being able to stop it, the dreadful
+pantomime. For Chellalu, wholly absorbed and pleased with this
+unexpected delight, first stood on the mat and acted the girdle picture;
+then, growing bolder, advanced out into the open aisle, and, following
+the preacher's gestures, reproduced them all exactly. It was a moment of
+tension; but if ever a child had a good angel in attendance, Chellalu
+has, for something always stops her before the bitter end. I forget what
+stopped her then; something invisible, and so, doubtless, the angel. But
+we did not breathe freely till we had her safe at home.
+
+[Illustration: CHELLALU, WATCHING THE PICTURE-CATCHER WITH SOME
+SUSPICION.
+
+"Whatever is he doing with that black box?"]
+
+Chellalu's visible angel is the gentle Esli, a young convert-helper, of
+a meek and lowly disposition. At first sight nothing seems more
+unsuitable, for Chellalu needs a firm hand. But firmness without wisdom
+would have been disastrous; so as we had not the perfect combination, we
+chose the less dangerous virtue, and gave the nursery scamp to the
+gentlest of us all. Sometimes, to tell the whole unromantic truth, we
+have been afraid less Esli was spilling emotion in vain upon this
+graceless soul; and we have suggested an exchange of angels--but somehow
+it has never come to pass. Once we almost did it. For a noise past all
+bounds called us down to the nursery, and we found the cause of it in a
+huddled heap in the corner. "Chellalu! what is the matter?" Only the
+softest of soft sobs, heard in the silence that followed our advent, and
+one round shoulder heaved, and the curly head went down on the arm in an
+attitude of woe. Now this is not Chellalu's way at all. Soft sobbing is
+not in her line; and I turned to the twenty-nine children now prancing
+about in unholy glee, and they shouted the explanation: "Oh, she is Esli
+Accal! She was very exceedingly naughty. She would not come when Accal
+called; she raced round the room so fast that Accal could not catch
+her, and then she jumped out of her cumasu" (the single small garment
+worn), "and ran out into the garden! And Esli Accal sat down in a corner
+and cried. And Chellalu is Esli Accal!"
+
+But the pet opportunity in those glad days was when some freak of manner
+in friend or visitor suggested a new game. We used to wish, sometimes,
+that these kind people understood how much pleasure they were giving to
+the artless babe who was studying them with such interest, while they,
+all unconscious of their real use, imagined probably she was thinking of
+nothing more serious than sweets. After an hour in the bungalow,
+Chellalu would wander off, apparently because she was tired of us, but
+really because she was full of a new and original idea, and wanted an
+audience. Once she puzzled the nursery community who had not been
+visiting the bungalow, by mincing about on pointed toes, with shoulders
+shrugged like a dancing master in caricature. The babies thought this a
+very nice game, and for weeks they played it industriously.
+
+Chellalu talked late--she has long ago made up for lost time--but she
+was never at a loss for an answer to a question which could be answered
+by action. "Who is in the nursery now?" we asked her one afternoon when
+she had escaped before the tea-bell, that trumpet of jubilee to the
+nursery, had rung. She smiled and sat down slowly, and then sighed.
+Another sigh, and she proceeded to perform her toilet. When the small
+hands went up to the head with an action of decorously swinging the back
+hair up and coiling it into a loose knot, and when a spasmodic shake
+suggested it must be done over again, there was no doubt as to who was
+in charge. No one but the excellent Pakium, one of our earlier workers,
+ever did things quite like this. No one else was so ponderous. No one
+sighed in that middle-aged manner, no one but Pakium. We never could
+blame Pakium for Chellalu's escape. As well blame a mature cat for the
+escapades of her kitten. Chellalu, watching for a clue as to her fate,
+would sigh again profoundly. It was never easy to return her.
+
+[Illustration: "OH, IT'S A JOKE!"]
+
+We were not sorry when this phase passed into something safer for
+herself, though perhaps not so charming to the public. Chellalu at two
+and three-quarters had surgical ambitions. Medical work she considered
+slow. She liked operations. Her first, so far as we know, was performed
+upon the unwilling eye of a smaller and weaker sister. "Lie down!" she
+had commanded, and the patient had lain down. "Open your eyes!" At this
+point the victim realised what she was in for, and her howls brought
+deliverance; but not before Chellalu had the agitated baby's head in a
+firm grip between her knees, and holding the screwed-up eye wide open
+with one hand, was proceeding to drop in "medicine" with the other.
+Mercifully the medicine was water.
+
+Thwarted in this direction, Chellalu applied herself to bandaging. She
+would persuade someone to lend her a finger or a toe; the owner was
+assured it was sore--very sore. She would then proceed to bandage it to
+the best of her ability. But all this was mere play. What Chellalu's
+soul yearned for was a real knife, or even only a needle, provided it
+would prick and cause red blood to flow. Oh to be allowed to operate
+properly, as grown-up people do! Chellalu had seen them do it--had seen
+thorns extracted from little bare feet, and small sores dressed; and it
+had deeply interested her. The difficulty was, no one would offer a
+limb. She walked up and down the nursery one morning with a bit of an
+old milk tin, very jagged and sharp and inviting, and secreted in her
+curls was a long, bright darning needle; but though she took so much
+trouble to prepare, no one would give her a chance to perform, and
+Chellalu was disgusted. Someone who did not know her suggested she
+should perform on herself. This disgusted her still more. Do doctors
+perform on themselves!
+
+Chellalu's latest phase introduces the kindergarten. For an educational
+comrade, perceiving our defects in this direction, furnished a
+kindergarten for us, and gave us a kind push-off into these pleasant
+waters; so the little boat sails gaily, and the children at least are
+content.
+
+Chellalu has never been so keen about this institution as the other
+babies are. "Do you like the kindergarten?" some one asked her the other
+day; and she answered with her usual decision: "Yesh. No." We thought
+she was talking at random, and tested her by questions about things
+which we knew she liked or disliked. But she was never caught. "Well,
+then, don't you like the kindergarten?" "Yesh. No." It was evident she
+knew what she meant, and said it exactly. Bits of it she likes, other
+bits she thinks might be improved. The trouble is that she has an
+objection to sitting in the same place for more than a minute at
+longest. Other babies, steady, mature things of five, are already
+evolving quite orderly sentences in English--the language in which the
+kindergarten is partly taught--and we feel they are getting on. Chellalu
+never stops long enough to evolve anything, and yet she seems to be
+doing a little. From the first week she has talked all she knew in
+unabashed fashion. "Good morning very much" was an early production; and
+it was followed by many oddments forgotten now, but comical in effect at
+the time, which perhaps may explain the otherwise inexplicable fact that
+she sometimes learns something.
+
+One only of those early dashes into the unexplored land is remembered,
+because it enriched us with a new synonym. It was at afternoon tea that
+a sympathetic Sittie (the word means "Mother's younger sister"), knowing
+that Chellalu had received something thoroughly well earned, asked her
+in English: "What did Ammal give you this morning?" Chellalu caught at
+the one familiar word in this sentence (for the babies learn the names
+of the flowers in the garden before they are troubled with lesser
+matters), and she answered brightly: "Morning-glory!" So Morning-glory
+has become to us an _alias_ for smacks.
+
+This same Morning-glory is the subject of one of the kindergarten songs.
+For after searching through two or three hundred pages of nursery
+rhymes, and interviewing many proper kindergarten songs, we found few
+that belonged to the Indian babies' world; and so we had to make them
+for ourselves. These songs are about the flowers and the birds and other
+simple things, and are twittered by the tiniest with at least some
+intelligence, which at present is as much as we can wish. All the babies
+sing to the flowers, but it is Chellalu who gives them surprises. One
+day we saw her standing under a bamboo arch, covered with her favourite
+Morning-glory. She had two smaller babies with her, one on either side.
+"Amma! _Look!_" she called; but italics are inadequate to express the
+emphasis. "LOOK, Morning--glory--kissing--'chother," and she pointed
+with eagerness to the nestling little clusters of lilac, growing, as
+their pretty manner is, close to each other. Then, seizing each of the
+babies in a fervent and somewhat embarrassing embrace, she hugged and
+kissed them both; and finally wheeling round on the flowers, addressed
+them impressively: "For--all--loving--little--Indian--children--want--
+to--be--like--you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+The Photographs
+
+
+[Illustration: "THAT THING AGAIN!" (_Page 28._)]
+
+I DO not know how they will strike the critical public, but the photos
+are so much better than we dared to expect, that we are grateful and
+almost satisfied. Of course, they are insipid as compared with the
+lively originals; but the difficulty was to get them of any truthful
+sort whatsoever, for the babies regarded the photographer--the kindest
+and mildest of men--with the gravest suspicion: and the moment he
+appeared, little faces, all animation before, would stiffen into
+shyness, and the light would slip out of them, and the naturalness, so
+that all the camera saw, and therefore all it could show, was a
+succession of blanks.
+
+Then, too, when our artist friend was with us we were in the grasp of an
+epidemic of cholera. Morning and evening, and sometimes into the night,
+we were tending the sick and dying in the village; and in the interval
+between we had little heart for photographs. But the visit of a real
+photographer is a rare event in Dohnavur, and we forced ourselves to try
+to take advantage of it. Remembering our difficulties, we wonder we got
+anything at all; and we hope that stranger eyes will be kind.
+
+[Illustration: PY�RIE AND VINEETHA.
+
+"Do smile, you little Turk!"]
+
+Often when we looked at the pretty little reversed picture in the camera,
+with its delicate colouring and the grace of movement, we have wished
+that we could send it as we saw it, all living and true. The photos were
+taken in the open air; underfoot was soft terra-cotta-coloured sand;
+overhead, the cloudless blue. In such a setting the baby pictures look
+their brightest, something very different from these dull copies in
+sepia. An Oriental scene in print always looks sorry for itself, and
+quite apologetic. It knows it is almost a farce, and very flat and poor.
+
+Then there were difficulties connected with character. Our photographer
+was more accustomed to the dignified ways of mountains than to the
+extremely restless habit of children; and he never could understand why
+they would not sit for him as the mountains sat, and let him focus them
+comfortably. The babies looked at things from an opposite point of view,
+and strongly objected to delays and leisureliness of every description.
+Sometimes when the focussing process promised to be much prolonged, we
+put a child we did not wish to photograph in the place of one upon whom
+we had designs, and then at the last moment exchanged her. But the baby
+thus beguiled seemed to divine our purpose; and, resenting such
+ensnarements, would promptly wriggle out of focus. It was like trying to
+observe some active animalcul� under a high power. The microscope is
+perfect, the creatures are entrapped in a drop of water on the slide;
+but the game is not won by any means. Sometimes, after spoiling more
+plates than was convenient, our artist almost gave up in despair; but he
+never quite gave up, and we owe what we have to his infinite patience.
+
+Py�rie was the most troublesome of these small sitters, though she was
+old enough to know better. My mother was with us when she came to us, a
+tiny babe and very delicate. She had loved her and helped to nurse
+her, and so we wanted a happy photograph for her sake; but nothing was
+further from Py�rie's intentions, and instead of smiling, she scowled.
+Our first attempt was in the compound, where a bullock-bandy stood.
+Py�rie and Vineetha, a little girl of about the same age, were very
+pleased to climb over the pole and untwist the rope and play see-saw;
+but when the objectionable camera appeared, they stared at it with
+aversion, and no amount of coaxing would persuade Py�rie to smile.
+"Can't you do something to improve her expression?" inquired the
+photographer, emerging from his black hood; then someone said in
+desperation: "_Do_ smile, you little Turk!" Vineetha, about whose
+expression we were not concerned, obediently smiled; but Py�rie looked
+thunderclouds, and turned her head away. She was caught before she
+turned, poor dear, so that photograph was a failure.
+
+Once again our kind friend tried. This time he gave her a doll. Py�rie
+is most motherly. She is usually tender and loving with dolls, and we
+hoped for a sweet expression. But in this we were disappointed. She
+accepted the doll--a beautiful thing, with a good constitution and
+imperturbable temper; and she looked it straight in the face--a rag face
+painted--smiling as we wanted her to smile. Then she smote it, and she
+scolded it, and called for a stick and whacked it, and called for a
+bigger stick and repeated the performance. Finally she stopped, laid the
+doll upon the step, sat down on it, and smiled. But she was hopelessly
+out of focus by this time, and it was weary work getting her in. She
+smiled during the process in a perfectly exasperating manner, but the
+moment all was ready she suddenly wriggled out; and when invited to go
+in again, she shook her head decidedly, and pointing to the camera with
+its glaring glass eye, covered at that moment with its cloth, she
+remarked, "Naughty! Naughty!" and we had to give her up.
+
+[Illustration: "DISGUSTING!" SHE REMARKED IN EXPLICIT YOUNG TAMIL, AND
+LOOKED DISGUSTED.]
+
+"Perhaps she would be happier in someone's arms," next suggested the
+long-suffering artist; and so one morning, just after her bath, she was
+caught up, sweet and smiling, and played with till the peals of merry
+laughter assured us of an easy victory. But the camera was no sooner
+seen stalking round to the nursery, than suspicions filled Py�rie's
+breast. That thing again! And the photograph taken under such
+circumstances is left to speak for itself. Why did it follow her
+everywhere? Life, haunted by a camera, was not worth living--in which
+sentiment some of us heartily concur.
+
+Once an attempt was made when Py�rie and two other little girls were
+busily playing on the doorstep. Py�rie soon perceived and expressed her
+opinion about the fraud--for the camera's stealthy approach could not be
+kept from the children. "Disgusting!" she remarked in explicit young
+Tamil, and looked disgusted. The photograph which resulted was perfect
+in detail of little rounded limb and curly head, but it was lamentable
+as regards expression; so once more our persevering friend tried to
+catch her unawares. He showed us the result at breakfast in the shape of
+a negative which we recognised as Py�rie. He seemed very pleased. "Look
+at the pose!" he said. There was pose certainly, but where was the
+smile? Py�rie's one idea had evidently been to ward off something or
+someone; and our artist explained it by saying that in despair of
+getting her quiet for one second, he had directed his servant to climb
+an almost overhanging tree, and the child apparently thought he was
+going to tumble on the top of her, and objected. "I got another of her
+smiling beautifully, but the plate is cracked," we were told, after the
+table had admired the pose. That is a way plates have. The one you most
+want cracks.
+
+Poor little Py�rie; we sometimes fear lest her "pose" should be too
+true of her. She takes life hardly, and often protests. "_I_ want a
+birthday!"--this was only yesterday, when everyone was rejoicing over a
+birthday jubilation. Py�rie alone was sorrowful. She stood by her poor
+little lonely self, with her head thrown back and her mouth wide open,
+and her tears ran into her open mouth as she wailed: "Aiyo! Aiyo! (Alas!
+Alas!) _I_ want a birthday!"
+
+[Illustration: "'LOOK AT THE POSE!'
+
+He said. There was pose, certainly, but where was the smile?" (_Page
+28._)]
+
+But she is such a loving child, so loyal to her own and so unselfish to
+all younger things, that we hope for her more than we fear. And yet
+underneath there is a fear; and we ask those who can understand to
+remember this little one sometimes, for the world is not always kind to
+its poor little foolish Py�ries.
+
+I am writing in the afternoon, and two little people are playing on the
+floor. One has a picture-book, and the other is looking eagerly as she
+turns the pages and questions: "What is it? What is it?" I notice it is
+always Py�rie who asks the question, and Vineetha who answers it: "It is
+a cow. It is a cat." "Why don't you let Vineetha ask you what it is?" I
+suggest; but Py�rie continues as before: "What is it? What is it?"
+varied by "What colour is it? What shape is it? Who made it?" and the
+mischief in her eyes (would that our artist could have caught it!)
+explains the game. It is decidedly better to be teacher than scholar,
+because suitable questions can cover all ignorance. Py�rie has not been
+to the kindergarten of late, and has reason to fear Vineetha is somewhat
+ahead of her; so she ignores my proposals, and continues her safe
+questions. We sometimes think we shall one night be heard talking in our
+sleep, and the burden of our conversation will be always--"What is it?
+What colour is it? What shape is it? Who made it?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+Tara and Evu
+
+
+[Illustration: TARA.]
+
+OUR nurseries are full of contrasts, but perhaps the two who are most
+unlike are the little Tara and Evu, aged, at the hour of writing, three
+years and two and a half. I am hammering at my typewriter, when clear
+through its metallic monotony comes in distinct double treble, "Amma!
+Tala!" "Amma! Evu!" They always announce each other in this order, and
+with much emphasis. If it is impossible to stop, I give them a few toys,
+and they sit down on the mat exactly opposite my table and play
+contentedly. This lasts for a short five minutes; then a whimper from
+Tara makes me look up, and I see Evu, with a face of more mischief than
+malice, holding all the toys--Tara's share and her own--in a tight
+armful, while Tara points at her with a grieved expression which does
+not touch Evu in the least. A word, however, sets things right. Evu
+beams upon Tara, and pours the whole armful into her lap. Tara smiles
+forgivingly, and returns Evu's share. Evu repentantly thrusts them back.
+Tara's heart overflows, and she hugs Evu. Evu wriggles out of this
+embrace, and they play for another five minutes or so without further
+misadventure.
+
+Only once I remember Evu sinned beyond forgiveness. The occasion was
+Py�rie's rag-doll of smiling countenance, which had been badly
+neglected by the family. But Tara felt for it and loved it. She was
+small at the time, and the doll was large, and Tara must have got tired
+of carrying it; but she would not tell it so, and for one whole morning
+she staggered about with the cumbersome beauty tilted over her shoulder,
+which gave her the appearance of an unbalanced but very affectionate
+parent.
+
+This was too much for Evu, to whom the comic appeals much more than the
+sentimental. She watched her opportunity, and pounced upon the doll.
+Tara gave chase; but Evu's fat legs can carry her faster than one would
+suppose, and Tara's wails rose to a shriek when across half the garden's
+width she saw that ruthless sinner swing her treasure round by one arm
+and then deliberately jump on it. It was hours before Tara recovered.
+
+Such a breach of the peace is happily rare; for the two are a pretty
+illustration of the mutual attraction of opposites. At this moment they
+are playing ball. This is the manner of the game: Tara sits in a high
+chair and throws the ball as far as she can. Evu dashes after it like an
+excited kitten, and kitten-wise badly wants to tumble over and worry it;
+for it is made of bits of wool, which, as every sensible baby knows,
+were only put in to be pulled out. She resists the temptation, however,
+and presents the ball to Tara with a somewhat inconsequent "Tankou!"
+"Tankou!" returns Tara politely, and tosses the ball again. This time
+Evu sits down with her back to Tara, and proceeds to investigate the
+ball. It is perfectly fascinating. The ends are all loose and quite
+easily pulled out. Evu forgets all about Tara in her keen desire to see
+to the far end of this delight. "Evu!" comes from the chair in accents
+of dignified surprise. "Tala!" exclaims Evu abashed, and hurries up with
+the ball. "Tankou!" she says as before, and Tara responds "Tankou!" This
+is an integral part of the game. If either forgets it, the other
+corrects her by remarking inquiringly, "Tankou?" whereupon the echo
+replies in a tone of apology, "Tankou!"
+
+Both these babies are devout, as most things Indian are. But Evu cannot
+sit still long enough to be promoted to go to church; and perhaps this
+is the reason why in religious matters Tara takes the lead, for she does
+go to church. In secularities it is always Evu who initiates, and Tara
+admiringly follows. The ball game was exceptional only because Evu
+prefers the _r�le_ of kitten to that of queen.
+
+This little characteristic is shown in common ways. The two are sitting
+on your knee entirely comfortable and content. The prayer-bell rings.
+Down struggles Tara. "To prayers I must go!" she says with decision in
+Tamil. "Evu too," urges Evu, also in Tamil. "Tum!" says Tara in superior
+English, and waits. Evu "tums," and they hastily depart.
+
+Or it is the time for evening hymns and good-night kisses. We have sung
+through the chief favourites, ending always with, "Jesus, tender
+Shepherd." "Now sing, 'Oh, luvvly lily g'oing in our garden!'" This from
+Tara. Echo from Evu: "Yes; 'Oh, luvvly lily g'oing in our garden!'" You
+point out to the garden: "It is dark, there are no lovely lilies to be
+seen; besides, that is not exactly a hymn; shall we have 'Jesus, tender
+Shepherd,' again, and say good-night?" But this is not at all
+satisfactory. Tara looks a little hurt. "Tender Shepperd, _no_! Oh,
+luvvly lily!" Evu wonders if we are making excuses. Perhaps we have
+forgotten the tune, and she starts it:--
+
+          Oh, lovely lily,
+          Growing in our garden,
+          Who made a dress so fair
+          For you to wear?
+          Who made you straight and tall
+          To give pleasure to us all?
+          Oh, lovely lily,
+          Who did it all?
+
+          Oh, little children,
+          Playing in our garden,
+          God made this dress so fair
+          For us to wear.
+          God made us straight and tall
+          To give pleasure to you all.
+          Oh, little children,
+          God did it all.
+
+Then Tara smiles all round, and you are given to understand you have
+earned your good-night kisses. Evidently to Tara at least there is a
+sense of incompleteness somewhere if the lovely lilies are excluded from
+the family devotions.
+
+To Tara and to Evu, as to most babies, the garden is a pleasant place.
+But when they grow up and make gardens, they will not fill them with
+forbidden joys as we do. One of the temptations of life is furnished by
+inconsiderate ferns, which hold their curly infant fronds just within
+reach. Then there are crotons, with bright leaves aggressively yellow
+and delightful, and there are "tunflowers"; and the babies think us
+greedy in our attitude towards all these things. The croton was
+especially alluring; and one day Tara was found tiptoe on a low wall,
+reaching up with both hands, eagerly pulling bits of leaf off. She was
+brought to me to be judged; and I said: "Poor leaves! Shall we try to
+put them on again?" And hand in hand we went to the garden, and Tara
+tried. But the pulled-off bits would not fit on again; and Tara's face
+was full of serious thought, though she said nothing. Next day she was
+found on the same low wall, reaching up tiptoe in the same sinful way to
+the shining yellow leaves overhead. Quite suddenly she stopped, put her
+hands behind her back, and never again was she known to pick croton
+leaves to pieces.
+
+The same plan prevailed with the ferns. The poor little crumples of
+silver and green moved her to pity, and she left them to uncurl in peace
+when once she had tried and sadly failed to help them. But the
+sunflowers' feelings did not affect her in quite the same way. The kind
+we have in abundance is that little dwarf variety with a thin stalk, and
+a cheerful face which smiles up at you even after you behead it, and
+does not seem to mind. Tara was convinced such treatment did not hurt
+them. They would stop smiling if it did. But one day she suddenly
+seemed to feel a pang of compunction, for she looked at the little
+useless heads and sighed. I had suggested their being fitted on again,
+as with the croton leaves and ferns. But this idea had failed; and what
+worked the change I know not, for Tara never told. But "tunflowers" now
+are left in peace so far as she is concerned; and she is learning to
+pick the free grasses and wild-flowers, which happily grow for
+everybody, and to make sure their stalks are long enough to go into
+water, which is the last thing untutored babies seem to think important.
+
+There is much to be done for all our children, but perhaps for Tara
+especially, if she is to grow up strong in soul to fight the battles of
+life. We felt this more than ever on the day of our last return from the
+hills, after nearly seven weeks' absence. On the evening when we left
+them, we had gone round the nurseries after the little ones had fallen
+asleep, and said goodbye to each of them without their knowing it; but
+when we came to Tara's mat, and kissed the little sleeping face, she
+stirred and said, "Amma!" in her sleep; and we stole away fearing she
+should wake and understand. Now in the early morning we were home again,
+and all the children who were up were on the verandah to welcome us,
+each in her own way. It was Tara's way which troubled us.
+
+At first most of the babies were shy, for six weeks are like six years
+to the very young; but soon there was a general rush and a thoroughly
+cheerful chatter. Tara did not join in it. She stood outside the little
+dancing dazzle of delight--the confusion of little animated coloured
+dots is rather like the shake of a kaleidoscope--and she just looked and
+looked. Then, as we drew her close, the little hands felt and stroked
+one's face as if the evidence of eye and ear were not enough to make her
+sure beyond a doubt that her own had come back to her; and then, as the
+assurance broke, she clung with a little cry of joy, and suddenly burst
+into tears.
+
+If only we could hold her safe and sheltered in our arms for ever! How
+the longing swept through one at that moment: for the winds of the world
+are cold. But it cannot be, it should not be, for such love would be
+weak indeed. Rather do we long to brace the gentle nature so that its
+very sensitiveness may change to a tender power, and the fountain of
+sweet waters refresh many a desert place. But who is sufficient for even
+this? Handle the little soul carelessly, harden rather than brace,
+misinterpret the broken expression, misunderstand the signs--and the
+sweet waters turn to bitterness. God save us from such mistake!
+
+We covet prayer for our children. We want to know that around them all
+is thrown that mysterious veil of protection which is woven out of
+prayer. We need prayer, too, for ourselves, that our love may be brave
+and wise.
+
+Evu's disposition is different. It would not be easy to imagine Evu
+overcome by her feelings as Tara was at that hour of our return. One
+cannot imagine a kitten shedding tears of joy; and Evu is a kitten, a
+dear little Persian kitten, with nothing worse than mischief at present
+to account for. Of that there is no lack. "Oh, it is Evu!" we say, and
+everyone knows what to expect when "it is Evu." Evu's chief sentiment
+that morning, so far as she expressed it, was rather one of wonder at
+our ignorant audacity. "You vanished in the night when we were all
+asleep, and now you suddenly drop from the skies before we are properly
+awake, and expect us all to begin again exactly where we left off. How
+little you know of babies!" Doubtless this sentence was somewhat beyond
+her in language; but Evu is not dependent on language, and she conveyed
+the sense of it to us. She backed out of reach of kisses, and stood with
+a small finger upraised; much as a kitten might raise its paw in mock
+protest to its mother. She soon made friends, however, and proved
+herself an affectionate kitten, though wholly unemotional.
+
+When Tara is naughty, as she is at times, like most people of only
+three, a reproachful look brings her spirits down to the lowest depths
+of distress. Evu is more inclined to hold up that funny little warning
+first finger, and shake it straight in your face. This, at two and a
+half, is terrible presumption; but the brown eyes are so innocent, you
+cannot be too shocked. Sometimes, however, the case is worse, and Evu
+tries to sulk. She sits down solemnly on the ground, and throws her four
+fat limbs about in a dreadful recklessness, supposed to strike the
+grown-up offender dumb with awe and penitence. Sometimes she even tries
+to put out her lower lip, but it was not made a suitable shape, for it
+smiles in spite of itself; and then there is a sudden spring; and two
+little arms are round your neck, and you are being told, if you know how
+to listen, what a very tiresome thing it is to feel obliged to sin.
+Then, with the comforting sense of irresponsible kittenhood fully
+restored, Evu discovers some new diversion, and you find yourself weakly
+wishing kittens need not grow into cats.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+Principalities, Powers, Rulers
+
+
+IT may seem a quick transition from nursery to battle-field; but rightly
+to understand this story, it must be remembered that our nursery is set
+in the midst of the battle-field. It is a little sheltered place, where
+no sound of war disturbs the babies at their play, and the flowers bloom
+like the babies in happy unconsciousness of battles, and make a garden
+for us and fill it full of peace; but underlying the babies' caresses
+and the sweetness of the flowers there is always a sense of conflict
+just over, or soon coming on. We "let the elastic go" in the nursery. We
+are happy, light-hearted children with our children; sometimes we even
+wonder at ourselves; and then remember that the happiness of the moment
+is a pure, bright gift, not meant to be examined, but just enjoyed, and
+we enjoy it as if there were no battles in the world or any sadness any
+more.
+
+And yet this book comes hot from the fight. It is not a retrospect
+written in the calm after-years, when the outline of things has grown
+indistinct and the sharpness of life is blurred. There is nothing
+mellowed about a battle-field. Even as I write these words, the post
+comes in and brings two letters. One tells of a child of twelve in whom
+the first faint desires have awakened to lead a different life. "She is
+a Temple girl. Pray that she may have grace to hold on; and that if she
+does, we may be guided through the difficult legal complications. Poor
+little girl! It makes one sick to think of her spoiled young life!" The
+other is a Tamil letter, about another child who is in earnest, so far
+as the writer can ascertain, to escape from the life planned out for
+her. She learned about Jesus at school, and responded in her simple way;
+but was suddenly taken from school, and shut up in the back part of the
+house and not allowed to learn any more. "Like a little dove fluttering
+in a cage, so she seemed to me. But she is a timid dove, and the house
+is full of wickedness. How will she hold out against it? By God's grace
+I was allowed to see her for one moment alone. I gave her a little
+Gospel. She kissed it with her eyes" (touched her eyes with it), "and
+hid it in her dress."
+
+Only a little while ago we traced a bright young Brahman girl to a
+certain Temple house, and by means of one of our workers we made friends
+with her. The child, a little widow, was ill, and was sent to the
+municipal hospital for medicine. It was there our worker met her, and
+the child whispered her story in a few hurried words. She had been
+kidnapped (she had not time to tell how), and shut up in the Temple
+house, and told she must obey the rules of the house and it was useless
+to protest. "If we could help you," she was asked, "would you like to
+come to us?" The child hesitated--the very name "Christian" was
+abhorrent to her--but after a moment's doubt she nodded, and then
+slipped away. Our worker never saw her again. The conversation must have
+been noticed by the child's escort, and reported. She was sent off to
+another town, and all attempts to trace her failed.
+
+And the god to whom these young child-lives are dedicated? In South
+India all the greater symbols of deity are secluded in the innermost
+shrine, the heart of the Temple. In our part of the country the
+approach to the shrine is always frequented by Brahman priests, who
+would never allow the foreigner near, even if he wished to go near.
+"Far, far! remove thyself far!" would be the immediate command, did any
+polluting presence presume to draw near the shrine. There are idols by
+the roadside, and these are open to all; but they are lesser creations.
+The Great, as the people call that which the Temple contains, is
+something apart. It is to these--The Great--that little children are
+dedicated; the whole Temple system is worked in their name.
+
+"Have you ever seen the god to whom your little ones would have been
+given?" is a question we are often asked; and until a few days ago we
+always answered, "Never." But now we have seen it, seen it unexpectedly
+and unintentionally, as we waited for an opportunity to talk to the
+crowds of people who had assembled to see it being ceremonially bathed.
+We cannot account for our being allowed to see it, except by the fact
+that the Brahmans had withdrawn for the moment, and we being, as our
+custom is, in Indian dress, were not noticed in the crowd.
+
+Near the place where the idol was being bathed, with much pomp by the
+priests, was a little rest-house, where we had waited till some child
+told us all was over. Then we came out and mingled with the throng, not
+fearing they would misunderstand our motive. While we talked with them,
+the Brahmans, who had been bathing in the river after the water had been
+sanctified by the god, began to stream up the steps and pass through the
+crowd, which opened respectfully and made a wide avenue within itself:
+for well the smallest child in that crowd understood that no touch might
+defile those Brahmans as they walked, wringing out their dripping
+garments and their long black hair.
+
+How we searched the faces as they passed!--sensual, cynical, cold faces,
+faces of utter carelessness, faces full of pride and aloofness. But
+there were some so different--earnest faces, keen faces, faces sensitive
+and spiritual. Oh, the pathos of it all! How our hearts went out to
+these, whose eager wistfulness marked them out as truly religious and
+sincere! How we longed that they should hear the word, "Come unto Me,
+and I will give you rest"! They passed, men young and old, women and
+children, and very many widows; and then suddenly two palanquins which
+had been standing near were carried down to the awning where the idol
+had been bathed; and before we realised what was happening, they passed
+us. In the first was the disk, the symbol of the god; in the second, the
+god itself.
+
+"We wrestle not against flesh and blood; but against principalities,
+against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
+against spiritual wickedness in high places"--this was the word that
+flashed through us then. That small, insignificant, painted, and
+bejewelled image, in its gaudy little palanquin, was not only that. It
+was the visible representative of Powers.
+
+We thought of a merry child in our nursery who was dedicated at birth to
+this particular Power. By some glad chance that little girl was the
+first to run up to us in welcome upon our return home in the evening. We
+thought of her with thankfulness which cannot be expressed; but the
+sorrow of other children bound to this same god swept over us as we
+stood gazing after the palanquins, till they became a coloured blur in
+the shimmering sunshine. There was one such, a bright little child of
+eight, who was in attendance upon an old blind woman belonging to that
+Temple. "Yes," she had answered to our distressed questions, "she is my
+adopted daughter. Should I not have a daughter to wait upon me and
+succeed me? How can I serve the god, being blind?" We thought of
+another, only six, who was to be given to the service "when she was a
+suitable age." Her parents were half-proud and half-ashamed of their
+intention; and when they knew we were aware of it, they denied it, and
+we found it impossible to do anything.
+
+We turned to the people about us. They were laughing and chatting, and
+the women were showing each other the pretty glass bangles and necklets
+they had bought at the fair. Glorious sunshine filled the world, the
+whole bright scene sparkled with life and colour, and all about us was a
+"lucid paradise of air." But "only as souls we saw the folk thereunder,"
+and our spirit was stirred within us. There is something very solemn in
+such a scene--something that must be experienced to be understood. The
+pitiful triviality, the sense of tremendous forces at work among these
+trivialities; the people, these crowds of people, absorbed in the
+interests of the moment--and Eternity so near; all this and much more
+presses hard upon the spirit till one understands the old Hebrew word:
+"The burden which the prophet did see."
+
+Does this sound intolerant and narrow, as if no good existed outside our
+own little pale? Surely it is not so. We are not ignorant of the lofty
+and the noble contained in the ancient Hindu books; we are not of those
+who cannot recognise any truth or any beauty unless it is labelled with
+our label. We know God has not left Himself without witnesses anywhere.
+But we know--for the Spirit of Truth Himself has inspired the
+description--how desolate is the condition of those who are without
+Christ. We dare not water down the force of such a description till the
+words mean practically nothing. We form no hard, presumptuous creed as
+to how the God of all the earth will deal with these masses of mankind
+who have missed the knowledge of Him here; we know He will do right.
+But we know, with a knowledge which is burnt into us, how very many of
+the units live who compose these masses. We know what they are missing
+to-day, through not knowing our blessed Saviour as a personal, living
+Friend; and we know what it means to the thoughtful mind to face an
+unknown to-morrow.
+
+A Hindu in a town in the northern part of our district lay dying. He
+knew that death was near, and he was in great distress. His friends
+tried to comfort him by reminding him of the gods, and by quoting
+stanzas from the sacred books; but all in vain. Nothing brought him any
+comfort, and he cried aloud in his anguish of soul.
+
+Then to one of the watchers came the remembrance of how, as a little
+lad, he had seen a Christian die. In his desperation at the failure of
+all attempts to comfort the dying man, he thought of this one little,
+far-back memory; and though he could hardly dare to hope there would be
+much help in it, he told it to his friend. The Christian was Ragland,
+the missionary. He was living in a little house outside the town, when a
+sudden h�morrhage surprised him, and he had no time to prepare for
+death. He just threw himself upon his bed, and looking up, exclaimed,
+"Jesus!" and passed in perfect peace. Outside the window was a little
+Hindu boy, unobserved by any in the house. He had climbed up to the
+window, and, leaning in, watched all that happened, heard the one word
+"Jesus," saw the quick and peaceful passing; and then slipped away
+unnoticed.
+
+The dying Hindu listened as his friend described it to him. And this
+little faint ray was the only ray of comfort that lightened the dark way
+for him.
+
+Compare that experience with this:--
+
+The missionary to whom this tale was told by the Hindu who had tried to
+console his dying friend, was himself smitten with dangerous illness,
+and lay in the dim borderland, unable to think or frame a prayer. Then
+like the melody of long familiar music, without effort, without strain,
+came the calming words of the old prayer: "Lighten our darkness, we
+beseech Thee, O Lord; and by Thy great mercy defend us from all perils
+and dangers of this night; for the love of Thine only Son, our Saviour,
+Jesus Christ."
+
+Could any two scenes present a more moving contrast? Could any contrast
+contain a more persuasive call?
+
+As we went in and out among the crowd, there were many who turned away
+uninterested; but some listened, and some sat down by the wayside to
+read aloud, in the sing-song chant of the East, the little booklets or
+Gospels we gave them. We, who are constantly among these people, feel
+our need of a fresh touch, as we speak with them and see them day by
+day. We need renewed compassions, renewed earnestness. It is easy to
+grow accustomed to things, easy to get cool. We pray not only for those
+at home, who as yet are not awake to feel the eloquence and the
+piteousness of the great "voiceless silence" of these lands, but we pray
+for ourselves with ever deepening intensity:--
+
+   Oh for a love, for a burning love, like the fervent flame of fire!
+   Oh for a love, for a yearning love, that will never, never tire!
+               Lord, in my need I appeal unto Thee;
+               Oh, give me my heart's desire!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+How the Children Come
+
+
+THEY come in many ways through the help of many friends. We have told
+before[A] how our first two babies came to us through two pastors, one
+in the north, the other in the south of our district. Since then many
+Indian pastors and workers, and several warm-hearted Christian
+apothecaries and nurses in Government service, have become interested;
+with the result that little children who must otherwise have perished
+have been saved.
+
+One little babe, who has since become one of our very dearest, was
+redeemed from Temple life by the wife of a leading pastor, who was
+wonderfully brought to the very place where the little child was waiting
+for the arrival of the Temple people. We have seldom known a more
+definite leading. "I being in the way, the Lord led me," was surely true
+of that friend that day, and of other Indian sisters who helped her.
+Later, when she came to stay with us, she told us about it. "When first
+I heard of this new work, I was not in sympathy with it. I even talked
+against it to others. But when I saw that little babe, so innocent and
+helpless, and so beautiful too, then all my heart went out to it. And
+now----" Tears filled her eyes. She could not finish her sentence. Nor
+was there any need; the loving Indian heart had been won.
+
+My mother was with us when this baby came; and she adopted her as her
+own from the first, and always had the little basket in which the baby
+slept put by her bedside. When the mosquitoes began to be troublesome,
+the basket was slipped under her own mosquito net, lest the little pink
+blossom should be disturbed. But the baby did not thrive at first; and
+the pink, instead of passing into buff, began to fade into something too
+near ivory for our peace of mind. It was then the friend who had saved
+the little one came to stay with us; and she proposed taking her and her
+nurse out to her country village, in hopes of getting a foster-mother
+for her there. So my mother, the pastor's wife, the baby, and her nurse,
+went out to the Good News Village, and stayed in the pastor's hospitable
+home. The hope which had drawn them there was not fulfilled; but the
+memory of that visit is fresh and fragrant. We read of alienation
+between Indian Christians and missionaries. We are told there cannot be
+much mutual affection and contact. We often wonder why it should be so,
+and are glad we know by experience so little of the difficulty, that we
+cannot understand it. We have found India friendly, and her Christians
+are our friends. In these matters each can only speak from personal
+experience. Ours has been happy. There may be unkindness and
+misunderstanding in India, as in England; but nowhere could there be
+warmer love, more tender affection.
+
+All sorts of people help us in this work of saving the children. Once it
+was a convert-schoolboy who saw a widow with a baby in her arms.
+Noticing the bright large eyes, and what he described as the "blossoming
+countenance of the child," he got into conversation with the mother, and
+learned that she had been greatly tempted by Temple women in the town,
+who had admired the baby and wanted to get it. "If I give her to them,
+she will never be a widow," was the allurement there. The bitterness of
+widowhood had entered into her soul, and poisoned the very mother-love
+within her; and yet there was something of it left, for she did not want
+her babe to be a widow. The boy, with the leisureliness of the East,
+dropped the matter there; and only in a casual fashion, a week or so
+later, mentioned in a letter that he had seen this pretty child, and
+that probably, the mother would end in yielding to the temptation to
+give her to the Temple--"but it may be by the grace of God that you will
+be able to save her." We sent at once to try to find the mother; but she
+had wandered off, and no one knew her home. However, the boy was stirred
+to prayer, and we prayed here; and a search through towns and villages
+resulted at last in the mother being traced and the child being saved.
+
+Christian women have helped us. One such, sitting on her verandah after
+her morning's work, heard two women in the adjoining verandah discuss
+the case of a widow who had come from Travancore with a bright little
+baby-girl, whom she had vowed she would give to one of our largest
+temples. The Christian woman had heard of the Dohnavur nurseries, and at
+once she longed to save this little child, but hardly knew how to do it.
+She feared to tell the two women she had overheard their conversation,
+so in the simplicity of her heart she prayed that the widow might be
+detained and kept from offering her gift till our worker, old D�vai,
+could come; and she wrote to old D�vai.
+
+Happily D�vai was at home when the letter reached her; otherwise days
+would have been lost, for her wanderings are many. She went at once, and
+found the mother most reasonable. Her idea had been to acquire merit for
+herself, and an assured future for her child, by giving it to the gods;
+but when the matter was opened to her, she was willing to give it to us
+instead. In her case, as in the other, our natural instinct would have
+been to try to make some provision by which the mothers could keep their
+babies; but it would not have been possible. The cruel law of widowhood
+had begun to do its work in them. The Temple people's inducements would
+have proved too much for them. The children would not have been safe.
+
+Once it was a man-servant who saved a lovely child. He heard an aside in
+the market which put him on the track. The case was very usual. The
+parents were dead, and the grandmother was in difficulties. For the
+parents' sake she wanted to keep the dear little babe; but she was old,
+and had no relatives to whose care she could commit it. Mercifully we
+were the first to hear about this little one; for even as a baby she was
+so winning that Temple people would have done much to get her, and the
+old grandmother would almost certainly have been beguiled into giving
+her to them. How often it has been so! "She will be brought up carefully
+according to her caste. All that is beautiful will be hers, jewels and
+silk raiment." The hook concealed within the shining bait is forgotten.
+The old grandmother feels she is doing her best for the child, and the
+little life passes out of her world.
+
+"It is a dear little thing, and the man (its grandfather) seemed really
+fond of it. He said he would not part with it; but its parents are both
+dead, and he did not know what might happen to it if he died." This from
+the letter of a fellow-missionary, who saved the little one and sent her
+out to us, is descriptive of many. "Not the measure of a rape-seed of
+sleep does she give me. I have done my best for her since her mother
+died, but her noise is most vexatious." This was a father's account of
+the matter only a week or two ago. "Have you no women relations?" we
+asked him. "Numerous are my womenfolk, but they are all cumbered with
+children: how can they help me?"
+
+Given these circumstances of difficulty, and the strong under-pull of
+Temple influence--is it wonderful that many an orphaned babe finds her
+way to the Temple house? For in the South the child of the kind we are
+seeking to save is never offered to us because there is no other place
+where she is wanted. Everywhere there are those who are searching for
+such children; and each little one saved represents a counter-search,
+and somewhere, earnest prayer. The mystery of our work, as we have said
+before, is the oftentimes apparent victory of wrong over right. We are
+silent before it. God reigns; God knows. But sometimes the
+interpositions are such that our hearts are cheered, and we go on in
+fresh courage and hope.
+
+Among our earliest friends were some of the London Missionary Society
+workers of South Travancore. One of these friends interested her
+Biblewomen; and when, one morning, one of these Biblewomen passed a
+woman with a child in her arms on the road leading to a well-known
+Temple, she was ready to understand the leading, and made friends with
+the mother. She found that even then she was on her way to a Temple
+house. A few minutes later and she would not have passed her on the
+road.
+
+There was something to account for this directness of leading. At that
+time we had our branch nursery at Neyoor, in South Travancore, ten miles
+from the place where the Biblewoman met the mother. On that same
+morning, Ponnamal, who was in charge there, felt impelled to go to the
+upper room to pray for a little child in danger. She remained in prayer
+till the assurance of the answer was given, and then returned to her
+work. That evening a bandy drove up to the nursery, and she saw the
+explanation of the pressure and the answer to the prayer. A little
+child was lifted out of the bandy, and laid in her arms. She stood with
+her nurses about her, and together they worshipped God.
+
+This prayer-pressure has been often our experience when special help is
+needed to effect the salvation of some little unknown child. It was our
+Prayer-day, July 6, 1907. Three of us were burdened with a burden that
+could not be lightened till we met and prayed for a child in peril. We
+had no knowledge of any special child, though, of course, we knew of
+many in danger. When we prayed for the many, the impression came the
+more strongly that we were meant to concentrate upon one. Who, or where,
+we did not know.
+
+Five days later, a letter reached us from a friend in the Wesleyan
+Mission, working in a city five hundred miles distant. The letter was
+written on the 8th:--
+
+"On the morning of the 6th, a woman who knows our Biblewomen well, told
+them of a little Brahman baby in great danger; so J. and two others went
+at once and spent the greater part of the morning trying to save the
+child. It was in the house of a so-called Temple woman, who had adopted
+it, and she had taken every care of it. For some reason she wanted to go
+away, and could not take it with her. Two or three women of her own kind
+were there and wanted it. One had money in her hand for it. But J. had
+already got the baby into her arms, and reasoned and persuaded until the
+woman at last consented. They at once brought it here. Had the friendly
+woman not told J., the baby would now be in the hands of the second
+Temple woman. I visited the woman afterwards. She had two grown girls in
+the room with her, the elder such a sweet girl. She told me openly it
+was all according to custom, and that God had arranged their lives on
+those lines, and they could not do otherwise. It is terribly sad, and
+such houses abound."
+
+Happenings of this sort--if the word "happen" is not irreverent in such
+a connection--have a curiously quieting effect upon us. We are very
+happy; but there is a feeling of awe which finds expression in words
+which, at first reading, may not sound appropriate; but we write for
+those who will understand:--
+
+          Oh, fix Thy chair of grace, that all my powers
+            May also fix their reverence . . .
+          Scatter, or bind, or bend them all to Thee!
+            Though elements change and Heaven move,
+            Let not Thy higher court remove,
+          But keep a standing Majesty in me.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[A] "Overweights of Joy."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+Others
+
+
+
+[Illustration: STURDY AND STOLID, AND LITTLE VEERA
+
+--whose story, however, is different.]
+
+WE have some children who were not in Temple danger, but who could not
+have grown up good if we had not taken them. "If peril to the soul is of
+importance," wrote the pastor who sent us two little girls, "then it is
+important you should take them": so we took them. These little ones were
+in "peril to the soul," because their nominal Christian mother had,
+after her husband's death, married a Hindu, against the rules of her
+religion and his. The children were under the worst influence; and both
+were winning little things, who might have drifted anywhere. We have
+found it impossible to refuse such little ones, even though danger of
+the Temple kind may not be probable.
+
+Such a child, for example, is the little girl the Moslem is ready to
+adopt and convert to the faith. Our first redeemed from this captivity
+(literally slavery under the name of adoption) was a cheerful little
+person of six, with the sturdy air the camera caught, and a manner all
+her own. An American missionary in an adjoining district heard of her
+and her little sister, and wrote to know if we would take them if he
+could save them. We could not say No; so he tried, and succeeded in
+getting the elder child; the little one had been already "adopted," and
+he could not get her. "The whole affair was the most astonishing thing I
+have ever seen in India," he wrote when he sent the little girl. The
+child upon arrival made friends with another, and confided to her in a
+burst of confidence: "Ah, she was a jewel, my own little sister--not
+like me, not dark of skin, but 'fair' and tender; and the great man in
+the turban saw her and desired her, and he took her away; and she cried
+and cried and cried, because she was only such a very little girl."
+
+"The business was being discussed out in the open street"--the writer
+was another missionary--"the pastor heard of it from a Christian who was
+passing, and saw the cluster of Muhammadans round the mother and her
+children. It was touch-and-go with the child." These two, Sturdy and
+Stolid, side by side in the photograph, are in all ways quite unlike the
+typical Temple child; but the danger from which they were delivered is
+as real, and perhaps in its way as grave.
+
+One of the sweetest of our little girls, a child with a spiritual
+expression which strikes all who see her, came to us through a young
+catechist who heard of her and persuaded her people to let her come to
+Dohnavur. She is an orphan; and being "fair" and very gentle, needed a
+mother's care. Her nearest relatives had families of their own, and were
+not anxious for this addition to their already numerous daughters; and
+the little girl, feeling herself unwanted, was fretting sadly. Then an
+offer came to the relations--not made expressly in words, but
+implied--by which they would be relieved of the responsibility of the
+little niece's future. All would not have been straight for the child,
+however, and they hesitated. The temptation was great; and in the end it
+is probable they would have yielded, had not the catechist heard of it,
+and influenced them to turn from temptation. It was the evening of our
+Prayer-day when the little Pearl came; and when we saw the sweet little
+face, with the wistful, questioning eyes like the eyes of a little
+frightened dog taken away alone among strangers, and when we heard the
+story, and knew what the child's fate might have been, then we welcomed
+her as another Prayer-day gift. We do not look for gratitude in this
+work; who does? But sometimes it comes of itself; and the grateful love
+of a child, like the grateful love of a little affectionate animal
+lifted out of its terror and comforted, is something sweet and tender
+and very good to know. The Pearl says little; but her soft brown eyes
+look up into ours with a trustful expression of peaceful happiness; and
+as she slips her little hand into ours and gives it a tight squeeze, we
+know what her heart is saying, and we are content.
+
+Two more of these "others" are the two in the photograph who are playing
+a pebble game. Their parents died leaving them in the care of an aunt, a
+perfectly heartless woman whose record was not of the best. She starved
+the children, though she was not poor; and then punished them severely
+when, faint with hunger, they took food from a kindly woman of another
+caste. Finally she gave them to a neighbour, telling her to dispose of
+them as she liked.
+
+About this time our head worker, Ponnamal, was travelling in search of a
+child of whom we had heard in a town near Palamcottah. She could not
+find the child, and, tired and discouraged, turned into the large Church
+Missionary Society hall, where a meeting was being held to welcome our
+new Bishop. As Ponnamal was late, she sat at the back, and could not
+hear what was going on; so she gave herself up to prayer for the little
+child whom she had not found, and asked that her three days' journey
+might not be all in vain.
+
+[Illustration: PEBBLES.]
+
+As she prayed in silence thus, another woman came in and sat down at the
+back near Ponnamal. When Ponnamal looked up, she saw it was a friend she
+had not met for years. She began to tell her about her search for the
+child; and this led on to telling about the children in general, and the
+work we were trying to do. The other had known nothing of it all before;
+but as she listened, a light broke on her face, and she eagerly told
+Ponnamal how that same morning she had come across a Hindu woman in
+charge of two little girls. The Tamils when they meet, however casually,
+have a useful habit of exchanging confidences. The woman had told
+Ponnamal's friend what her errand was. Ponnamal's talk about children in
+danger recalled the conversation of the morning. In a few hours more
+Ponnamal was upon the track of the Hindu woman and her two little
+charges. It ended in the two little girls being saved.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+Old D�vai
+
+
+SHE has been called "Old D�vai" ever since we knew her, twelve years
+ago; and she is still active in mind and body. "As I was then, even so
+is my strength now for war, both to go out and to come in," she would
+tell you with a courageous toss of the old grey head. Her spirit at
+least is untired.
+
+We knew her first as a woman of character. One Sunday, in our Tamil
+church, a sermon was preached upon the love of the Father as compared
+with the love of the world. That Sunday D�vai went home and acted upon
+the teaching in such fashion that she had to suffer from the scourge of
+the tongue in her own particular world. But she went on her way, unmoved
+by adverse criticism. Some years later, when we were in perplexity as to
+how to set about our search for children in danger of being given to
+temples, old D�vai offered to help. She was peculiarly suitable, both in
+age and in position, for this most delicate work; and we accepted her
+offer with thanksgiving. Since then she has travelled far, and followed
+many a clue discovered in strange ways and in strange company. Perhaps
+no one in South India knows as much as D�vai knows about the secret
+system by which the Temple altars are supplied with little living
+victims; but she has no idea of how to put her knowledge into shape and
+express it in paragraph form. We learn most from her when she least
+knows she is saying anything interesting.
+
+When first we began the work, our great difficulty was, as it is still,
+to get upon the track of the children before the Temple women heard of
+them. Once they were known to be available, Temple scouts appeared
+mysteriously alert; and it is doubly difficult to get a little child
+after negotiations have been opened with the subtle Temple scout. How
+often old D�vai has come to us sick at heart after a long, fruitless
+search and effort to save some little child who, perhaps, only an hour
+before her arrival was carried off in triumph by the Temple people! "I
+pursued after the bandy, and I saw it in the distance; but swiftly went
+their bullocks, and I could not overtake it. At last they stopped to
+rest, and I came to where they were. But they smiled at me and said:
+'Did you ever hear of such a thing as you ask in foolishness? Is it the
+custom to give up a child, once it is ours?'" Sometimes a new story is
+invented on the spot. "Did you not know it was my sister's child; and I,
+her only sister, having no child of my own, have adopted this one as my
+own? Would you ask me to give up my own child, the apple of my eye?"
+Oftener, however, the clue fails, and all D�vai knows is that the little
+one is nowhere to be found. Once she traced it straight to a Temple
+house, won her way in, and pleaded with tears, offering all compensation
+for expenses incurred (travelling and other) if only the Temple woman
+would let her take the child. But no: "If it dies, that matters little;
+but disgrace is not to be contemplated." When all else fails, we
+earnestly ask that the little one in danger may be taken quickly out of
+that polluted atmosphere up into purer air; and it is startling to note
+how solemnly the answer to that prayer has come in very many instances.
+
+The clue for which we are always on the watch is often like a fine silk
+thread leading down into dark places where we cannot see it, can hardly
+feel it; it is so thin a thread. Sometimes, when we thought we held it
+securely, we have lost it in the dark.
+
+Sometimes it seems as if the Evil One, whose interest in these little
+ones may be greater than we know, lays a false clue across our path, and
+bewilders us by causing us to spend time and strength in what appears to
+be a wholly useless fashion. Once old D�vai was lured far out of our own
+district in search of two children who did not even exist. She had taken
+all precautions to verify the information given, but a false address had
+baffled her; and we can only conclude that, for some reason unknown to
+us, but well known to those whom we oppose, they were permitted on that
+occasion to gain an advantage over us. We made it a rule, after that
+will-of-the-wisp experience, that any address out of our own district
+must be verified; and that the nearest missionary thereto, or
+responsible Indian Christian, must be approached, before further steps
+are taken. This rule has saved many a fruitless journey; but also we
+cannot help knowing it has sometimes occasioned delays which have had
+sad results. For distances are great in India. D�vai herself lives two
+days' journey from us, and her address is uncertain, as she sets off at
+a moment's notice for any place where she has reason to think a child in
+danger may be saved. Then, too, missionaries and responsible Indian
+Christians are not everywhere. So that sometimes it is a case of
+choosing the lesser of two evils, and choosing immediately.
+
+[Illustration: LATHA (FIREFLY) BLOWING BUBBLES.]
+
+Once in the night a knock came to D�vai's door. A man stood outside, a
+Hindu known to her. "A little girl has just been taken to the Temple of
+A., where the great festival is being held. If you go at once you may
+perhaps get her." The place named was out of our jurisdiction; but in
+such cases D�vai knows rules are only made to be broken. Off she went on
+foot, got a bandy _en route_, reached the town before the festival was
+over, found the house to which she had been directed--a little shut-up
+house, doors and windows all closed--managed, how we never knew, to get
+in, found a young woman, a Temple woman from Travancore, with a little
+child asleep on the mat beside her, persuaded her to slip out of the
+house with the child without wakening anyone, crept out of the town and
+fled away into the night, thankful for the blessed covering darkness.
+The child was being kept in that house till the Temple woman to whom she
+was to be given produced the stipulated "Joy-gift," after which she
+would become Temple property. Some delay in its being given had caused
+that night's retention in the little shut-up house. The child, a most
+lovable little girl, had been kidnapped and disguised; and the matter
+was so skilfully managed, that we have never been able to discover even
+the name of her own town. We only know she must have been well brought
+up, for she was from the first a refined little thing with very dainty
+ways. She and her little special friend are sitting on the steps looking
+at Latha (Firefly), who is blowing bubbles. The other little one has a
+similar but different history. Her father brought her to us himself,
+fearing lest she should be kidnapped by one related to her who much
+wanted to have her. "I, being a man, cannot be always with the child,"
+he said, "and I fear for her."
+
+On another occasion the clue was found through D�vai's happening to
+overhear the conversation of two men in a wood in the early morning. One
+said to the other something about someone having taken "It" somewhere;
+and D�vai, whose scent is keen where little "Its" are concerned, made
+friends with the men, and got the information she wanted from them.
+Careful work resulted in a little child's salvation; but D�vai hardly
+dared believe it safe until she reached Dohnavur. When that occurred we
+were all at church; for special services were being held in week-day
+evenings, and old D�vai had to possess her soul in patience till we came
+out of church. Then there was a rush round to the nursery, and an eager
+showing of the "It." I shall never forget the pang of disappointment and
+apprehension. Several little ones had been sent to us who could not
+possibly live; and the nurses had got overborne, and we dreaded another
+strain for them. It was a tiny thing, three pounds and three-quarters of
+pale brown skin and bone. Its face was a criss-cross of wrinkles, and it
+looked any age. But "Man looketh upon the outward appearance" would have
+been assuredly quoted to us, regardless of context, had we ventured upon
+a remark to old D�vai, who poured forth the story of its salvation in
+vivid sentences. Next evening the old grannie of the compound told us
+the baby could not live till morning. She laid it on a mat and regarded
+it critically, felt its pulses (both wrists), examined minutely its eyes
+and the bridge of its nose: "No, not till morning. Better have the grave
+prepared, for early morning will be an inconvenient hour for digging."
+Others confirmed her diagnosis, and sorrowfully the order was given and
+the grave was dug.
+
+But the baby lived till morning; and though for two years it needed a
+nurse to itself, and over and over again all but left us, this baby has
+grown one of our healthiest; and now when old D�vai comes to see us she
+looks at it, and then to Heaven, and sighs with gratitude.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+Failures?
+
+
+BUT sometimes old D�vai brings us little ones who do not come to stay.
+Failures, the world would call them. Twice lately this has happened, and
+each time unexpectedly; for the babies had stories which seemed to imply
+a promise of future usefulness. Surely such a deliverance must have been
+wrought for something special, we say to ourselves, and refuse to fear.
+
+One dear little fat "fair" baby was brought to us as a surprise, for we
+had not heard of her. It had seemed so improbable that D�vai could get
+her, that she had not written to us to ask us to pray her through the
+battle, as she usually does. The sound of the bullock-bells' jingle one
+moonlight night woke us to welcome the baby. She had travelled fifty
+miles in the shaky bullock-cart, and she was only a few days old; but
+she seemed healthy, and we had no fears. "Ah, the Lord our God gave her
+to me, or never could I have got her! Her mother had determined to give
+her to the Temple; and when I went to persuade her, she hid the baby in
+an earthen vessel lest my eyes should see her. But earthen pots cannot
+hide from the eyes of the Lord. And here she is!" The details, fished
+out of D�vai by dint of many questions, made it clear that in very
+truth the Lord, to whom all souls belong, had worked on behalf of this
+little one; moving even Hindu hearts, as His brave old servant pleaded,
+making it possible to break through caste and custom, those prison walls
+of most cruel convention, till even the Hindus said: "Let the Christian
+have the babe!" We do not know why she was taken. She never seemed to
+sicken, but just left us; perhaps she was needed somewhere else, and
+Dohnavur was the way there.
+
+The other meant even more to us, for she was our first from Benares, the
+heart of this great Hinduism; and her very presence seemed such a
+splendid pledge of ultimate victory.
+
+This little one was saved through a friend, a Wesleyan missionary, who
+had interested her Indian workers in the children. The baby's mother was
+a pilgrim from Benares, and her baby had been born in the South. A
+Temple woman had seen it and was eager to get it, for it was a child of
+promise. Our friend's worker heard of this, and interposed. The mother
+consented to give her baby to us. It was not a case in which we dare
+have persuaded her to keep it; for such babies are greatly coveted, and
+the mother was already predisposed to give her child to the gods.
+
+When we heard of this little one, old D�vai was with us. She had only
+just arrived after a journey of two days with a little girl, but she
+knew the perils of delay too well to risk them now. "Let me go! I will
+have some coffee, and immediately start!" So off she went for five more
+days of wearisome bullock-cart and train. But her face beamed when she
+returned and laid a six-weeks-old baby in our arms--a baby fair to look
+upon. We gathered round her at once, and she lay and smiled at us all.
+Hardly ever have we had so sweet a babe. But the smiling little mouth
+was too pale a pink, and the beautiful eyes were too bright. She had
+only been with us a month when we were startled by the other-world look
+on the baby's face. We had seen it before; we recognised it, and our
+hearts sank within us. That evening, as she lay in her white cradle, the
+waxy hands folded in an unchildlike calm, she looked as if the angel of
+Death had passed her as she slept, and touched her as he passed.
+
+She stayed with us for another month, and was nursed day and night till
+more and more she became endeared to us; and then once more we heard the
+word that cannot be refused, and we let her go. We laid passion-flowers
+about her as she lay asleep. The smile that had left her little face had
+come back now. "She came with a smile, and she went with a smile," said
+one who loved her dearly; and the flowers of mystery and glory spoke to
+us, as we stood and looked. "Who for the joy that was set before Him
+. . . endured." The scent of the violet passion-flower will always carry
+its message to us. "Let us be worthy of the grief God sends."
+
+And oh that such experiences may make us more earnest, more self-less in
+our service for these little ones! Someone has expressed this thought
+very tenderly and simply:--
+
+          Because of one small low-laid head, all crowned
+                With golden hair,
+          For evermore all fair young brows to me
+                A halo wear.
+          I kiss them reverently. Alas, I know
+                The pain I bear!
+
+          Because of dear but close-shut holy eyes
+                Of heaven's own blue,
+          All little eyes do fill my own with tears,
+                Whate'er their hue.
+          And, motherly, I gaze their innocent,
+                Clear depths into.
+
+          Because of little pallid lips, which once
+                My name did call,
+          No childish voice in vain appeal upon
+                My ears doth fall.
+          I count it all my joy their joys to share,
+                And sorrows small.
+
+          Because of little dimpled hands
+                Which folded lie,
+          All little hands henceforth to me do have
+                A pleading cry.
+          I clasp them, as they were small wandering birds,
+                Lured home to fly.
+
+          Because of little death-cold feet, for earth's
+                Rough roads unmeet,
+          I'd journey leagues to save from sin and harm
+                Such little feet.
+          And count the lowliest service done for them
+                So sacred--sweet.
+
+But grief is almost too poignant a word for what is so stingless as this.
+And yet God the Father, who gives the love, understands and knows how
+much may lie behind two words and two dates. "Given . . . Taken . . ."
+Only indeed we do bless Him when the cup holds no bitterness of fear or
+of regret. There is nothing ever to fear for the little folded lambs. If
+only the veil of blinding sense might drop from our eyes when the door
+opens to our cherished little children, should we have the heart to toil
+so hard to keep that bright door shut? Would it not seem almost selfish
+to try? But the case is different when the child is not lifted lovingly
+to fair lands out of sight, but snatched back, dragged back down into
+the darkness from which we had hoped it had escaped. This work for the
+children, which seems so strangely full of trial of its own (as it is
+surely still more full of its own particular joy), has held this
+bitterness for us, and yet the bitter has changed to sweet; and even now
+in our "twilight of short knowledge" we can understand a little, and
+where we cannot we are content to wait.
+
+Four years ago, after much correspondence and effort, a little girl was
+saved from Temple service in connection with a famous Temple of the
+South from which few have ever been saved. She had been dedicated by her
+father, and her mother had consented. D�vai got a paper signed by them
+giving her up to us instead. But shortly after she left the town, the
+father regretted the step he had taken, and followed D�vai, unknown to
+her. Alas, the child had not been with us an hour before she was carried
+off.
+
+For two years we heard nothing of her. Old D�vai, who was broken-hearted
+about the matter, tried to find what had been done with her, but it was
+kept secret. She almost gave up in despair.
+
+At last information reached her that the child was in the same town; and
+that her father having died of cholera, the mother and another little
+daughter were in a certain house well known to her. She went immediately
+and found the older child had not been given to the gods. Something of
+her pleadings had lingered in the father's memory, and he had refused to
+give her up. But the mother was otherwise minded, and intended to give
+both children to the Temple. D�vai had been guided to go at the critical
+time of decision. The mother was persuaded, and D�vai returned with two
+sheaves instead of one--and even that one she had hardly dared to
+expect. Once more we were called to hold our gifts with light hands. The
+younger of the welcome little two was one of ten who died during an
+epidemic at Neyoor. The elder one is with us still--a bright,
+intelligent child.
+
+The only other one whom we have been compelled to give up in this most
+hurting way was saved through friends on the hills, who, before they
+sent the little child to us, believed all safe as to claims upon her
+afterwards. She was a pretty child of five, and we grew to love her very
+much; for her ways were sweet and gentle and very affectionate. Lala,
+Lola, and Leela were a dear little trio, all about the same age, and all
+rather specially interesting children.
+
+But the father gave trouble. He was not a good man, and we knew it was
+not love for his little daughter which prompted his action. He demanded
+her back, and our friends had to telegraph to us to send her home. It
+was not an easy thing to do; and we packed her little belongings feeling
+as if we were moving blindly in a grievous dream, out of which we must
+surely awaken.
+
+There was some delay about a bandy, but at last it was ready and
+standing at the door. We lifted the little girl into it, put a doll and
+a packet of sweets in her hands, and gave our last charges to those who
+were taking her up to the hills, workers upon whom we could depend to do
+anything that could yet be done to win her back again. Then the bandy
+drove away.
+
+But we went back to our room and asked for a great and good thing to be
+done. We thought of little Lala, with her gentle nature which had so
+soon responded to loving influence, and we knew her very gentleness
+would be her danger now; for how could such a little child, naturally so
+yielding in disposition, withstand the call that would come, and the
+pressure that had broken far stronger wills? So we asked that she might
+either be returned to us soon or taken away from the evil to come. A
+week passed and our workers returned without her; they evidently felt
+the case quite hopeless. But the next letter we had from our friends
+told us the child was safe.
+
+She had left us in perfect health, but pneumonia set in upon her return
+to the colder air of the hills. She had been only a few days ill, and
+died very suddenly--died without anyone near her to comfort her with
+soothing words about the One to whom she was going. Even in the gladness
+that she was safe now, there was the pitiful thought of her loneliness
+through the dark valley; and we seemed to see the little wistful face,
+and felt she would be so frightened and shy and bewildered; and we
+longed to know something about those last hours. But one of the heathen
+women who had been about her at the last told what she knew, and our
+friends wrote what they heard. "She said she was Jesus' child, and did
+not seem afraid. And she said that she saw three Shining Ones come into
+the room where she was lying, and she was comforted." Oh, need we ever
+fear? Little Lala had been with us for so short a time that we had not
+been able to teach her much; and so far as any of us know, she had heard
+nothing of the ministry of angels. We had hardly dared to hope she
+understood enough about our Lord Himself to rest her little heart upon
+Him. But we do not know everything. Little innocent child that she was,
+she was carried by the angels from the evil to come.
+
+Old D�vai keeps a brave heart. When she comes to see us, she cheers
+herself by nursing the cheerful little people she brought to us, small
+and wailing and not very hopeful. She is full of reminiscences on these
+occasions. "Ah," she will say, addressing an astonished two-year-old,
+"the devil and all his imps fought for you, my child!" This is
+unfamiliar language to the baby; but D�vai knows nothing of our modern
+ideas of education, and considers crude fact advisable at any age. "Yes,
+he fought for you, my child. I was sitting on the verandah of the house
+wherein you lay, and I was preaching the Gospel of the grace of God to
+the women, when five devils appeared. Yea, five were they, one older and
+four younger. Men were they in outward shape, but within them were the
+devils. I had nearly persuaded the women to let me have you, my child;
+and till they fully consented, I was filling up the interval with
+speech, for no man shall shut my mouth. And the women listened well, and
+my heart burned within me--for it was life to me to see them
+listening--when lo! those devils came--yea, five, one older and four
+younger--sent by their master to confound me. And they rose up against
+me and turned me out, and told the women folk not to listen; and you--I
+should never get you, said they; and so it appeared, for with such is
+might, and their master waxes furious when he knows his time is short.
+But the Lord on high is mightier than a million million devils, and what
+are five to Him? He rose up for me against them and discomfited
+them"--D�vai does not go into secular particulars--"and so you were
+delivered from the mouth of the lion, my child!"
+
+We are not anxious that our babies should know too much ancient history.
+Enough for them that they are in the fold--
+
+          I am Jesus' little lamb,
+            Happy all day long I am;
+          He will keep me safe from harm,
+            For I'm His lamb--
+
+is enough theology for two-year-olds; but D�vai's visits are not so
+frequent as to make a deep impression, and the baby thus addressed,
+after a long and unsympathetic stare, usually scrambles off her knee and
+returns unscathed to her own world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+God Heard: God Answered
+
+
+OLD D�vai, with her vivid conversation about the one old devil and four
+younger, does not suggest a conciliatory attitude towards the people of
+her land. And it may be possible so to misinterpret the spirit of this
+book as to see in it only something unappreciative and therefore unkind.
+So it shall now be written down in sincerity and earnestness that
+nothing of the sort is intended. The thing we fight is not India or
+Indian, in essence or development. It is something alien to the old life
+of the people. It is not allowed in the V�das (ancient sacred books). It
+is like a parasite which has settled upon the bough of some noble
+forest-tree--on it, but not of it. The parasite has gripped the bough
+with strong and interlacing roots; but it is not the bough.
+
+We think of the real India as we see it in the thinker--the seeker after
+the unknown God, with his wistful eyes. "The Lord beholding him loved
+him," and we cannot help loving as we look. And there is the Indian
+woman hidden away from the noise of crowds, patient in her motherhood,
+loyal to the light she has. We see the spirit of the old land there;
+and it wins us and holds us, and makes it a joy to be here to live for
+India.
+
+The true India is sensitive and very gentle. There is a wisdom in its
+ways, none the less wise because it is not the wisdom of the West. This
+spirit which traffics in children is callous and fierce as a ravening
+beast; and its wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly,
+sensual, devilish. . . . And this spirit, alien to the land, has settled
+upon it, and made itself at home in it, and so become a part of it that
+nothing but the touch of God will ever get it out. We want that touch of
+God: "Touch the mountains, and they shall smoke." That is why we write.
+
+For we write for those who believe in prayer--not in the emasculated
+modern sense, but in the old Hebrew sense, deep as the other is shallow.
+We believe there is some connection between knowing and caring and
+praying, and what happens afterwards. Otherwise we should leave the
+darkness to cover the things that belong to the dark. We should be for
+ever dumb about them, if it were not that we know an evil covered up is
+not an evil conquered. So we do the thing from which we shrink with
+strong recoil; we stand on the edge of the pit, and look down and tell
+what we have seen, urged by the longing within us that the Christians of
+England should pray.
+
+"Only pray?" does someone ask? Prayer of the sort we mean never stops
+with praying. "Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it," is the prayer's
+solemn afterword; but the prayer we ask is no trifle. Lines from an
+American poet upon what it costs to make true poetry, come with
+suggestion here:--
+
+          Deem not the framing of a deathless lay
+          The pastime of a drowsy summer day.
+          But gather all thy powers, and wreck them on the verse
+          That thou dost weave. . . .
+            The secret wouldst thou know
+          To touch the heart or fire the blood at will?
+            Let thine eyes overflow,
+          Let thy lips quiver with the passionate thrill.
+
+"Arise, cry out in the night; in the beginning of the night watches pour
+out thine heart like water before the Lord; lift up thine hands towards
+Him for the life of thy young children!"
+
+The story of the children is the story of answered prayer. If any of us
+were tempted to doubt whether, after all, prayer is a genuine
+transaction, and answers to prayer no figment of the imagination--but
+something as real as the tangible things about us--we have only to look
+at some of our children. It would require more faith to believe that
+what we call the Answer came by chance or by the action of some
+unintelligible combination of controlling influences, than to accept the
+statement in its simplicity--God heard: God answered.
+
+In October, 1908, we were told of two children whose mother had recently
+died. They were with their father in a town some distance from Dohnavur;
+but the source from which our information came was so unreliable that we
+hardly knew whether to believe it, and we prayed rather a tentative
+prayer: "If the children exist, save them." For three months we heard
+nothing; then a rumour drifted across to us that the elder of the two
+had died in a Temple house. The younger, six months old, was still with
+her father. On Christmas Eve our informant arrived in the compound with
+his usual unexpectedness. The father was near, but would not come nearer
+because the following day being Friday (a day of ill-omen), he did not
+wish to discuss matters concerning the child; he would come on Saturday.
+On Saturday he came, carrying a dear little babe with brilliant eyes.
+She almost sprang from him into our arms, and we saw she was mad with
+thirst. She was fed and put to sleep, and hardly daring yet to rejoice
+(for the matter was not settled with the father), we took him aside and
+discussed the case with him. There were difficulties. A Temple woman had
+offered a large sum for the child, and had also promised to bequeath
+her property to her. He had heard, however, that we had little children
+who had all but been given to Temples, and he had come to reconnoitre
+rather than to decide.
+
+The position was explained to him. But the Temple meant to him
+everything that was worshipful. How could anything that was wrong be
+sanctioned by the gods? The child's mother had been a devout Hindu; and
+as we went deeper and deeper into things with him, it was evident he
+became more and more reluctant to leave the little one with us. "Her
+mother would have felt it shame and eternal dishonour." We were in the
+little prayer-room, a flowery little summer-house in the garden, when
+this talk took place. On either side are the nurseries, and playing on
+the wide verandahs were happy, healthy babes; their merry shouts filled
+the spaces in the conversation. Sometimes a little toddling thing would
+find her way across to the prayer-room, and break in upon the talk with
+affectionate caresses. To our eyes everything looked so happy, so
+incomparably better than anything the Temple house could offer, that it
+was difficult to adjust one's mental vision so as to understand that of
+the Hindu beside us, to whose thought all the happiness was as nothing,
+because these babes would be brought up without caste. In the Temple
+house caste is kept most carefully. If a Temple woman breaks the rules
+of her community she is out-casted, excommunicated. "You do not keep
+caste! you do not keep caste!" the father repeated over and over again
+in utter dismay. It was nothing to him that the babes were well and
+strong, and as happy as the day was long; nothing to him that
+cleanliness reigned, so far as constant supervision could ensure it,
+through every corner of the compound. We did not profess to keep caste;
+we welcomed every little child in danger of being given to Temples,
+irrespective altogether of her caste. All castes were welcome to us, for
+all were dear to our Lord. This was beyond him; and he declared he would
+never have brought his child to us, had he understood it before. "Let
+her die rather! There is no disgrace in death." As he talked and
+expounded his views, he argued himself further and further away from us
+in spirit, until he became disgusted with himself for ever having
+considered giving the baby to us. All this time the baby lay asleep; and
+as we looked at the little face and noted the "mother-want," the
+appealing expression of pitiful weariness even in sleep, it was all we
+could do to turn away and face the almost inevitable result of the
+conversation. Once the father, a splendid looking man, tall and
+dignified, rose and stood erect in sudden indignation. "Where is the
+babe? I will take her away and do as I will with her. She is my child!"
+We persuaded him to wait awhile as she was asleep, and we went away to
+pray. Together we waited upon God, whose touch turns hard rocks into
+standing water, and flint-stone into a springing well, beseeching Him to
+deal with that father's heart, and make it melt and yield. And as we
+waited it seemed as if an answer of peace were distinctly given to us,
+and we rose from our knees at rest. But just at that moment the father
+went to where his baby slept in her cradle, and he took her up and
+walked away in a white heat of wrath.
+
+The little one was in an exhausted condition, for she had not had
+suitable food for at least three days. It was the time of our
+land-winds, which are raw and cold to South Indian people; and it seemed
+that the answer of peace must mean peace after death of cold and
+starvation. It would soon be over, we knew; twenty-four hours, more or
+less, and those great wistful eyes would close, and the last cry would
+be cried. But even twenty-four hours seemed long to think of a child in
+distress, and her being so little did not make it easier to think of her
+dying like that. So on Sunday morning I shut myself up in my room asking
+for quick relief for her, or--but this seemed almost asking too
+much--that she might be given back to us. And as I prayed, a knock came
+at the door, and a voice called joyously, "Oh, Amma! Amma! Come! The
+father stands outside the church; he has brought the baby back!"
+
+But the child was almost in collapse. Without a word he dropped the
+cold, limp little body into our arms, and prostrated himself till his
+forehead touched the dust. We had not time to think of him, we hardly
+noted his extraordinary submission, for all our thought was for the
+babe. There was no pulse to be felt, only those far too brilliant eyes
+looked alive. We worked with restoratives for hours, and at last the
+little limbs warmed and the pulse came back. But it was a bounding,
+unnatural pulse, and the restlessness which supervened confirmed the
+tale of the brilliant eyes--the little babe had been drugged.
+
+From that day on till our Prayer-day, January 6th, it was one long,
+unremitting fight with death. We wrote to our medical comrade in Neyoor,
+and described the symptoms, which were all bad. He could give us little
+hope. Gradually the brilliance passed from the eyes, and they became
+what the Tamils call "dead." The film formed after which none of us had
+ever seen recovery. Then we gathered round the little cot in the room we
+call Tranquillity, and we gave the babe her Christian name Vimala, the
+Spotless One; for we thought that very soon she would be without spot
+and blameless, another little innocent in that happy band of innocents
+who see His Face.
+
+On the evening of the 5th, friends of our own Mission who were with us
+seemed to lay hold for the life of the child with such fresh earnestness
+and faith, that we ourselves were strengthened. Next morning we believed
+we saw a change in the little deathlike face, and that evening we were
+sure the child's life was coming back to her.
+
+It was not till then we thought of the father, who, after signing a
+paper made out for him by our pastor, who is always ready to help us,
+had returned to his own town. When we heard all that had occurred we saw
+how our God had worked for us. It was not fear of his baby's death that
+had moved the man to return to us. "What is the death of a babe? Let her
+die across my shoulders!" He was not afraid of the law. After all
+persuasions had failed, we had tried threats: the thing he purposed to
+do was illegal. The Collector (chief magistrate) would do justice. "What
+care I for your Collector? How can he find me if I choose to lose
+myself? How can you prove anything against me?" And in that he spoke the
+truth. There are ways by which the intention of the law concerning
+little children can be most easily and successfully circumvented. Our
+pleadings had not touched him. "Is she not my child? Was her mother not
+my wife? Who has the right to come between this child of mine and me her
+father?" And so saying he had departed without the slightest intention
+of coming back again. But a Power with which he did not reckon had him
+in sight; and a Hand was laid upon him, and it bent him like a reed. We
+hope some ray of a purer light than he had ever experienced found its
+way into his darkened soul, and revealed to him the sin of his
+intention. But we only know that he left his child and went back to his
+own town. God had heard: God had answered.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+To what Purpose?
+
+
+AMONG the closest of our little children's friends is one whose name I
+may not give, lest her work should be hindered; for in this work of
+saving the little ones, though we have the sympathy of many, we
+naturally have to meet the covert opposition of very many more, and it
+is not well to give too explicit information as to the centres of
+supply. This dear friend's help has been invaluable. From the first she
+has stood by us, interesting her friends, Indian and English, in the
+children, and stirring them into practical co-operation. Then, when the
+babies have been saved and had to be cared for and sent off, she made
+nothing of the trouble, and above all she has never been discouraged.
+Sometimes things have been difficult. Some have doubted, and many have
+criticised, and even the kindest have lost heart. This friend has never
+lost heart.
+
+For not all the chapters of the Temple children's story can be written
+down and printed for everyone to read. We think of the unwritten
+chapters, and remember how often when the pressure was greatest the
+thought of that undiscouraged comrade has been strength and inspiration.
+No one except those who, in weakness and inexperience, have tried to do
+something not attempted before can understand how the heart prizes
+sympathy just at the difficult times, and how such brave and steadfast
+comradeship is a thing that can never be forgotten.
+
+Among the babies saved through this friend's influence was one with a
+short but typical story.
+
+The little mite was seen first in her mother's arms, and the mother was
+standing by the wayside, as if waiting. Something in her attitude and
+appearance drew the attention of an Indian Christian, whom our friend
+had interested in the work, and she got into conversation with the
+mother, who told her that her husband had died a fortnight before the
+baby's birth, and she, being poor though of good caste, was much
+exercised about the little one's future. How could she marry her
+properly? She had come to the conclusion that her best plan would be to
+give her to the Temple. So she was even then waiting till someone from a
+Temple house would come and take her little girl.
+
+The news that such a child is to be had soon becomes known to those who
+are on the watch, and it is improbable that the mother would have had
+long to wait. The Christian persuaded her to give up the idea, and the
+little babe was saved and sent to us. On the journey to Dohnavur a
+Temple woman chanced to get into the carriage where the little baby
+slept in its basket. There was nothing to tell who she was; and like the
+other women in the carriage, she was greatly interested in its story.
+But presently it became evident that her interest was more than
+superficial. She looked well at the baby and was quiet for a time; then
+she said to the Christian who was bringing it to us: "I see it is going
+to be an intelligent child. Let me have it; I will pay you." The
+Christian of course refused, and asked her how she knew it was going to
+be intelligent. "Look at its nose," said the Temple woman. "See, here is
+money!" and she offered it. "Let me have the baby! You can tell your
+Missie Ammal it died in the train!"
+
+Sometimes our babies have to run greater risks than this in their
+journeys south to us. The distances which have to be covered by train
+and bullock-cart are great, and the travelling tedious. And there are
+many delays and opportunities for difficulties to arise; so that when we
+know a baby is on its way to us we feel we want to wrap it round in
+prayer, so that, thus invisibly enveloped, it will be protected and
+carried safely all the way. Once a little child, travelling to us from a
+place as distant, counting by time, as Rome is from London, was observed
+by some Brahman men, who happened to be at the far end of the long
+third-class carriage. Our worker, who was alone with the child, noticed
+the whispering and glances toward her little charge, and wrapped it
+closer in its shawl, and, as she said, "looked out of the window as if
+she were not at all afraid, and prayed much in her heart." Presently a
+station was reached. The language spoken there was not her vernacular,
+but she understood enough to know something was being said about the
+baby. Then an official appeared, and there was a cry quite
+understandable to her: "A Brahman baby! That Christian there is
+kidnapping a Brahman baby!" The official stopped at the carriage door.
+She was pushed towards him amidst a confused chatter, a crowd gathered
+at the door in a moment, and someone shouted in Tamil, above the excited
+clamour on the platform: "Pull her out! A Christian with a Brahman
+baby!"
+
+"Then did my heart tremble! I held the baby tight in my arms. The man in
+clothes said, 'Show it to me!' And he looked at its hands and he looked
+at its feet, and he said: 'This is no child of yours!' But as I began to
+explain to him, the train moved, and he banged the door; and I praised
+God!"
+
+India is a land where strange things can be accomplished with the
+greatest ease. As all went well it is idle to imagine what might have
+been; but we knew enough to be thankful.
+
+Among the unwritten chapters is one which touches a problem. There are
+some little children--often the most valuable to the Temple women--who
+cannot live with us, but can live with them, because the baby in the
+Temple house is nursed by a foster-mother for the sake of merit, and
+thus it is given its best chance of life; whereas with us it is
+impossible to get foster-mothers. Indian children of the castes approved
+for the service are not, as a class, as robust as others; the secluded
+lives of their mothers, and the rigid rules pertaining to widows
+(girl-children born after the mother becomes a widow are, as has been
+seen, in special danger), partly account for this; and in other cases
+there are other reasons. Whatever the cause, however, the effect is
+manifest. The baby is seldom the little bundle of content of our English
+nurseries. It may become so later on, if all goes well. Often it lives
+upon its birth-strength for four months, or less, and then slips away.
+We have often hesitated about taking such babies; and then we have found
+that by refusing one who is likely to die we have discouraged those who
+were willing to help us, and the next baby in danger has been taken
+straight to the house where its welcome was assured. So we have hardly
+ever dared to refuse, and we have taken little fragile things whose days
+we knew were numbered unless a foster-mother could be found, for it
+seemed to us that death with us was better than life with the Temple
+people; and also we have not dared to risk losing the next, who might be
+healthy. "One dies, one lives," say the Temple women in their wisdom,
+and take all who are suitable in caste and in appearance. "She will be
+'fair,'" or, "She will be intelligent," settles the matter for them.
+They give the baby a chance: should we do less?
+
+One night I woke suddenly with the feeling of someone near, and saw,
+standing beside my bed out on the verandah, the friend who has sent us
+so many little ones. She had something wrapped in a shawl in her arms,
+and as she moved the shawl a thin cry smote me with a fear, for a baby
+who has come to stay does not cry like that.
+
+It was a dear little baby, one of the type the Temple women prize, and
+will take so much trouble to rear. The little head was finely formed,
+and the tiny face, in its minute perfection of feature, looked as if
+some fairy had shaped it out of a cream rose-petal. Alas, there was that
+look we know so well and fear so much--that look of not belonging to us,
+the elsewhere, other-world look. But we could not do this work at all,
+we would not have the heart to do it, if we did not hope. So we go on
+hoping.
+
+The baby filled the next half-hour, for a thing so small can be hungry
+and say so; and together we heated the water and made the food, till,
+satisfied at length that her little charge was comfortable, our friend
+lay down to rest. "Jesus therefore being weary with His journey, sat
+thus on the well." There is something in the utter weariness after a
+long, hot journey, ending with seven hours in a bullock-cart over rough
+tracks by night, which always recalls that word of human tiredness. How
+I wished that the morning were not so near as I saw my friend asleep at
+last! A few hours later she was on her homeward way, and we were left
+with our hopes and our fears, and the baby.
+
+For three weeks we hoped against fear, till there was no room left for
+any more hope, or for anything but prayer that the child might cease to
+suffer. And after a month of struggle for life, the tiny, tossing thing
+lay still.
+
+"To what purpose is this waste?" Was it strange that the question came
+again to ourselves, and to others too? Our dear friend's toilsome
+travelling--a journey equal in expenditure of time to one from London
+to Vienna and back again, and very much more exhausting, the faithful
+nurse's patience, the little baby's pain! And all the love that had
+grown through the weeks, and all the efforts that had failed, the very
+train ticket and bandy fare--was it all as water spilt on the ground?
+Was it waste?
+
+We knew in our hearts it was not. The dear little babe was safe; and it
+might be that our having taken her, though she was so very delicate,
+would result in another, a healthy child, being saved, who, if she had
+been refused, would never have been brought. This hope comforted us; and
+we prayed definitely for its fulfilment, and it was fulfilled. For
+shortly after that little seed had been sown in death, information came
+from the same source through which she had been saved, that another
+child was in danger of being adopted by Temple women; and this
+information would not have been given to our friend had the first child
+been refused. Nundinie we called this little gift: the name means
+Happiness.
+
+Sometimes in moments of depression and disappointment we go for change
+of air and scene to the Pr�malia nursery; and the baby Nundinie,
+otherwise Dimples, of whom more afterwards, comes running up to us with
+her welcoming smile and outstretched arms; while others, with stories as
+full of comfort, tumble about us, and cuddle, and nestle, and pat us
+into shape. Then we take courage again, and ask forgiveness for our
+fears. It is true our problems are not always solved, and perhaps more
+difficult days are before; but we will not be afraid. Sometimes a sudden
+light falls on the way, and we look up and still it shines: and what can
+we do but "follow the Gleam"?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+A Story of Comfort
+
+
+[Illustration: SEELA IS THE BABY IN THE MIDDLE.
+
+She slipped into the picture at the last moment, and so was caught
+unawares. Mala is to the right; Nullinie to the left. (This little one's
+left hand and foot are partially paralyzed through drugging in
+infancy.)]
+
+AMONG the stories of comfort is one that belongs to our merry little
+Seela. She is bigger now than when the despairing photographer broke
+thirteen plates in the vain attempt to catch her; but she is still most
+elusive and alluring, a veritable baby, though over two years old. Some
+months ago, the Iyer measured her, and told her she was thirty-two
+inches of mischief. For weeks afterwards, when asked her name, she
+always replied with gravity, "Terty-two inses of mistef."
+
+All who have to do with babies know how different they can be in
+disposition and habits. There is the shop-window baby, who shows all her
+innocent wares at once to everyone kind enough to look. She is a
+charming baby. And there is the little wild bird of the wood, who will
+answer your whistle politely, if you know how to whistle her note; but
+she will not trust herself near you till she is sure of you. Seela is
+that sort of baby. We have watched her when she has been approached by
+some unfamiliar presence, and seen her summon all her baby dignity to
+keep her from breaking into tears of overwhelming shyness. Give her time
+to observe you from under long, drooping lashes; give her time to make
+sure--then the mischief will sparkle out, and something of the real
+child. But only something, never all, till you become a relation; with
+those who are only acquaintances Seela, like Bala, has many reserves.
+
+Seela's joy is to be considered old and allowed to go to the
+kindergarten. She takes her place with the bigger babies, and tries to
+do all she sees them do. Sometimes a visitor looks in, and then Seela,
+naturally, will do nothing; but if the visitor is wise and takes no
+notice, she will presently be rewarded by seeing the eager little face
+light up again, and the fat hands busily at work. Seela is not supposed
+to be learning very seriously; but she seems to know nearly as much as
+some of the older children, and her quaint attempts at English are much
+appreciated. Seela has her faults. She likes to have her own way, and
+once was observed to slap severely an offender almost twice her own
+size; but on the whole she is a peaceful little person, beloved by all
+the other babies, both senior and junior. Her great ambition is to
+follow Chellalu into all possible places of mischief. Anything Chellalu
+can do Seela will attempt; and as she is more brave than steady on her
+little feet, she has many a narrow escape. Her latest escapade was to
+follow her reckless leader in an attempt to walk round the top of the
+back of a large armchair, the cane rim of which is a slippery slant, two
+inches wide.
+
+On the morning of her arrival, not liking to leave her even for a few
+minutes, I carried her to the early tea-table, when she saw the Iyer and
+smiled her first smile to him. From that day on she has been his loyal
+little friend. At first his various absences from home perplexed her.
+She would toddle off to his room and hunt everywhere for him, even under
+his desk and behind his waste-paper basket, and then she returned to the
+dining-room with a puzzled little face. "Iyer is not!" "Where is he,
+Seela?" "Gone to Heaven!" was her invariable reply. When he returned
+from that distant sphere she never displayed the least surprise. That is
+not our babies' way. She calmly accepted him as a returned possession;
+stood by his chair waiting for the invitation, "Climb up"; climbed up as
+if he had never been away--and settled down to bliss.
+
+Part of this bliss consists in being supplied with morsels of toast and
+biscuit and occasional sips of tea. Sometimes there is that delicious
+luxury, a spoonful of the unmelted sugar at the bottom of the cup. For
+Seela is a baby after all, and does not profess to be like grown-up
+people who do not appreciate nice things to eat, being, of course,
+entirely superior to food; but, excitable little damsel as she is in all
+other matters, her table manners are most correct, and she shows her
+appreciation of kind attentions in characteristic fashion. A smile, so
+quick under the black lashes that only one on the look-out for it would
+see it, a sudden confiding little nestle closer to the giver--these are
+her only signs of pleasure; and if no notice is taken of her, she sits
+in silent patience. Sometimes, if politeness be mistaken for
+indifference, a shadow creeps into her eyes, a sort of pained surprise
+at the obtuseness of the great; but she rarely makes any remark, and
+never points or asks, as the irrepressible Chellalu does in spite of all
+our admonitions. If, however, Seela is being attended to and fed at
+judicious intervals, and she knows the intention is to feed her
+comfortably, then her attitude is different. She feels a reminder will
+be acceptable; and as soon as she has disposed of a piece of biscuit,
+she quietly holds up an empty little hand, and glances fearlessly up to
+the face that looks down with a smile upon her. This little silent,
+empty hand, held up so quietly, has often spoken to us of things
+unknown to our little girl; and as if to enforce the lesson, the other
+babies, to our amusement, apparently noticing the gratifying result of
+Seela's upturned hand, began to hold up their little hands with the same
+silent expectancy, till all round the table small hands were raised in
+perfect silence, by hopeful infants of observant habits and strong
+faith.
+
+[Illustration: THE COTTAGE NURSERY.]
+
+Mala, the rather stolid-looking little girl to the right of the
+photograph, is Seela's elder sister. She is not so square-faced as the
+photograph shows her, and she is much more interesting. This little one
+seems to us to have in some special sense the grace of God upon her; for
+her nursery life is so happy and blameless and unselfish, that we rarely
+have to wish her different in anything. Her coming, with little Seela's,
+is one of the very gladdest of our Overweights of Joy.
+
+We heard of the little sisters through a mission schoolmaster,
+who--knowing that they had been left motherless, and that a Hindu of
+good position had obtained something equivalent to powers of
+guardianship, and thus empowered had placed them with a Temple
+woman--was most anxious to save them, and wrote to us; and, as he
+expressed it, "also earnestly and importunately prayed the benign
+British Government to intervene."
+
+The Collector to whom the petition was sent was a friend of ours. He
+knew about the nursery work, and was ready to do all he could; but he
+did not want a disturbance with the Caste and Temple people, and so
+advised us to try to get the children privately. We sent our wisest
+woman-worker, Ponnamal, to the town, and she saw the principal people
+concerned; but they entirely refused to give up the children. The man
+who had adopted them had got his authority from the local Indian
+sub-magistrate; and contended that as the Government had given them to
+him, no one had any right to take them from him; "and even if the
+Government itself ordered me to give them up, I never will. I will never
+let them go." This in Tamil is even more explicit: "The hold by which I
+hold them I will never let go." Ponnamal returned, weary in mind and in
+body, after three days of travelling and effort; she had caught a
+glimpse of the baby, and the little face haunted her. The elder child
+was reported very miserable, and she had seen nothing of her. The
+guardian, of course, had not dealt with her direct; but she heard he had
+taken legal advice, and was sure of his position. There was nothing
+hopeful to report. Once again we tried, but in vain. By this time a new
+bond had been formed, for the guardian had become attached to little
+Seela, and spent his time, so we heard, in playing with her. He let it
+be known that nothing would ever make him give her up. "She is in my
+hand, and my hand will never let go."
+
+Then suddenly news came that he was dead. The baby had sickened with
+cholera. He had nursed her and contracted the disease. In two days he
+had died. He had been compelled to let go.
+
+Then the feeling of all concerned changed completely. It hardly needed
+the Collector's order, given with the utmost promptitude, to cause the
+Temple woman to give the children up. To the Indian mind, quick to see
+the finger of God in such an event, the thing was self-evident. An
+unseen Power was at work here. Who were they that they should withstand
+it? A telegram told us the children were safe, and next day we had them
+here.
+
+The baby was happy at once; but the elder little one, then a child of
+about three and a half, was very sorrowful. She was so pitifully
+frightened, too, that at first we could do nothing with her; and there
+was a look in her eyes that alarmed us, it was so distraught and
+unchildlike. "My mother did her best for them," wrote the kind
+schoolmaster to whose house the children had been taken when the Temple
+woman gave them up; "but the elder one has fever. She is always
+muttering to herself, and can neither stand nor sit." She could stand
+and sit now, only there was the "muttering," and the terrible look of
+bewilderment worse than pain. For days it was a question with us as to
+whether she would ever recover perfectly. That first night we had to
+give her bromide, and she woke very miserable. Next day she stood by the
+door waiting for her mother, as it seemed; for under her breath she was
+constantly whispering, "Amma! Amma!" ("Mother! Mother!") She never cried
+aloud, only sobbed quietly every now and then. She would not let us
+touch her, but shrank away terrified if we tried to pet her. All through
+the third day she sat by the door. This was better than the weary
+standing, but pitiful enough. On the morning of the fourth day she sat
+down again for a long watch; but once when her little hand went up to
+brush away a tear, we saw there was a toy in it, and that gave us hope.
+That night she went to bed with a doll, an empty tin, and a ball in her
+arms; and the next day she let us play with her in a quiet, reserved
+fashion. Next morning she woke happy.
+
+The babies teach us much, and sometimes their unconscious lessons
+illuminate the deeper experiences of life. One such illumination is
+connected in my mind with the little trellised verandah, shown in the
+photograph, of the cottage used as a nursery when Mala and Seela came to
+us.
+
+It was the hour between lights, and five babies under two years old were
+waiting for their supper--Seela, Tara, and Evu (always a hungry baby),
+Ruhinie, usually irrepressible, but now in very low spirits, and a tiny
+thing with a face like a pansy--all five thinking longingly of supper.
+These five had to wait till the fresh milk came in, as their food was
+special; that evening the cows had wandered home with more than their
+usual leisureliness from their pasture out in the jungle, and so the
+milk was late.
+
+The babies, who do not understand the weary ways of cows, disapproved of
+having to wait, and were fractious. To add to their depression, the boy
+whose duty it was to light the lamps and lanterns had been detained, and
+the trellised verandah was dark. So the five fretful babies made remarks
+to each other, and threw their toys about in that exasperated fashion
+which tells you the limits of patience have been passed; and the most
+distressed began to whimper.
+
+At this point a lantern was brought and set behind me, so that its light
+fell upon the discarded toys, miscellaneous but beloved--a china head
+long parted from its body, one whole new doll, a tin with little stones
+in it, a matchbox, and other sundries. If anything will comfort them,
+their toys will, I thought, as I directed their attention to the tin
+with its pleasant rattling pebbles, and the other scattered treasures on
+the mat. But the babies looked disgusted. Toys were a mockery at that
+moment. Evu seized the china head and flung it as far as ever she could.
+Tara sat stolid, with two fingers in her mouth. Seela turned away,
+evidently deeply hurt in her feelings, and the other two cried. Not one
+of them would find consolation in toys.
+
+Then the pansy-faced baby, Pr�sie, pointed out to the bushes, where
+something dangerous, she was quite sure, was moving; and she wailed a
+wail of such infectious misery that all the babies howled. And one
+rolled over near the lantern which was on the floor behind me, and for
+safety's sake I moved it, and its light fell on my face. In a moment all
+five babies were tumbling over me with little exclamations of delight,
+and they nestled on my lap, caressing and content.
+
+Are there not evenings when our toys have no power to please or soothe?
+There is not any rest in them or any comfort. Then the One whom we love
+better than all His dearest gifts comes and moves the lantern for us, so
+that our toys are in the shadow but His face is in the light. And He
+makes His face to shine upon us and gives us peace.
+
+"For Thou, O Lord my God, art above all things best; . . . Thou alone
+most sufficient and most full; Thou alone most sweet and most
+comfortable.
+
+"Thou alone most fair and most loving; Thou alone most noble and most
+glorious above all things; in whom all things are at once and perfectly
+good, and ever have been and shall be.
+
+"And therefore whatever Thou bestowest upon me beside Thyself, or
+whatever Thou revealest or promisest concerning Thyself, so long as I do
+not see or fully enjoy Thee, is too little, and fails to satisfy me.
+
+"Because, indeed, my heart cannot truly rest nor be entirely contented
+unless it rest in Thee, and rise above all Thy gifts and all things
+created.
+
+"When shall I fully recollect myself in Thee, that through the love of
+Thee I may not feel myself but Thee alone, above all feeling and measure
+in a manner not known to all?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+Pickles and Puck
+
+
+[Illustration: "PICKLES" AND HER FRIENDS.
+
+"Pickles" sits with her thumb in her mouth, distrustful of
+photographers.]
+
+"AMMA! Amma!" then in baby Tamil, "Salala has come!" And one of the most
+enticing of the little interruptions to a steady hour's work scrambles
+over the raised doorstep, tripping and tumbling in her eagerness to get
+in. Now she is staggering happily about the room on fat, uncertain feet.
+Upsets are nothing to Sarala. She shakes herself, rubs a bumped head,
+smiles if you smile down at her, and picks herself up with a sturdy
+independence that promises something for her future. She has travelled
+to-day, stopping only to visit her Pr�ma Sittie, a long way across the
+field all by herself. She has braved tumbles and captures, for her nurse
+may any minute discover her flight; and even now, safe in port, she
+keeps a wary eye on the door which opens on the nursery side of the
+compound. If she thinks I am about to suggest her departure, she
+immediately engages me in some interest of her own. She has ways and
+wiles unknown to any baby but herself; and if all seems likely to fail,
+she sits down on the floor, and first puts out her lower lip as far as
+it will go, and then springs up, climbs over you, clings with all four
+limbs at once, and buries her curly tangle deep into your neck. But if
+the case is hopeless, she sits down on the floor again and digs her
+small fists into her eyes, in silent indignation and despair. Then
+comes a howl impossible to smother, and at last such bitter bursts of
+woe as nothing short of dire necessity can force you to provoke. This is
+Sarala, one of the most affectionate, most wilful, most winsome of all
+the babies. She is truthful. She has just this moment pulled a
+drawing-pin out of its place, which happened to be within reach, and her
+solemn "Aiyo!" (Alas!) "Look, Amma!" shows she feels she has sinned, but
+wants to confess. Life will have many a battle for this baby; but surely
+if she is truthful and loving, and we are loving and wise, the Lord who
+has redeemed her will carry her through.
+
+Her first great battle royal was with the new Sittie,[B] who immediately
+upon arrival loved the babies. The battle was about Sarala's evening
+meal, which she refused to take from the new Sittie because she had
+offended her small majesty a few minutes before by allowing another baby
+to share the lap of which Sarala wished to have complete possession; and
+the baby had crawled off disgusted with the ways of such a Sittie.
+
+As a rule we avoid collisions at bedtime. The day should end peacefully
+for babies; but the contest once begun had to be carried through, for
+Sarala is not a baby to whom it is wise to give in where a conflict of
+wills is concerned. Next morning it was evident she remembered all about
+it. When the new Sittie (now called Pr�ma Sittie by the children)[C]
+came to the nursery, Sarala hurried off and would have nothing to do
+with her. From the distance of the garden she would catch sight of her
+advancing form, and retreat round a corner. Sometimes if Pr�ma Sittie
+sat down on the floor and fondled another baby, Sarala would crawl up
+from behind, put her arms round her neck, and even begin to sit down on
+her knee; but if her Sittie made the first advance, she was instantly
+repelled. This continued for a fortnight; and as Sarala was only a year
+and eight months old at the time, a fortnight's memory rather astonished
+us. In the end she forgot, and now there are no more devoted friends
+than Pr�ma Sittie and Sarala.
+
+But it was the other Sittie, Piria Sittie by name,[D] who first made
+Sarala's acquaintance. She and I went to Neyoor together when the branch
+nursery was there; and as the new nursery was almost ready for the
+babies, we lightened the immense undertaking of removal by carting off
+whatever we could of furniture and infants. Sarala has eyes which can
+smile bewitchingly, and a voice which can coo with delicious affection;
+but those sweet eyes can look stormy, and cooing is a sound remote from
+Sarala's powers in opposite directions; so we wondered, as we packed her
+into the bandy, what would happen that night. If we had known Sarala
+better we should not have wondered. All this child wants to make her
+good is someone to hold on to. She woke frequently during the night, for
+we were not entirely comfortable, wedged sideways and close as herrings
+in a barrel. But all she did when she awoke was to push a soft little
+arm round either one or other of us, and cuddle as close as she possibly
+could; the least movement on our part, however, she deeply resented and
+feared. A limpet on a rock is nothing to this baby. Her very toes can
+cling.
+
+Sarala's private name is Pickles. Her twin in mischief is Puck, and she,
+too, is fond of paying visits to the bungalow. But she always comes as a
+surprise; she never announces herself. You are busy with your back to
+the door when that curious feeling, a sense of not being quite alone,
+comes over you, and you turn and see an elfish thing, very still and
+small and shy, but with eyes so comical that Puck is the only possible
+name by which she could be called. Seen unexpectedly, playing among the
+flowers in a fragment of green garment washed to the softness of a
+tulip leaf, you feel she only needs a pair of small wings and a wand to
+be entirely in character.
+
+Puck has none of Pickles' faults, and a good many of her virtues. She is
+a most good-tempered little person, loving to be loved, but equally
+delighted that others should share the petting. She gives up to
+everybody, and smiles her way through life; such a comical little mouth
+it is, to match the comical eyes. All she ever asks with insistence is
+somewhere to play. Bereft of room to play, Puck might become
+disagreeable, though a disagreeable Puck is something unimaginable.
+Yesterday it was needful to keep her in the shade; and as a special
+policeman-nurse could not be told off to keep watch over her, she was
+tied by a long string to the nursery door. At first she was sorely
+distressed; but presently the comic side struck her, and she sat down
+and began to tie herself up more securely. If they do such things at all
+they should do them better, she seemed to think. And this is Puck all
+through. She will find the laugh hidden in things, if she can. Sometimes
+in her eagerness to make everybody as happy as she is herself she gets
+into serious trouble. She was hardly able to walk when she was
+discovered comforting a crying infant by taking a bottle of milk from an
+older babe (who, according to her thinking, had had enough) and giving
+it to the younger one who seemed to need it more. What the older baby
+said is not recorded.
+
+Puck in trouble is a pitiful sight. She tries not to give in to feelings
+of depression. She screws her smiling lips tight, twists her face into a
+pucker, and shuts her eyes till you only see two slits marked by the
+curly eyelashes. But if her emotions are too much for her she gives
+herself up to them thoroughly. There is no whining or whimpering or
+sulking; she wails with a wail that rivals Pickles' howl. "What an awful
+child!" remarked a visitor one morning, in a very shocked tone, as she
+went the round of the nurseries and came upon Puck on the floor
+abandoned to grief. We wondered if our friend knew how much more awful
+most babies are, and we wished the usually charming Puck had chosen some
+other moment to disgrace herself and us. But no, there she sat, her two
+small fists crushed over her mouth--for we insist that when the babes
+feel obliged to cry, they shall smother the sound thereof as much as may
+be--and the visitor retired, feeling, doubtless, thankful the awful
+child was not hers. But Puck's griefs are of short duration. Ten minutes
+later she was climbing the chain from which the swing hangs, trying to
+fit her little toes into the links, and laughing, with the tears still
+wet on her cheeks, because the chain shook so that she could not climb
+it properly, though she tried it valiantly, hand over head, like a
+dancing bear on a pole. Puck's Guardian Angel, like Chellalu's, must be
+ever in attendance.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[B] Miss Lucy Ross.
+
+[C] "Pr�ma" means _Beloved_.
+
+[D] Miss Mabel Wade, who joined us November 15, 1907. "Piria," like
+"Pr�ma," means _Beloved_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+The Howler
+
+
+PICKLES and Puck at their worst and both together are nothing to the
+Howler in her separate capacity. We called her the Howler because she
+howled.
+
+We heard of her first through our good Pakium, who, during a pilgrimage
+round the district, paid a visit to the family of which she was the
+youngest member. "She lay in her cradle asleep"--Pakium kindled over
+it--"like an innocent little flower, and she once opened her eyes--such
+eyes!--and smiled up in my face. Oh, like a flower is the babe!" And
+much speech followed, till we pictured a tender, flower-like baby, all
+sweetness and smiles.
+
+Her story was such as to suggest fears, though on the surface things
+looked safe. Her grandfather, a fine old man, head of the house, was
+sheltering the baby and her mother and three other children; for the
+son-in-law had "gone to Colombo," which in this case meant he desired to
+be free from the responsibilities of wife and family. He had left no
+address, and had not written after his departure. So the old man had the
+five on his hands. A Temple woman belonging to a famous South-country
+Temple, knowing the circumstances, had made a flattering offer for the
+baby, then just three months old. The grandfather had refused; but the
+grandmother was religious, and she felt the pinch of the extra five, and
+secretly influenced her daughter, so that it was probable the Temple
+woman would win if she waited long enough. And Temple women know how to
+wait.
+
+[Illustration: THE DOHNAVUR COUNTRY IN FLOOD.]
+
+A year passed quietly. We had friends on the watch, and they kept us
+informed of what was going on. The idea of dedication was becoming
+gradually familiar to the grandfather, and he was ill and times were
+hard. But still we could do nothing, for to himself and his whole clan
+adoption by Christians was a far more unpleasant alternative than
+Temple-dedication. After all, the Temple people never break caste.
+
+Once a message reached us: "Send at once, for the Temple women are about
+to get the baby"; and we sent, but in vain. A few weeks later a similar
+message reached us; and again the long journey was made, and again there
+was the disappointing return empty-handed. It seemed useless to try any
+more.
+
+About that time a comrade in North Africa, Miss Lilias Trotter, sent us
+her new little booklet, "The Glory of the Impossible." As we read the
+first few paragraphs and roughly translated them for our Tamil
+fellow-workers, such a hope was created within us that we laid hold with
+fresh faith and a sort of quiet, confident joy. And yet, when we wrote
+to our friends who were watching, their answer was most discouraging.
+The only bright word in the letter was the word "Impossible."
+
+"Far up in the Alpine hollows, year by year, God works one of His
+marvels. The snow-patches lie there, frozen into ice at their edges from
+the strife of sunny days and frosty nights; and through that ice-crust
+come, unscathed, flowers in full bloom.
+
+"Back in the days of the bygone summer the little soldanella plant
+spread its leaves wide and flat on the ground to drink in the
+sun-rays; and it kept them stored in the root through the winter. Then
+spring came and stirred its pulses even below the snow-shroud. And as it
+sprouted, warmth was given out in such strange measure that it thawed a
+little dome of the snow above its head. Higher and higher it grew, and
+always above it rose the bell of air till the flower-bud formed safely
+within it; and at last the icy covering of the air-bell gave way and let
+the blossom through into the sunshine, the crystalline texture of its
+mauve petals sparkling like the snow itself, as if it bore the traces of
+the fight through which it had come.
+
+"And the fragile things ring an echo in our hearts that none of the
+jewel-like flowers nestled in the warm turf on the slopes below could
+waken. We love to see the impossible done, and so does God."
+
+These were the sentences which we read together. To the South Indian
+imagination Alpine snow is something quite inconceivable; but the
+picture on the cover and snow-scene photographs helped, and the Indian
+mind is ever quick to apprehend the spiritual, so the booklet did its
+work.
+
+We have two seasons here, the wet and the dry. The dry is subdivided
+into hot, hotter, and hottest; but the wet stands alone. It is a time
+when the country round Dohnavur is swamp or lake according to the level
+of the ground; and we do not expect visitors--the heavy bullock-carts
+sink in the mud and make the way too difficult. If a letter had come
+just then asking us to send for the baby, we should certainly have tried
+to go; but no letter came, and it was then, when everything said,
+"Impossible," that suddenly all resistance gave way and the grandfather
+said: "Let her go to the Christians."
+
+[Illustration: PAKIUM AND NAVEENA.]
+
+We were sitting round the dinner-table one wet evening, thinking of
+nothing more exciting than the flying and creeping creatures which
+insisted upon drowning themselves in our soup, when the jingle of
+bullock-bells made us look at each other incredulously; and then,
+without waiting to wonder who it was, we all ran out and met Rukma
+running in from the wet darkness. "It's it! it's it!" she cried, and
+danced into the dining-room, decorum thrown to the pools in the
+compound. "Look at it!" and we saw a bundle in her arms. And it howled.
+
+From that day on for nearly a week it continued consistently to howl. We
+called the little thing Naveena, for the name means "new"; and it was
+our nearest approach to Soldanella, which we should have called her if
+we did not keep to Indian names for our babies. New and fresh as that
+little flower of joy, so was our new little gift to us, a new token for
+good. But flowers and howlers--the words draw their little skirts aside
+and refuse to touch each other. From certain points of view, in this
+case as so often, the sublime and the ridiculous were much too close
+together. The very crows made remarks about the baby when she wakened
+the morning with her howls. Mercifully for the family's nerves she fell
+asleep at noon; but as soon as she woke she began again, and went on
+till both she and we were exhausted. There were no tears, the big dark
+eyes were only entirely defiant; and the baby stood straight up with her
+hands behind her back and her mouth open--that was all. But we knew it
+meant pure misery, though expressed so very aggressively; and we coaxed
+and petted when she would allow us, and won her confidence at last, and
+then she stopped.
+
+It took months to tame the little thing. She had been allowed to do
+exactly as she liked; for she was her grandfather's pet, and no one
+might cross her will. We had to go very gently; but eventually she
+understood and became a dear little girl, reserved but very
+affectionate, and scampish to such a degree that Chellalu, discerning a
+congenial spirit, decided to adopt her as "her friend."
+
+This fact was announced to us at the babies' Bible-class, when the word
+"friend," which was new to the babies, was being explained. It has four
+syllables in Tamil, and the babies love four-syllabled words. They were
+rolling this juicy morsel under their tongues with sounds of
+appreciation, when Chellalu pointed across to Naveena, and with an air
+of possession remarked, "_She_ is my friend." The other babies nodded
+their heads, "Yes, Naveena is Chellalu's friend!" Naveena looked
+flattered and very pleased.
+
+These friends in a kindergarten class are rather terrible. They are
+always separated--as the Tamil would say, if one sits north the other
+sits south--but even so there are means of communication. This morning,
+passing the door of the kindergarten room, I looked in and saw something
+not included in the time-table. We have a little yellow bellflower here
+which grows in great profusion; and some vandal taught the babies to
+blow it up like a little balloon, and then snap it on the forehead. The
+crack it makes is delightful. We do not like this game, and try to teach
+the babies to respect the pretty flowers; but there are so many sins in
+the world, that we do not make another by actually forbidding it; we
+trust to time and sense and good feeling to help us. So it comes to pass
+that the worst scamps indulge in this game without feeling too guilty;
+and now I saw Chellalu with a handful of the flowers, cracking them at
+intervals, to the distraction of the teacher and the delight of all the
+class. One other was cracking flowers too. It was Naveena, and there was
+a method in her cracks. When Rukma turned to Chellalu, Naveena cracked
+her flower. When she turned to Naveena, then Chellalu cracked hers. How
+they had eluded the search which precedes admission to the kindergarten
+nobody knew; but there they were, each with a goodly handful of bells.
+At a word from Rukma, however, they handed them over to her with an
+indulgent smile, and even offered to search the other babies in case
+they had secreted any; and as I left the room the lesson continued as
+before, but the friends' intention was evident: they had hoped to be
+turned out together.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+The Neyoor Nursery
+
+          "The roads are rugged, the precipices steep; there
+          may be feelings of dizziness on the heights, gusts
+          of wind, peals of thunder, nights of awful gloom.
+          Fear them not!
+
+          "There are also the joys of sunlight, flowers such
+          as are not in the plain, the purest of air,
+          restful nooks, and the stars smile thence like the
+          eyes of God."--P�RE DIDON (_translated by Rev.
+          Arthur G. Nash_).
+
+
+[Illustration: ON THE ROAD TO NEYOOR.]
+
+AND now for a chapter of history. We had not been long at the new work
+before we discovered difficulties unimagined before, and impossible to
+describe in detail. Some of these concerned the health of the younger
+children; and eventually it seemed best to move the infants' nursery to
+within reach of medical help, and keep the bigger babies and elder
+children, whose protection was another grave anxiety, with us at
+Dohnavur.
+
+Shortly before that time we had been brought into touch with the medical
+missionaries at Neyoor, in South Travancore. The senior missionary, Dr.
+Fells, was about to retire; but his successor, Dr. Bentall, cordially
+agreed to let us rent a little house in the village and fill it with
+babies, though he knew such a houseful might materially add to the
+fulness of his already overflowing day. He, and afterwards Dr. Davidson
+(now the only survivor at Neyoor of that kind trio of doctors), seemed
+to think nothing a trouble if only it helped a friend. So the little
+house was taken and the babies installed.
+
+[Illustration: ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF NAGERCOIL, WHERE WE STOPPED TO REST.]
+
+The first day, September 25, 1905, is a day to be remembered. I had gone
+on before to prepare the house, and for a day and a half waited in
+uncertainty as to what had happened to the little party which was to
+have followed close behind. I had left one baby ill. She was the first
+child sent to us from the Canarese country; and I thought of the friends
+who had sent her, newly interested and stirred to seek these little
+ones, and of what it would mean of discouragement to them if she were
+taken, and my heart held on for her.
+
+At last the carts appeared in sight. It was the windy season, and six
+carts had been overturned on the road, so they had travelled slowly.
+Then a wheel came off one of their carts and an accident was narrowly
+averted. This had caused the delay. The baby about whom I had feared had
+recovered in time to be sent on. She was soon quite well, and has
+continued well from that day to this.
+
+How familiar the road between Dohnavur and Neyoor became to us, as the
+months passed and frequent journeys were made with little new babies!
+Sometimes those journeys were very wearisome. There was great heat, or a
+dust-laden wind filled the bandy to suffocation and blew out the
+spirit-lamp when we stopped to prepare the babies' food. How glad we
+used to be when, in the early evening, the white gleam of the stretch of
+water outside Nagercoil appeared in sight! We used to stop and bathe the
+babies, and feed them under some convenient trees, and then go on to our
+friends with whom we were to spend the night, trusting that the soothing
+effect of the bathe and food would not pass off until after our arrival.
+Those friends, our comrades of the L.M.S., like the Medicals at
+Neyoor, seemed made of kindness. How often their welcome has rested us
+after the long day!
+
+Next morning we tried to start early, so as to arrive at Neyoor before
+the sun shone in fever-threatening strength straight in through the open
+end of the cart. This plan, however, proved too difficult, so we found
+it better to travel slowly straight on from Dohnavur to Neyoor. In this
+way we missed the blazing sun; but we also missed the refreshment of our
+friends at Nagercoil, and arrived more or less tired out, after a
+journey which, because of slow progress and frequent stops, was equal in
+time to one from London to Marseilles. But the welcome at the nursery
+made up for everything.
+
+How vividly the photograph recalls it! The house opened upon the main
+street of the village, and there was nearly always a watcher on the
+look-out for us. Sometimes it was Isaac, our good man-of-all-work, who
+never failed Ponnamal through the two years he was with us. Then we
+would hear a call, and Ponnamal (we used to call her the Princess, but
+dignity gives place to something more human at such moments) would come
+flying down the path with a face which made words superfluous. Then
+there was the scramble out of the bandy, and the handing down of babies
+and exclamations about them; and all the nurses seemed to be kissing us
+at once and making their amazed babies kiss us, and everything was for
+one happy moment bewilderingly delightful.
+
+Then there was the run round the cradles in which smaller babies were
+sleeping, and an eager comparing of notes as to the improvement of each.
+And if there were no improvement, how well one remembers the smothered
+sense of disappointment--smothered in public at least, lest the nurses
+should be discouraged. Then came a cup of tea on the mat in the little
+front room, where four white hammock-cradles hung, one in each corner;
+while Ponnamal sat beside me with three babies on her knee and two or
+three more somewhere near her. The babies used to study me in their wise
+and serious fashion, and then make careful advances. And so we would
+make friends.
+
+Ponnamal had always much to tell about the exhaustless kindness of the
+doctors and their wives and the lady superintendent of the hospital. And
+the chief Tamil medical Evangelist had been true to his name, which
+means Blessedness. Once, in much distress of mind, we sent a little babe
+to the nursery, hardly daring to hope for her. When she arrived, the
+doctors were both away on tour, and the medical Evangelist was in
+charge. He attended to her at once, and by God's grace upon his work was
+able to relieve the little child, who has prospered ever since.
+
+But I must leave unrecorded many acts of helpfulness. In those early
+days of doubt and difficulty, almost forgotten by us now, we beckoned to
+our "partners which were in the other ship," and their Master and ours
+will not forget how they held out willing hands and helped us.
+
+It was not always plain sailing, even at Neyoor. "You are fighting Satan
+at a point upon which he is very sensitive; he will not leave you long
+in peace," wrote an experienced friend. On Palm Sunday, 1907, our first
+little band of young girls, fruit of this special work, confessed Christ
+in baptism, and we stood by the shining reach of water, and tasted of a
+joy so pure and thrilling that nothing of earth may be likened to it. A
+fortnight later we were ordered to the hills, and then the trouble came.
+
+The immediate cause was overcrowding. Why did we overcrowd?
+
+Friends at home to whom the facts about Temple service were new, were
+stirred to earnest prayer. Out here fellow-missionaries helped us to
+save the children. God heard the prayer and blessed the work, and
+children began to come. Soon our one little room became too full. We had
+babies in the bungalow and on our verandah, babies everywhere. Then
+money came to build two more rooms, but they were soon too full. At
+Neyoor the pressure was worse, for we could only rent two small houses;
+and though we put up mat shelters, and the children lived as much as
+possible in the open air, it was difficult to manage. But how could we
+refuse the little children? The Temple women were ready to take them if
+we had refused. Their houses are never too full. There was no other
+nursery to which they could be sent. Little children who had passed the
+troublesome infant stage could sometimes find a home elsewhere; but only
+the Temple houses were open at all times to babies. Could we have
+written to the friend who had saved a little child: "Hand her back to
+the Temple. It is the will of our Father that this little one should
+perish"? Should we have done it? We dare not do it. We prayed that help
+would be sent to build new nurseries, and we went on and did our best;
+but it was difficult.
+
+We had just reached the hills in early April, and were forbidden to
+return, when news reached us of a fatal epidemic of dysentery which had
+broken out in the Neyoor nursery. Unseasonable rains had fallen and
+driven the babies indoors; this increased the overcrowding. The doctors
+were away. Letters telling us about the disaster had been lost--how, we
+never knew--so that the second which reached us, taking it for granted
+we had the first, gave no details, only the names of the smitten
+babes--nineteen of them, and five dead. Then trouble followed trouble.
+"While he was yet speaking, there came also another." Some evil men who
+had sought to injure us before, caused us infinite anxiety. And for a
+time that cannot be counted in days or in weeks it was like living
+through a nightmare, when everything happens in painful confusion and
+the sense of oppression is complete.
+
+[Illustration: THE NEYOOR NURSERY.]
+
+Out of the maelstrom came a letter from Ponnamal. "We are being
+comforted," she wrote. "You will be longing to come to us, but oh, do
+not come! If you were here all your strength would be given to fighting
+this battle with death, and you would have no strength left for prayer.
+God wanted to have one of us free to pray; and so He has taken you up to
+the mountain, as He took Moses when the people were fighting down in the
+plain." This was the true inward meaning of it all, and I knew it. But
+Ponnamal is far from strong, and I feared for her; and to stay away with
+the babies ill--it was the very hardest thing I had ever been asked to
+do.
+
+When the trouble passed there were ten in heaven. One, a little child of
+two, had been saved so wonderfully from Temple dedication that we had
+looked forward to a future of special blessing for her; and another was
+a very lovely babe, dear to the missionary who, after much toil and many
+disappointments, had been comforted by saving her. Each of the ten had
+cost someone much. But this is an earthly point of view. They had cost
+Him most who had taken them, and he is only an owner in name who has no
+right to do as he will with his own.
+
+The other side, the purely human side, pressed heavily just then. The
+doctors had most kindly at once ordered a mission room, vacated at that
+season, to be lent to the nursery, and another little house was taken
+for the month. How Ponnamal kept all four houses going in an orderly
+fashion, how she kept her nurses together through that time of almost
+panic, and how she herself, frail and delicate as she is, kept up till
+all was over, we cannot understand from any point of view but the
+Divine. She only broke down once. It was when her dearest child, our
+merry, beautiful little Heart's Joy, who, having more strength than
+most, had battled longer and almost recovered, suddenly sank. The
+visible cause was that a special nutrient, which, being costly, we
+stocked in small quantities, ran short, and the fresh supply reached the
+nursery just too late. "If only it had come yesterday!" moaned Ponnamal,
+and we with her when we heard of the series of contretemps which had
+delayed its arrival. The torture of second causes is as the blackness of
+darkness, but the Lord gave deliverance from it; for just as she had to
+part with all that was left her of our little Heart's Joy, a letter came
+from Dr. Davidson which was God's own blessed comfort to a heart almost
+broken. She never refers to that letter without the quick tears
+starting. "I could let my little treasure go after I read that letter.
+It strengthened me."
+
+While all this was going on in Neyoor, Chellalu, then just two years
+old, was very ill in Dohnavur. Mr. and Mrs. Walker were still there, and
+they nursed her night and day; but at last a letter came, evidently
+meant to prepare me for fresh sorrow. "Every little lamb belongs to the
+Good Shepherd, not to us," the letter said, and told of a temperature
+106� and rising. The child, all spirit and frolic, had little reserve
+strength, and there was not much cause for hope. But we were spared this
+parting. Chellalu is with us still.
+
+The sky was clearing again and we were beginning to breathe freely, when
+the worst that had ever touched us in all our years of work came
+suddenly upon us. How small things that affect the body appear when the
+point of attack wheels round to the soul! The death of all the babies
+seemed as nothing compared with the falling away of one soul. But God is
+the God of the waves and the billows, and they are still His when they
+come over us; and again and again we have proved that the overwhelming
+thing does not overwhelm. Once more by His interposition deliverance
+came. We were cast down, but not destroyed.
+
+A time of calm succeeded this storm. Money came to build nurseries at
+Dohnavur, and buy more of the special nutrients we so much required. The
+Neyoor remnant picked up, and the nurses took heart again. I went out to
+them as soon as I could after our return from the hills, and found those
+who were left well and strong. "They shall see His face" had been the
+text in _Daily Light_, the evening the news reached me of the little
+procession heavenwards. I looked at the ten names written in the margin
+of my book; and, recalling the story of each, could be glad they have
+seen the face of the One who loves them best. Lower down on the page
+come the words, "We shall be satisfied." We thought of our babies
+satisfied so soon; and then we knelt together and said, "Even so,
+Father: for so it seemeth good in Thy sight."
+
+Pretty pictures all in colours and bright sunshine tempt one to linger
+over that visit. I can see the white hammocks slung from the trees in
+the nursery compound, and happy baby-faces looking out of them. And
+another shows me one who had been like a sister to Ponnamal, lightening
+her load whenever she could; sitting with two dear babies in her arms,
+and another clinging round her neck. "She comes and helps us often in
+the mornings when we are very busy," said Ponnamal about the doctor's
+wife, as I noticed the babies' affection for her and her sweet, kind
+ways with them. "Sometimes when I am feeling down and home-sick, she
+comes in like this and plays with the babies, and cheers us all up." The
+Indian woman is very home-loving. Only devotion to the children could
+have kept the nurses and Ponnamal so long in exile for their sake; and
+there were times when even Ponnamal's brave heart sank. Then these
+love-touches helped.
+
+When the time came for the nursery party to leave Neyoor and return to
+Dohnavur, after two and a half years in that hospitable mission, we were
+sorry to part. Days like the days we had passed through test the stuff
+of which souls are made, and they prove what we call friendship. After
+the fire has spent itself, the fine gold shines out purified, and there
+is something solemn in its light. We had grown close to our friends in
+Neyoor; but the cloud had moved, so far as we could read the sign, and
+it seemed right to return. The missionaries were away when the day came,
+but the Christians surrounded Ponnamal with tokens of goodwill. "The
+nursery has been like a little light in our midst," they said; and this
+word cheered her more than all other words. And so farewelled, they
+arrived home, all glad and warm with the glow that comes when hearts
+meet each other and each finds the other kind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+In the Compound and Near it
+
+
+[Illustration: THE OLD NURSERY. THE "ROOM OF JOY."]
+
+"NOW I know why God put you in Dohnavur when He wanted this work done.
+He hid you from the eyes of the world for the little children's sake. He
+knew this work could never have been done by the road-side, so He hid
+you."
+
+The speaker was a Christian friend from Palamcottah, an Indian lawyer
+who, for the first time, had come out to see us. He had found our
+approaches appalling, and had wondered at first why we lived in such an
+out-of-the-way place, three or four miles from the nearest road, and
+twenty-four from civilisation. When he saw the children he understood.
+Later, he helped us in an attempt to save two little ones in danger, and
+insisted not only upon paying his own and our worker's expenses, but in
+sending us a gift for the nurseries. With the gift came a letter full of
+loving, Indian sympathy; and again he added as before: "The Lord hid you
+in that quiet place for the little children's sake." Sometimes when the
+inconveniences of jungle life press upon us, we remember our friend's
+words: "This work could never have been done by the road-side, so He hid
+you."
+
+We have children with us who would not have been safe for a day had we
+lived near a large town or near a railway. The stretch of open country
+between us and Palamcottah (the Church Missionary Society centre of the
+Tinnevelly district), to cover which, by bullock-cart, takes as long as
+to travel from London to Brussels, is not considered very safe for
+solitary Indian travellers, as the robber clan frequent it, and this is
+an added protection for the children. Several times, to our knowledge,
+unwelcome visitors have been deterred from making a raid upon us, by the
+rumour of the robbers on the road. We are also most mercifully quite out
+of the beat of the ordinary exploiter of missions; few except the really
+keen care for such a journey; so that we get on with our work
+uninterrupted by anything but the occasional arrival of welcome friends
+and comrades. These, when they visit us for the first time, are usually
+much astonished to find something almost civilised out in the wilds, and
+they walk round with an air of surprise, and quite inspiring
+appreciation, being kindly pleased with little, because they had looked
+for less.
+
+[Illustration: THE COURTYARD.]
+
+The compound in which the nurseries are built is a field, bounded on
+three sides by fields, and on the fourth by the bungalow compound. The
+Western Ghauts with their foothills make it a beautiful place.
+
+The buildings are not beautiful. With us, as elsewhere, doubtless, even
+the break of a gable in the straight, barn-like roof makes a difference
+in the estimate, and we have never had a margin for luxuries. But the
+walls are coloured a soft terra-cotta, the roofs are a dull red; while
+the porches (hidden by the palm trunks in the photograph) are a mass of
+greenery and bloom; and the garden at the moment of writing is rejoicing
+in over a hundred lilies, brilliant yellow and flame colour, each head
+with its many flowers rising separate and radiant in the sunshine. Then
+we have oleanders, crimson and pink and white, and little young hibiscus
+trees, crimson and rose and cream. The arches in the new nursery
+garden are covered with the lilac of morning-glory; and the Prayer-room
+in the middle of the garden is a mass of violet passion-flower, the
+pretty pink antigone, and starry jessamine. The very hedges at this
+season are out in yellow flower, and a trellis round the nursery kitchen
+is a delight of colour; so though our buildings are simple, we think the
+lines have fallen unto us in pleasant places.
+
+The first picture shows the old nursery, used now for the kindergarten.
+It opens off the courtyard shown in the second photo. This courtyard
+serves as an open-air room, a bright little place which is filled with
+merrier children than the sober photograph shows. Tamils old and young
+move when they laugh or even smile; in fact they wriggle. Being still,
+with them, meant being seriously subdued; and so, where time-exposures
+were required, we had to choose between solemn photos, or no photos at
+all.
+
+Opening off the courtyard on the opposite side to the kindergarten is a
+room used as a store-room and Bible-class room combined. It was so very
+uncomfortable that last Christmas, as a surprise for the children, we
+divided the room into two halves with a curtain between. Their half is
+made pretty with pictures and texts, painted in blue on pale brown wood.
+The children call this part of the room the Tabernacle. The part beyond
+the curtain is the court of the Gentiles.
+
+The Coming-Day Feasts are a feature of Dohnavur life. Now that there are
+so many feasts to celebrate, we find it more convenient to combine; and
+the photograph overleaf shows as much as it can of one such happy feast.
+The children who are being f�ted are distinguished from the others by
+having flowers in their hair. No Indian feast is complete without
+flowers. Jessamine is the favourite, but the prettiest wreaths are made
+of pink oleander; and sometimes a girl will surprise us with a new and
+lovely combination, as of brown flowering grasses and yellow Tecoma
+bells.
+
+[Illustration: A COMING-DAY FEAST.]
+
+Opposite the kindergarten room is the first of the two new
+nurseries--the lively Parrot-house. This nursery, really the Taraha
+(Star, called after its English giver, whose name means "star") is the
+abode of the middle-aged babies, aged between two years and four. Most
+of these attend the kindergarten, and are very proud of the fact.
+
+The Pr�malia nursery (Abode of Love), given by two friends in memory of
+a mother translated, lies beyond the Taraha. Here the tiny infants live,
+and we call it the Menagerie. This nursery, like the other, looks out on
+the glorious mountains. If beautiful things can make babies good, ours
+should be very good.
+
+On the eastern side of the field we have lately built two small
+sick-rooms, used oftener as overflow nurseries. These little rooms have
+names meaning "peace" and "tranquillity"; and those of us who have lived
+in them with our babies, sick or well, find the names appropriate. In
+the foreground there is a garden, in the background the mountain; and to
+give purpose to it all, the foreground is full of life. A new nursery
+now being built is a welcome gift from Australia; and a new field with a
+noble tree, in whose shade a hundred children could play, is the gift of
+a friend who stayed with us for one bright week last year.
+
+All this is a later development, unthought of when our artist friend was
+with us. We have often wished for him since the nurseries filled. When
+he was with us our choice of subject was very limited: now, wherever we
+look we see pictures, which to be properly caught ask for colour
+photography.
+
+The story of these buildings is the story of the Ravens, so old and yet
+so new. When first the work began, we had only one mud-floored room for
+nursery, kitchen, bedroom, and everything else that was needed. We
+hardly knew ourselves whereunto things would grow, and feared to run
+before the Lord by even a prayer for buildings. And yet we could not go
+on as we were. The birds were soon too many for the nest, and we needed
+more nests. No one knew of our need; for visitors at that time were few
+at Dohnavur, and we told no one. But money began to come. We ventured on
+a single room without a verandah or even foundations--built of sun-dried
+bricks as inexpensively as possible. But it was a palace to us. While we
+were building it, more little children came. We felt we should need more
+room, but had not more money; so we told the builders to wait for a day
+while we gave ourselves to prayer about the matter. Was the work going
+to grow much more? We were fearful of making mistakes. Were we right to
+incur fresh responsibility?--for buildings need to be kept in condition,
+and the cheaper they are the more care they need. No one at home was
+responsible for us. No one had authorised this new work. It would not be
+fair to saddle those on whom the burden might eventually fall with
+responsibilities for which they were not responsible. And yet surely the
+work of saving these little children had been given to us to do? Someone
+was responsible. Surely, unless we were utterly wrong and had mistaken
+the Shepherd's Voice, surely He was responsible! He could not mean us to
+search for the lambs for whom only the wolves had been searching, and
+then leave them out in the open, found but unfolded, or packed so close
+in the little fold that they could not grow as little lambs should?
+
+We rolled the burden off that day as to the ultimate responsibility, and
+we asked definitely for all that was needed to build another room.
+
+Three days later a registered letter came from a bank in Madras. It
+contained an anonymous gift of one hundred rupees, and was marked, "For
+a new nursery." The date showed that it had been posted in Madras on the
+day of our waiting upon God for guidance as to His wishes. A few days
+later, the same amount, with the same direction as to its use, was sent
+to us from the same bank. The giver, as we knew long afterwards, was a
+fellow-missionary in Tinnevelly, whose order to send these sums to us
+was given before even we ourselves had fully understood the meaning of
+the leading. The second room was built on to the first, and the children
+called it the Room of Joy.
+
+[Illustration: THE RED LAKE.
+
+Water Palms, with Mountains in the background.]
+
+There are no secrets in India. The Hindu masons were amazed at what they
+at once recognised as the hand of the Lord upon the work, and they
+spread the story everywhere. Later, when they built the nursery where
+poor little Mala stood and mourned, they understood why they had to stop
+before the verandah was built. Only enough was in hand to build the bare
+room; but to their eyes, as to ours, a verandah was much needed, and
+they were content to wait till what was required for one came. In this
+land of blazing sunshine and drenching monsoon a house without a
+verandah is hardly habitable, and a small square room without one has a
+Manx-cat appearance.
+
+The story of the rooms has been repeated in the story of the work ever
+since. "Do not thank us. It is only a belated tenth," wrote a
+fellow-missionary not long ago, as she sent a gift for the nurseries.
+Belated tenths have reached us sometimes when they have been like
+visible ravens flying straight from the blue above. All the long
+journeys in search of the children, all the expenses connected with
+their salvation, all that has been required to provide nurses and food
+(including the special nourishment without which the more delicate could
+not live at all), all that is now being needed for their education--all
+has come and is coming as the ravens came to Elijah. The work has
+been a revelation of how many hearts are sensitive and obedient to
+the touch of the Spirit; for sometimes help has reached us in such a way
+and in such form that we could not but stand and worship, awestruck by
+the token of the nearness of our God. There is many a spot marked in
+garden or in field or in the busy nursery or our own quiet room, where,
+with the open letter in our hand--the letter of relief from a pressure
+unknown even to the nearest fellow-worker--we have knelt in spirit with
+Jacob and said: "Surely the Lord is in this place!" and almost added, so
+dense are we in unilluminated moments, "and I knew it not."
+
+Framed between red roofs and foliage, there are far blue glimpses of
+mountains shown in this lakeside photograph. We do not see the water
+from the compound. It lies on the other side of the boundary fields and
+hedges; but we see the mountains with perfect distinctness of outline,
+scarped with bare crags, which in the early morning are sometimes pink,
+and in the evening, purple. But the time to see the mountains in their
+glory is when the south-west monsoon is flinging its masses of cloud
+across to us. Then the mountains, waking from the lazy sleep of the
+long, hot months, catch the clouds on their pointed fangs, toss them
+back and harry them, wrap themselves up in robes of them, and go to
+sleep again.
+
+The road that skirts the Red Lake leads through two ancient Hindu towns,
+from both of which we have children saved, in each case as by a miracle.
+In the first of these old towns there is a Temple surrounded by a mighty
+wall.
+
+There are two large gates and one small side door in the wall; and,
+passing in through the small side door, one sees another wall almost as
+strong as the first, and realises something of the power that built it.
+The Temple is in the centre of the large enclosure. It is a single tower
+opening off the inner court. In the outer court a pillared hall is used
+as stable for the Temple elephant, and two camels lounge in the roughly
+kept garden in front. This Temple, with its double walls, its massive,
+splendidly-carved doors and expensive animal life, is somewhat of a
+surprise to the visitor, who hardly expects to see so much in a little
+old country town on the borders of the wilds. But Hinduism has not lost
+hold of this old remote India yet. There are some who think that the
+country town is the place to see it in strength.
+
+[Illustration: AT THE DOOR OF THE TEMPLE.]
+
+It was early in August, three years ago, that we heard of a baby girl in
+that town, devoted from birth to the god. We set wheels in motion, and
+waited. A month passed and nothing was done. We could not go ourselves
+and attempt to persuade the mother to change the vow she had made, as
+any movement on our part would only have riveted the links that fettered
+the child to the god. We had to be quiet and wait. At last, one evening
+in September, a Hindu arrived in the town with whom our friends who were
+on the watch had intimate connection. He, too, knew about the child; and
+he knew a way unknown to our friends by which the mother might be
+influenced, and he consented to try. His arrival just at that juncture
+appeared to us, who were waiting in daily expectation of an answer of
+deliverance, as the evident beginning of that answer; thus our faith was
+quickened and we waited in keen hope. Two days later, after dark, there
+was a rush from the nursery to the bungalow. "The baby has come!"
+Another moment, and we were in the nursery. A woman--one of our
+friends--was standing with what looked like a parcel wrapped in a cloth
+hidden under her arm. Even then, though all was safe, she was trembling;
+and outside, two men, her relations, stood on guard. She opened the
+white cloth, and inside was the baby.
+
+The men assured us that all was right. The mother had been convinced
+of the wrongness of dedicating the little babe, and would give us no
+trouble. But a day or two later, she came and demanded it back. She
+could not stand the derision of her friends, who told her she had sinned
+far more in giving her child to those who would break its caste than she
+ever could have done had she given it to the Temple. We pacified her
+with difficulty, and were thankful when the little thing was safe in the
+Neyoor nursery. For in those days, before we learned how best to protect
+our children, we were often glad to have some place even more out of
+reach than Dohnavur.
+
+The second of these old towns is famous for its rock, and its Temple
+built into the rock. Looking down from above one can see inside the
+courtyard as into an open well. Connected with this Temple, some years
+ago, there was a beautiful young Temple woman, who had been given as a
+child--as all Temple women must be--to the service of the gods. She had
+no choice as regarded herself--probably the idea of choice never entered
+her mind--but for her babe she determined to choose; and yet she knew of
+no way of deliverance.
+
+But there was a way of deliverance, and if it had only been for this one
+child's sake, and for the sake of the relief it must have been to that
+fear-haunted mother, we are glad with a gladness too deep for words that
+the nursery was here. For the mother heard of it. There were lions in
+the path. She quietly avoided them, and through others who were willing
+to help she sent her child to us. She herself would not come. She waited
+a mile or so from the bungalow till the matter was concluded, then
+returned to her home alone.
+
+A week later she appeared suddenly at the bungalow. It was only to make
+sure the little one was safe and well, and in order to sign a paper
+saying she was wholly given to us. This done she disappeared again,
+refusing speech with anyone, and for months we heard nothing of her.
+Then cholera swept our countryside, and we heard she had taken it and
+died. We leave her to God her Creator, who alone knows all the story of
+her life: we only know enough to make us very silent. And through the
+quiet we hear as it were a voice that chants a fragment from an old
+hymn: "We believe that THOU shalt come to be our Judge."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+From the Temple of the Rock
+
+
+ANOTHER little girl who came from that same Temple of the Rock has a
+story very different from the other, and far more typical.
+
+It was on a blazing day in June, when the very air, tired of being hot,
+leaned heavily upon us, and we felt unequal to contest, that a cough
+outside my open door announced a visitor. "Come in!" Another cough, and
+I looked out and saw a shuffling form disappear round the corner of the
+house. I called again, and the figure turned. It was a man who had
+helped us before, but about whose _bon�-fides_ we had doubts; so we
+asked without much hopefulness what he had to tell us. He said he had
+reason to believe a certain Temple woman known to him had a child she
+meant to dedicate to the god of a Temple a day's journey distant. Then
+he paused. "Do you know where she is now?" "She is on her way to the
+Temple." "It would be well if she came here instead." "If that is the
+Animal's desire it may be possible to bring her." "Has she gone far?
+Could you overtake her?" "She is waiting outside your gate."
+
+At such a moment it is wise to show no surprise and no anxiety. All the
+burning eagerness must be covered up with coolness. But in the hour that
+intervened before the woman "at the gate" could be persuaded to come
+further, we quieted ourselves in the Lord our God and held on for the
+little child.
+
+At last the shuffling step and the sound of voices told us they had
+come--two women, the man, and a child. The child was a baby of something
+under two, a sad-looking little thing, with great, dark, pathetic eyes
+looking out from under limp brown curls. She was very pale and fragile;
+and when the woman who carried her set her down upon the floor and
+propped her against the wall, she leaned against it listlessly, with her
+little chin in her tiny hand, in a sorrowful, grown-up fashion. I longed
+to take her and nestle her comfortably; but, of course, took no notice
+of her. Any sign of pity or sympathy would have been misunderstood by
+the women. All through the interminable talk upon which her fate
+depended, that child sat wearily patient, making no demands upon anyone;
+only the little head drooped, and the mouth grew pitiful in its complete
+despondency.
+
+The ways of the East are devious. The fact that the child had been
+brought to us did not indicate a decision to give her to us instead of
+to the Temple. The woman and the man who had persuaded them to come had
+much to say to one another, and there was much we had to explain. A
+child given to Temple service is not in all cases entirely cut off from
+her people. If the Temple woman's hold on her is sure, her relations are
+sometimes allowed to visit her; so far as friendly intercourse goes she
+is not lost to them. But with us things are different. For the child's
+own sake we have to refuse all intercourse whatever. Once given to us,
+she is lost to them as if they had never had her. We adopt the little
+one altogether or not at all.
+
+It is a delicate thing to explain all this so clearly that there can be
+no misunderstanding about it, without so infuriating the relations that
+they will have nothing more to do with us. Naturally their view-point is
+entirely different from ours, and they cannot appreciate our reasons.
+At such a time we lean upon the Invisible, and count upon that
+supernatural help which alone is sufficient for us; we count also upon
+the prayers of those who know what it is to pray through all opposing
+forces, till the battle is won by faith which is the victory.
+
+It was strange to watch the women as the talk went on. The _woman_
+within them had died, there was nothing of it left to which we could
+appeal; everything about them was perverted, unnatural. I looked at the
+insensitive faces and then at the sensitive face of the child, and
+entered deeper than ever into the mercifulness of God's denunciations of
+sin.
+
+Once towards the close of what had been a time of some tension, the
+leader of the two women suddenly sprang up, snatched at the tired baby,
+and flung out of the room with her. She had been gradually hardening;
+and I had felt rather than seen the shutting down of the prison-house
+gates upon that little soul, and had, as a last resource, appealed to
+the sense, not wholly atrophied, the sense that recognises the
+supernatural. God is, I told them briefly; God takes cognisance of what
+we are and do: God will repay: some time, somewhere, God will punish
+sin. The arrow struck through to the mark. Startled, indignant,
+overwhelmed by the sweep of an awful conviction, with a passionate cry
+she rushed away; and we lived through one breathless moment, but the
+next saw the child dropped into our arms, safe at last.
+
+Facts about any matter of importance are usually other than at first
+stated; but we have reason to believe that in this instance our
+shuffling friend spoke the truth. The women were really on their way to
+the Temple when he waylaid them. The wonder was that they allowed
+themselves to be persuaded by him to come to us. But if nothing happened
+except what we might naturally expect would happen in this work, we
+might as well give it up at once. If we did not expect our Jericho
+walls to fall down flat, it would be foolish indeed to continue marching
+round them.
+
+It was a relief when the women left the compound, after signing a paper
+committing the child to us. There is defilement in the mere thought of
+evil, but such close contact with it is a thing by itself. The sense of
+contamination lasted for days; and yet would that we could go through it
+every day if the result might be the same! For the child woke up to a
+new life, and became what a child should be. At first it was very
+pitiful. She would sit hour after hour as she had sat through that first
+hour, with her chin in hand, her eyes cast down, and the little mouth
+pathetic. We found that, in accordance with a custom prevailing in the
+coterie of Temple women belonging to the Temple of the Rock, she had
+been lent by her mother to another woman when she was an infant, the
+other lending her baby in exchange. This exchange had worked sadly; for
+the little one had asked for something which had not been given her, and
+her two years had left her starved of love and experienced in
+loneliness. But when she came to us everything changed; for love and
+happiness took her hands and led her back to baby ways, and taught her
+how to laugh and play: and now there is nothing left to remind us of
+those two first years but a certain droop of the little mouth when she
+feels for the moment desolate, or wants some extra petting.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+Yos�pu
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE WATER CARRIERS.]
+
+NO description of the compound would be complete without mention of
+Yos�pu, friend of the babies.
+
+This photograph shows the Indian equivalent of pumps and water-pipes. We
+have neither; so all the water required for a family of about a hundred
+has to be drawn from the well and carried to the kitchens and nurseries.
+The elder girls, who would otherwise help with the work, according to
+South Indian custom, are already fully employed with the babies. So at
+present the men do it all. They also buy the grain and other
+food-stuffs, look after the cows and vegetable garden--a necessity for
+those who dwell far from markets--and in all other possible masculine
+ways are of service to the family.
+
+Chief of these men is Yos�pu, whose seamed and wrinkled and most
+expressive face I wish we had photographed, instead of this not very
+interesting string of solemnities.
+
+Yos�pu is not like a man, he is more like a dear dog. He has the ways of
+our dog-friends, their patience and fidelity, their gratefulness for
+pats.
+
+He came to us in a wrecked condition, thin and weak and rather queer. He
+had been beaten by his Hindu brother for becoming a Christian, and it
+had been too much for him. The first time we saw him, a few minutes
+after his arrival, he was standing leaning against a post with folded
+hands and upturned eyes and a general expression of resignation which
+went to our hearts. We found afterwards he was not feeling resigned so
+much as hungry, and he was better after food.
+
+For a week he slept, ate, and meditated. Sometimes he would hover round
+us, if such a verb is admissible for his seriousness of gait. He would
+wait till we noticed him, then sigh and extend his hand. He wanted us to
+feel his pulse--both pulses. This ceremony always refreshed him, and he
+would return to his corner of the verandah and meditate till his next
+meal came.
+
+Sometimes, however, more attention was required. He would linger after
+his pulses were felt, and we knew he was not satisfied. One day a happy
+thought struck us. The Tamil loves scent. The very babies sniff our
+hands if we happen to be using scented soap, and tell each other
+rapturously what they think about that "chope." Scent is the one thing
+they cannot resist. A tin of sweets on our table may be untouched for
+days, few babies being wicked enough to venture upon it in our absence;
+but a bottle of scent is irresistible, and scented "chope" on our
+washing-stands has a way of growing thin. The baby will emerge from our
+bathrooms rubbing suspiciously clean hands, and in her innocence will
+invite us to smell them. Then we know why our "chope" disappears. So now
+that Yos�pu needed something to lift him over the trials of life, we
+remembered the gift of a good Scottish friend, and tried the effect of
+eau-de-Cologne. It worked most wonderfully. Yos�pu held out his two
+hands joined close lest a single drop should spill, and then he stood
+and sniffed. It would have made a perfect advertisement--the big brown
+man with his hands folded over his nose, and an expression of absolute
+bliss upon every visible feature. Now, when Yos�pu is down-hearted, we
+always try eau-de-Cologne.
+
+His first move towards being of use was when some of our children had
+small-pox and were put up in a half-finished room which was being built.
+"It has walls and it has a roof, therefore it is suitable," was Yos�pu's
+opinion; and he offered to nurse the children. One evening we heard a
+terrible noise; it was like three cracked violins gone mad, all playing
+different tunes at the same time. It was only Yos�pu singing hymns to
+the children. "For spiritual instruction is a thing to be desired, and
+there is nothing so edifying as music."
+
+After this he announced his intention of becoming a water-carrier.
+"Water is a pure thing and a necessity. The young children demand much
+water if their bodies are to be"--here followed Scriptural quotations
+meant in deepest reverence. "I will be responsible for the baths of all
+the babes." And from that time Yos�pu has been responsible. Solemnly
+from dawn to dusk, with breathing spaces for meals and meditation, he
+stalks across from nurseries to well and from well to nurseries. He is a
+man of few smiles; but he is the cause of many, and we all feel grateful
+to Yos�pu for his goodness to us. Often on melancholy days he comes and
+comforts us.
+
+It was so one anxious day before we went to the hills, when we were
+trying to plan for the safety of our family. We can only take a limited
+number of converts with us, and no babies; the difficulty is then which
+to take, which to hide, and which to leave in the nurseries. We were in
+the midst of this perplexity when Yos�pu arrived. He stood in silence,
+and then sighed, as his cheerful custom is. We made the usual inquiries
+as to his health, physical and spiritual. Both soul and body (his
+invariable order, never body and soul) were well, he said; his pulse did
+not need to be felt to-day: no, there was something weightier upon his
+mind. There are times when it is like extracting a tooth to get a
+straight answer from Yos�pu, for he resents directness in speech; he
+thinks it barbarous. At last it came. "Aiyo! Aiyo!" (Alas! Alas!) "My
+sun has set; but who am I, that I should complain or assault the decrees
+of Providence? But Amma! remember the word of truth: 'Then shall ye
+bring down my grey hairs with sorrow to the grave.'" And he slowly
+unwound his wisp of a turban, held it in his folded hands, and shook
+down his lanky, jet-black locks with a pathos that was almost sublime.
+
+[Illustration: THE BELOVED TINGALU.]
+
+It took time to pierce to the meaning of it: the children were being
+scattered--the reason must be that we felt the bath-water carrying too
+much for his powers through the hot weeks. It was not so! He was strong
+to draw and to bear. The babies should never be deprived of their baths!
+But to-day as he went to the well he had heard what broke his heart; and
+he laid his hand upon the injured organ, and sighed with a sigh that
+assured us his lungs at least were sound. "_Tingalu_ is to go away! The
+apple of my eye! that golden child who smiles upon me, and says, 'Oh,
+elder brother, good morning!' You are not going to leave her with me!
+Therefore spake I the word of truth concerning my grey hairs." Then
+quoting the text again, he turned and walked away.
+
+Once the beloved Tingalu was slightly indisposed. She has not often the
+privilege of being ill, and so, when the opportunity offers, she does
+the invalid thoroughly; it would be a pity, Tingalu thinks, to be
+anything but correct. But Yos�pu was much concerned. He appeared in the
+early morning with his usual cough and sigh. "Amma! Tingalu is ill!"
+"She will soon be better, Yos�pu; she is having medicine." "What sort of
+medicine, Amma?" and Yos�pu mentioned the kind he thought suitable.
+"That is exactly what she has had; you will see her playing about
+to-morrow." "But no smile is on her face to-day; I fear for the
+babe." (Tingalu never smiles when ill. Invalids should not smile.)
+Yos�pu suggested another medicine to supplement the first, and departed.
+
+Next morning he came again, anxious and cast down in countenance. I had
+to keep him waiting; and when I came out, he was standing beside my
+verandah steps, head on one side, eyes shut, hands folded as if in
+prayer. "Well, Yos�pu, what is it?" "Amma! the light of your eyes
+revives me!" "Well, tell me the trouble." "All yesterday I saw you not;
+it was a starless night to me!" This is merely the preface. "But,
+Yos�pu, what is wrong?" "Tingalu, that golden child with a voice like a
+bird, she lies on her mat. I am concerned about the babe," (Tingalu,
+turned four, is as hardy as a gipsy), "I fear for her delicate interior.
+Those ignorant children" (the convert nurses would have been pleased if
+they had heard him) "know nothing at all. It may be they will feed her
+with curry and rice this morning. That would be dangerous. Amma! Let her
+have bread and milk, _and I will pay for it_!"
+
+Yos�pu came a few days ago with a request for a doll. "Who for?" "For
+myself." "But are you going to play with it?" Yos�pu acknowledged he
+was, and he wished it to have genuine hair, a pink silk frock, and eyes
+that would open and shut. We had not anything so elaborate to give him,
+and he had to be contented with a black china head and painted eyes; but
+he was pleased, and took it away carefully rolled up in his turban, which
+serves conveniently for head-gear, towel, scarf, and duster. When and
+where he plays with the doll no one knows, but he assures us he does;
+and we have mentally reserved the first pink silk, with eyes that will
+open and shut, that a benevolent public sends to us, for Yos�pu. . . .
+The words were hardly written when a shadow fell across the paper, and
+the unconscious subject of this chapter remarked as I looked up: "1
+Corinthians vii. 31." "Do you want anything, Yos�pu?" "Amma! 1
+Corinthians vii. 31." "Well, Yos�pu?" "As it is written in that chapter,
+and that verse: 'The fashion of this world passeth away.' Amma, if
+within the next two months a visitor comes to Dohnavur carrying a
+picture-catching box, I desire that you arrange for the catching of my
+picture. This, Amma, is my desire."
+
+The Western mind is very dense; and for a moment I could not see the
+connection between the text and the photograph. Yos�pu is never
+impatient. He squatted down beside me, dropped his turban round his
+neck, held his left foot with his left hand, and emphasised his
+explanation with his right.
+
+"Amma, the wise know that life is uncertain. I am a frail mortal. You,
+who are as mother and as father to this unworthy worm, would feel an
+emptiness within you if I were to depart." "But, Yos�pu, I hope you are
+not going to depart." This was exactly what Yos�pu had anticipated. He
+smiled, then he sighed. "Amma! did I not say it before? 1 Corinthians
+vii. 31: 'The fashion of this world passeth away.' Therefore I said, Let
+me have my picture caught, so that when I depart you may hang it on your
+wall and still remember me."
+
+Yos�pu's latest freak has been to take a holiday. "My internal
+arrangements are disturbed; composure of mind will only be obtained by a
+month's respite from secularities." Yos�pu had once announced his
+intention of offering himself to the National Missionary Society, and we
+thought he now referred to becoming an ascetic for a month and wandering
+round the country, begging-bowl in hand; for he solemnly declared as he
+stroked his bony frame: "The Lord will provide." But his intention was a
+real holiday. He would go and see the brother who had beaten him, and
+forgive him. We suggested the brother might beat him again. He smiled at
+our want of faith, and went for his holiday. A month was the time agreed
+upon, but within three days he was back. He could not stay away, he
+explained, with a shame-faced air of affection. "Within me pulled the
+strings of love; pulled, yea, pulled till I returned." Faithful, quaint,
+and wholly original Yos�pu! He calls himself our servant, but we think
+of him as our friend.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+The Menagerie
+
+          Fate which foresaw
+          How frivolous a baby man would be--
+
+
+[Illustration: TWO VIEWS OF LIFE.]
+
+THE event of the week, from a Tamil point of view, is the midday Sunday
+service; so we take care of the nurseries during that hour, and send all
+grown-up life to church. In the Pr�malia nursery the babies range from a
+few days old to eighteen months, and sometimes two years. There is a
+baby for every mood, as one beloved of the babies says; and the babies
+seem to know it. We have a lively time there on Sundays; for by noon the
+morning sleep is over, and nineteen or twenty babies are waking up one
+after the other or all together. And most of them want something, and
+want it at once.
+
+These babies are of various dispositions and colour--nut-brown, biscuit,
+and buff; and there are two who, taken together, suggest
+chocolate-cream. Chocolate is a dear child, very good-tempered and easy
+to manage. Cream is a scamp. We see in her another Chellalu, and watch
+with mingled feelings her vigorous development.
+
+Chocolate has another name. It is Beetle. This does not sound
+appreciative, but Beetle is beloved. The name was discovered by her
+affectionate Piria Sittie, who came upon her one morning lying on her
+back in the swinging cot, kicking her four limbs in the air in the
+agitated manner of that insect unexpectedly upset. But no beetle ever
+smiled as ours does.
+
+Cream, whose real name is Nundinie, oftener called Dimples, because she
+dimples so when she laughs, is a baby of character. She early discovered
+her way to the bungalow, and scorning assistance or superintendence
+found her way over as soon as she could walk. Afternoon tea is never a
+sombre meal, for the middle-aged babies attend it in relays of four or
+five; and Dimples and her special chum, Lulla, like to arrive in good
+time for the full enjoyment of the function. Dimples sits down properly
+in a high chair close beside her Attai, who, according to her view of
+matters, was created to help her to sugar. Lulla, so as to be even
+nearer that exhaustless delight, insists upon her Attai's knee; and
+tapping her face with her very small fingers, immediately points to the
+sugar bowl.
+
+These preliminaries over, Dimples sets herself to pay for her seat. She
+smiles upon her Attai first, then upon all the company. If the Iyer is
+present, she notices him kindly: there is nothing in all nature so
+patronising as a baby. If in the mood, she will imitate her friends like
+her predecessor Scamp No. 1; or folding her fat arms will regard us all
+with a quizzical expression more comical than play. Her latest invention
+is drill. She stands straight up in her chair, and goes through certain
+actions intended to represent as much as she knows of that interesting
+exercise. We are kept anxious lest she should overbalance; but she is a
+wary babe, and always suddenly sits down when she gets to the edge of a
+tumble. Sometimes, however, when these diversions are in progress, we
+have wished that the family could see how very much more entertaining
+she is in her own nursery. There, from the beginning of the day till
+the sad moment when it ends, she seems to be engaged in entertaining
+somebody. Sometimes it is one of the Accals, those good elder sisters to
+whom the babies owe so much. Dimples thinks she looks tired. Tired
+people must be cheered, so Dimples devotes herself to her. Sometimes it
+is another baby who is dull. Dull babies are anomalies. Dimples feels
+responsible till the dull baby revives. Or it is just her own happy
+little self who is being entertained. If ever a baby enjoyed a game for
+its own sweet sake, it is Dimples.
+
+But one thing she does not enjoy, and that is being put to bed at night.
+Our babies are anointed with oil, according to the custom of the East,
+before being put to sleep; but the moment Dimples sees the oil-bottle in
+her nurse's hand, she knows her fate is sealed and protests with all her
+might. Once she contrived to seize the bottle, pull out the cork, and
+spill the oil before she was discovered. She seemed to argue that as she
+was invariably oiled before being put to bed, the best way to avoid ever
+being put to bed would be to get rid of the oil. Another evening she
+succeeded in diverting her nurse into a long search for the cork,
+thereby delaying the fatal last moment; it was finally found in her
+mouth. When, in spite of all efforts to wriggle out of reach, she is
+captured, anointed, and put in her hammock, Dimples knows she must not
+get out; but her wails are so lamentable that it is difficult to
+restrain ourselves from throwing discipline to the winds, and if by any
+chance we do, her smiles are simply ravishing. But we hear about it
+afterwards.
+
+If Dimples is asleep when we take charge of the nursery, we find things
+fairly quiet and almost flat. But she usually wakens early, and always
+in a good temper. It is instructive to see the way she scrambles out of
+her hammock before she is quite awake, and her sleepy stagger across
+the room is often interrupted by a tumble. Dimples does not mind
+tumbles. If her curly head has been rather badly knocked, she looks
+reproachfully at the floor, rubs her head, and gets up again. By the
+time she reaches us she is wide awake and most engaging.
+
+In C. F. Holder's _Life of Agassiz_ we are told that the great scientist
+"could not bear with superficial study: a man should give his whole life
+to the object he had undertaken to investigate. He felt that desultory,
+isolated, spasmodic working avails nothing, but curses with narrowness
+and mediocrity." This is exactly the view of one of our babies, already
+introduced, the little wise Lulla, who always knows her own mind and
+sticks to her intentions, unbeguiled by any blandishments.
+
+This baby is a tiny thing, with a round, small head, covered with soft,
+small curls; and this head is very full of thoughts. Her face, which she
+rarely shows to a stranger, is like a doll in its delicate daintiness;
+but the mouth is very resolute, and the eyes very grave. Her hands and
+feet are sea-shell things of a pretty pinky brown, and her ways are the
+ways of a sea-anemone in a pool among the rocks.
+
+Lulla, because of her anemone ways, is sometimes unkindly called
+"Huffs." She does not understand that there are days when those who love
+her most have little time to give to her. Lulla naturally argues that
+where there is a will there is a way, and desultory, isolated, spasmodic
+affection is worth little; so next time her friend appears, she explains
+all this to her by means of a single gesture: she draws her tentacles
+in.
+
+But it is when Lulla has undertaken to investigate a tin of sweets that
+she most suggests Agassiz. The tin has a lid which fits tightly, and
+Lulla's fingers are very small and not very strong. The tin, moreover,
+is on the window-sill just out of reach, though she stands on tip-toe
+and stretches a little eager hand as far as it will go. Then it is you
+see persistence. Lulla finds another baby, leads her to the window and
+points up to the tin. The other baby tries. They both try together; if
+this fails, Lulla finds a taller one, and at last successful, sits down
+with the tin held tightly in both hands, and turns it over and shakes
+it. This process seems to inspire fresh hope and energy; for she sets to
+work round the lid, which is one of the fitting-in sort, and carefully
+presses and pulls. Naturally this does nothing, and she shakes the tin
+again. The joyful sound of rattling sweets stimulates to fresh attempts
+upon the lid. She tugs and pulls, and thumps the refractory thing on the
+floor. By this time the other babies, attracted by the hopeful rattle,
+have gathered round and are watching operations; some offer to help, but
+all such offers are declined. This oyster is Lulla's. She has undertaken
+to force it. Agassiz and his fishes are on her side. She will not give
+it up. But she is not getting on; and she sits still for a moment,
+knitting her brow, and frowning a little puzzled frown at the refractory
+tin.
+
+Suddenly her forehead smooths, the anxious brown eyes smile, Lulla has
+thought a new good thought. The babies struggle up and offer to help
+Lulla up, but she shakes her head. She seems to feel if she herself
+unaided, of her own free will, hands her problem over to her Ammal or
+her Sittie, only so she may achieve her purpose without loss of
+self-respect.
+
+Lulla's beloved nurse is a motherly woman, older than most of our
+workers. Her name is Annamai. When the nurses return from church, each
+makes straight for her baby; and the babies always respond with a
+cordial and pretty affection. But Lulla welcoming Annamai is something
+more than pretty. The big white-robed figure no sooner appears in the
+garden than the tiny Lulla is all a-quiver with excitement. But it is a
+quiet excitement; and if you take any notice, the tentacles suddenly
+draw in, and the little face is as wax. If no one seems to notice, then
+Lulla lets herself go. She all but dances in her eagerness, while
+Annamai is slowly sailing up the walk; and when she reaches the
+verandah, Lulla can wait no longer; one spring and she is in her arms,
+nestling, cuddling, burying her curls in her neck; then looking up
+confidentially, little Lulla begins to talk; everything we have done and
+said is being whispered into Annamai's ear. It does not matter that
+Lulla cannot yet speak any language known to men; she can make Annamai
+understand, and that is all she cares. Once we remember watching her, as
+she took the remnant of a sweet we had given her, out of her mouth and
+poked it into Annamai's. Could love do more?
+
+Dimples and Lulla are quite inseparable. Lulla is to Dimples what Tara
+is to Evu. She immensely admires her vigorous little junior, and tries
+to copy her whenever possible. One delicious game seems to have been
+suggested by the arches in the garden. Dimples and Lulla stand on all
+fours close together. Then they lean over till their heads touch the
+ground, and look through the arch. If you are on the babies' level (that
+is on the floor), you will enjoy this game.
+
+Another Sunday morning entertainment is kissing. Dimples advances upon
+Lulla. Lulla falls upon Dimples. Then Dimples hugs Lulla, nearly chokes
+her, almost certainly overturns her. The two roll over and over like
+kittens. Dimples seizes Lulla by her curls and vehemently kisses face,
+neck, and anything else she can get at; and then backs off, propelling
+herself on two feet and one hand, in which position she looks like a
+puppy on three paws. Lulla smooths her ruffled curls and person
+generally, regards Dimples with gravity, and, if in an affectionate
+humour herself, leads the attack upon Dimples, and the programme is
+repeated.
+
+But the joy of the hour is to spin in the hammocks. These contrivances
+being hung from the roof swing freely, and the special excitement is to
+hold on with both hands, and run round so that the hammock twists into a
+knot and spins when released, with the baby inside it, in a giddy waltz
+till the coil untwists itself. This looks dangerous, and when the game
+was first invented we rather demurred. But we are wiser now, and we let
+them spin. Lulla especially enjoys this madness. It is startling to see
+the tiny thing whirl like a reckless young teetotum. But if you weakly
+interfere, Lulla thinks you want to learn the art, and goes at it with
+even madder zest, till her very curls are dizzy.
+
+Dimples and Lulla in disgrace are a piteous spectacle. Dimples opens her
+mouth till it is almost square, and the most plaintive wail proceeds
+from it for about a minute and a half. Then she stops, looks sadly on
+the world, surprised and hurt at its unkindness to her, and then
+suddenly she discovers something interesting to do; and hastily rubbing
+her knuckles into her eyes to clear them as quickly as maybe of tears,
+she scrambles on to her feet, and forgets her injuries. Once she had
+been very naughty, and had to be smacked. It is never easy to smack
+Dimples, and fortunately she seldom requires it; but hard things have to
+be done, so that morning the fat little hands, to their surprise, knew
+the feel of chastening pats. "She daren't laugh, and she wouldn't cry";
+this description, her Piria Sittie's, is the best I can offer of that
+baby's attitude. The thing could not possibly be a joke, but if meant
+otherwise, it was an indignity far past tears.
+
+Lulla is quite different. She drops on the floor, if admonished, as if
+her limbs had suddenly become paralysed, and takes absolutely no notice
+of the offending disciplinarian. She simply ignores her, and gazes
+mutely beyond her. The offence is not one for explanation, and if
+invited to repent, her aloofness of demeanour is perfectly withering.
+But take her up in your arms, and she buries her curls in your neck, and
+coos her apologies (or is it forgiveness?) in your ear, and loves you
+all the better for the momentary breach.
+
+Our babies are often parables. Lulla stands for the Single Eye. How
+often we have watched her and learned the lesson from her! She sees
+someone to whom she wants to go at what must seem to her an immense
+distance. And the distance is filled with obstacles, some of them quite
+enormous. But Lulla never stops to consider possibilities. Difficulties
+are simply things to be climbed over. She looks at the goal and makes
+straight for it. Her only care is to reach it. Sometimes at afternoon
+tea, when she is sitting on someone's lap, facing an empty,
+uninteresting plate, she sees another plate three chairs distant, and
+upon that plate there is a biscuit or some other sweet attraction. Upon
+such occasions Lulla all but plunges into space between the chairs, in
+her singleness of purpose. Having reached the lap nearest that plate,
+she turns and smiles at her late entertainer just to make sure she is
+not offended. But even if she knew she would be, Lulla would not
+hesitate. Curly head foremost, eyes on the goal: that is Lulla.
+
+We have a custom at Dohnavur which perplexes the sober-minded. We call
+most of our possessions by names other than their own. These names are
+entirely private. We have to keep to this rule of privacy, otherwise we
+get shocks. "O Lord, look upon our beloved Puppy, and make her tooth
+come through; and bless Alice (in Wonderland), whose inside has gone
+wrong," was the petition offered in all seriousness, which finally moved
+us to prudence. We do not feel responsible for these names, for they
+come of themselves, and we see them when they come. That is all we have
+to do with them. Besides the Beetle and the Sea-anemone we have a dear
+Cockatoo, who screws her nose and her whole face up into a delightful
+pucker when she either laughs or cries, and then suddenly unscrews it in
+the middle of either emotion and looks entirely demure. This is the
+little Vimala, who, under God, owes her life to her Piria Sittie's
+splendid nursing. This baby has always got a private little secret of
+joy hidden away somewhere inside. We surprise her sometimes, sitting
+alone on the floor talking to herself about it; and then she tells us
+bits of it--as much as she thinks we can understand. But most of it is
+still hidden away, her own private little secret. And there is an Owlet,
+a Coney, a Froglet, and a Cheshire Cat, a Teddy-bear, a Spider, a
+Ratlet, and a Rosebud. We are aware that this list is rather mixed; but
+to be too critical would end in being nothing, so we are a Menagerie.
+
+The Rosebud is like her name, small and sweet. When she wants to kiss
+her friends, which is whenever she sees them, her mouth is like the pink
+point of a moss-rose bud just coming through the moss. George Macdonald,
+perfect interpreter of babies, must have had our Preethie's double in
+his mind when he wrote:--
+
+          Whence that three-cornered smile of bliss?
+          Three angels gave me at once a kiss.
+          How did you come to us, you dear?
+          God thought of you, and so I am here.
+
+The Owlet is twin to that quaint little bird, so its name flew to her
+and stayed. This babe has round eyes with long curling lashes. When she
+is good, these round eyes beam, and every one forgets that anything so
+fascinating can ever be other than good. When she is naughty the case is
+exactly reversed. This baby's proper name is Lullitha, which means
+Playfulness, and illustrates a side of her character undiscovered by the
+visitor who only sees the Owlet sitting on her perch with serious,
+watchful, unblinking eyes, regarding the intruder. But most babies are
+complex characters, and are not known in an hour.
+
+The Teddy-bear is a fine child with perfect lungs, a benevolent smile,
+and an appetite. Her ruling passion at present is devotion to her food.
+She feels unjustly treated because we do not see our way to feed her
+lavishly at her own five meal-times and also at the meal-times of all
+the other babies in the nursery.
+
+On Sunday morning, when we are in charge, we hear her views upon this
+subject expressed in a manner wholly her own. She has just drained her
+own bottle, and is indignantly explaining that it is not nearly enough,
+when another bottle arrives for another baby, and this is too much for
+Teddy's equanimity. We all know how hard it is to keep up under the
+shock of adversity. Teddy does not attempt to keep up; she invariably
+topples over. But the way she does this is instructive. She sits stiff
+and straight for one brief moment, her milky mouth wide open, her hands
+outstretched in despairing appeal; then she clasps her head with her
+hands in a tragic fashion, absurd in a very fat infant, sways backwards
+and forwards two or three times till the desperate rock ends suddenly,
+as the poor Teddy-bear overbalances and bursts with a mighty burst. But
+the storm is too furious to last, and she soon subsides with a gusty sob
+and a short snort.
+
+Poor little injured Teddy-bear! If it were not for her splendid health
+we might believe her oft-repeated tale of private starvation. "They only
+feed me when you are here to see! Other times they give me nothing at
+all!" She tells us this frequently in her own particular language, but
+the sturdy limbs belie it. This babe in matters of affection and
+mischief is as strenuous and original as she is about the one supreme
+affair pertaining to her elastic receptacle--to quote a Tamil friend's
+polite reference to the cavity within us--and many more edifying scenes
+might have been shown from her eventful life. But undoubtedly the
+predominating note at the present hour is her insatiable hunger, and
+when her name is mentioned in the nursery there is a smile and a new
+tale about her amazing appetite.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+More Animals
+
+
+[Illustration: MORE ANIMALS: DEPRESSED.
+
+Nurses: Karuna to left (the Duckling of "Things as They Are"); and
+Annamai, to right, Lulla's beloved.]
+
+IN full contrast to Teddy-bear is that floppy child, the Coney. In
+Hart's _Animals of the Bible_, there is a picture of this baby, only the
+fore-paws should be raised in piteous appeal to be taken up. The Coney
+is really a pretty child with pathetic eyes and a grateful smile; but
+she was long in learning to walk, and felt aggrieved when we
+remonstrated. Her feet, she considered, were created to be ornamental
+rather than useful, and no amount of coaxing backed up with massage
+could persuade her otherwise. So she was left behind in the march; and
+when her contemporaries departed for the middle-aged babies' nursery,
+she stayed behind with the infants. And the infants had no pity. They
+regarded her as a sort of hassock, large and soft and good to jump on.
+More than once we have come into the nursery and found the big, meek
+child of three kneeling resignedly under a window upon which an
+adventurous eighteen-months wished to climb; and often we have found her
+prostrate and patient under the dancing feet of Dimples.
+
+However, the Coney can walk now. This triumph was effected with the help
+of an Indianised go-cart, which did what all our persuasions had
+entirely failed to do. But the process was not pleasant. The poor Coney
+would stand mournfully holding the handle of her instrument of torture,
+longing with a yearning unspeakable to sit down and give it up for ever.
+Someone would pass, and hope would rise in her heart. She would be
+carried now, carried out of sight of that detested go-cart. But no, the
+callous-hearted only urged her to proceed. She would howl then with a
+howl that told of bitter disappointment. Sometimes she would sit down
+flat and regard the thing with a blighting glance, the hatred of a
+gentle nature roused to unwonted vehemence. Always her wails accompanied
+the rumbling of its wheels.
+
+"The Conies are but a feeble folk, yet they make their houses in the
+rocks." One day in deep depression of spirits the Coney arrived at the
+kindergarten. She sat down before the threshold, which is three inches
+high, and climbed carefully over it. She found herself in a new world,
+where babies were doing wonderful things and enjoying all they did. The
+Coney decided to join a class, and was offered beads to thread. Life
+with beautiful beads to thread became worth living, and it may be in the
+course of time that the tortoise will overtake the hare. In any case we
+find much cheer in the conclusion of the verse, for if our Coney builds
+in the Rock her being rather feeble will not matter very much.
+
+Those who possess that friend of our youth, _Alice_, as illustrated by
+Sir John Tenniel, may find the photograph twice reproduced of our fat
+Cheshire Cat. This baby is remarkable for two things: she smiles and she
+vanishes. The time to see the vanishing conducted with more celerity
+than Alice ever saw it, is when the babies' warning call is sounded
+across the verandah and a visitor appears in the too near horizon. This
+baby then vanishes round the nearest corner. There is nothing left of
+her, not even a smile. In fact, the chief contrast between her and the
+cat among the foliage is that with our Cat the smile goes first.
+
+Sunday morning, to return to the beginning, is full of possible
+misadventure. Sometimes the babies seem to agree among themselves that
+it would be well to be good. Then their admiring Sittie and Ammal have
+nothing to do but enjoy them. But sometimes it is otherwise. First one
+baby pulls her sister's hair, and the other retaliates, till the two get
+entangled in each other's curls. Piria Sittie flies to the rescue,
+disentangles the combatants and persuades them to make friends.
+Meanwhile three restless spirits in bodies to match have crept out
+through the open door (it is too hot if we shut the doors), and we find
+them comfortably ensconced in forbidden places. The Beetle is a quiet
+child. She retires to a corner and looks devout. Presently a sound as of
+scraping draws our attention to her. "Beetle! Open your mouth!" Beetle
+opens her mouth. It is packed with whitewash off the wall. Then a scared
+cry rings through the nursery, and all the babies, imagining awful
+things imminent, tumble one on top of the other in a wild rush into
+refuge. It is only a large grasshopper which has startled the Cheshire
+Cat, whose great eyes are always on the look-out for possible causes of
+panic. The grasshopper is banished to the garden and the Cheshire Cat
+smiles all over her face. Peace restored, Dimples and the Owlet remember
+a dead lizard they found in a corner of the verandah, and set off to
+recover it. These two walk exactly like mechanical toys; and as they
+strut along hand in hand, or one after the other, they look like
+something wound up and going, in a Christmas shop window. Presently they
+return with the lizard. Its tail is loose, and they sit down to pull it
+off. This is not a nice game, and something else is suggested. Dimple's
+mouth grows suddenly square; she wants that lizard's tail.
+
+Then a dear little child called Muff (because she ought to be called
+Huff if the name had not been already appropriated), who has been
+solemnly munching a watch, decides it is time to demand more individual
+attention. She objects to the presence of another baby on her Sittie's
+lap. Why should two babies share one lap? The thing is self-evidently
+wrong. One lap, one baby, should be the rule in all properly conducted
+nurseries. Muff broods over this in silence, then slides off the crowded
+lap and sits down disconsolate, alone. Tears come, big sad tears, as
+Muff meditates; and it takes time to explain matters and comfort,
+without giving in to the one-lap-one-baby theory.
+
+[Illustration: TUBBING.]
+
+We have several helpful babies. Dimples has been discovered paying
+required attentions to things smaller than herself; and the Wax Doll
+pats the Rosebud if she thinks it will reassure her, when (as rarely
+happens) that pet of the family is left stranded on a mat. But Puck is
+the most inventive. It was one happy Sunday morning that we came upon
+her feeding the Ratlet on her own account. The Ratlet was making
+ungrateful remarks; and we hurried across to her and saw that Puck,
+under the impression doubtless that any hole would do, was pouring the
+milk in a steady stream down the poor infant's nose. Puck smiled up
+peacefully. She was sure we would be pleased with her. But the Ratlet
+continued eloquent for very many minutes.
+
+Sometimes (but this is an old story now) our difficulties were increased
+by the Spider's habit of whimpering, which had a depressing effect upon
+the family. This poor baby was a weak little bag of bones when first she
+came to us. The bag was made of shrivelled skin of a dusty brown colour.
+Her hair was the colour of her skin, and hung about her head like
+tattered shreds of a spider's web. She sat in a bunch and never smiled.
+Something about her suggested a spider. Her Tamil name is Chrysanthemum,
+which by the change of one letter becomes Spider. So we called her
+Spider.
+
+At first we were not anxious about her; for such little children pick
+up quickly if they are healthy to begin with, as we believed she was.
+But she did not respond to the good food and care, and only grew thinner
+and more miserable as the weeks passed, till she looked like the first
+picture in a series of advertisements of some marvellous patent food,
+and we wondered if she would ever grow like the fat and flourishing last
+baby of the series. For two months this state of things continued; she
+grew more wizened every day; and the uncanny spider-limbs and attitude
+gave her the air of not being a human baby at all, but a terrible little
+specimen which ought not to be on view but should be hidden safely away
+in some private medical place--on a shelf in a bottle of spirits of
+wine.
+
+We are asked sometimes if such tiny things can suffer other than
+physically. We have reason to think they can. As all else failed, we
+took a little girl from school for whom the Spider had an affection, and
+let her love her all day long; and almost at once there was a change in
+the sad little face of the Spider. She had been cared for by an old
+grandfather after her mother's death, and it seemed as if she had
+fretted for him and needed someone all to herself to make up for what
+she was missing.
+
+This little girl, the Cod-fish by name, was devoted to the Spider. She
+nestled her and played with her--or attempted to, I should say, for at
+first the Spider almost resented any attempts to play. "She doesn't know
+how to smile!" said the Cod-fish disconsolately after a week's petting
+and loving had resulted only in fewer whimpers, but not as yet in
+smiles. A few days later she came to us, and announced with much
+emotion: "She has smiled three times!" Next day the record rose to
+seven; after that we left off counting.
+
+The Spider is fat and bonnie now. Her skin is a clear and creamy brown,
+and her hair has lost its dustiness; but she still likes to sit crumpled
+up, and a small alcove in the kitchen is her favourite haven when tired
+of the world. Seen unexpectedly in there, bunched in a tight knot, her
+dark, keen little eyes peering out of the light-coloured little face,
+she still suggests a spider. But it is a cheerful Spider, which makes
+all the difference.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+The Parrot House
+
+
+[Illustration: RED LAKE AND HILL.
+
+As seen (without the water) from the Taraha Nursery.]
+
+THE time to see the Taraha nursery at its best is between late evening
+and early morning, and again about noon. It is perfectly peaceful then.
+Thirty mats are spread upon the floor. Thirty babies are strewn upon the
+mats. All the thirty are asleep. A sleeping baby is good. Thirty babies
+all good at once is something we cannot promise at any other hour.
+
+Shading your lantern, and walking carefully so as not to tread on more
+scattered limbs than may be, you wander round the nursery and meditate
+upon the beautiful ways of childhood. There is something so touching in
+sleeping innocence, and you are touched. Here two chubby babies are
+lying locked in each other's arms. You have to look twice before you see
+which limbs belong to which. There another is hugging a doll minus its
+head. Next to her a baby sleeps pillowed on another, and the other does
+not mind. In the middle of the floor, far from her mat, a sturdy
+three-year-old sprawls content. You pick her up gently and lay her on
+her mat. With an expression of determined resolution the baby rolls off
+again; and if you attempt another remove, an ominous pucker of the
+forehead warns you to desist. You wonder if the babies are quite as
+good as they seem. One of the dear, fat, devoted little pair you
+noticed at first, stirs, disentangles herself from her neighbour, and
+gives her a slight kick. There is a smothered, sleepy howl, and the kick
+is returned. "Water!" wails the first fat baby. "Water!" wails the
+second. You get water, give it, pat both fat babies till they go to
+sleep, and then cautiously retire. It would be a pity if all the babies
+were to waken thirsty and kick each other. At the door you turn and look
+back. Graceful babies, clumsy babies, babies who lie extended like young
+pokers, babies curled like kittens. All sorts of babies, good, bad, and
+middling, but all blessedly asleep.
+
+              Sleep, baby, sleep!
+              Thy father guards his sheep,
+          Thy mother shakes the dreamland-tree
+          Down fall the little dreams for thee,
+              Sleep, baby, sleep!
+
+              Sleep, baby, sleep!
+              Our Saviour loves His sheep.
+          He is the Lamb of God on high,
+          Who for our sakes came down to die.
+              Sleep, baby, sleep!
+
+The pretty German lullaby rises unbidden, and is pushed away by the
+quick, sad thoughts that will not listen to it. For under all the
+laughter and nursery frolic and happiness, we cannot but remember why
+these little ones are here. Round about the compound in a great triangle
+there are three Temple towers. They are out of sight though near us, but
+we cannot forget they are there. They stand for that which deprives
+these children of their birthright. Oh for the day when those Temple
+towers will fall and the reign of righteousness begin! There was a time
+when it seemed impossible to desire that the fire should be allowed to
+touch the stately and beautiful things of the world. Now there is
+something that satisfies as nothing else could in the vision of that
+purifying fire; and the promise that stands out like a light in the
+darkness is that which tells that the Son of Man shall send forth His
+angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom, all things that
+offend.
+
+In the tiny babies' nursery many a crooning Indian lullaby is sung
+to the babies in their swinging white cradles; but in the Taraha
+nursery we sing sweet old hymns, in Tamil and English, and then all
+sensible people are supposed to go to sleep. But one evening after
+the singing, two little tots settled down for a talk. Said one lying
+comfortably on her back with her two hands clasped behind her head:
+"Who takes care of us at night when we all go to sleep?" Said the
+other in a mixture of Tamil and English: "Jesus-tender-Shepherd takes
+care of us--Jesus-loves-me-this-I-know." The first baby rolled over upon
+her small sister with a crow of derision. "It is not! It is Accal! I
+woke one night and saw her!" The other baby insisted she was making a
+mistake. "Accal sleeps, all people sleep; they lie down like us and go
+to sleep. Only Jesus stays awake, and never, never goes to sleep."
+"Never, never?" questioned the first, and was quiet for a minute
+considering the matter; then with a sceptical little laugh, "Did you
+ever wake up and see Him?"
+
+If the babies were always in a state of calm repose, the Taraha's pet
+name, Parrot-house, would be inappropriate: but for nearly ten hours of
+the day they are awake and talkative. Talk, however, is a mild word by
+which to describe their powers of conversation. Sometimes we wonder if
+they never tire of chattering, and then we remember they have only
+lately learned to talk. They have not had time to tire.
+
+[Illustration: CHILDREN WADING]
+
+Once we listened, hoping that the trailing clouds of glory so recently
+departed had left some trace of illumination in this their first
+expression in earth's language of their feelings and emotions. But we
+found them very mundane. Most of the conversation concerned their
+"saman," a comprehensive Indian word used by people with limited
+vocabularies to express all manner of things to play with. Their "saman"
+was various. Dolls, of course, and the remnants of dolls; tins and the
+lids thereof; bits of everything which could break; corks, stones,
+seeds, half cocoa-nut shells; rags of many ages and colours; scraped
+down morsels of brick; withered flowers and leaves; sticks of all sorts
+and sizes; English Christmas cards, sometimes with much domestic
+information on the back; unauthorised sundries from the
+kindergarten--delivered up with a smile intended to assure you that they
+were only being kept for Sittie; and p�chies. P�chies are insects. We
+have one baby who collects p�chies. "Look!" she said, one morning before
+prayers, "Deah little five p�chies!" and she opened her hand and five
+red and black beetles crawled slowly out, to the delight of the devout,
+who scrambled up from their orderly rows with shrieks of appreciation.
+
+But if the babies' conversation was unenlightening, their chosen
+avocations are not uninteresting. They are always busy about something,
+and, from their point of view, something important. There are, of
+course, some among the thirty who are unimaginative and unenterprising.
+These sit in the sand and play. Others have more to do. Life to them is
+full of the unknown. The unknown is full of possibilities. The great
+thing is to experiment. Nothing is too insignificant to explore, and all
+five senses are useful to the thoroughly competent baby.
+
+They knew, of course, all the flowers, and the discovery of anything
+fresh was always followed by a scene which suggested a colony of
+small and active ants hauling some large object to their nest; for the
+nearest grown-up person was invariably hailed, and pulled, and pushed,
+and hurried along till the "new flower" was reached. Then, if the object
+was incautious enough to stoop down to examine it, the ants, ant-wise,
+would envelope it, climbing, swarming all over it, till there was
+nothing to be seen but ants.
+
+[Illustration: CHILDREN WADING.]
+
+They knew the habits of caterpillars, and especially they had knowledge
+about the wonderful silver chrysalis which pins itself to the pointed
+leaves of the oleander. They knew what was packed up inside, and some
+with wide-open eyes had watched the miracle slowly evolving as the
+butterfly unpacked itself, and sunned its crumpled velvet wings, till
+the crumples smoothed, and the wings dried, and the butterfly fluttered
+away. They knew, too, the less approachable ways of the wild bees, and
+where they hive, and what happens if they are disturbed; and they knew
+the private feelings of calves, and which likes to be treated as a
+brother and which resents such liberties. Crows they knew intimately,
+and squirrels a little; for infants fallen from their nests have often
+been taken care of, much against their foolish wills, until old enough
+to look after themselves. Their namesakes, the parrots, they knew very
+well; and the dainty little sunbirds that flash from flower to flower
+like little living jewels in the sunlight; and the clever tailor-bird,
+which sews its own nest, knotting its thread like a grown-up human
+being; and the wise leaf-insect that can hardly be found till it moves;
+and the great, green, frisky grasshopper that seems to invite a chase.
+
+We found they knew, alas, too much about the misuse of everything
+growing in the field! The tamarind fruit makes condiment, but eaten raw
+it gives fever; and the babies think we are wrong here, and they are
+fond of forgetting our rules. Many kinds of grasses are very good to
+eat; and here again we are mistaken, for we know not the flavour of
+grasses. Seeds may be useful to plant; but those who think their use
+ends there, are short-sighted and ignorant people. Upon these and other
+matters the babies feel we have much to learn.
+
+[Illustration: ESLI AND LITTLE KOHILA.
+
+Taken a year earlier.]
+
+One weird joy has been theirs, and they never will forget it. For one
+whole blissful afternoon they followed the snake-charmer about at a
+respectful distance; and they cannot understand why we are not anxious
+they should dance as he danced, and pipe as he piped, round the hopeful
+holes they discover in the red mud walls.
+
+Other things they had learned to do, not wholly innocent. They must have
+made friends with the masons who built their new nursery, and persuaded
+them to do their work in a sympathetic spirit; for they knew the weak
+points hidden from our eyes, and how pleasant it is to scoop mortar out
+of cracks between the bricks of the floor. They had learned how most of
+their toys were made, and how a doll could be most easily dissected, and
+the particular taste of its inside. They knew, too, the lusciousness of
+divers sorts of sand--this last, however, being a mixture of crime and
+disease, and treated as such, is not a popular sin. Finally, to our
+lasting disgrace, they had learned, after a series of thoughtful
+experiments, how best to obey a command and yet elude its intention;
+thus on a wet day, when they were commanded not to go out, their Sittie
+found them lying full length in a long row on the edge of the verandah,
+their heads protruding so as to catch the lovely drip from the roof. And
+all these things they had carefully learned in spite of a certain amount
+of supervision; and, being entirely unsuspicious, they will take you
+into their confidence and let you share the forbidden fruit, if you are
+so inclined.
+
+But, after all, perfection of goodness would make us more anxious than
+even these enormities; we should fear our babies were growing too
+good--a fear not pressing at present. The Parrot-house only overwhelms
+when the birds begin to sing. Then indeed all who can, flee far away,
+for the babies once started are difficult to stop. They are sure you
+like it as much as they do, and are anxious to oblige you when you visit
+their world. So they sing with the greatest earnestness, and as they
+invariably hang on to every available part of you, and punctuate their
+melodies with kisses and embraces, escape is not always practicable.
+
+The Taraha nursery was our first substantial building. It is built upon
+foundations raised well off the ground, and has a wide verandah. When
+first it was opened and the children were invited to take possession,
+they did so most completely. One quaint little person of barely three,
+called Kohila, whose small, repressed face in the photograph gives no
+hint of character, used to stalk up and down the verandah with an air of
+proprietorship which left no doubt in any mind as to her opinion on the
+subject. Another (sharing the swinging cot with Kohila in the photo) sat
+on the top step and smiled encouragingly to visitors. It was nice to be
+smiled at, but there was something very condescending in the smile.
+Another stood guard over the plants, which grew in pots much bigger than
+herself all the way down the verandah. If any presumed to touch them,
+she would dart out upon them with an indignant chirrup. For days after
+the great event--the opening of the Taraha--small parties waited on
+visitors, formed in procession before and behind, and escorted them
+round, explaining all mysteries, and insisting upon due admiration.
+Everything had to be interviewed, from teaspoons to pots of fern. This
+concluded, the guests were politely dismissed, and departed, let us
+hope, properly penetrated with a sense of the kindness of the babies.
+
+There have always been some who object to visitors. One of these showed
+her objection, not by crying and running away, as undignified babies do,
+but by sitting exactly where she was when she first caught sight of the
+intruder, and staring straight into space with a very stony stare. A
+sensitive visitor could hardly have had the temerity to pass her, but
+normal visitors are not sensitive. Sometimes they attempted to make
+friends. This was too much. One fat arm would be slowly raised till it
+covered the baby's eyes, and in this position she would sit like a small
+petrifaction, till the horror had withdrawn.
+
+[Illustration: PREETHA AWARE OF A FOE.
+
+Tara on the left: the Coney on the right.]
+
+This baby, Preetha by name, has in most matters a way of her own. One of
+her little peculiarities is a strong preference for solo music as
+compared with concert. She listens attentively to others' performances,
+then disappears. If followed, she will be found alone in a corner, with
+her face to the wall and her back to the world; and if she thinks
+herself unobserved, you will be regaled with a solo. This experience is
+interesting to the musical. It is never twice alike. Sometimes it is a
+succession of sounds, like a tune that has lost its way; sometimes, a
+recognisable version of the chorus lately learned. At other times she
+delivers her soul in a series of short groans and grunts, beating time
+with her podgy hands. If she perceives through the back of her head that
+someone is looking or listening, she stops at once; and no persuasions
+can ever produce that special rehearsal again. Of late this baby, being
+now nearly three, has awakened to a sense of life's responsibilities,
+and she evidently wishes to prepare to meet them suitably. Yesterday
+evening she came to me with an exceedingly serious face, pointed in the
+direction of the kindergarten room, and then tapping herself, remarked:
+"Amma! I kindergarten." No more was said; but we know we shall soon see
+her solemnly waddling into the schoolroom, and we wonder what will
+happen. Will she continue to insist upon a corner to herself?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+The Bear Garden
+
+
+[Illustration: JULLANIE AMONG THE GRASSES.]
+
+"THE fruit of the lotus--a capsule--ripens below the surface of the
+water. When the seeds are ripe and leave the berry, a small bubble of
+air attached to them brings them to the surface, and the seeds are
+carried wherever the wind and waves take them until the bubble bursts;
+when the seed, being heavier than water, sinks to the bottom, and then
+begins to grow to form a new plant, which may be at some distance from
+the parent one. In this simple way the lotus plant is enabled to
+spread." So says our botany book; and the thought of the lotus seed in
+its little air-boat floating away over the water to be sown, perhaps,
+far from the parent plant, is full of suggestion, and leads us straight
+to the Bear-garden.
+
+A lotus-pool, a bear-garden--the connection is not obvious. _Alice_ in
+her wanderings never wandered into bewilderment more profound than such
+a mixture of ideas. But this is the way we get to it: We have called
+these little children Lotus-buds--for such they are in their youngness
+and innocence; and the underlying thought runs deeper, as those who have
+read the first chapter know--but the Lotus-buds must grow into flowers
+and must be sown as living seeds, perhaps far away from the happy place
+they knew when they were buds. The little air-boat will come for them.
+The breath of the Spirit that bloweth where it listeth will carry them
+where it will, and we want them to be ready to be sown wherever the
+pools of the world are barren of lotus flowers. And this brings us
+straight to the newest of our beginnings in Dohnavur--the Kindergarten.
+
+An ideal kindergarten is a place where the teachers train the scholars,
+and we hope to have that in time; at present the case is opposite, and
+that is why it has its name, the name that conflicts with the
+lotus-pool--the Bear-garden.
+
+In this peaceful room Classes B, C, and D have taken their young
+teachers in hand--Rukma, Preena, and Sanda. Of these Rukma (Radiance)
+has the clearest ideas about discipline; Preena (the Elf) knows best how
+to coax; and Sanda, excellent Mouse that she is, has the gift of
+patience. These three (who after all are only school-girls, continuing
+their own education with their Pr�ma Sittie) are attempting to instruct
+the babies on the lines of organised play; but the babies feel they have
+much to teach their teachers, and this is how they do it:--
+
+Pr�ma Sittie goes into the room when the kindergarten is in progress,
+and from three classes at once babies come springing towards her with
+squeals of joy, and they clasp her knees and look up with eyes full of
+affection and confidence in their welcome. "Go back to your place!" she
+says, and tries to look severe; with a chuckle the children obey, and
+she looks round and takes notes.
+
+Chellalu is lying full-length on the bench, with a look of supreme
+content on her face, and her two feet against the wall. Py�rie has
+turned her back to the picture that is being shown, and is tying a
+handkerchief round her head. Ruhinie, an India-rubber-ball sort of baby,
+has suddenly bounced up from her seat, and is starting a chorus, of
+which she is fond, at the top of her not very gentle voice; and Komala,
+a perfect sprite, is tickling the child who sits next to her. "Sittie!"
+exclaims the distracted teacher, "they won't learn anything!" Or if she
+happens to be the Mouse, she is calmly engaged with the one good child
+in her class.
+
+The next group is stringing beads on pieces of wire. "Look, look!" and
+an eager babe holds out her wire for admiration, and probably spills her
+beads in her effort to secure attention. If she does, there is a general
+scramble, beads rolling loose on the floor being quite irresistible. One
+wicked baby sits by herself and strings her beads on her curls.
+
+A few minutes later it is mat-plaiting; and the agile little fingers are
+diligently weaving pieces of blue and yellow material, bits over from
+their elder sisters' garments, beautifully unconscious that they are
+supposed to be working the colours alternately. Sometimes in the gayest
+way they exclaim: "Sittie! It's wrong! it's wrong!" Occasionally there
+is a howl from a child who has been pinched by another, or whose
+neighbour has helped herself to her beads. Sittie crosses the room
+hurriedly. "What's the matter?" With tears rolling down her cheeks the
+victim points to her oppressor. "May you do that?" is the invariable
+English question. It is answered by a shake of the head, the tiniest
+baby understanding that particular remark. The injured baby smiles. A
+reproof, or at worst a pat on the fat arm next to hers, satisfies her
+sense of justice, and she is content.
+
+When an English lesson begins, those afflicted with delicate nerves are
+happier elsewhere. One class has a toy farmyard, another a set of
+tea-things, the third a doll which every member of the class is aching
+to embrace. The teachers and children alike are inclined to talk with
+emphasis; and if you stand between the three classes you hear queer
+answers to queerer questions, and wonder if the babies at Babel were
+anything like so bewildering.
+
+But this vision of the kindergarten is hardly a fortnight old; for
+Classes B, C, and D are of recent development, and are made up of some
+heedless characters, as Chellalu and Py�rie, who could not keep up with
+class A, and a few more young things from the nursery who were wilder
+than wild rabbits from the wood when we began. Also it should be stated
+that from the babies' point of view white people are only playthings.
+"They were very good before you came!" is the unflattering remark
+frequently addressed to us; and as we discreetly retire, the babies do
+seem to become suddenly beautifully docile. But even so they might be
+better, as an unconscious comedy over-seen this morning proves. I was in
+the porch outside the door, when Rukma, pointing to a blackboard on
+which were written sundry words, told Chellalu to show her "cat," and I
+looked in interested to know if Chellalu really knew anything of
+reading. Chellalu brandished the pointer, then turned to Rukma with a
+confidential smile, "Cat? Where is it, Accal? Is it at the top or at the
+bottom?" Rukma, who has a keen sense of the comic, seemed to find it
+difficult to look as she felt she ought. Chellalu caught the twinkle in
+her eye, and throwing herself heartily into the spirit of the game,
+which was evidently intended to be a kindergarten version of Hunt the
+Mouse through the Wood, she searched the blackboard for cat. Then to
+Rukma: "Accal! dear Accal! Tell _me_, and I'll tell _you_!"
+
+There is nothing that helps us so much to be good as to be believed in
+and thought better than we are; and the converse is true, so we do not
+want to be always suspecting Chellalu of sin; but this last was entirely
+too artless, and this was apparently Rukma's view, for she sent Chellalu
+back to her seat and called up another baby, who, fairly radiating
+virtue, immediately found the cat.
+
+The next room--which Class A (the first to be formed) has to itself--is
+a haven of peace after the Bear-garden. It is a pleasant room like the
+other, pretty with pictures and with flowers. And the little bright
+faces make it a happy place, for this class, though serious-minded, is
+exceedingly cheerful. There is the demure little Tingalu, the good child
+of the kindergarten, its hope and stay in troublous hours, and the
+quaint little trio, Jeya, Jullanie, and Sella--this last is called
+Cock-robin by the family, for she has eyes and manners which remind us
+of the bird, and she hardly ever walks, she hops. Mala and Bala are in
+the class, and a lively scamp called Puvai.
+
+The kindergarten is worked in English, helped out with Tamil when
+occasion requires. This plan, adopted for reasons pertaining to the
+future of the children, is resulting in something so comical that we
+shall be sorry when the first six months are over and the babies grow
+correct. At present they talk with delightful abandon impossible to
+reproduce, but very entertaining to those who know both languages. They
+tack Tamil terminations to English verbs, and English nouns make
+subjects for Tamil predicates. They turn their sentences upside down and
+inside out, and any way in fact which occurs to them at the moment, only
+insisting upon one thing: you must be made to understand. They apply
+everything they learn as immediately as possible, and woe to the unwary
+flounderer in the realm of natural science who offers an explanation of
+any phenomena of nature other than that taught in the kindergarten. The
+learned baby regards you with a tender sort of pity. Poor thing, you are
+very ignorant; but you will know better in time--if only you will come
+to the kindergarten, the source of the fountain of knowledge.
+
+The ease and the quickness with which a new word is appropriated
+constantly surprises us. As for example: one morning two babies wandered
+round the Prayer-room, and, discovering passion-flowers within reach,
+eagerly begged for them in Tamil. One of the two pushed the other aside
+and wanted all the flowers. "Greedy! greedy!" I said reprovingly, in
+English. "Greedy _mine_!" was the immediate rejoinder, and the little
+hand was held out with more certainty than ever now that the name of the
+flower was known. "Greedy _my_ flower! _Mine!_"
+
+But some of the quaintest experiences are when the eloquent baby,
+determined to express herself in English, falls back upon scraps of
+kindergarten rhyme and delivers it in all seriousness. On the evening
+before my birthday I was banished from my room, and the children
+decorated it exactly as they pleased. When I returned I was implored not
+to look at anything, as it was not intended to be seen till next
+morning. Next morning the babies came in procession with their elders,
+and while I was occupied with them out on the verandah, Chellalu and her
+friend Naveena, discovering something unusual in my room, escaped from
+the ranks and went off to examine the mystery. I found them a moment
+later gazing in astonished joy at the glories there revealed. "Who did
+it all?" gasped Chellalu, whose intention, let us hope, was perfectly
+reverent. "God did it all!"
+
+The one kindergarten class taught entirely in Tamil is the Scripture
+lesson, illustrated whenever possible by pictures; and being always
+taught about sacred things in Tamil, the babies have no doubt about the
+language in use in Bible days. But sometimes a little mind is puzzled,
+as an instructive aside revealed a day or two ago. For their teacher had
+told them in English, not as a Scripture lesson, but just as a story,
+about Peter and John and the lame man. The picture was before them, and
+they understood and followed keenly; but one little girl whispered to
+another, who happened to be the well-informed Cock-robin: "Did Peter and
+John talk English or Tamil?" "Tamil, of course!" returned Cock-robin,
+without a moment's hesitation.
+
+The Scripture lessons are usually given by Arulai, whose delight is
+Bible teaching. "So that as much as lieth in you you will apply yourself
+wholly to this one thing, and draw all your cares and studies this way,"
+is a word that always comes to mind when one thinks of Arulai and her
+Bible. She much enjoys taking the babies, believing that the impressions
+created upon the mind of a little child are practically indelible.
+
+Sometimes these impressions are expressed in vigorous fashion. Once the
+subject of the class was the Good Samaritan. The babies were greatly
+exercised over the scandalous behaviour of the priest and the Levite.
+"Punish them! Let them have whippings!" they demanded. Arulai explained
+further. But one baby got up from her seat and walked solemnly to the
+picture. "Take care what you are doing!" she remarked impressively in
+Tamil, shaking her finger at the two retreating backs. "Naughty!
+naughty!"--this was in English--"take care!"
+
+One of the favourite pictures shows Abraham and Isaac on the way to the
+mount of sacrifice. This story was told one morning with much reverence
+and feeling, and the babies were impressed. There were tears in Bala's
+eyes as she gazed at the picture, but she brushed them away hurriedly
+and hoped no one had noticed. Only Chellalu appeared perfectly
+unconcerned. She had business of her own on hand, and the story, it
+seemed, had not touched her. The babies are searched before they come to
+school, and all toys, bits of string, old tins, and sundries are removed
+from their persons. But there are ways of evading inquisitors. Chellalu
+knows these ways. She now produced a long wisp of red tape from
+somewhere--she did not tell us where--and proceeded to tie her feet
+together. This accomplished, she curled herself up on the bench like a
+caterpillar on a leaf, and to all appearances went to sleep. Why was she
+not awakened and compelled to behave properly? asks the reader, duly
+shocked. Perhaps because on that rather special morning the teacher
+preferred her asleep.
+
+[Illustration: ARULAI AND RUKMA, WITH NAVEENA.]
+
+The story finished, the children were questioned, and they answered with
+unwonted gravity. "What did Isaac say to his father as they walked alone
+together?" An awed little voice had begun the required answer, when
+Chellalu suddenly uncurled, sat up, and said in clear, decided Tamil:
+"He said, 'Father! do not kill me!' _Yesh!_ that was what he said."
+
+When first the babies heard about Heaven, they all wanted to go at once,
+and with difficulty were restrained from praying to be taken there
+immediately. There was one naughty child who, when she was given
+medicine, invariably announced, "I will not stay in this village: I am
+going to Heaven! I am going now!" But they soon grew wiser. It was our
+excitable, merry little Jullanie who summed up all desires with most
+simplicity: "Lord Jesus, please take me there or anywhere anytime; only
+wherever I am, please stay there too!" Some of the babies are carnal:
+"When I go to that village (Heaven), I shall go for a ride on the
+cherubim's wings. I will make them take me to all sorts of places, just
+wherever I want to go."
+
+The latest pronouncement, however, was for the moment the most
+perplexing. "Come-anda-look-ata-well!" said Chellalu yesterday evening,
+the sentence in a single long word. The well is being dug in the
+Menagerie garden and is surrounded by a trellis, beyond which the babies
+may not pass, unless taken by one of ourselves. As we drew near to the
+well, Chellalu pointed to it and said: "Amma! That is the way to
+Heaven!" This speech, which was in Tamil, considerably surprised me, as
+naturally we think of Heaven above the bright blue sky. The yawning gulf
+of the unfinished well suggested something different.
+
+But Chellalu was positive. "It is the way to Heaven. _I_ may not go
+there, but _you_ may! Yesh! _you_ may go to Heaven, Amma, but _I_ may
+not!" She had nothing more to say; and we wondered how she could
+possibly have arrived at so extraordinary a conclusion, till we
+remembered that it had been explained to the babies that any baby
+falling in would probably be drowned and die, and so until it was
+finished and made safe no baby must go near it. Chellalu had evidently
+argued that as to die meant going to Heaven, the well must be the way to
+Heaven; and as only grown-up people might go near it, they, and they
+alone apparently, were allowed to go to Heaven.
+
+These babies are nothing if not practical. Arulai had been teaching the
+story of the Unmerciful Servant; and to bring it down to nursery life,
+supposed the case of a baby who snatched at other babies' toys, and was
+unfair and selfish. Such a baby, if not reformed, would grow up and be
+like the Unmerciful Servant. The babies looked upon the back of the
+offender as shown in the picture. "Bad man! Nasty man!" they said to
+each other, pointing to him with aversion. And Arulai closed the class
+with a short prayer that none of the babies might ever be like the
+Unmerciful Servant.
+
+The prayer over, the babies rushed to the table where their toys were
+put during the Scripture lesson. Py�rie got there first, and, gathering
+all she could reach, she swept them into her lap and was darting off
+with them, when a word from Arulai recalled her. For a moment there was
+a struggle. Then she ran up to Tingalu, the child she had chiefly
+defrauded, poured all her treasures into her lap, and then sprang into
+Arulai's arms with the eager question: "Acca! Acca! Am I not a
+_Merciful_ Servant?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+The Accals
+
+          "This sacred work demands not lukewarm, selfish,
+          slack souls, but hearts more finely tempered than
+          steel, wills purer and harder than the
+          diamond."--P�RE DIDON.
+
+
+[Illustration: PONNAMAL, WITH PREETHA ON HER KNEE, AND TARA BESIDE HER.]
+
+THE Accals, without whom this work in all its various branches could not
+be undertaken, are a band of Indian sisters (the word Accal means older
+sister) who live for the service of the children. First among the Accals
+is Ponnamal (Golden). With the quick affection of the East the children
+find another word for Gold and call her doubly Golden Sister.
+
+Sometimes we are asked if we ever find an Indian fellow-worker whom we
+can thoroughly trust. The ungenerous question would make us as indignant
+as it would if it were asked about our own relations, were it not that
+we know it is asked in ignorance by those who have never had the
+opportunity of experiencing, or have missed the happiness of enjoying,
+true friendship with the people of this land. Those who have known that
+happiness, know the limitless loyalty and the tender, wonderful love
+that is lavished on the one who feels so unworthy of it all. If there is
+distance and want of sympathy between those who are called to be workers
+together with the great Master, is not something wrong? Simple,
+effortless intimacy, that closeness of touch which is friendship indeed,
+is surely possible. But rather we would put it otherwise, and say that
+without it service together, of the only sort we would care to know, is
+perfectly impossible.
+
+[Illustration: SELLAMUTTU AND SUSEELA.]
+
+In our work all along we have had this joy to the full. God in His
+goodness gave us from the first those who responded at once to the
+confidence we offered them. In India the ideal of a consecrated life is
+a life with no reserves--which seeks for nothing, understands nothing,
+cares for nothing but to be poured forth upon the sacrifice and service.
+Pierce through the various incrustations which have over-laid this pure
+ideal, give no heed to the effect of Western influence and example, and
+you come upon this feeling, however expressed or unexpressed, at the
+very back of all--the instinct that recognises and responds to the call
+to sacrifice, and does not understand its absence in the lives of those
+who profess to follow the Crucified. Who, to whom this ideal is indeed
+"The Gleam," that draws and ever draws the soul to passionate
+allegiance, can fail to find in the Indian nature at its truest and
+finest that kinship of spirit which knits hearts together? "And it came
+to pass when he had made an end of speaking, that the soul of Jonathan
+was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own
+soul": this tells it all. The spring of heart to heart that we call
+affinity, the knitting no hand can ever afterward unravel--these
+experiences have been granted to us all through our work together, and
+we thank God for it.
+
+Ponnamal's work lies chiefly among the convert-nurses and the babies.
+She has charge of the nurseries and of the food arrangements, so
+intricate and difficult to the mere lay mind; she trains her workers to
+thoroughness and earnestness, and by force of example seems to create an
+atmosphere of cheerful unselfishness that is very inspiring. How often
+we have sent a young convert, tempted to self-centredness and
+depression, to Ponnamal, and seen her return to her ordinary work braced
+and bright and sensible. We are all faulty and weak at times, and
+every nursery, like every life, has its occasional lapses; but on the
+whole it is not too much to say that the nurseries are happy places, and
+Ponnamal's influence goes through them all like a fresh wind. And this
+in spite of very poor health. For Ponnamal, who was the leader of our
+itinerating band, broke down hopelessly, and thought her use in life had
+passed--till the babies came and brought her back to activity again. And
+the joy of the Lord, we have often proved, is strength for body as well
+as soul.
+
+Sellamuttu, who comes next to Ponnamal, is the "Pearl" of previous
+records, and she has been a pearl to us through all our years together.
+She is special Accal to the household of children above the baby-age--a
+healthy, high-spirited crow of most diverse dispositions; and she is
+loved by one and all with a love which is tempered with great respect,
+for she is "all pure justice," as a little girl remarked feelingly not
+long ago, after being rather sharply reproved for exceeding naughtiness:
+"within my heart wrath burned like a fire; but my mouth could not open
+to reply, for inside me a voice said, 'It is true, entirely true; Accal
+is perfectly just.'"
+
+This Accal, however, is most tender in her affections, and among the
+babies she has some particular specials. One of these is the
+solemn-faced morsel of the photograph, to save whom she travelled,
+counting by time, as far as from London to Moscow and back; and the baby
+arrived as happy and well as when the friends at "Moscow" sent her off
+with prayers and blessings and kindness. But the photograph was a shock.
+"Aiyo!" she said, quite upset to see her delight so misrepresented,
+"that is not Suseela! There is no smile, no pleasure in her face!" We
+comforted her by the assurance that any one who understood babies and
+their ways would consider the camera responsible for the expression.
+And at least the baby was obedient. Had she not told her to make a
+salaam, and had not the little hand gone up in serious salute? A
+perfectly obedient baby is Sellamuttu's ideal, and she was satisfied.
+
+[Illustration: TO THE RIGHT, SUHINIE, AND HER BABY SUNUNDA]
+
+Both these sisters came to us at some loss to themselves, for both could
+have lived at home at ease if they had been so inclined. Ponnamal lost
+all her little fortune by joining us. She could, perhaps, have recovered
+it by going to law, but she did not feel it right to do so, and she
+suffered herself to be defrauded. "How could I teach others to be
+unworldly if I myself did what to them would appear worldly-minded?"
+That was all she ever said by way of explanation.
+
+Next to Ponnamal and Sellamuttu come the motherly-hearted Gnanamal and
+Annamai. They came to us when we were in circumstances of peculiar
+difficulty. The work was just beginning, and we had not enough
+trustworthy helpers; so, wearied with disturbed nights, we were almost
+at the end of our strength. "Send us help!" we prayed, and went on each
+trying to do the work of three. It was one hot, tiring afternoon, when
+we longed to forget everything and rest for half an hour, but could not,
+because there was so much to do, that a bright, capable face appeared at
+the door of our room, and Annamai, Lulla's beloved, came in and said:
+"God sent me, and my relative" (naming a mission catechist) "brought me.
+And so I have come!"
+
+And Gnanamal--we were in dire straits, for a dear little babe had
+suffered at the hands of one who thought first of herself and second of
+her charge, and the most careful tending was needed if the baby was to
+survive--it was then Gnanamal came and took charge of the delicate
+child, and became the comfort and help she has ever continued to be.
+When there is serious illness, and night-nursing is required, Gnanamal
+is always ready to volunteer; though to her, as to most of us in India,
+night work is not what the flesh would choose. Then in the morning,
+when we go to relieve her, we find her bright as ever, as if she had
+slept comfortably all the time. We think this sort of help worth
+gratitude.
+
+The convert-workers, dear as dear children, but, thank God, dependable
+as comrades, come next in age to the head Accals. Arulai Tara (known to
+some as "Star") is what her name suggests, something steadfast,
+something shining, something burning with a pure devotion which kindles
+other fires. We cannot imagine our children without their beloved
+Arulai. Then there is Sundoshie (Joy), to the left next Suhinie in the
+photo, a young wife for whom poison was prepared three times, and whose
+escape from death at the hand of husband and mother-in-law was one of
+those quiet miracles which God is ever working in this land of cruelty
+in dark places. And Suhinie (Gladness), whose story of deliverance has
+been told before;[E] and Esli, the gift of a fellow-missionary, a most
+faithful girl; and others younger, but developing in character and
+trustworthiness. All these young converts need much care, but the care
+of genuine converts is very fruitful work; and one interesting part of
+it is the fitting of each to her niche, or of fitting the niche to her.
+Discernment of spirit is needed for this, for misfits means waste energy
+and great discomfort; and energy is too good a thing to waste, and
+comfort too pleasant a thing to spoil. So those who are responsible for
+this part of the work would be grateful for the remembrance of any who
+know how much depends upon it.
+
+Among the recognised "fits" in our family is "the Accal who loves the
+unlovable babies." This is Suhinie. We tried her once with the Taraha
+children; but the terrible activity of these young people was altogether
+too much for the slowly moving machinery of poor Suhinie's brain, and
+she was perfectly overwhelmed and very miserable. For Suhinie hates
+hurry and sudden shocks of any sort, and the babies of maturer years
+discovered this immediately; and Suhinie, waddling forlornly after the
+babies, looked like a highly respectable duck in charge of a flock of
+impertinent robins.
+
+[Illustration: THREE CONVERT WORKERS.]
+
+It was quite a misfit, and Suhinie's worst came to the top, and we
+speedily moved her back again to the Pr�malia nursery.
+
+For there you see Suhinie in her true sphere. Give her a poor, puny
+babe, who will never, if she can help it, let her Accal have an
+undisturbed hour; give her the most impossible, most troublesome baby in
+the nursery, and then you will see Suhinie's best. We discovered this
+when Ponnamal was in charge of the Neyoor nursery. Ponnamal had one
+small infant so cross that nobody wanted her. She would cry half the
+night, a snarly, snappy cry, that would not stop unless she was rocked,
+and began again as soon as the rocking was stopped. Ponnamal gave her to
+Suhinie.
+
+"Night after night till two in the morning she would sing to that
+fractious child"--this was Ponnamal's story to me when next I went to
+Neyoor. "She never seemed to tire; hymn after hymn she would sing, on
+and on and on. I never saw her impatient with it; she just loved it from
+the first." And a curious thing began to happen: the baby grew like her
+Accal. This likeness was not caught in the photograph, but is
+nevertheless so observable that visitors have often asked if the little
+one were her own child.
+
+This baby, Sununda by name, is greatly attached to Suhinie. As she is
+over two years old now, she has been promoted to the Taraha, and being
+an extremely wilful little person, she sometimes gets into trouble. One
+day I was called to remonstrate, and a little "morning glory" was
+required, and I put her in a corner to think about it. Another sinner
+had to be dealt with, and when I returned Sununda was nowhere to be
+found. I searched all over the Taraha and in the garden, and finally
+found her in the Pr�malia cuddled close to Suhinie. "She has told me all
+about it," said Suhinie, who was nursing another edition of difficult
+infancy; and she looked down on the curly head with eyes of brooding
+affection, like a tender turtle-dove upon her nestling. Then the roguish
+brown eyes smiled up at me with an expression of perfect confidence that
+I would understand and sympathise with the desire to share the troubles
+of this strange, sad life with so beloved an Accal.
+
+The question of discipline is sometimes rather difficult with so many
+dispositions, each requiring different dealing. We try, of course, to
+fit the penalty to the crime, so that the child's sense of justice will
+work on our side; and in this we always find there is a wonderful
+unconscious co-operation on the part of the merest baby. But the older
+children used to be rather a problem. Some had come to us after their
+wills had become developed and their characters partly formed. Most of
+them were with us of their own free will, and could have walked off any
+day, for they knew where they would be welcome. Discipline under these
+circumstances is not entirely easy. But three years ago something of
+Revival Power swept through all our family. It was not the Great Revival
+for which we wait, but it was something most blessed in effect and
+abiding in result; and ever since then the tone has been higher and the
+life deeper, so that there is something to which we can appeal confident
+of a quick response. But children will be scampish; and once their
+earnestness of desire to be good was put to unexpected and somewhat
+drastic proof.
+
+At that time the mild Esli had charge of the sewing-class, and the class
+had got into bad ways; carelessness and chattering prevailed, so Esli
+came in despair to me, and I talked to the erring children. They were
+sorry, made no excuses, and promised to be different in future. I left
+them repentant and thoroughly ashamed of themselves, and went to other
+duties.
+
+[Illustration: SEWING-CLASS IN THE COURTYARD.]
+
+Shortly afterwards Arulai found them in a state of great depression.
+They told her they had promised to be good at the sewing-class, but were
+afraid they would forget. Arulai's ideas are usually most original, and
+she sympathised with the children, but told them there was no need for
+them ever to forget. They asked eagerly what could be done to help them
+to remember. They had prayed, but even so had doubts. Was there anything
+to be done besides praying? Arulai said there was, and she expounded
+certain verses from the Book of Proverbs. "Sometimes the best way to
+make a mark upon the mind is to make a mark upon the body," she
+suggested, and asked the children if they would like this done. The
+children hesitated. They were aware that Arulai's "marks" were likely to
+be emphatic, for Arulai never does things by halves. But their devotion
+to her and belief in her overcame all fears; and being genuinely anxious
+to reform, they one and all consented. So she sent a small girl off to
+look for a cane; and presently one was produced, "thin and nice and
+suitable," as I was afterwards informed. The younger children were
+invited to take the cane and look at it, and consider well how it would
+feel. This they did obediently, but still stuck undauntedly to their
+determination, in fact, were keen to go through with it. Then Arulai
+explained that when the King said, "Chasten thy son while there is hope,
+and let not thy soul spare for his crying," he must have been thinking
+of a very little boy who had not the sense to know what was good for
+him. They had sense. The mark on the body would be waste punishment if
+it were not received willingly and gratefully; so if any child cried or
+pulled her hand away, she would stop. Then the children all stood up and
+held out their hands--what a moment for a photograph! Arulai's "mark
+upon the body" was a genuine affair, but the class received it with
+fortitude and gratitude.
+
+When I heard this history, an hour or so after its occurrence, I rather
+demurred. The children had appeared to be sincerely sorry when I spoke
+to them, and if so, why proceed to extremities? But Arulai answered with
+wisdom and much assurance: "They have been talked to before and have
+been sorry, but they forgot and did it again. This time they will not
+forget." And neither did they. As long as that class continued, its
+behaviour was exemplary; and "the mark upon the mind," to judge by their
+demeanour, remained as fresh as it must have been on that memorable day
+when the "mark" upon the body effected its creation. The story ought to
+end here; but most stories have a sequel, and this has two.
+
+The first occurred a few weeks later. A little girl, one of the
+sewing-class, had slipped into the habit of careless disobedience,
+followed too often by sulks. If we happened to come across her just when
+the thunder-clouds were gathering, we could usually divert her attention
+and avert the threatened trouble; but if we did not happen to meet her
+just at the right moment, she would plunge straight into the most
+outrageous naughtiness with a sort of purposeful directness that was
+difficult to deal with. Knowing the child well, we often let her choose
+her own punishments; and she did this so conscientiously that at last,
+as she herself mournfully remarked, "they were all used up," and there
+was nothing left but the most ancient--and perhaps in some cases most
+efficacious, which, the circumstances being what they were, I was
+naturally reluctant to try. But the child, trained to be perfectly
+honest with herself, apparently thought the thing over, and calmly made
+up her mind to accept the inevitable; for when, anxious she should not
+misunderstand, I began to explain matters to her, I was met by this
+somewhat astonishing response: "Yes, Amma, I know. I know you have tried
+everything else" (she said this almost sympathetically, as if
+appreciating my dilemma), "and so you have to do it. I do not like it at
+all, but Arulai Accal says it is no use unless I take it willingly, so
+Amma, please give me a good caning." (The idiom is the same in Tamil as
+in English, but there is a stronger word which she now proceeded to use
+with great deliberation.) "Yes, Amma, a _hot_ caning--with my full mind
+I am willing. And I will not cry. Or if I do cry" (this was added in a
+serious, reflecting sort of way), "let not your soul spare for my
+crying!"
+
+The second is less abnormal. Esli, whose placid soul had been sadly
+stirred at the time of the infliction of the "mark," was so impressed by
+its salutary effect that she conceived a new respect for the methods of
+King Solomon. The application of "morning glory" is a privilege
+reserved, as a rule, for ourselves; but one day, being doubtless hard
+pressed, Esli produced a stick--a very feeble one--and calling up the
+leader of all rebels, addressed herself to her. Chellalu, as might have
+been expected, was taken by surprise; and for one short moment Esli was
+permitted to follow the ways of the King. But only for a moment: for,
+suddenly apprehending the gravity of the situation, and realising that
+such precedent should not pass unchallenged, Chellalu, with a quick
+wriggle, stood forth free, seized the stick with a joyous shout, snapped
+it in two, and flourished round the room: then stopping before her
+afflicted Accal, she solemnly handed her one of the pieces, and with a
+bound and a scamper like a triumphant puppy, was off to the very end of
+her world with the other half of that stick.
+
+When the Elf came to us on March 6, 1901, and we began to know some of
+the secrets of the Temple, we tried to save several little children,
+but we failed. The thought of those first children with whom we came
+into touch, but for whom all our efforts were unavailing, is
+unforgettable. We see them still, little children--lost. But we partly
+understand why we had to wait so long; we had not the workers then to
+help us to take care of them. We had only some of the older Accals, who
+could not have done it alone. These convert-girls, who now help us so
+much, were in Hindu homes; some of them had not even heard of Christ,
+whose love alone makes this work possible. For India is not England in
+its view of such work. There is absolutely nothing attractive about it.
+It is not "honourable work," like preaching and teaching. No money would
+have drawn these workers to us. Work which has no clear ending, but
+drifts on into the night if babies are young or troublesome--such work
+makes demands upon devotion and practical unselfishness which appeal to
+none but those who are prepared to love with the tireless love of the
+mother. "I do not want people who come to me under certain reservations.
+In battle you need soldiers who fear nothing." So wrote the heroic P�re
+Didon; and, though it may sound presumptuous to do so, we say the same.
+We want as comrades those who come to us without reservations. But such
+workers have to be prepared, and such preparation takes time. "Tarry ye
+the Lord's leisure," is a word that unfolds as we go on.
+
+Yet we find that the work, though so demanding, is full of
+compensations. The convert in her loneliness is welcomed into a family
+where little children need her and will soon love her dearly. The
+uncomforted places in her heart become healed, for the touch of a little
+child is very healing. If she is willing to forget herself and live for
+that little child, something new springs up within her; she does not
+understand it, but those who watch her know that all is well. Sometimes
+long afterwards she reads her own heart's story and opens it to us. "I
+was torn with longing for my home. I dreamed night after night about it,
+and I used to waken just wild to run back. And yet I knew if I had, it
+would have been destruction to my soul. And then the baby came, and you
+put her into my arms, and she grew into my heart, and she took away all
+that feeling, till I forgot I ever had it." This was the story of one, a
+young wife, for whom the natural joys of home can never be. But if there
+is selfishness or slackness or a weak desire to drift along in easiness,
+taking all and giving nothing, things are otherwise. For such the
+nurseries hold nothing but noise and interruptions. We ask to be spared
+from such as these. Or if they come, may they be inspired by the
+constraining love of Christ and "The Glory of the Usual."
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[E] _Overweights of Joy_, ch. xxiii. Suhinie left the nursery for a few
+hours' rest at noon on February 2, 1910. She fell asleep, to awaken in
+heaven.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+The Little Accals
+
+          But Thou didst reckon, when at first
+            Thy word our hearts and hands did crave,
+          What it would come to at the worst
+                  To save.
+          Perpetual knockings at Thy door,
+          Tears sullying Thy transparent rooms.
+
+
+[Illustration: THREE LITTLE ACCALS.]
+
+THESE lines come with insistence as I look at the little Accals, who
+follow in order after the Accals, convert children, most of them, now
+growing up to helpfulness. If part of the story of one such young girl
+is told, it may help those to whom such tales are unfamiliar to
+understand and to care.
+
+December 16, 1903, was spent by three of us in a rest-house on the
+outskirts of a Hindu town. We were on our way to Dohnavur from Madras,
+where we had seen Mr. and Mrs. Walker off for England. The two days'
+journey had left us somewhat weary; and yet we were strong in hope that
+day, for we knew there was special thought for us on board ship and at
+home, and something special was being asked as a birthday gift of joy.
+Arulai (Star) and Preena (the Elf), the two who were with me, were full
+of expectation. The day had often been marked by that joy of joys, a
+lost sheep found; and as we looked out at the heathen town with its
+many people so unconscious of our thoughts about them, we wondered where
+we should find the one our thoughts had singled from among the crowd,
+and we went out to look for her.
+
+[Illustration: PREENA AND PREEYA
+
+(To left and right) getting ready for a Coming-Day Feast.]
+
+Up and down the long white streets we looked for her; on the little
+narrow verandahs, in the courtyards of the houses, in their dark inner
+rooms when we were invited within, out again into the sunshine--but we
+could not find her. That evening I remember, though we did not say so to
+each other, we felt a little disappointed. We had not met one who even
+remotely cared for the things we had come to bring.
+
+No one had responded. There was not, so far as we knew it, even a little
+blade to point to, much less a sheaf to lay at His feet. After nightfall
+a woman came to see us. But she was a Christian, and beyond trying to
+cheer her to more earnest service among the heathen, there was nothing
+to be done for her. She left us, she told us afterwards, warmed to hope;
+and she talked to a child next morning, a little relative of her own,
+whose heart the Lord opened.
+
+For three months we heard nothing; then unexpectedly a letter came. "The
+child is much in earnest, and she has made up her mind to join your
+Starry Cluster" (a name given by the people to our band, which at that
+time was itinerating in the district), "so I purpose sending her at
+once." The parents, for reasons of their own, agreed to the arrangement,
+and the little girl came to Dohnavur. It was wonderful to watch her
+learning. She is not intellectually brilliant, but the soul awakened at
+once, and there was that tenderness of response which refreshes the
+heart of the teacher. She seemed to come straight to our Lord Jesus and
+know Him as her Saviour, child though she was; and soon the longing to
+win others possessed her, and a younger child, who was her special
+charge among the nursery children, was influenced so gently and so
+willingly, that we do not know the time when, led by her little
+Accal, she too came to the Lover of children.
+
+But one day, suddenly, trouble came. The parents appeared in the
+Dohnavur compound and claimed their daughter; and we had no legal right
+to refuse her, for she was under age. We shall never forget the hour
+they came. They had haunted the neighbourhood, as we afterwards heard,
+and prowled about outside the compound, watching for an opportunity to
+carry the child off without our knowledge. But she was always with the
+other children, so that plan failed. When first she heard they had come,
+she fled to the bungalow. "My parents have come! My father is strong!
+Oh, hide me! hide me!" she besought us. "I cannot resist him! I cannot!"
+and she cried and clung to us. But when we went out to meet them, she
+was perfectly quiet; and no one would have known from her manner as she
+stood before them, and answered their questions, without a tremble in
+her voice, how frightened she had been before.
+
+"What is this talk about being a Christian?" the father demanded
+stormily. "What can an infant know about such matters? Are you wiser
+than your fathers, that their religion is not good enough for you?" And
+scathing mockery followed, harder to bear than abuse. "Come! Say salaam
+to the Missie Ammal, and bring your jewels" (she had taken them off),
+"and let us go home together." The child stood absolutely still, looking
+up with brave eyes; and to our astonishment said, as though it were the
+only thing to be said: "But I am a Christian. I cannot go home."
+
+We had not thought of her saying this. We had, indeed, encouraged her as
+we had encouraged ourselves, to rest in our God, who is unto us a God of
+deliverances; but we had not suggested any line of resistance, and were
+not prepared for the calm refusal which so quietly took it for granted
+that she had no power to refuse.
+
+The father was evidently nonplussed. He knew his little daughter, a
+timid child, whose translated name, Fawn, seems to express her exactly,
+and he gazed down upon her in silence for one surprised moment, then
+burst out in wrath and indignant revilings. "Snake! nurtured in the
+bosom only to turn and sting! Vile, filthy, disgusting insect, born to
+disgrace her caste!" And they cursed her as she stood.
+
+Then their mood changed, and they tried pleadings, much more difficult
+to resist. The father reminded her of his pilgrimage to a famous Temple
+at her birth: "He had named her before the gods." Her mother touched on
+tenderer memories, till we could feel the quiver of soul, and feared for
+the little Fawn. Then they promised her liberty at home. She should read
+her Bible, pray to the true God, "for all gods are one." I saw Fawn shut
+her eyes for a moment. What she saw in that moment she told me
+afterwards: a fire lighted on the floor, a Bible tossed into it, two
+schoolboy brothers (whose leanings towards Christianity had been
+discovered) pushed into an inner room, the sound of blows and cries.
+"And after that my brothers did not want to be Christians any more."
+Poor little timid Fawn! We hardly wonder as we look at her that she
+shrank and shut her eyes. I have seen a child of twelve held down by a
+powerful arm and beaten across the bare shoulders with a cocoa-nut shell
+fastened to the end of a stick; I have seen her wrists twisted almost to
+dislocation--seen it, and been unable to help. I think of the child, now
+our happy Gladness, lover of the unlovable babies; and I for one cannot
+wonder at the little Fawn's fear. But aloud she only said: "Forgive me,
+I cannot go home."
+
+The father grew impatient. "Get your jewels and let us be gone!" Fawn
+ran into the house, brought her jewels, and handed them to her father.
+He counted them over--pretty little chains and bangles, and then he eyed
+her curiously. A child to give up her jewels like this--he found it
+unaccountable. And then he began to argue, but Fawn answered him with
+clearness and simplicity, and he could not perplex her. She knew Whom
+she believed.
+
+At last they rose to go, cursing the day she was born with a curse that
+sounded horrible. But their younger daughter, whom they had brought with
+them, threw herself upon the ground, tearing her hair, beating her
+breast, shrieking and rolling and flinging the dust about like a mad
+thing. "I will not go without my sister! I will not go! I will not go!"
+And she clung to Fawn, and wept and bewailed till we hardly dared to
+hope the child would be able to withstand her. For a moment the parents
+stood and waited. We, too, stood in tension of spirit. "They have told
+her to do it," whispered Fawn, and stood firm. Then the father stooped,
+snatched up the younger child, and departed, followed by the mother.
+
+All this time two of our number had been waiting upon God in a quiet
+place out of sight. One of the two went after the parents, hoping for a
+chance to explain matters to the mother. As she drew near she heard the
+wife say in an undertone to her husband: "Leave them for to-day. Wait
+till to-night. You have carried off the younger in your arms against her
+will. What hinders you doing the same to the elder?" And that night we
+prayed that the Wall of Fire might be round us, and slept in peace.
+
+As a dream when one awaketh, so was the memory of that afternoon when we
+awoke next morning. And as a dream so the parents passed out of sight,
+for they left before the dawn. But weeks afterwards we heard what had
+happened that night. They had lodged in the Hindu village outside our
+gate. There has never been a Christian there, and the people have never
+responded in any way. It is a little shut-in place of darkness on the
+borders of the light. But when the parents proposed a raid upon the
+bungalow that night they would not rise to it. "No, we have no feud with
+the bungalow. We will not do it." The nearest white face was a day's
+journey distant, and a woman alone, white or brown, does not count for
+much in Hindu eyes. But the Wall of Fire was around us, and so we were
+safe.
+
+If the story could stop here, how easy life would be! One fight, one
+fling to the lions, and then the palm and crown. But it is not so. The
+perils of reaction are greater for the convert than the first great
+strain of facing the alternative, "Diana or Christ." Home-sickness
+comes, wave upon wave, and all but sweeps the soul away; feelings and
+longings asleep in the child awake in the girl, and draw her and woo
+her, and blind her too often to all that yielding means. She forgets the
+under-side of the life she has forsaken; she remembers only the
+alluring; and all that is natural pleads within her, and will not let
+her rest. "Across the will of Nature leads on the path of God," is
+sternly true for the convert in a Hindu or Moslem land.
+
+And so we write this unfinished story in faith that some one reading it
+will remember the young girl-converts as well as the little children.
+Fawn has been kept steadfast, but she still needs prayer. These last
+five years have held anxious hours for those who love her, and to us, as
+to all who have to do with converts. "Perpetual knockings at Thy door,
+tears sullying Thy transparent rooms," are words that go deep and touch
+the heart of things.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+The Glory of the Usual
+
+
+[Illustration: AFTER HER BOTTLE.]
+
+"AND all things were done in such excellent methods, and I cannot tell
+how, but things in the doing of them seemed to cast a smile"--is a
+beautiful sentence from Bunyan's _Holy War_, which has been with us ever
+since we began the Nursery work. Lately we found its complement in a
+modern book of sermons, _The Unlighted Lustre_, by G. H. Morrison. "No
+matter how stirring your life be, it will be a failure if you have never
+been wakened to the glory of the usual. There is no happiness like the
+old and common happiness, sunshine and love and duty and the laughter of
+children. . . . There are no duties that so enrich as dull duties."
+
+The ancient voice and the new voice sing to the same sweet tune; and we
+in our little measure are learning to sing it too.
+
+As we have said, India is a land where the secular does not appeal. When
+we were an Itinerating Band, we had many offers from Christian girls and
+women to join us, as many in one month as we now have in five years.
+Sometimes it has seemed to us that we were set to learn and to teach a
+new and difficult lesson, the sacredness of the commonplace. Day by day
+we learn to rub out a little more of the clear chalked line that someone
+has ruled on life's black-board; the Secular and the Spiritual may not
+be divided now. The enlightening of a dark soul or the lighting of a
+kitchen fire, it matters not which it is, if only we are obedient to the
+heavenly vision, and work with a pure intention to the glory of our God.
+
+[Illustration: NORTH LAKE AND HILLS.]
+
+The nursery kitchen is a pleasant little place. We hardly ever enter it
+without remembering and appreciating John Bunyan's pretty thought, for
+there things in the doing of them seem to cast a smile. Ponnamal, who,
+as we said, superintends the more delicate food-making work, has trained
+two of her helpers to carefulness; and these two--one a motherly older
+woman with a most comfortable face, the other the convert, Joy--look up
+with such a welcome that you feel it good to be there. Scrubbing away at
+endless pots and pans and milk vessels is a younger convent-girl, who,
+when she first came to us, disapproved of such exertion. She liked to
+sit on the floor with her Bible on her lap and a far-away look of
+content on her face until the dinner-bell rang. Now she scrubs with a
+sense of responsibility.
+
+All the younger converts have regular teaching, for they have much to
+learn, and all, older and younger, have daily classes and meetings;
+above all, it is planned that each has her quiet time undisturbed. But
+it is early understood that to be happy each must contribute her share
+to the happiness of the family; and one of the first lessons the young
+convert has to learn is to honour the "Grey Angel," Drudgery, and not to
+call her bad names.
+
+The kitchen has an outlook dear to the Tamil heart. A trellis covered
+with pink antigone surrounds it, but a window is cut in the trellis so
+that the kitchen may command the bungalow. "While I stirred the milk I
+saw everything you did on your verandah," remarked one of the workers
+lately, in tones of appreciation. The opposite outlook is the mountain
+shown in the photograph; only instead of water we have the
+kitchen-garden with its tropical-looking plantains and creeping marrows.
+"And the warm melon lay like a little sun on the tawny sand," is a line
+for an Eastern garden when the great marrows ripen suddenly.
+
+The kitchen thus favoured without, is adorned within, according to the
+taste of its owners, with those very interesting pictures published by
+the makers of infant foods. "How do you choose them?" we asked one day.
+"The truest and the prettiest," was the satisfactory answer. Our
+Dohnavur text, which hangs in every nursery, looks down upon the
+workers, and, as they put it, "keeps them sweet in heart": "Love never
+faileth."
+
+When first we began to cultivate babies we were very ignorant, and we
+asked advice of all who seemed competent to give it. The advice was most
+perplexing. Each mother was sure the food that had suited her baby was
+the best of all foods, and regarded all others as doubtful, if not bad.
+One whom we greatly respected told us Indian babies would be sure to get
+on anyhow, as it was their own land. And one seriously suggested
+rice-water as a suitable nourishment. Naturally we began with the
+time-honoured milk and barley-water, and some throve upon it. But we
+found each baby had to be studied separately. There was no universal
+(artificial) food. We could write a tractlet on foods, and if we did we
+would call it "Don't," for the first sentence in it would be, "Don't
+change the food if you can help it." This tractlet would certainly close
+with a word of thanks to those kind people, the milk-food manufacturers,
+who have helped us to build up healthy children; for feelings of
+personal gratitude come when help of this kind is given.
+
+The nursery kitchen is a room full of reminders of help. "I have
+commanded the ravens," is a word of strength to us. Once we were very
+low. A little child had died under trying circumstances. One of the
+milk-sellers, instead of using the vessel sent him, poured his milk
+into an unclean copper vessel, and it was poisoned. He remembered that
+it would not be taken unless brought in the proper vessel, so at the
+last moment he corrected his mistake, but the correction was fatal, for
+there was no warning. The milk was sterilized as usual and given to the
+child. She was a healthy baby, and her nurse remembers how she smiled
+and welcomed her bottle, taking it in her little hands in her happy
+eagerness. A few hours later she was dead.
+
+At such times the heart seems foolishly weak, and things which would not
+trouble it otherwise have power to make it sore. We were four days'
+journey from the nursery at the time, and had the added anxiety about
+the other babies, to whom we feared the poisoned milk might have been
+given, and we dreaded what the next post might bring. Just at that
+moment it was suggested, with kindest intentions, that perhaps we were
+on the wrong track, the work seemed so difficult and wasteful.
+
+It was mail-day. The mail as usual brought a pile of letters, and the
+top envelope contained a bill for foods ordered from England some weeks
+before. It came to more than I had expected, in spite of the kindness of
+several firms in giving a liberal discount; and for a moment the
+rice-water talk (to give it a name which covers all that type of talk)
+came back to me with hurt in it: "To what purpose is this waste?" But
+with it came another word: "Take this child away (away from the terrible
+Temple) and nurse it for Me." And with the pile of letters before me,
+and the bill for food in my hand, I asked that enough might be found in
+those letters to pay it. It did not occur to me at the moment that the
+prayer was rather illogical. I only knew it would be comforting, and
+like a little word of peace, if such an assurance might even then come
+that we were not off the lines.
+
+Letter after letter was empty. Not empty of kindness, but quite empty
+of cheques. The last envelope looked thin and not at all hopeful.
+Cheques are usually inside reliable-looking covers. I opened it. There
+was nothing but a piece of unknown writing. But the writing was to ask
+if we happened to have a need which a sum named in the letter would
+meet. This sum exactly covered the bill for the foods. When the cheque
+eventually reached me it was for more than the letter had mentioned, and
+covered all carriage and duty expenses, which were unknown to me at the
+time the first letter came, and to which of course I had not referred in
+my reply. Thus almost visibly and audibly has the Lord, from whose hands
+we received this charge to keep, confirmed His word to us, strengthening
+us when we were weak, and comforting us when we were sad with that
+innermost sense of His tenderness which braces while it soothes.
+
+Surely we who know Him thus should love the Lord because He hath heard
+our voice and our supplication. Every advertisement on the walls of the
+little nursery kitchen is like an illuminated text with a story hidden
+away in it:--
+
+          When Thou dost favour any action,
+            It runs, it flies;
+          All things concur to give it a perfection.
+
+The nursery kitchen, we were amused to discover, has a sphere of
+influence all its own. Our discovery was on this wise:--
+
+One wet evening we were caught in a downpour as we were crossing from
+the Taraha nursery to the bungalow, and we took shelter in the
+kindergarten room, which reverts to the Lola-and-Leela tribe when the
+kindergarten babies depart. The tribe do not often possess their Sittie
+and their Ammal both together and all to themselves, now that the
+juniors are so numerous, and they welcomed us with acclamations. "Finish
+spreading your mats," we said to them, as they seemed inclined to let
+our advent interrupt the order of the evening; and we watched them
+unroll their mats, which hung round the wall in neat rolls swung by
+cords from the roof, and spread them in rows along the wall. Beside each
+mat was what looked like a mummy, and beside each mummy was a matchbox
+and a small bundle of rags.
+
+Presently the mummies were unswathed, and proved to be dolls in more or
+less good condition. Each was carefully laid upon a morsel of sheet, and
+covered with another sheet folded over in the neatest fashion. "If we
+teach them to be particular when they are young, they will be tidy when
+they are old," we were informed. It was pleasant to hear our own remarks
+so accurately repeated.
+
+The matchboxes were next unpacked; each contained a bit of match, a
+small pointed shell, a pebble (preferably black), and a couple of minute
+cockles. "I suppose you don't know what all these are?" said Lola,
+affably. "That," pointing to the match, "is a spoon; and this," taking
+the pointed shell up carefully, "is a bottle. This is the 'rubber,' of
+course," and the black pebble was indicated; "and these" (setting the
+cockle-shells on a piece of white paper on the floor) "are bowls of
+water, one for the bottle and the other for the rubber." We suggested
+one bowl of water would hold both bottle and rubber; but Lola's entirely
+mischievous eyes looked quite shocked and reproving. "Two bowls are
+better," was the serious reply; "it is very important to be clean."
+"What does your child have?" we inquired respectfully. "Barley-water and
+milk, two-and-a-half ounces every two hours--that's five tablespoonfuls,
+you know." "And Leela's?" "Oh, Leela's child is delicate. She has to
+have Benger. Two ounces every two hours; and it has to be a long time
+digested." "Do all your children have their food every two hours?" Lola
+looked surprised, and Leela giggled: how very ignorant we seemed to be!
+"No, only the tiny ones; our babies are very young. After they get older
+they have more at a time and not so often. That child there," pointing
+to another mat, "has Condensed, as we haven't enough cow's milk for them
+all. It suits her very well. She has six ounces at a time; once before
+she goes to sleep, and then none till she wakens in the morning. She's a
+very healthy child." "How do you know the time?" we asked, prepared for
+anything now. "Oh, we have watches. This is mine," and a toy from a
+Christmas cracker was produced; "Leela's watch is different" (it was
+indeed different--a mere figment of the imagination), "but she can look
+at mine when she wants to." "Why does your child sleep with Leela's?"
+(All the other infants had separate sleeping arrangements.) Lola looked
+shy, and Leela looked shyer. These little matters of affection were not
+intended for public discussion.
+
+By this time the rain had cleared, so we prepared to depart, and the
+further entertainments provided for us by the cheerful tribe that
+evening do not belong to this story. We escaped finally, damp with much
+laughter in a humid atmosphere. "Come every evening!" shouted the tribe,
+as at last we disappeared, and we felt much inclined to accept the
+invitation.
+
+The kitchen is a busy place in the morning, and again in the evening,
+when the fresh milk is carried to it in shining aluminium vessels to be
+sterilized or otherwise dealt with. But even in the busiest hours there
+is almost sure to be a baby set in an upturned stool, in which she sits
+holding on to the front legs in proud consciousness of being able to sit
+up. Or an older one will be clinging to the garments of the busy
+workers, or perched beside them on a stool. Once we found Tara and Evu
+seated on the window-sill. Ponnamal was making foods at the table under
+the window, and the little bare feet were tucked in between bowls and
+jugs of milk. "But, indeed, they are quite clean," explained Ponnamal,
+without waiting for remark from us, for she knew what we were thinking
+of her table decorations. "We dusted the sand off their little feet
+before we lifted them up." The babies said nothing, but looked
+doubtfully up at us, as if not very sure of our intentions. But
+Ponnamal's eyes were so appealing, and the little buff things in blue
+with a trellis of pink flowers for background made such a pretty
+picture, that we had not the heart to spoil it. Then the little faces
+smiled gratefully upon us, and everybody smiled. The kitchen is a happy
+place of innocent surprises.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+The Secret Traffic
+
+          "Sir, to leave things out of a book because they
+          will not be believed, is meanness."--DR. JOHNSON.
+
+
+WHEN first, upon March 7, 1901, we heard from the lips of a little child
+the story of her life in a Temple house, we were startled and
+distressed, and penetrated with the conviction that such a story ought
+to be impossible in a land ruled by a Christian Power. The subject was
+new to us; we knew nothing of the magnitude of what may be called "The
+Secret Traffic of India"--a traffic in little children, mere infants
+oftentimes, for wrong purposes; and we did not appreciate, as we do now,
+the delicacy and difficulty of the position from a Government point of
+view, or the quiet might of the forces upon the other side. And though
+with added knowledge comes an added sense of responsibility, and a fear
+of all careless appeal to those whose burden is already so heavy, yet
+with every fresh discovery the conviction deepens that something should
+be done--and done, if possible, soon--to save at least this generation
+of children, or some of them, from destruction.
+
+"It is useless to move without a body of evidence at your back," said a
+friend in the Civil Service to us at the close of a long conversation.
+"If you can get the children, of course they themselves will furnish the
+best evidence; but, anyhow, collect facts." And this was the beginning
+of a Note-book, into which we entered whatever we could learn about the
+Temple children, and in which we kept letters relating to them.
+
+By Temple children throughout this book we mean children dedicated to
+gods, or in danger of being so dedicated. Dedication to gods implies a
+form of marriage which makes ordinary marriage impossible. The child is
+regarded as belonging to the gods. In Southern India, where religious
+feeling runs strong, and the great Temples are the centres of Hindu
+influence, this that I have called "The Traffic" is worked upon
+religious lines; and so in trying to save the children we have to
+contend with the perverted religious sense. Something of the same kind
+exists in other parts of India, and the traffic under another name is
+common in provinces where Temple service as we have it in the South is
+unknown. Again, in areas where, owing to the action of the native
+Government, Temple service, as such, is not recognised, so that children
+in danger of wrong cannot, strictly speaking, be called Temple children,
+there is yet need of legislation which shall touch all houses where
+little children are being brought up for the same purpose; so that the
+subject is immense and involved, and the thought of it suggests a net
+thrown over millions of square miles of territory, so finely woven as to
+be almost invisible, but so strong in its mesh that in no place yet has
+it ever given way. And the net is alive: it can feel and it can hold.
+
+But all through this book we have kept to the South--to the area where
+the evil is distinctly and recognisably religious. Others elsewhere have
+told their own story; ours, though in touch with theirs (in that its
+whole motive is to save the little children), is yet different in
+manner, in that it is avowedly Christian. India is a land where
+generalisations are deceptive. So we have kept to the South.
+
+We ourselves became only very gradually aware of what was happening
+about us. As fact after fact came to light, we were forced to certain
+conclusions which we could not doubt were correct. But at first we were
+almost alone in these conclusions, because it was impossible to take
+others with us in our tedious underground hunt after facts. So the
+question was often asked: "But do the children really exist?"
+
+I have said we were almost alone, not quite. Members of the Indian Civil
+Service, who are much among the people, knew something of the custom of
+child-dedication, but found themselves unable to touch it. Hindu
+Reformers, of course, knew; and two or three veteran missionaries had
+come into contact with it and had grieved over their helplessness to do
+anything. One of these had written a pamphlet on the subject twenty
+years before our Nursery work began. He sent it to me with a sorrowful
+word written across it, "Result? Nil." But we do not often meet our
+civilian friends, for they are busy, and so are we; and the few
+missionaries whose inspiring sympathy helped us through those earlier
+years were in places far from us, and so were all the Reformers. So
+perhaps it was not wonderful that, beset by doubting letters from home
+and a certain amount of not unnatural incredulity in India, we sometimes
+almost wondered if we ourselves were dreaming. "Well, if they do exist,
+I hope you will be able to find them!"--varied by, "Well, if you do find
+them, they will be a proof of their own existence!"--were two of the
+most encouraging remarks of those early days.
+
+From the beginning of this work, as stated before, we have tried to
+collect facts about the traffic and the customs connected with it. Notes
+were kept of conversations with Hindus and others, and these notes were
+compared with what evidence we were able to gather from trustworthy
+sources. These brief notes of various kinds we offer in their
+simplicity. We have made no attempt to tabulate or put into shape the
+information thus acquired, believing that the notes of conversations
+taken down at the time, and the quotations from letters copied as they
+stand, will do their work more directly than anything more elaborate
+would. Where there is a difference of detail it is because the customs
+differ slightly in different places. No names are given, for obvious
+reasons; but the letters were written by men of standing, living in
+widely scattered districts in the South. The evidence contained in them
+was carefully sifted, and in many cases corroborated by personal
+investigation, before being considered evidence: so that we believe
+these chapters may be accepted as fact. Dated quotations from the
+_Madras Mail_ are sufficient to prove that we are not writing ancient
+history:--
+
+_January 2, 1909._--"The following resolution was put from the chair and
+carried unanimously: 'The Conference (consisting of Hindu Social
+Reformers) cordially supports the movement started to better the
+condition of unprotected children in general, and appreciates
+particularly the agitation started to protect girls and young women from
+being dedicated to Temples.'"
+
+_May 8, 1909._--"Once more we have an illustration from Mysore of the
+fact that the Government of a Native State are able to tread boldly on
+ground which the British Government in India are unable to approach. At
+various times, in these columns and elsewhere, has the cry raised
+against the employment of servants of the gods in Hindu Temples been
+uttered; but, as far as the Government are concerned, it has fallen, if
+not on deaf ears, on ears stopped to appeals of this kind, which demand
+action that can be interpreted as a breach of that religious neutrality
+which is one of the cardinal principles of British rule in India. The
+agitation against it is not the agitation of the European whose
+susceptibility is offended at a state of things that he finds hard to
+reconcile with the reverence and purity of Divine worship; but it is the
+outcry of the reverent Hindu against one of the corrupt and degrading
+practices that, in the course of centuries, have crept into his
+religion. In this particular instance the Mysore Government cannot be
+accused of acting hastily. As long ago as February, 1892, they issued a
+circular order describing the legitimate services to be performed in
+Temples by Temple women. In 1899, the Muzrai Superintendent, Rai Bahadur
+A. Sreenivasa Charlu, directed that the Temple women borne on the
+Nanjangud Temple establishment should not be allowed to perform _tafe_
+(or dancing) service in the Temple; but that the allowances payable to
+them should be continued for their lifetime, and that at their death the
+vacancies should not be filled up. Against this order the Temple women
+concerned memorialised H.H. the Maharajah as long ago as 1905, and the
+order disposing of it has only just been issued. In the course of the
+latter the Government say:--
+
+"'From the Shastraic authorities quoted by the two Agamiks employed in
+the Muzrai Secretariat, it is observed that the services to be performed
+by Temple women form part and parcel of the worship of the god in Hindu
+Temples, and that singing and dancing in the presence of the deity are
+also prescribed. It is, however, observed that in the case of Temple
+women personal purity and rectitude of conduct and a vow of celibacy
+were considered essential. But the high ideals entertained in ancient
+days have now degenerated. . . . The Government now observe that whatever
+may have been the original object of the institution of Temple women in
+Temples, the state in which these Temple servants are now found fully
+justifies the action taken by them in excluding the Temple women from
+every kind of service in sacred institutions like Temples. Further, the
+absence of the services of these women in certain important Temples in
+the State has become established for nearly fifteen years past, and the
+public have become accustomed to the idea of doing without such
+services.'
+
+"The exclusion of Temple women from Temple services obtains in Mysore in
+the case of a few large Temples whose _Tasdik Pattis_ have been revised.
+But the time has come, the Government think, for its general
+application, and they therefore direct that the policy enunciated in the
+abstract given above should be extended to all Muzrai Temples in the
+State. It is to be hoped that the good example thus set will bear fruit
+elsewhere, where the Temple women evil is more notorious than it was in
+Temples of Mysore."
+
+A copy of the Government document to which this cutting relates lies
+before me. It is bravely and clearly worded, and its intention is
+evident. The high-minded Hindu--and there are such, let it not be
+forgotten--revolts from the degradation and pollution of this travesty
+of religion, and will abolish it where he can. _But let it be remembered
+that, good as this law is, it does not and it cannot touch the great
+Secret Traffic itself. That will go on behind the law, and behind the
+next that is made, and the next, unless measures are devised to ensure
+its being thoroughly enforced._
+
+Cuttings from newspapers, quotations, evidence--it is not interesting
+reading, and yet we look to our friends to go through to the end with
+us. Let us pause for a moment here and remember the purpose of it all;
+and may the thought of some little, loved child make an atmosphere for
+these chapters!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+Blue Book Evidence
+
+          "The precipitous sides of difficult questions."--E. B. B.
+
+
+OUR first evidence consists of abridged extracts from the Census Report
+for 1901. After explaining the different names by which Temple women are
+known in different parts of the Madras Presidency, the Report continues:
+"The servants of the gods, who subsist by dancing and music and the
+practice of 'the oldest profession in the world,' are partly recruited
+by admissions and even purchases from other classes. . . . The rise of
+the Caste and its euphemistic name seem to date from the ninth and
+tenth centuries, during which much activity prevailed in South India
+in the matter of building Temples and elaborating the services held in
+them. . . . The duties then, as now, were to fan the idol with Tibetan
+ox-tails, to carry the sacred light, and to sing and dance before the
+god when he is carried in procession. Inscriptions show that in A.D.
+1004 the great Temple of the Chola king at Tanjore had attached to it
+four hundred women of the Temple, who lived in free quarters in the four
+streets round it, and were allowed tax-free land out of its endowments.
+Other Temples had similar arrangements. . . . At the present day they
+form a regular Caste, having its own laws of inheritance, its own
+customs and rules of etiquette, and its own councils to see that all
+these are followed, and they hold a position which is perhaps without a
+parallel in any other country. . . .
+
+"The daughters of the Caste who are brought up to follow the Caste
+profession are carefully taught dancing and singing, the art of dressing
+well, . . . and their success in keeping up their clientele is largely
+due to the contrast which they thus present to the ordinary Hindu
+housewife, whose ideas are bounded by the day's dinners and babies."
+
+Closely allied to this Caste is that formed by the Temple musicians, who
+with the Temple woman are "now practically the sole repository of Indian
+music, the system of which is probably one of the oldest in the world."
+In certain districts the Report states that a custom obtains among
+certain castes, under which a family which has no sons must dedicate one
+of its daughters to Temple service. The daughter selected is taken to a
+Temple and married there to a god, the marriage symbol being put on her
+as in a real marriage. Henceforth she belongs to the god.
+
+Writing in 1904, a member of the Indian Civil Service says: "I heard of
+a case of dedication (three girls) at A. at the beginning of this year,
+but I could not get any evidence. The cases very rarely indeed come up
+officially, as nearly every Hindu is interested in keeping them dark."
+We, too, have had the same difficulty, and the evidence we now submit is
+doubly valuable because of its source. It is very rarely that we have
+found it possible to get behind the scenes sufficiently to obtain
+reliable information from those most concerned in this traffic.
+
+The head priest of one of our Temples admitted to a friend who was
+watching for opportunities to get information for us that the "marriage
+to the god is effected privately by the Temple priest at the Temple
+woman's house, with the usual marriage-symbol ceremony. To avoid the
+Penal Code (which forbids the marriage of children to gods) a nominal
+bridegroom is sometimes brought for the wedding day to become the
+nominal husband. This Caste is recruited by secret adoption."
+
+A Temple woman's son, now living the ordinary life apart from his clan,
+explains the very early marriage thus: "If not married, they will not be
+considered worthy of honour. Before the children reach the age of ten
+they must be married. . . . They become the property of the Temple
+priests and worshippers who go to the Temple to chant the sacred songs."
+
+A Temple woman herself told a friend of ours: "The child is dressed like
+a bride, and taken with another girl of the same community, dressed like
+a boy in the garb of a bridegroom. They both go to the Temple and
+worship the idol. This ceremony is common, and performed openly in the
+streets." In a later letter from the same friend further details are
+given: "The child, who should be about eight or nine years old, goes as
+if to worship the idol in the Temple. There the marriage symbol is
+hidden in a garland, and the garland is put over the idol, after which
+it is taken to the child's home and put round her neck." After this she
+is considered married to the god.
+
+A young Temple woman in a town near Dohnavur told us she had been given
+to the Temple when she was five years old. Her home was in the north
+country, but she did not remember it. She had, of course, understood
+nothing of the meaning of the ceremony of marriage. She only remembered
+the pretty flowers and general rejoicing and pleasure. Afterwards, when
+she began to understand, she was not happy, but she gradually got
+accustomed to it. Her adopted relations were all the friends she had.
+She was fond of them and they of her. Her "husband" was one of the
+Temple priests.
+
+A Hindu woman known to us left home with her little daughter and
+wandered about as an ascetic. She went to a famous Temple, where it is
+the custom for such as desire to become ascetics to enter the life by
+conforming to certain ceremonies ordained by the priests. She shaved her
+head, took off her jewels, wore a Saivite necklet of berries, and was
+known as a devotee. She had little knowledge of the life before she
+entered it, and only gradually became aware of the character borne by
+most of her fellow-devotees. When she knew, she fled from them and
+returned to her own village and the secular life, finding it better than
+the religious.
+
+In telling us about it she said: "I expected whiteness, I found
+blackness." She told us that she constantly came into contact with
+Temple women, none of whom had chosen the life as she and her
+fellow-ascetics had chosen theirs. "Always the one who is to dance
+before the gods is given to the life when she is very young. Otherwise
+she could not be properly trained. Many babies are brought by their
+parents and given to Temple women for the sake of merit. It is very
+meritorious to give a child to the gods. Often the parents are poor but
+of good Caste. Always suitable compensation and a 'joy gift' is given by
+the Temple women to the parents. It is an understood custom, and ensures
+that the child is a gift, not a loan. The amount depends upon the age
+and beauty of the child. If the child is old enough to miss her mother,
+she is very carefully watched until she has forgotten her. Sometimes she
+is shut up in the back part of the house, and punished if she runs out
+into the street. The punishment is severe enough to frighten the child.
+Sometimes it is branding with a hot iron upon a place which does not
+show, as under the arm; sometimes nipping with the nail till the skin
+breaks; sometimes a whipping. After the child is reconciled to her new
+life, occasionally her people are allowed to come if they wish; and in
+special circumstances she pays a visit to her old home. But this is
+rare. If she has been adopted as an infant, she knows nothing of her
+own relations, but thinks of her adopted mother as her own mother. As
+soon as she can understand she is taught all evil and trained to think
+it is good."
+
+As to her education, the movements of the dance are taught very early,
+and the flexible little limbs are rendered more flexible by a system of
+massage. In all ways the natural grace of the child is cultivated and
+developed, but always along lines which lead far away from the freedom
+and innocence of childhood. As it is important she should learn a great
+deal of poetry, she is taught to read (and with this object in view she
+is sometimes sent to the mission school, if there is one near her home).
+The poetry is almost entirely of a debased character; and so most
+insidiously, by story and allusion, the child's mind is familiarised
+with sin; and before she knows how to refuse the evil and choose the
+good, the instinct which would have been her guide is tampered with and
+perverted, till the poor little mind, thus bewildered and deceived, is
+incapable of choice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+"Very Common in those Parts"
+
+          "The dark enigma of permitted wrong."--F. R. H.
+
+
+THE mixture of secrecy and openness described by the Temple woman is
+confirmed by Hindus well acquainted with Temple affairs. "All the Temple
+women are married to the gods. In former times the marriages were
+conducted upon a grand scale, but now they are clandestinely performed
+in the Temple, with the connivance of the priest, and with freedom to
+deny it if questioned. Some ceremonies are performed in the Temple, the
+rest at home. Sometimes the marriage symbol is blessed by the priest,
+and taken home to the child to be worn by her. In all these cases the
+priest himself has to tie it round her neck. The previous arrangements
+for the marriage are made by the priests with the guardians of the child
+who is to be initiated into the order of Temple women.
+
+"The ceremony of tying on the marriage symbol is never in our district
+performed in public. None but intimate friends know about it. There is a
+secret understanding between the priests and the Temple women concerned.
+When the time arrives for the marriage symbol to be tied on, after the
+usual ceremonies the priest hands over the symbol hidden in a garland of
+flowers.
+
+"Of course, there is music on the occasion. When outsiders ask what all
+the noise is about, the people who know do not say the real thing. They
+say it is a birthday or other festival day. The symbol is tied on when
+the child is between five and eleven, after which it is considered
+unholy to perform the marriage ceremony. The symbol is at first hidden
+from the gaze of the public. Later it is shown publicly, but not while
+the girl is still young."
+
+This tallies exactly with our own experience. More than once an eager
+child in her simplicity has shown me the marriage symbol, a small gold
+ornament tied round her neck, or hanging on a fine gold chain; but the
+Temple woman in whose charge she was has always reproved her sharply,
+and made her cover it up under her other jewels, or under the folds of
+her dress.
+
+The reason for this secrecy, which, however, is not universal, is, as is
+inferred in the evidence of the head priest, because it is known to the
+Temple authorities that what they are doing is illegal; though, as a
+matter of fact, as will be seen later, prosecutions are rare, and
+convictions rarer still.
+
+The Caste is recruited, as the Blue Book states, by "admissions and even
+purchases from other classes." On this point a Brahman says: "When the
+Temple woman has no child, she adopts a girl or girls, and the children
+become servants of the gods. Sometimes children are found who, on
+account of a vow made by their parents, become devotees of the gods."
+Another Brahman, an orthodox Hindu, writes: "In some districts people
+vow that they will dedicate one of their children to the Temple if they
+are blessed with a family. Temple women often adopt orphans, to whom
+they bequeath their possessions. In most cases the orphans are bought."
+
+The position of the Temple woman has been a perplexity to many. The
+Census Report touches the question: "It is one of the many
+inconsistencies of the Hindu religion, that though their profession is
+repeatedly vehemently condemned in the Shastras (sacred books), it has
+always received the countenance of the Church." Their duties are all
+religious. A well-informed Hindu correspondent thus enumerates them:
+"First they are to be one of the twenty-one persons who are in charge of
+the key of the outer door of the Temple; second, to open the outer door
+daily; third, to burn camphor, and go round the idol when worship is
+being performed; fourth, to honour public meetings with their presence;
+fifth, to mount the car and stand near the god during car-festivals."
+The orthodox Hindu quoted before remarks on the "high honour," as the
+Temple child is taught to consider it, the marriage to the god confers
+upon her.
+
+We have purposely confined ourselves almost entirely to official and
+Hindu evidence so far, but cannot forbear to add to this last word the
+confirmatory experience of our own Temple children worker: "When I try
+to persuade the Hindus to let us have their little ones instead of
+giving them to the Temples they say: 'But to give them to Temples is
+honour and glory and merit to us for ever; to give them to you is
+dishonour and shame and demerit. So why should we give them to you?'"
+
+We have said that convictions are rare. This is because of the great
+difficulty in obtaining such evidence as is required by the law as it
+stands at present. One case may be quoted as typical. A few years ago,
+in one of our country towns, a father gave his child in marriage to the
+idol "with some pomp," as the report before us says. He was prosecuted,
+but the prosecution failed, for the priest and the parents united in
+denying the fact of the marriage; and the evidence for the defence was
+so skilfully cooked that it was found impossible to prove an offence
+against the Penal Code.
+
+Once, deeply stirred over the case of a little girl of six who was about
+to be married to a god as her elder sisters had been a few months
+previously, we wrote to a magistrate of wide experience and proved
+sympathy with the work. His letter speaks for itself:--
+
+"I have been waiting some little time before answering your letter,
+because I wanted time to think over your problem. As far as I can make
+out, there is no way in the world of preventing a woman marrying her own
+daughter to the gods at any age; but you can prosecute her if she does.
+If you could get her into prison for marrying the elder girls, the
+younger might be safe; but I don't think you can do anything directly
+for her. She is not being 'unlawfully detained'; and even if she were,
+all you could do would be to get her returned to her parents and
+guardians, which would be worse than useless.
+
+"The question is whether you can hope to get a conviction in the other
+case.
+
+"I don't see how you can. You can say in court that you saw the little
+girls with their marriage symbol on, and that they said they had been
+married to the god. The little girls will deny it all, and say they
+never set eyes on you before. Moreover, I don't think the ordinary Court
+would be satisfied without some other evidence of the fact of
+dedication; and considering how everyone would work against you, I think
+you would find it extraordinarily hard. The local police would be worse
+than useless."
+
+To every man his work: it appears to us that expert knowledge is
+required, and ample means and leisure, if the expenditure involved is to
+result in anything worth while; and a careful study of all available
+information regarding prosecutions, convictions, and, I may add,
+sentences, has convinced us, at least, of the futility of such attempts
+from a missionary point of view: for even if convictions were certain,
+_as long as the law hands the child back to its guardians after their
+unfitness to guard it from the worst that can befall it has been
+proved_, so long do we feel unable to rejoice exceedingly over even the
+six months' rigorous imprisonment, which in more than one case has been
+the legal interpretation of the phrase "up to a term of ten years,"
+which is the penalty attached to this offence in the Indian Penal Code.
+
+In this connection it may be well to quote a paragraph from the _Indian
+Social Reformer_:--
+
+"The Public Prosecutor at Madras applied for admission of a revision
+petition against the order of the Sessions Judge, made in the following
+circumstances:--
+
+"One, S., a priest, was convicted by the first-class subdivisional
+magistrate of having performed the ceremony of dedicating a young girl
+in the Temple of N., and thereby committing an offence punishable under
+Section 372 of the Penal Code. He accordingly sentenced him to six
+months' rigorous imprisonment. On appeal, the Sessions Judge reduced the
+sentence to two months, on the ground that the rite complained against
+was a very common one in those parts. The Public Prosecutor based his
+petition on the ground that it had been held in a previous case 'that
+such a dedication was an offence, and that it was highly desirable that
+the interests of minors should be properly protected.' This protection,
+it was submitted, could only be vouchsafed by making offending people
+understand that they would render themselves liable to heavy punishment.
+The present sentence would not have a deterrent effect, and he
+accordingly applied for an enhancement of the same. His lordship
+admitted the petition, and directed notice to the accused."
+
+It is something to know the six months' sentence was confirmed. But is
+not the fact that a Sessions Judge should commute such a sentence, on
+the ground that the offence was "very common," enough to suggest a doubt
+as to the deterrent effect of even this punishment?
+
+
+
+
+NOTE
+
+
+During the last few months the Secretary of State for India has
+addressed official inquiries to the Government of India regarding the
+dedication of children to Hindu gods, and the measures necessary for the
+protection of such children.
+
+If the anticipated change in the law is to result in more than a Bill on
+paper--a blind, behind which things will go on as before only more out
+of sight--it is, we believe, needful to ensure:
+
+          1st. Protection for all children found to be in
+          moral danger, whether or not they are or may be
+          dedicated to gods.
+
+          2nd. That, irrespective of nationality or
+          religion, whoever has worked for and won the
+          deliverance of the child should be allowed to act
+          as guardian to it.
+
+          3rd. That such a Bill shall be most thoroughly
+          enforced.
+
+_February, 1912._
+
+                                       To face p. 268.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+On the Side of the Oppressors there was Power
+
+
+I HAVE been looking over my note-book, in which there are some hundreds
+of letters, clippings from newspapers, and records of conversations
+bearing upon the Temple children. It is difficult to know which to
+choose to complete the picture already outlined in the preceding
+chapters. A mere case record would be wearisome; and indeed the very
+word "case" sounds curiously inappropriate when one thinks of the
+nurseries and their little inhabitants; or looks up to see mischievous
+eyes watching a chance to stop the uninteresting writing; or feels,
+suddenly, soft arms round one's neck, as a baby, strayed from her own
+domain, climbs unexpectedly up from behind and makes dashes at the
+typewriter keyboard. Such little living interruptions are too frequent
+to allow of these chapters being anything but human.
+
+The newspaper clippings are usually concerned with public movements,
+resolutions, petitions, and the like. There is one startling little
+paragraph from a London paper, dated July 7, 1906; the ignorance of the
+subject so flippantly dealt with is its only apology. No one could have
+written so had he understood. The occasion was the memorial addressed to
+the Governor in Council by workers for the children in the Bombay
+Presidency:--
+
+"Society must be very select in Poona. There has been a custom there for
+young ladies to be married to selected gods. You would have thought that
+to be the bride of a god was a good enough marriage for anyone. But it
+is not good enough for Poona." It is time that such writing became
+impossible for any Englishman.
+
+In India the feeling of the best men, whether Hindu or Christian, is
+strongly against the dedication of little children to Temples, and some
+of the newspapers of the land speak out and say so in unmistakable
+language. The _Indian Times_ speaks of the little ones being "steeped
+deep from their childhood" in all that is most wrong. A Hindu, writing
+in the _Epiphany_, puts the matter clearly when he says: "Finally, one
+can hardly conceive of anything more debasing than to dedicate innocent
+little girls to gods in the name of religion, and then leave them with
+the Temple priests"; and another writer in the same paper asks a
+question which those who say that Hinduism is good enough for India
+might do well to ponder: "If this is not a Hindu practice, how can it
+take place in a Temple and no priest stop it, though all know? . . . In
+London religion makes wickedness go away; but in Bombay religion brings
+wickedness, and Government has to try to make it go away." This immense
+contrast of fact and of ideal contains our answer to all who would put
+sin in India on a level with sin in England.
+
+Christian writers naturally, whether in the _Christian Patriot_ of the
+South or the _Bombay Guardian_ of the West, have no doubt about the
+existence of the evil or the need for its removal. They, too, connect it
+distinctly with religion, and recognise its tremendous influence.
+
+But we turn from the printed page, and go straight to the houses where
+the little children live. The witnesses now are missionaries or trusted
+Indian workers.
+
+"There were thirteen little children in the houses connected with the
+Temple last time I visited them. I saw the little baby--such a dear,
+fat, laughing little thing. It was impossible to get it, and I see no
+hope of getting any of the other children."
+
+"When I was visiting in S. a woman came to talk to me with her three
+little children. Two of them were girls, very pretty, 'fair' little
+children. 'What work does your husband do?' I asked; and she answered,
+'I am married to the god.' Then I knew who she was, and that her
+children were in danger. I have tried since to get them, but in vain.
+Everyone says that Temple women never give up their little girls. These
+two were dedicated at their birth. This is only one instance. We have
+many Temple women reading with us, and many of the little children
+attend our schools."
+
+"There are not scores but hundreds of these children in the villages of
+this district. Here certain families, living ordinary lives in their own
+villages, dedicate one of their children as a matter of course to the
+gods. They always choose the prettiest. It is a recognised custom, and
+no one thinks anything of it. The child so dedicated lives with her
+parents afterwards as if nothing had happened, only she may not be
+married in the real way. She belongs to the god and his priests and
+worshippers."
+
+"The house was very orderly and nice. I sat on the verandah and talked
+to the women, who were all well educated and so attractive with their
+pretty dress and jewels. They seemed bright, but, of course, would not
+show me their real feelings, and I could only hold surface conversation
+with them."
+
+We are often asked if the Temple houses are inside the walls which
+surround all the great Temples in this part of the country. They are
+usually in the streets outside. Most of the Brahman Temples are
+surrounded by a square of streets, and the houses are in the square or
+near it. There is nothing to distinguish them from other houses in the
+street. It is only when you go inside that you feel the difference. An
+hour on the shady verandah of one of these houses is very revealing. You
+see the children run up to welcome a tall, fine-looking man, who pats
+their heads in the kindest way, and as he passes you recognise him. Next
+time you see him in the glory of his office, you wish you could forget
+where you saw him last.
+
+Sometimes we are asked who the children are. How do the Temple women get
+them in the first instance?
+
+We have already answered this question by quotations from the Census
+Report, and by statements of Hindus well acquainted with the subject. It
+should be added that often the Temple woman having daughters of her own
+dedicates them, and as a rule it is only when she has none that she
+adopts other little ones. A few extracts from letters and notes from
+conversations are subjoined, as they show how the system of adoption
+works:--
+
+"We are in trouble over a little girl, the daughter of wealthy parents,
+who have dedicated her to the gods and refuse to change their mind. The
+child was ill some time ago, and they vowed then that if she recovered
+they would dedicate her."
+
+"The poor woman's husband was very ill, and the mother vowed her little
+girl as an offering if he recovered. He did recover, and so the child
+has been given."
+
+"It is the custom of the Caste to dedicate the eldest girl of a certain
+chosen family, and nothing will turn them from it. One child must be
+given in each generation."
+
+"She is of good caste, but very poor. Her husband died two months before
+the baby was born, and as it was a girl she was much troubled as to its
+future, for she knew she would never have enough money to marry it
+suitably. A Temple woman heard of the baby, and at once offered to adopt
+it. She persuaded the mother by saying: 'You see, if it is married to
+the gods, it will never be a widow like you. It will always be well
+cared for and have honour, and be a sign of good fortune to our
+people--unlike you!' (It is considered a sign of good omen to see a
+Temple woman the first thing in the morning; but the sight of a widow at
+any time is a thing to be avoided.) The poor mother could not resist
+this, and she has been persuaded."
+
+"The mother is a poor, delicate widow, with several boys as well as this
+baby girl. She cannot support them all properly, and her relatives do
+not seem inclined to help her. The Temple women have heard of her, and
+they sent a woman to negotiate. The mother knew that we would take the
+little one rather than that she should be forced to give it up to Temple
+women; but she said when we talked with her: 'It cannot be wrong to give
+it to the holy gods! This is our religion; and it may be wrong to you,
+but it is not wrong to us.' So she refused to give us the baby, and
+seems inclined to go away with it. It is like that constantly. The thing
+cannot be wrong because it is religious!"
+
+"I heard of two little orphan girls whose guardian, an uncle, had
+married again, and did not want to have the marriage expenses of his two
+little nieces to see to. So at the last great festival he brought the
+children and dedicated them to the Saivite Temple, and the Temple women
+heard about it before I did, and at once secured them. I went as soon as
+I could to see if we could not get them, but she would not listen to us.
+She said they were her sister's children, and that she had adopted them
+out of love for her dead sister."
+
+A lawyer was consulted as to this case, but it was impossible to trace
+the uncle or to prove that the children were not related to the Temple
+woman. Above all, it was impossible to prove that she meant to do
+anything illegal. So nothing could be done.
+
+As a rule the Temple woman receives little beyond bare sustenance from
+the Temple itself. In some Temples when the little child is formally
+dedicated, she (or her guardian) receives two pounds, and her funeral
+expenses are promised. But though there is little stated remuneration,
+the Temple woman is not poor. Poverty may come. If she breaks the law of
+her caste, or offends against the etiquette of that caste, she is
+immediately excommunicated, and then she may become very poor. Or if she
+has spent her money freely, or not invested it wisely, her old age may
+be cheerless enough. But we have not found any lack of money among the
+Sisterhood. No offer of compensation for all expenses connected with a
+child has ever drawn them to part with her. They offer large sums for
+little ones who will be useful to them. We have several times known as
+much as an offer of one hundred rupees made and accepted in cases where
+the little child (in each case a mere infant) was one of special
+promise. A letter, which incidentally mentions the easy circumstances in
+which many are, may be of interest:--
+
+"K. is a little girl in our mission school. Her mother is a favourite
+Temple woman high up in the profession. She dances while the other women
+sing, and sometimes she gets as much as three or four hundred rupees for
+her dancing. She is well educated, can recite the 'Ramayana' (Indian
+epic), and knows a little English. She spends some time in her own
+house, but is often away visiting other Temples. Just now she is away,
+and little K. is with her. . . . Humanly speaking, she will never let her
+go."
+
+The education of the mission school is appreciated because it makes the
+bright little child still brighter; and we, who know the home life of
+these children, are glad when they are given one brief opportunity to
+learn what may help them in the difficult days to come. We have known of
+some little ones who, influenced by outside teaching, tried to escape
+the life they began to feel was wrong, but in each case they were
+overborne, for on the side of the oppressors there was power. I was in a
+Temple house lately, and noticed the doors--the massive iron-bossed
+doors are a feature of all well-built Hindu houses of the South. How
+could a little child shut up in such a room, with its door shut, if need
+be, to the outside inquisitive world--how could she resist the strength
+that would force the garland round her neck? She might tear it off if
+she dared, but the little golden symbol had been hidden under the
+flowers, and the priest had blessed it; the deed was done--she was
+married to the god. And only those who have seen the effect of a few
+weeks of such a life upon a child, who has struggled in vain against it,
+can understand how cowed she may become, how completely every particle
+of courage and independence of spirit may be caused to disappear; and
+how what we had known as a bright, sparkling child, full of the
+fearless, confiding ways of a child, may become distrustful and
+constrained, quite incapable of taking a stand on her own account, or of
+responding to any effort we might be able to make from outside. It is as
+if the child's spirit were broken, and those who know what she has gone
+through cannot wonder if it is.
+
+And then comes something we dread more: the life begins to attract. The
+sense of revolt passes as the will weakens; the persistent, steady
+pressure tells. And when we see her next, perhaps only three months
+later, the child has passed the boundary, and belongs to us no more.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+And there was None to Save
+
+          Thou canst conceive our highest and our lowest
+            Pulses of nobleness and aches of shame.
+
+                                   FREDERIC W. H. MYERS.
+
+
+IN speaking of these matters I have tried to keep far from that which is
+only sentiment, and have resolutely banished all imagination. I would
+that the writing could be as cold in tone as the criticism of those who
+consider everything other than polished ice almost amusing--to judge by
+the way they handle it, dismissing it with an airy grace and a hurting
+adjective. Would they be quite so cool, we wonder, if the little wronged
+girl were their own? But we do not write for such as these. The thought
+of the cold eyes would freeze the thoughts before they formed. We write
+for the earnest-hearted, who are not ashamed to confess they care. And
+yet we write with reserve even though we write for them, because nothing
+else is possible. And this crushing back of the full tide makes its
+fulness almost oppressive. It is as though a flame leaped from the page
+and scorched the brain that searched for words quite commonplace and
+quiet.
+
+The finished product of the Temple system of education is something so
+distorted that it cannot be described. But it should never be forgotten
+that the thing from which we recoil did not choose to be fashioned so.
+It was as wax--a little, tender, innocent child--in the hands of a
+wicked power when the fashioning process began. Let us deal gently with
+those who least deserve our blame, and reserve our condemnation for
+those responsible for the creation of the Temple woman. Is it fair that
+a helpless child, who has never once been given the choice of any other
+life, should be held responsible afterwards for living the life to which
+alone she has been trained? Is it fair to call her by a name which
+belongs by right to one who is different, in that her life is
+self-chosen? No word can cut too keenly at the root of this iniquity;
+but let us deal gently with the mishandled flower. Let hard words be
+restrained where the woman is concerned. Let it be remembered she is not
+responsible for being what she is.
+
+In a Canadian book of songs there is a powerful little poem about an
+artist who painted one who was beautiful but not good. He hid all trace
+of what was; he painted a babe at her breast.
+
+          I painted her as she might have been
+            If the Worst had been the Best.
+
+And a connoisseur came and looked at the picture. To him it spoke of
+holiest things; he thought it a Madonna:--
+
+          So I painted a halo round her hair,
+            And I sold her and took my fee;
+          And she hangs in the church of St. Hilaire,
+            Where you and all may see.
+
+Sometimes as we have looked at the face of one whose training was not
+complete we have seen as the artist saw: we have seen her "as she might
+have been if the worst had been the best." There was no halo round her
+hair, only its travesty--something that told of crowned and glorified
+sin; and yet we could catch more than a glimpse of the perfect "might
+have been." So we say, let blame fall lightly on the one who least
+deserves it. Perhaps if our ears were not so full of the sounds of the
+world, we should hear a tenderer judgment pronounced than man's is
+likely to be: "Unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing. . . . For there
+was none to save her."
+
+Our work at Dohnavur is entirely among the little children who are
+innocent of wrong. We rarely touch these lives which have been stained
+and spoiled; but we could not forbear to write a word of clear
+explanation about them, lest any should mistake the matter and confuse
+things that differ.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We leave the subject with relief. Few who have followed us so far know
+how much it has cost to lead the way into these polluted places. Not
+that we would make much of any personal cost; but that we would have it
+known that nothing save a pressure which could not be resisted could
+force us to touch pitch. And yet why should we shrink from it when the
+purpose which compels is the saving of the children? Brave words written
+by a brave woman come and help us to do it:--
+
+"This I say emphatically, that the evil which we have grappled with to
+save one of our own dear ones does not sully. It is the evil that we
+read about in novels and newspapers for our own amusement; it is the
+evil we weakly give way to in our lives; above all, it is the destroying
+evil that we have refused so much as to know about in our absorbing care
+for our own alabaster skin; it is that evil which defiles a woman. But
+the evil that we have grappled with in a life and death struggle to save
+a soul for whom Christ died does not sully; it clothes from head to foot
+with the white robe, it crowns with the golden crown."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There remains only one thing more to show. It was evening in an Indian
+town at a time of festival. The great pillared courts of the Temple were
+filled with worshippers and pilgrims from all over the Tamil country and
+from as far north as Benares. Men who eagerly grasped at anything
+printed in Sanscrit and knew nothing of our vernacular were scattered in
+little groups among the crowd, and we had freedom to go to them and give
+them what we could, and talk to the many others who would listen.
+Outside the moonlight was shining on the dark pile of the Temple tower,
+and upon the palms planted along the wall, which rises in its solid
+strength 30 feet high and encloses the whole Temple precincts. There
+were very few people out in the moonlight. It was too quiet there for
+them, too pure in its silvery whiteness. Inside the hall, with its
+great-doored rooms and recesses, there were earth-lights in abundance,
+flaring torches, smoking lamps and lanterns. And there was noise--the
+noise of words and of wailing Indian music. For up near the closed doors
+which open on the shrine within which the idol sat surrounded by a
+thousand lights, there was a band of musicians playing upon stringed
+instruments; sometimes they broke out excitedly and banged their drums
+and made their conch-shells blare.
+
+Suddenly there was a tumultuous rush of every produceable sound;
+tom-tom, conch-shell, cymbal, flute, stringed instruments and bells
+burst into chorus together. The idol was going to be carried out from
+his innermost shrine behind the lights; and as the great doors moved
+slowly, the excitement became intense, the thrill of it quivered through
+all the hall and sent a tremor through the crowd out to the street. But
+we passed out and away, and turned into a quiet courtyard known to us
+and talked to the women there.
+
+There were three, one the grandmother of the house, one her daughter,
+and another a friend. The grandmother and her daughter were Temple
+women, the eldest grandchild had been dedicated only a few months
+before. There were three more children, one Mungie, a lovable child of
+six, one a pretty three-year-old with a mop of beautiful curls, the
+youngest a baby just then asleep in its hammock; a little foot dangled
+out of the hammock, which was hung from a rafter in the verandah roof.
+We had come to talk to the grandmother and mother about the dear little
+six-year-old child, and hoped to find their heart.
+
+But we seemed to talk to stone, hard as the stone of the Temple tower
+that rose above the roofs, black against the purity of the moonlit sky.
+It was a bitter half-hour. Some hours are like stabs to remember, or
+like the pitiless pressing down of an iron on living flesh. At last we
+could bear it no longer, and rose to go. As we left we heard the
+grandmother turn to her daughter's friend and say: "Though she heap gold
+on the floor as high as Mungie's neck, I would never let her go to those
+degraded Christians!"
+
+Once again it was festival in the white light of the full moon, and once
+again we went to the same old Hindu town; for moonlight nights are times
+of opportunity, and the cool of evening brings strength for more than
+can be attempted in the heat of the day. And this time an adopted mother
+spoke words that ate like acid into steel as we listened.
+
+Her adopted child is a slip of a girl, slim and light, with the ways of
+a shy thing of the woods. She made me think of a harebell growing all by
+itself in a rocky place, with stubbly grass about and a wide sky
+overhead. She was small and very sweet, and she slid on to my knee and
+whispered her lessons in my ear in the softest of little voices. She had
+gone to school for nearly a year, and liked to tell me all she knew. "Do
+you go to school now?" I asked her. She hung her head and did not
+answer. "Don't you go?" I repeated. She just breathed "No," and the
+little head dropped lower. "Why not?" I whispered as softly. The child
+hesitated. Some dim apprehension that the reason would not seem good to
+me troubled her, perhaps, for she would not answer. "Tell the Ammal,
+silly child!" said her foster-mother, who was standing near. "Tell her
+you are learning to dance and sing and get ready for the gods!" "I am
+learning to dance and sing and get ready for the gods," repeated the
+child obediently, lifting large, clear eyes to my face for a moment as
+if to read what was written there. A group of men stood near us. I
+turned to them. "Is it right to give this little child to a life like
+that?" I asked them then. They smiled a tolerant, kindly smile.
+"Certainly no one would call it right, but it is our custom," and they
+passed on. There was no sense of the pity of it:--
+
+          Poor little life that toddles half an hour,
+          Crowned with a flower or two, and then an end!
+
+We had come to the town an hour or two earlier, and had seen, walking
+through the throng round the Temple, two bright young girls in white. No
+girls of their age, except Temple girls, would have been out at that
+hour of the evening, and we followed them home. They stopped when they
+reached the house where little Mungie lived, and then, turning, saw us
+and salaamed. One of the two was Mungie's elder sister. Little Mungie
+ran out to meet her sister, and, seeing us, eagerly asked for a book. So
+we stood in the open moonlight, and the little one tried to spell out
+the words of a text to show us she had not forgotten all she had
+learned, even though she, too, had been taken from school, and had to
+learn pages of poetry and the Temple dances and songs.
+
+The girls were jewelled and crowned with flowers, and they looked like
+flowers themselves; flowers in moonlight have a mystery about them not
+perceived in common day, but the mystery here was something wholly
+sorrowful. Everything about the children--they were hardly more than
+children--showed care and refinement of taste. There was no violent
+clash of colour; the only vivid colour note was the rich red of a silk
+underskirt that showed where the clinging folds of the white
+gold-embroidered _sari_ were draped a little at the side. The effect was
+very dainty, and the girls' manners were modest and gentle. No one who
+did not know what the pretty dress meant that night would have dreamed
+it was but the mesh of a net made of white and gold.
+
+But with all their pleasant manners it was evident the two girls looked
+upon us with a distinct aloofness. They glanced at us much as a
+brilliant bird of the air might be supposed to regard poultry, fowls of
+the cooped-up yard. Then they melted into the shadow of an archway
+behind the moonlit space, and we went on to another street and came upon
+little Sellamal, the harebell child; and, sitting down on the verandah
+which opens off the street, we heard her lessons as we have told, and
+got into conversation with her adopted mother.
+
+We found her interested in listening to what we had to say about
+dedicating children to the service of the gods. She was extremely
+intelligent, and spoke Tamil such as one reads in books set for
+examination. It was easy to talk with her, for she saw the point of
+everything at once, and did not need to have truth broken up small and
+crumbled down and illustrated in half a dozen different ways before it
+could be understood. But the half-amused smile on the clever face told
+us how she regarded all we were saying. What was life and death
+earnestness to us was a game of words to her; a play the more to be
+enjoyed because, drawn by the sight of two Missie Ammals sitting
+together on the verandah, quite a little crowd had gathered, and were
+listening appreciatively.
+
+"That is your way of looking at it; now listen to my way. Each land in
+all the world has its own customs and religion. Each has that which is
+best for it. Change, and you invite confusion and much unpleasantness.
+Also by changing you express your ignorance and pride. Why should the
+child presume to greater wisdom than its father? And now listen to me!
+I will show you the matter from our side!" ("Yes, venerable mother,
+continue!" interposed the crowd encouragingly.) "You seem to feel it a
+sad thing that little Sellamal should be trained as we are training her.
+You seem to feel it wrong, and almost, perhaps, disgrace. But if you
+could see my eldest daughter the centre of a thousand Brahmans and
+high-caste Hindus! If you could see every eye in that ring fixed upon
+her, upon her alone! If you could see the absorption--hardly do they
+dare to breathe lest they should miss a point of her beauty! Ah, you
+would know, could you see it all, upon whose side the glory lies and
+upon whose the shame! Compare that moment of exaltation with the
+grovelling life of your Christians! Low-minded, flesh-devouring,
+Christians, discerning not the difference between clean and unclean!
+Bah! And you would have my little Sellamal leave all this for that!"
+
+"But afterwards? What comes afterwards?"
+
+"What know I? What care I? That is a matter for the gods."
+
+The child Sellamal listened to this, glancing from face to face with
+wistful, wondering eyes; and as I looked down upon her she looked up at
+me, and I looked deep into those eyes--such innocent eyes. Then
+something seemed to move the child, and she held up her face for a kiss.
+
+This is only one Temple town. There are many such in the South. These
+things are not easy to look at for long. We turn away with burning eyes,
+and only for the children's sake could we ever look again. For their
+sake look again.
+
+It was early evening in a home of rest on the hills. A medical
+missionary, a woman of wide experience, was talking to a younger woman
+about the Temple children. She had lived for some time, unknowingly,
+next door to a Temple house in an Indian city. Night after night she
+said she was wakened by the cries of children--frightened cries,
+indignant cries, sometimes sharp cries as of pain. She inquired in the
+morning, but was always told the children had been punished for some
+naughtiness. "They were only being beaten." She was not satisfied, and
+tried to find out more through the police. But she feared the police
+were bribed to tell nothing, for she found out nothing through them.
+Later, by means of her medical work, she came full upon the truth. . . .
+"Why leave spaces with dotted lines? Why not write the whole fact?"
+wrote one who did not know what she asked. Once more we repeat it, to
+write the whole fact is impossible.
+
+It is true this is not universal; in our part of the country it is not
+general, for the Temple child is considered of too much value to be
+lightly injured. But it is true beyond a doubt that inhumanity which may
+not be described is possible at any time in any Temple house.
+
+Out in the garden little groups of missionaries walked together and
+talked. From a room near came the sound of a hymn. It was peaceful and
+beautiful everywhere, and the gold of sunset filled the air, and made
+the garden a glory land of radiant wonderful colour. But for one woman
+at least the world turned black. Only the thought of the children nerved
+her to go on.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+The Power behind the Work
+
+          "To Him difficulties are as nothing, and
+          improbabilities of less than no account."--_Story
+          of the China Inland Mission._
+
+
+THE Power behind the work is the interposition of God in answer to
+prayer.
+
+Recently--so recently that it would be unwise to go into detail--we were
+in trouble about a little girl of ten or eleven, who, though not a
+Temple child, was exposed to imminent danger, and sorely needed
+deliverance. I happened to be alone at Dohnavur at the time, and did not
+know what to answer to the child's urgent message: "If I can escape to
+you" (this meant if she braved capture and its consequences, and fled
+across the fields alone at night), "can you protect me from my people?"
+To say "Yes" might have had fatal results. To say "No" seemed too
+impossible. The circumstances were such that great care was needed to
+avoid being entangled in legal complications; and as the Collector
+(Chief Magistrate) for our part of the district happened just then to be
+in our neighbourhood, I wrote asking for an appointment. Early next
+morning we met by the roadside. I had been up most of the night, and was
+tired and anxious; and I shall never forget the comfort that came
+through the quiet sympathy with which one who was quite a stranger to
+us all listened to the story, not as if it were a mere missionary
+trifle, but something worthy his attention. But nothing could be done.
+It was not a case where we had any ground for appeal to the law; and any
+attempt upon our part to help the child could only have resulted in more
+trouble afterwards, for we should certainly have had to give her up if
+she came to us.
+
+As the inevitableness of this conclusion became more and more evident to
+me, it seemed as if a great strong wall were rising foot by foot between
+me and that little girl--a wall like the walls that enclose the Temples
+here, very high, very massive. But even Temple walls have doors, and I
+could not see any door in this wall. Nothing could bring that child to
+us but a Power enthroned above the wall, which could stoop and lift her
+over it. I do not remember what led to the question about what we
+expected would happen; but I remember that with that wall full in view I
+could only answer, "The interposition of God." Nothing else, nothing
+less, could do anything for that child.
+
+Her case was complicated, if I may express it so, by the fact that
+though she knew very little--she had only had a few weeks' teaching and
+could not read--she had believed all we told her most simply and
+literally, and witnessed to her own people, whose reply to her had been:
+"You will see who is stronger, your God or ours! Do you think your Lord
+Jesus can deliver you from our hand, or prevent us from doing as we
+choose with you? We shall see!" And the case of an older girl who had
+been, as those who knew her best believed, drugged and then bent to her
+people's will, was quoted: "Did your Lord Jesus deliver her? Where is
+she to-day? And you think He will deliver you!" "But He will not let you
+hurt me," the child had answered fearlessly, though her strength was
+weakened even then by thirty hours without food; and, remembering one of
+the Bible stories she had heard during those weeks, she added, "I am
+Daniel, and you are the lions"--and she told them how the angel was sent
+to shut the lions' mouths. But she knew so little after all, and the
+bravest can be overborne, and she was only a little girl; so our hearts
+ached for her as we sent her the message: "You must not try to come to
+us. We cannot protect you. But Jesus is with you. He will not fail you.
+He says, 'Fear thou not, for I am with thee.'" That night they shut her
+up with a demon-possessed woman, that the terror of it might shake her
+faith in Christ. Next day they hinted that worse would happen soon. Our
+fear was lest her faith should fail before deliverance came.
+
+Three and a half months of such tension as we have rarely known passed
+over us. Often during that time, when one thing after another happened
+contrariwise, as it appeared, and each event as it occurred seemed to
+add another foot to the wall that still grew higher, help to faith came
+to us through unexpected sources like voices blown on the winds.
+
+Once it was something Lieut. Shackleton is reported to have said to
+Reuter's correspondent concerning his expedition to the South Pole:
+"Over and over again there were times when no mortal leadership could
+have availed us. It was during those times that we learned that some
+Power beyond our own guided our footsteps." And the illustrations which
+followed of Divine interposition were such that one at least who read,
+took courage; for the God of the great Ice-fields is the God of the
+Tropics.
+
+Once it was a passage opened by chance in a friend's book--Pastor
+Agnorum. The subject of the paragraph is the schoolboy's attitude
+towards games: "Glimpses of his mind are sometimes given us, as on that
+day at Risingham when you refused to play in your boys' house-match,
+unless the other house excluded from their team a half-back who was
+under attainder through a recent row. They declined, and you stood out
+of it. The hush in the field when your orphaned team, in defiance of the
+odds, scored and again scored! Their supporters, in chaste awe at the
+marvel, could hardly shout: it was more like a sob: a judgment had so
+manifestly defended the right. The cricket professional, a man naturally
+devout, looked at me with eyes that confessed an interposition, and all
+came away quiet as a crowd from a cemetery. It was not a game of
+football we had looked at, it was a Mystery Play: we had been edified,
+and we hid it in our hearts."
+
+And once, on the darkest day of all, it was the brave old family motto,
+on a letter which came by post: "Dieu d�fend le droit." It was something
+to be reminded that, in spite of appearances to the contrary, the
+kingdom is the Lord's, and He is Governor among the people.
+
+"Eyes that confessed an interposition." The phrase was illuminated for
+us when God in very truth interposed in such fashion that every one saw
+it was His Hand, for no other hand could have done it. Then we, too,
+looked at each other with eyes that confessed an interposition. We had
+seen that which we should never forget; and until the time comes when it
+may be more fully told to the glory of our God, we have hid it in our
+hearts.
+
+The reason we have outlined the story is to lead to a word we want to
+write very earnestly; it is this: Friends who care for the children, and
+believe this work on their behalf is something God intends should be
+done, "pray as if on that alone hung the issue of the day." More than we
+know depends upon our holding on in prayer.
+
+All through those months there was prayer for that child in India and in
+England. The matter was so urgent that we made it widely known, and some
+at least of those who heard gave themselves up to prayer; not to the
+mere easy prayer which costs little and does less, but to that waiting
+upon God which does not rest till it knows it has obtained access,
+knows that it has the petition that it desires of Him. This sort of
+prayer costs.
+
+But to us down in the thick of the battle, it was strength to think of
+that prayer. We were very weary with hope deferred; for it was as if all
+the human hope in us were torn out of us, and tossed and buffeted every
+way till there was nothing left of it but an aching place where it had
+been. God works by means, as we all admit; and so every fresh
+development in a Court case in which the child was involved, every turn
+of affairs, where her relatives were concerned (and these turns were
+frequent), every little movement which seemed to promise something, was
+eagerly watched in the expectation that in it lay the interposition for
+which we waited. But it seemed as if our hopes were raised only to be
+dashed lower than ever, till we were cast upon the bare word of our God.
+It was given to us then as perhaps never before to penetrate to the
+innermost spring of consolation contained in those very old words: "I
+should utterly have fainted, but that I believe verily to see the
+goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Oh, tarry thou the
+Lord's leisure: be strong, and He shall comfort thine heart; and put
+thou thy trust in the Lord."
+
+This Divine Interposition has been very inspiring. We feel afresh the
+force of the question: "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" And we ask
+those whose hearts are with us to pray for more such manifestations of
+the Power that has not passed with the ages. Lord, teach us to pray!
+
+For it has never been with us, "Come, see, and conquer," as if victory
+were an easy thing and a common. We have known what it is to toil for
+the salvation of some little life, and we have known the bitterness of
+defeat. We have had to stand on the shore of a dark and boundless sea,
+and watch that little white life swept off as by a great black wave. We
+have watched it drift further and further out on those desolate waters,
+till suddenly something from underneath caught it and sucked it down.
+And our very soul has gone out in the cry, "Would God I had died for
+thee!" and we too have gone "to the chamber over the gate" where we
+could be alone with our grief and our God--O little child, loved and
+lost, would God I had died for thee!
+
+Should we forget these things? Should we bury them away lest they hurt
+some sensitive soul? Rather, could we forget them if we would, and dare
+we hide away the knowledge lest somewhere someone should be hurt? For it
+is not as if that black wave's work were a thing of the past: it has
+gone on for centuries unchecked: it is going on to-day.
+
+Several months have passed since the chapters which precede this were
+written. We are now, with some of our converts who needed rest and
+change, in a place under the mountains a day's journey from Dohnavur. It
+is one of the holy places of the South; for the northern tributary of
+the chief river of this district falls over the cliffs at this point in
+a double leap of one hundred and eighty feet, and the waters are so
+disposed over a great rounded shoulder of rock that many people can
+bathe below in a long single file. To this fall thousands of pilgrims
+come from all parts of India, believing that such bathing is meritorious
+and cleanses away all sin. And as they are far from their own homes, and
+in measure out on holiday, we find them more than usually accessible and
+friendly. This morning I was on my way home after talk with the women,
+and was turning for a moment to look back upon the beautiful sorrowful
+scene--the flashing waterfall, the passing crowd of pilgrims, the
+radiance of sunshine on water, wood, and rock, when a Brahman, fresh
+from bathing, followed my look, and glancing at the New Testament and
+bag of Gospels in my hand, smiled indulgently and asked if we seriously
+thought these books and their teaching would ever materially influence
+India. "Look at that crowd," and he pointed to the people, his own caste
+people chiefly. "Have we been influenced?"
+
+Then he told me the story of the Falls, how ages ago a god, pitying the
+sins and the sufferings of the people, bathed on the ledge where the
+waters leap, and thereafter those waters were efficacious to the
+cleansing of sin from the one who believingly bathes. To the one who
+believes not, nothing happens beyond the cleansing of his body and its
+invigoration. "Even to you," he added, in his friendliness, "virtue of a
+sort is allowed; for do you not experience a certain exhilaration and a
+buoyancy of spirit and a pleasure beyond anything obtainable elsewhere
+[which is perfectly true]? This is due to the benevolence of our god,
+whose merits extend even to you."
+
+He was an educated man; he had studied in a mission school, and
+afterwards in a Government college. He had read English books, and parts
+of our Bible were familiar to him. He assured me he found no more
+difficulty in accepting this legend than we did in accepting the story
+of our Saviour's incarnation. And then, standing in the Temple porch
+with its carved stone pillars, almost within touch of the great door
+that opens behind into the shrine, he led the way into the Higher
+Hinduism--that mysterious land which lies all around us in India, but is
+so seldom shown to us. And I listened till in turn he was persuaded to
+listen, and we read together from the Gospel which transcends in its
+simplicity the profoundest reach of Hindu thought: "In the beginning was
+the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." We did not
+pause till we came to the end of the paragraph. I could see how it
+appealed, for deep calleth unto deep; but he rose again up and up, and
+that unknown part of one's being which is more akin to the East than to
+the West, followed him and understood--when the door behind us creaked,
+and a sudden blast of turbulent music sprang out upon us, deafening us
+for a moment, and he said, "It is the morning worship. The priests and
+the Servants of the gods are worshipping within." It was like a fall
+from far-away heights to the very floor of things.
+
+Then he told me how in the town three miles distant, the Benares of the
+South, the service of the gods was conducted with more elaborate
+ceremonial. "I could arrange for you to see it if you wished." I
+explained why I could not wish to see it, and asked him about the
+Servants of the gods, and about the little children. "Certainly there
+are little children. The Servants of the gods adopt them to continue the
+succession. How else could it be continued?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+If this were All
+
+
+AN hour earlier three of us had stood together by the pool at the foot
+of the Falls, and watched the people bathe. At the edge of the rock an
+old grandmother had dealt valiantly with an indignant baby of two, whom,
+despite its struggles, she bathed after prolonged preparation of divers
+anointings, by holding it grimly, kicking and slippery though it was,
+under what must have seemed to it a terrible hurrying horror. When at
+last that baby emerged, it was too crushed in spirit to cry.
+
+Beyond this little domestic scene was a group of half-reluctant women,
+longing and yet fearing to venture under the plunging waters; and beyond
+them again were the bathers, crowding but never jostling each other, on
+the narrow ledge upon and over which the Falls descend. Some were
+standing upright, with bowed heads, under the strong chastisement of the
+nearer heavier fall; some bent under it, as if overwhelmed with the
+thundering thud of its waters. Some were further on, where the white
+furies lash like living whips, and scourge and sting and scurry; and
+there the pilgrims were hardly visible, for the waters swept over them
+like a veil, and they looked in their weirdness and muteness like martyr
+ghosts. Further still some were carefully climbing the steps cut into
+the cliff, or standing as high as they could go upon an unguarded
+projection of rock, with eyes shut and folded hands, entirely oblivious
+apparently to the fact that showers of spray enveloped them, and the
+deep pool lay below.
+
+I had never seen anything quite like this: it was such a strange
+commingling of the beautiful and sorrowful. The women--"fair"-skinned
+Brahman women they chanced to be--were in their usual graceful raiment
+of silk or cotton, all shades of soft reds, crimson, purple, blue,
+lightened with yellow and orange, which in the water looked like dull
+fire. Their golden and silver jewels gleamed in the sunlight, and their
+long black hair hung round faces like the faces one sees in pictures.
+The men wore their ordinary white, and the ascetics the salmon-tinted
+saffron of their profession.
+
+Then, as if to add an ethereal touch to it all, a rainbow spanned the
+Falls at that moment, and we saw the pilgrims through it or arched by it
+as they stood, some at either end of the bow where the colours painted
+the rock and the spray, and some in the space between. The sun struck
+the forest hanging on the steeps above, and it became a vivid thing in
+quick delight of greenness. It was something which, once seen, could
+hardly be forgotten. The triumphant stream of white set deep in the
+heart of a great horseshoe of rock and woods; the delicate, exquisite
+pleasure of colour; and the people in their un-self-consciousness,
+bathing and worshipping just as they wished, with for background rock
+and spray, and for a halo rainbow. To one who looked with sympathy the
+picture was a parable. You could not but see visions: you could not but
+dream dreams.
+
+Then from the quiet heights crept a colony of monkeys, their chatter
+drowned in the roar of the Falls. On they came, wise and quaint, like
+the half-heard whispers of old-time jokes. And they bathed in the mimic
+pools above, as it seemed in imitation of the pilgrims, holding comical
+little heads under the light trickles.
+
+And below the scene changed as a company of widows came and entered the
+Falls. They were all Brahmans and all old, and they shivered in their
+poor scanty garments of coarse white. Most of them were frail with long
+fasting and penance, and they prayed as they stood in the water or
+crouched under its weight. Such a one had sat on the stone under the
+special fall which, as the friend who had taken me observed with more
+forcefulness than sentiment, "comes down like a sack of potatoes." I had
+tried to stand it for a minute, but it pelted and pounded me so that
+less than a minute was enough, and I moved to make room for a Brahman
+widow who was bathing with me. And then she sat down on the stone, and
+the waters beat very heavily on the old grey head; but she sat on in her
+patience, her hands covering her face, and she prayed without one
+moment's intermission. How little she knew of the other prayer that rose
+beside hers through the rushing water--it was the first time I at least
+had ever prayed in a waterfall--"Oh, send forth Thy light and Thy truth;
+let them lead her!" She struggled up at last and caught my hand; then,
+steadying herself with an effort, she felt for the iron rod that
+protects the ledge, and blinded by the driving spray and benumbed by the
+beat of the water, she stumbled slowly out. But the wistful face had a
+look of content upon it, and her only concern was to finish the
+ceremonial out in the sunshine--she had brought her little offerings of
+a few flowers with her--and so, much as I longed to follow her and tell
+her of the cleansing of which this was only a type, it could not have
+been then. Oh, the rest it is at such a time to remember that the Lord
+is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works.
+
+Below the pool, in the broad bed of the stream and on its banks, all was
+animation and happy simple life. Here the women were drying their
+garments, without taking them off, in a clever fashion of their own.
+There some were washing them in the stream. Children played about as
+they willed. But in and among the throng, anywhere, everywhere, we saw
+worshippers, standing or sitting facing the east, alone or in company,
+chanting names for the deity, or adoring and meditating in silence.
+Doubtless some were formal enough, but some were certainly sincere; and
+we felt if this were all there is to know in Hinduism, the time must
+soon come when a people so prepared would recognise in the Saviour and
+Lover of their souls, Him for whom they had been seeking so long, "if
+haply they might feel after Him and find Him."
+
+But this is not all there is to know. Back out of sight behind the
+simple joyousness of life, to which the wholesome waters and the
+sparkling air and the beauty everywhere so graciously ministered, behind
+that wonderful wealth of thought as revealed in the Higher Hinduism
+which is born surely of nothing less than a longing after God--behind
+all this what do we find? Glory of mountain and waterfall, charm and
+delight of rainbow in spray; but what lies behind the coloured veil?
+What symbols are carved into the cliff? Whose name and power do they
+represent?
+
+This book touches one of the hidden things; would that we could forget
+it! Sometimes, through these days as we sat on the rocks by the
+waterside, in the unobtrusive fashion of the Indian religious teacher,
+who makes no noise but waits for those who care to come, we have almost
+forgotten in the happiness of human touch with the people, the lovable
+women and children more especially, that anything dark and wicked and
+sad lay so very near. And then, suddenly as we have told, we have been
+reminded of it. We may not forgot it if we would. It is true that the
+thing we mean is disowned by the spiritual few, but to the multitude it
+is part of their religion. "Of course, Temple women must adopt young
+children; and they must be carefully trained, or they will not be meet
+for the service of the gods." So said the Brahman who only a moment
+before had led me into the mystic land, deep within which he loves to
+dwell: what does the training mean?
+
+A fortnight ago the friend to whom the child is dear took me to see the
+little girl described in a letter from an Indian sister as "a little
+dove in a cage." I did not find that she minded her cage. The bars have
+been gilded, the golden glitter has dazzled the child. She thinks her
+cage a pretty place, and she does not beat against its bars as she did
+in the earlier days of her captivity. As we talked with her we
+understood the change. When first she was taken from school the woman to
+whose training her mother has committed her gave her polluting poetry to
+read and learn, and she shrank from it, and would slip her Bible over
+the open page and read it instead. But gradually the poetry seemed less
+impossible; the atmosphere in which those vile stories grew and
+flourished was all about her; as she breathed it day by day she became
+accustomed to it; the sense of being stifled passed. The process of
+mental acclimatisation is not yet completed, the lovely little face is
+still pure and strangely innocent in its expression; but there is a
+change, and it breaks the heart of the friend who loves her to see it.
+"I must learn my poetry. They will be angry if I do not learn it. What
+can I do?" And again, "Oh, the stories do not mean anything," said with
+a downward glance, as if the child-conscience still protested. But this
+was a fortnight ago. It is worse with that little girl to-day; there is
+less inward revolt; and to-morrow how will it be with her?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+"To Continue the Succession"
+
+
+FOR to-morrow holds no hope for these children so far as our power to
+save them to-day is concerned. It will be remembered that we felt we
+could do more for them by working quietly on our own lines than by
+appealing to the law; but lately, fearing lest we were possibly doing
+the law an injustice by taking it for granted that it was powerless to
+help us, we carefully gathered all the evidence we could about three
+typical children: one a child in moral danger, though not in actual
+Temple danger; another the adopted child of a Temple woman; the third a
+Temple woman's own child: and we submitted this evidence to a keen
+Indian Christian barrister, and asked for his advice.
+
+L., the first child he deals with, the little "dove in the cage," is in
+charge of a woman of bad character, by the consent and arrangement of
+her mother. The mother speaks English as well as an Englishwoman, and
+her eldest son is studying for his degree in a Government college.
+Although Temple service is not intended, the proposed life is such that
+a similar course of training as that to which the Temple child is
+subjected, is now being carried on. This is the barrister's reply to my
+letter:--
+
+"I have carefully perused the statements of the probable witnesses. L.'s
+mother is not a Temple woman, and the foster-mother also is not a Temple
+woman. The law of adoption relating to Temple women does not apply to
+them. The foster-mother, therefore, can have no legal claim to the
+child. But the mother has absolute control over the bringing-up of the
+child, and it would not be possible in the present state of the law to
+do anything for the child now."
+
+S. This is the little one who whispered her texts to me in the
+moonlight, and whose foster-mother told her to tell me she was being
+trained for the Service of the gods. She is evidently destined to be a
+Temple woman. "The first question for consideration is how the old woman
+is related to her. If she is the adopted mother, or if she could
+successfully plead adoption of the child, the Civil Courts will be
+powerless to help. If we can get some reliable evidence that the child
+has not been adopted" (this is impossible) "we may be able to induce the
+British Courts to interfere on her behalf and say she shall not be
+devoted to Temple service until she attains her majority; but it would
+not be possible to induce the Courts to hand the child over to the
+Mission."
+
+K., the little girl whose own mother is a Temple woman. She has been
+taught dancing, which to our mind was conclusive proof of her mother's
+intentions. To make sure we asked the question, to which the following
+is the reply: "No children of [good] Hindu parents are taught dancing.
+Even the lowest caste woman thinks it beneath her dignity to dance,
+excepting professional devil-dancers, who are generally old women,
+mostly widows, of an hysterical temperament. When young children of
+women of doubtful character are taught dancing, it means they are going
+to be married to the idol. When children of Temple women are taught
+dancing the presumption is all the greater. But the difficulty in the
+case of K. is to get one who has higher claims to guardianship than the
+mother. In the case of a Temple woman's child there is no one.
+
+"It is this which makes it impossible for the well-wishers of the
+children to interfere. . . . The law punishes only the offence committed
+and not the intent to commit, or even the preparation, unless it amounts
+to an attempt under the Penal Code."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Bluebeards are not an institution in England; but if they were, and if
+one of the order were known to possess a cupboardful of pendent heads,
+would Englishmen sit quiet while he whetted his butcher's knife quite
+calmly on his doorstep? Would they say as he sat there in untroubled
+assurance of safety, feeling the edge of the blade with his thumb, and
+muttering almost audibly the name of his intended victim, "We have no
+right to interfere, he is only sharpening his knife; an intent to
+commit, or even the preparation for crime, is not punishable by law,
+unless it amounts to an attempt, and he has not 'attempted' yet."
+Surely, if such intent were not punishable it very soon would be. It
+would be found possible--who can doubt it?--to frame a new law, or amend
+the old one, so as to deal with Bluebeards. And a Committee of Vigilance
+would be appointed to ensure its effectual working.
+
+Of course, the simile is absurdly inadequate, and breaks down at several
+important points, and the circumstances are vastly more difficult in
+India than they ever could be in England, just because India is India;
+but will it not at least be admitted that the law meant in kindness to
+the innocent is fatal to our purpose?--which is to save the children
+while they are still innocent.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We do not want to ask for anything unreasonable, but it seems to us that
+the law concerning adoption requires revision. In Mayne's _Hindu Law and
+Usage_ it is stated that among Temple women it is customary in Madras
+and Pondicherry and in Western India to adopt girls to follow their
+adopted mother's profession: and the girls so adopted succeed to their
+property; no particular ceremonies are necessary, recognition alone
+being sufficient. In Calcutta and Bombay such adoptions have been held
+illegal, but in the Madras Presidency they are held to be legal. In a
+case where the validity of such adoption was questioned, the Madras High
+Court affirmed it, and it has now, "by a series of decisions, adopted
+the rule . . . which limits the illegality of adoption to cases where
+they involve the commission of an offence under the Criminal Code."
+This, as we have said, makes it entirely impossible to save the child
+through the law before her training is complete; and after it is
+complete it is too late to save her. Train a child from infancy to look
+upon a certain line of life as the one and only line for her, make the
+prospect attractive, and surround her with every possible unholy
+influence; in short, bend the twig and keep it bent for the greater part
+of sixteen years, or even only six--is there much room for doubt as to
+how it will grow? An heir to the property may be required; but with the
+facts of life before us, can we be content to allow the adoption of a
+child by a Temple woman to be so legalised that even if it can be proved
+to a moral certainty that her intention is to "continue the succession,"
+nothing can be done?
+
+Then as to the guardianship: again we do not want to ask too much, but
+surely if it can be shown that no one else has moved to save the child
+(which argues that no one else has cared much about her salvation) we
+should not be disqualified for guardianship on the sole ground that we
+are not related? In such a case the relatives are the last people with
+whom she would be safe. An order may go forth from that nebulous and
+distant Impersonality, the British Government, to the effect that a
+certain child is not to be dedicated to gods during her minority. But
+far away in their villages the people smile at a simplicity which can
+imagine that commands can eventually affect purposes. They may delay the
+fulfilment of such purpose; but India can afford to wait.
+
+_We would have the law so amended, that whoever has been in earnest
+enough about the matter to try to save the child from destruction,
+should be given the right to protect her, if in spite of the odds
+against him he has honestly fought through a case and won._
+
+"Is it not a sad thing," writes the Indian barrister--we quote his words
+because they seem to us worthy of notice at home--"that a Christian
+Government is unable to legislate to save the children of Temple women?
+I am sorry my opinion has made you sad. Giving my opinion as a lawyer, I
+could not take an optimistic view of the matter. _The law as it stands
+at present is against reform in matters of this kind._ Even should a
+good judge take a strong view of the matter, the High Court will stick
+to the very letter of the law."
+
+So that, as things are, it comes to this: We must stand aside and watch
+the cup of poison being prepared--so openly prepared that everyone knows
+for which child it is being mixed. We must stand and wait and do
+nothing. We must see the little girl led up to the cup and persuaded to
+taste it. We must watch her gradually growing to like it, for it is
+flavoured and sweet. We must not beckon to her before she has drunk of
+it and say, "Come to us and we will tell you what is in that cup, and
+keep you safely from those who would make you drink it"; for "any
+attempt to induce the child to come to you, or any assistance given to
+help her to escape to you, would render you liable to prosecution for
+kidnapping--a criminal offence under the Penal Code." Any one of us
+would gladly go to prison if it would save the child; but the trouble
+is, it would not: for the law could only return her to her lawful
+guardians from whose hold we unlawfully detached her. We, not they,
+would be in the wrong; they did nothing unlawful in only preparing the
+cup. Does someone say that we put the case unfairly--that the law does
+not forbid us to warn the child, it only forbids us to snatch her away
+when the cup is merely being offered her? But remember, in our part of
+India at least, these cups are not given in public. The preparation is
+public enough, the bare tasting is public too; but the cup in its
+fulness is given in private, and once given, the poison works with
+stealthy but startling rapidity. Warn the child before she has drunk of
+it, and she does not understand you. Warn her after she has drunk, and
+the poison holds her from heeding.
+
+Besides, to be very practical, what is the use of warning if we may only
+warn? Suppose our one isolated word weighs with the child against the
+word of mother or adopted mother, and all who stand for home to her;
+suppose she says (she would very rarely have the courage for any such
+proposal, but suppose she does say it): "May I come to you? and will you
+show me the way, for it is such a long way and I do not know how to find
+it? I should be so frightened, alone in the night" (the only time escape
+would be possible), "for I know they would run after me, and they can
+run faster than I!" What may we say to her? What may I say to the
+Harebell supposing she asks me this question? She is only six, and there
+are six long miles over broken country between her home and ours. We
+could not find it ourselves in the dark. But supposing she dared it all,
+and an angel were sent to guide her, have we any right to protect her?
+None whatever. If there are parents, or a parent, they or she have the
+right of parentage; if an adopted mother, the right of adoption.[F]
+
+We know that the law is framed to protect the good, and the rights of
+parentage cannot be too carefully guarded; but to one who has not a
+legal mind, but only sees a little girl in danger of her life, and has
+to stand with hands tied by a law intended to deal with totally
+different matters, it seems strange that things should be so. This is
+not the moment (if ever there is such a moment) to choose, for
+deliberate lawlessness; but there are times when the temptation is
+strong to break the law in the hope that, once broken, it may be
+amended. Only those who have had to go through it know what it is to
+stand and see that cup of poison being prepared for an unsuspicious
+child.
+
+The last sentence in the barrister's letter begins with "I despair." The
+sentence is too pungent in its outspoken candour to copy into a book
+which may come back to India: "I despair": then unto Thee we turn, O
+Lord our God; for now, Lord, what is our hope? truly our hope is even in
+Thee: oh, help us against the enemy; for vain is the help of man. Hath
+God forgotten to be gracious? Will the Lord absent Himself for ever? O
+God, wherefore art Thou absent from us for so long? Look upon the
+Covenant, for all the earth is full of darkness and cruel habitations.
+Surely Thou hast seen it, for Thou beholdest ungodliness and wrong. The
+wicked boasteth of his heart's desire. He sitteth in the lurking-places
+of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent. He
+saith in his heart, "God hath forgotten: He hideth His face; He will
+never see it." Arise, O Lord God, lift up Thine hand! Up, Lord,
+disappoint him, and cast him down; deliver the children! Show Thy
+marvellous lovingkindness, Thou that art the Saviour of them which put
+their trust in Thee, from such as resist Thy right hand. Thy voice is
+mighty in operation: the voice of the Lord is a glorious voice. We wait
+for Thy lovingkindness, O God: be merciful unto the children: O God, be
+merciful unto the children, for our soul trusteth in Thee, and we call
+unto the Most High God, even unto the God that shall perform the cause
+which we have in hand. For Thou hast looked down from Thy sanctuary; out
+of heaven did the Lord behold the earth, that He might hear the
+mournings of such as are in captivity, and deliver the children
+appointed to death. Arise, O God, maintain Thine own cause! Our hope is
+in Thee, Who helpeth them to right that suffer wrong. The Lord looseth
+the prisoners. God is unto us a God of deliverances. Power belongeth
+unto Thee. Our soul hangeth upon Thee: Thou shalt show us wonderful
+things in Thy righteousness, O God of our salvation, Thou that art the
+hope of all the ends of the earth. And all men that see it shall say,
+This hath God done; for they shall perceive that it is His work. He
+shall deliver the children's souls from falsehood and wrong; for God is
+our King of old; the help that is done upon earth He doeth it Himself.
+Sure I am, the Lord will avenge the poor, and maintain the cause of the
+helpless. Why art thou so heavy, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted
+within me? Oh, put thy trust in God; for I will yet praise Him which is
+the help of my countenance and my God!
+
+Are there any prayers like the old psalms in their intense sincerity? In
+the times when our heart is wounded within us we turn to these ancient
+human cries, and we find what we want in them.
+
+Let us pray for the children of this generation being trained now "to
+continue the succession," whom nothing less than a Divine interposition
+can save. The hunters on these mountains dig pits to ensnare the poor
+wild beasts, and they cover them warily with leaves and grass: this
+sentence about the succession is just such a pit, with words for leaves
+and grass. Let us pray for miracles to happen where individual children
+are concerned, that the little feet in their ignorance may be hindered
+from running across those pits, for the fall is into miry clay, and the
+sides of the pit are slippery and very steep.
+
+More and more as we go on, and learn our utter inability to move a
+single pebble by ourselves, and the mighty power of God to upturn
+mountains with a touch, we realise how infinitely important it is to
+know how to pray. There is the restful prayer of committal to which the
+immediate answer is peace. We could not live without this sort of
+prayer; we should be crushed and overborne, and give up broken-hearted
+if it were not for that peace. But the Apostle speaks of another prayer
+that is wrestle, conflict, "agony." And if these little children are to
+be delivered and protected after their deliverance, and trained that if
+the Lord tarry and life's fierce battle has to be fought--and for them
+it may be very fierce--all that will be attempted against them shall
+fall harmless at their feet like arrows turned to feather-down; then
+some of us must be strong to meet the powers that will combat every inch
+of the field with us, and some of us must learn deeper things than we
+know yet about the solemn secret of prevailing prayer.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[F] To-day (February 16, 1912) as I go through proofs of the second
+edition, I hear by post of a young girl in a distant city who lately
+escaped to a missionary, and asked for what he could not give
+her--protection. She had to return to her own home. In her despair, she
+drowned herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV
+
+What if she misses her Chance?
+
+          "Who would be planted chooseth not the soil
+           Or here or there, . . .
+           Lord even so
+           I ask one prayer,
+           The which if it be granted
+           It skills not where
+           Thou plantest me, only I would be planted."
+
+                                          T. E. BROWN.
+
+
+TWO pictures of two evenings rise as I write. One is of an English
+fireside in a country house. The lamps have been lighted, and the
+curtains drawn. The air is full of the undefined scent of
+chrysanthemums, and the stronger sweetness of hyacinths comes from a
+stand in the window. Curled up in a roomy arm-chair by the fire sits a
+girl with a kitten asleep on her lap. She is reading a missionary book.
+
+The other this: a white carved cupola in the centre of a piece of water
+enclosed by white walls. People are sitting on the walls and pressing
+close about them in their thousands. A gorgeous barge is floating slowly
+round the shrine. There is very little moon, but the whole place is
+alight; sometimes the water is ablaze with ruby and amber; this fades,
+and a weird blue-green shimmers across the barge, and electric lamps at
+the corners of the square lend brilliancy to the scene. The barge is
+covered with crimson trappings, and hundreds of wreaths of white
+oleander hang curtain-wise round what is within--the god and goddess
+decked with jewels and smothered in flowers. Round and round the barge
+is poled, and in the coloured light all that is gaudy and tawdry is
+toned, and becomes only oriental and impressive; and the white shrine in
+the centre reflected in the calm coloured water appears in its
+alternating dimness, and shining more like a fairy creation than common
+handiwork.
+
+We who were at the festival, three of us laden with packets of marked
+Gospels, met sometimes as we wandered about unobserved, losing ourselves
+in the crowd, that we might the more quietly continue that for which we
+were there; and in one such chance meeting we spoke of the English girl
+by the fireside, and longed to show her what we saw; and to show it with
+such earnestness that she would be drawn to inquire where her Master had
+most need of her. But no earnestness of writing can do much after all.
+It is true the eye affects the heart, and we would show what we have
+seen in the hope that even the second-hand sight might do something; but
+words are clumsy, and cannot discover to another that poignant thing the
+eye has power to transmit to the heart. And it is well that it is so,
+for something stronger and more consuming than human emotion can ever be
+must operate upon the heart if the life is to be moved to purpose. "A
+moving story" is worth little if it only moves the feelings. How far out
+of its selfish track does it move the life into ways of sacrifice? That
+is the question that matters. What if it cost? Did not Calvary cost?
+Away with the cold, calculating love that talks to itself about cost!
+God give us a pure passion of love that knows nothing of hesitation and
+grudging, and measuring, nothing of compromise! What if it seem
+impossible to face all that surrender may mean? Is there not provision
+for the impossible? "In the Old Testament we find that in almost every
+case of people being clothed with the Spirit it was for things which
+were impossible to them. To be filled with the Spirit means readiness
+for Him to take us out of our present sphere and put us anywhere away
+from our own choice into His choice for us." These words hold a message
+alike for us as we meet and pass in that Indian crowd, and for the girl
+by the fireside at home who wants to know her Lord's will that she may
+do it, and whose heart's prayer is: "May Thy grace, O Lord, make that
+possible to me which is impossible by nature."
+
+Let us have done with limitations, let us be simply sincere. How ashamed
+we shall be by and by of our insincerities:--
+
+          Thy vows are on me, oh to serve Thee truly,
+            Pants, pants my soul to perfectly obey!
+          Burn, burn, O Fire, O Wind, now winnow throughly!
+            Constrain, inspire to follow all the way!
+                Oh that in me
+                Thou, my Lord, may see
+                Of the travail of Thy soul,
+                And be satisfied.
+
+We had only a few hours to spend in the town of the Floating Festival;
+and being anxious to discover how things were among the Temple
+community, I spent the first hour in their quarter, a block of
+substantial buildings each in its own compound, near the Temple. I saw
+the house from which two of our dearest children came, delivered by a
+miracle; it looked like a fortress with its wall all round, and upstairs
+balcony barred by a trellis. The street door was locked as the women
+were at the Festival. In another of less dignified appearance I saw a
+pretty woman of about twenty, dressed in pale blue and gold, evidently
+just ready to go out. One of those abandoned beings whose function it is
+to secure little children "to continue the succession" was in the house,
+and so nothing could be attempted but the most casual conversation. All
+the other houses in the block were locked as the women were out; but I
+saw a new house outside, built in best Indian style, and finely
+finished. It had been built for, and given as a free gift, to a noted
+Temple woman.
+
+These houses would open, in the missionary sense of the word, but not in
+an afternoon. It would take time and careful endeavour to win an
+entrance. Such a worker would need to be one whom no disappointment
+could discourage, a woman to whom the word had been spoken, "Go, love,
+. . . according to the love of the Lord." When will such a worker come?
+
+As I left the Temple quarter, I met my two companions who had been at
+work elsewhere, and we walked together to the place of festival.
+Tripping gaily along in front was a little maid with flowers in her
+hair. It was easy to know who she was, there was something in the very
+step that marked the light-footed Temple child. Poor little
+all-unconscious illustration of India's need of God!
+
+Later on we saw the same illustration again, lighted up like a great
+transparency, the focus for a thousand eyes. For on the da�s of the
+barge, in the place of honour nearest the idols, stood three women and a
+child. The women were swathed in fold upon fold of rich violet silk,
+sprinkled all over with tinsel and gold; they were crowned with white
+flowers, wreathed round a golden ornament like a full moon set in their
+dark hair; and the effect of the whole, seen in the luminous flush of
+colour thrown upon them from the shore, was as if the night sky
+sparkling with stars had come down and robed them where they stood. Then
+when it paled, and sheet-lightning played, as it seemed, across water
+and barge and shrine, the effect was wholly mysterious. The three
+swaying forms--for they swayed keeping time to the music that never
+ceased--resembled one's idea of goddesses rather than familiar
+womenkind. To the Indian mind it was beautiful, bewilderingly beautiful;
+and the simple country-folk around drew deep breaths of admiration as
+they passed.
+
+The little girl looked more human. She too was in violet silk and
+spangles and gold, and her little head was wreathed with flowers. It may
+have been her first Floating Festival, for she gazed about her with eyes
+full of guileless wonder, and the woman beside whom she stood laid a
+light, protecting hand upon her shoulder.
+
+That little child! How the sight of her held us in pity as the barge
+sailed slowly round. She was so near to us at times that we could almost
+have touched her when the barge came near the wall; and yet she was
+utterly remote, miles of space might have lain between; it was as if we
+and she belonged to different planets. And yet our little ones who might
+have been as she, were so close--we could almost feel their loving
+little arms round our necks at that moment--this child, how far away she
+was! Had one of us set foot on the place where she stood, the friendly
+thousands about us would have changed in a second into indignant furies,
+and so long as the memory of such impiety remained no white face would
+have been welcome at the Floating Festival.
+
+We stood by the wall awhile and watched; the sorrow of it all sank into
+us. There in the holiest place of all, according to their thinking,
+close to the emblems of deity, they had set this grievous perversion of
+the holy and the pure. Right on the topmost pinnacle of everything known
+as religious there they had enthroned it, and robed it in starlight and
+crowned it as queens are crowned. "Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of
+holiness!" "One thing have I desired of the Lord . . . to behold the fair
+beauty of the Lord"--such words open chasms of contrast. God pity them;
+like those of old, they know not what they do.
+
+We came away, our books all sold and our strength of voice spent out,
+for everywhere people had listened; and as we came home, strong
+thanksgiving filled our hearts, thanks and praise unspeakable for the
+little lives safe in our nursery, for the two especially who but for
+God's interposition might have been on that barge--and oh, from the
+ground of our heart we were grateful that He had not let us miss His
+will concerning these little children. We thought of those special two
+with their dear little innocent ways. We could not think of them on the
+barge. We could not bear to think of it--again and again we thanked God,
+with humble adoring thanksgiving, that He kept us from missing our
+chance.
+
+But the mere thinking of that intolerable thought brought us back upon
+another thought. What of that girl by the fireside? What if she misses
+her chance? We know, for letters confess it, that many a life has missed
+its chance. What of the woman, strong and keen, with pent-up energies
+waiting for she knows not what? What of the girl by the fireside
+crushing down the sense of an Under-call that will not let her rest? The
+work to which that Call would lead her will not be anything great: it
+will only mean little humble everyday doings wherever she is sent. But
+if the Call is a true Call from heaven, it will change to a song as she
+obeys; and through all the afterward of life, through all the loneliness
+that may come, through all the disillusions when her "dreams of fair
+romance which no day brings" slip away from her--and the usual and
+commonplace are all about her--then and for ever that song of the Lord
+will sing itself through the quiet places of her soul, and she will be
+sure--with the sureness that is just pure peace--that she is where her
+Master meant her to be.
+
+Not that we would write as if obedience must always mean service in the
+foreign field. We know it is not so: we know it may be quite the
+opposite; but shall we not be forgiven if we sometimes wonder how it is
+that with so much earnest Church life at home, with so many evangelistic
+campaigns, and conventions, there is so poor an output so far as these
+lands abroad are concerned? Can it be that so many are meant to stay at
+home? We would never urge any individual friend to come, far less would
+we plead for numbers, however great the need; we would only say this:
+Will the girl by the fireside, if such a one reads this book, lay the
+book aside, and spend an hour alone with her Lord? Will she, if she is
+in doubt about His will, wait upon Him to show it to her? Will she ask
+Him to fit her to obey? "And this I wish to do, this I desire;
+whatsoever is wanting in me, do Thou, I beseech Thee, vouchsafe to
+supply."
+
+Forgive if we seem to intrude upon holy ground, but sometimes we see in
+imagination some great gathering of God's people, and we hear them
+singing hymns; and sometimes the beautiful words change into others not
+beautiful, but only insistent:--
+
+          The Lord our God arouse us! We are sleeping,
+            Dreaming we wake, while through the heavy night
+          Hardly perceived, the foe moves on unchallenged,
+            Glad of the dream that doth delay the fight.
+          O Christ our Captain, lead us out to battle!
+            Shame on the sloth of soldiers of the light!
+
+                 *       *       *       *       *
+
+          Good Shepherd, Jesus, pitiful and tender,
+            To whom the least of straying lambs is known,
+          Grant us Thy love that wearieth not, nor faileth;
+            Grant us to seek Thy wayward sheep that roam
+          Far on the fell, until we find and fold them
+            Safe in the love of Thee, their own true home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+"Thy Sweet Original Joy"
+
+          Beacons of hope, ye appear!
+          Languor is not in your heart,
+          Weakness is not in your word,
+          Weariness not on your brow.
+
+
+WITHIN the last few months a friend, a lover of books, sent me _The
+Trial and Death of Socrates_, translated into English by F. J. Church.
+Opening it for the first time, I came upon this passage:--
+
+_Socrates:_ "Does a man who is in training, and who is in earnest about
+it, attend to the praise and blame of all men, or of the one man who is
+doctor or trainer?"
+
+_Crito:_ "He attends only to the opinion of the one man."
+
+_Socrates:_ "Then he ought to fear the blame and welcome the praise of
+the one man, not the many?"
+
+_Crito:_ "Clearly."
+
+And Socrates sums the argument thus: "To be brief; is it not the same in
+everything?"
+
+Surely the wise man spoke the truth: it is the same in everything. The
+one thing that matters is the opinion of the One. If He is satisfied,
+all is well. If He is dissatisfied, the commendation of the many is as
+froth. "Blessed are the single-hearted, for they shall have much peace."
+
+But Nature is full of pictures of bright companionship in service; the
+very stars shine in constellations. This book of the skies has been
+opening up to us of late. Who, to whom the experience is new, will
+forget the first evenings spent with even a small telescope, but
+powerful enough to distinguish double stars and unveil nebul�? You look
+and see a single point of light, and you look again and twin suns float
+like globes of fire on a midnight sea; and sometimes one flashes golden
+yellow and the other blue, each the complement of the other, like two
+perfectly responsive friends. You look and see a little lonely cloud, a
+breath of transparent mist; you look and see spaces sprinkled with
+diamond dust, or something even more awesome, reaches of radiance that
+seem to lie on the borderland of Eternity.
+
+And the shining glory lingers and lights up the common day, for the
+story of the sky is the story of life.
+
+          Far was the Call, and farther as I followed
+          Grew there a silence round my Lord and me--
+
+is for ever the inner story, as for ever the stars must move alone,
+however close they are set in constellations or strewn in clusters; but
+in another sense is it not true that there is the joy of companionship
+and the pure inspiration of comradeship? God fits twin souls together
+like twin suns; and sometimes, with delicate thought for even the
+sensitive pleasure of colour, it is as if He arranged them so that the
+gold and the blue coalesce.
+
+And we think of the places which were once blank, mere misty nothings to
+us. They sparkle now with friends. Some of them are familiar friends
+known through the wear and tear of life; some we shall never see till we
+meet above the stars. And there the nebula speaks its word of mystery
+beyond mystery, but all illuminated by the light from the other side.
+
+In the work of which these chapters have told there has been the
+wonderful comfort of sympathy and help from fellow-missionaries of our
+own and sister missions; and, as all who have read, understand, nothing
+could have been done without the loyal co-operation of our Indian
+fellow-workers whose tenderness and patience can never be described. We
+think of the friends in the mission houses along the route of our long
+journeyings; we remember how no hour was too inconvenient to receive us
+and our tired baby travellers; we think of those who in weariness and
+painfulness have sought for the little children; and we think of those
+who have made the work possible by being God's good Ravens to us. We
+think of them all, and we wish their names could be written on the cover
+of this book instead of the name least worthy to be there. And now
+latest and nearest comfort and blessing, there are the two new
+"Sitties," whose first day with us made them one of us. What shall I
+render unto the Lord for all His benefits towards me?
+
+The future is full of problems. Even now in these Nursery days questions
+are asked that are more easily asked than answered. We should be afraid
+if we looked too far ahead, so we do not look. We spend our strength on
+the day's work, the nearest "next thing" to our hands. But we would be
+blind and heedless if we made no provision for the future. We want to
+gather and lay up in store against that difficult time (should it ever
+come) a band of friends for the children, who will stand by them in
+prayer.
+
+There has been another compelling influence. We recognise something in
+the Temple-children question which touches a wider issue than the
+personal or missionary. Those who have read _Queen Victoria's Letters_
+must have become conscious of a certain enlargement. Questions become
+great or dwindle into nothingness according as they affect the honour
+and the good of the Empire. We find ourselves instinctively "thinking
+Imperially," regarding things from the Throne side--from above instead
+of from below.
+
+We fear exaggerated language. We would not exaggerate the importance of
+these little children or their cause. We have said that we realise, as
+we did not when first this work began, how very delicate and difficult a
+matter it would be for Government to take any really effective action,
+and less than effective action is useless. We recognise the value of our
+pledge of neutrality in religious matters, and we know what might happen
+if Government moved in a line which to India might appear to be contrary
+to the spirit of that pledge. It would be far better if India herself
+led the way and declared, as England declared when she passed the
+Industrial Schools Amendment Act of 1880, that she will not have her
+little children demoralised in either Temple houses recognised as such,
+or in any similar houses, such as those which abound in areas where the
+Temple child nominally is non-existent. But must we wait till India
+leads the way? Scattered all over the land there are men who are against
+this iniquity, and would surely be in favour of such legislation as
+would make for its destruction. But few would assert that the people as
+a whole are even nearly ready. A great wave of the Power of God, a great
+national turning towards Him, would, we know, sweep the iniquity out of
+the land as the waters of the Alpheus swept the stable-valley clean, in
+the old classic story. Oh for such a sudden flow of the River of God,
+which is full of water! But must we wait until it comes? Did we wait
+until India herself asked for the abolition of suttee? Surely what is
+needed is such legislation as has been found necessary at home, which
+empowers the magistrate to remove a child from a dangerous house, and
+deprives parents of all parental rights who are found responsible for
+its being forced into wrong. Surely such action would be Imperially
+right; and can a thing right in itself and carried out with a wise
+earnestness, ever eventually do harm? Must it not do good in the end,
+however agitating the immediate result may appear? Surely the one calm
+answer, "_It is Right_," will eventually silence all protest and still
+all turbulence!
+
+Such a law, it is well to understand at the outset, will always be
+infinitely more difficult to enforce in India than in England, because
+of the immensely greater difficulty here in getting true evidence; and
+because--unless that River of God flow through the land--there will be
+for many a year the force of public opinion as a whole against us, or if
+not actively against, then inert and valueless. Caste feeling will come
+in and shield and circumvent and get behind the law. The Indian
+sensitiveness concerning Custom will be all awake and tingling with a
+hidden but intense vitality; and this, which is inevitable because
+natural, will have to be taken into account in every attempt made to
+enforce the law. The whole situation bristles with difficulties; but are
+difficulties an argument for doing nothing?
+
+"Whoever buys hires or otherwise obtains possession of, whoever sells
+lets to hire or otherwise disposes of any minor under sixteen with the
+intent that such minor shall be employed or used for . . . any unlawful
+purpose or knowing it likely that such minor will be employed or used
+for any such purpose shall be liable to imprisonment up to a term of ten
+years and is also liable to a fine."
+
+_But_ where it appeared that certain minor girls were being taught
+singing and dancing and were being made to accompany their grandmother
+and Temple woman to the Temple with a view to qualify them as Temple
+women, it was held that this did not amount to a disposal of the minors
+within the meaning of the section.
+
+Ought this interpretation of the Indian Penal Code to be possible? The
+proof the law requires at present, proof of the sale of the child or its
+definite dedication to the idol, is rarely obtainable. The fact that it
+is being taught singing and dancing (although it is well known, as the
+barrister's letter proves, that among orthodox Hindus such arts are
+never taught to little children except when the intention is bad) is not
+considered sufficient evidence upon which to base a conviction. To us it
+seems that the presence of the child in such a house, or in any house of
+known bad character, is sufficient proof that it is in danger of the
+worst wrong that can be inflicted upon a defenceless child--the
+demoralisation of its soul, the spoiling of its whole future life,
+before it has ever had a chance to know and choose the good.
+
+[Illustration: From the Rock, Dohnavur.]
+
+And so we write it finally as our solemn conviction that there is need
+for a law like our own English law, and we add--and those who know India
+know how true this sentence is--_such legislation, however carefully
+framed, will be a delusion, a blind, a dead letter, unless men of no
+ordinary insight and courage and character are appointed to see that it
+is carried out_.
+
+God grant that these chapters, written in weakness, may yet do something
+towards moving the Church to such prayer that the answer will be, as
+once before, that an angel will be sent to open the doors of the
+prison-house!
+
+The frontispiece shows the rock to which we go sometimes when we feel
+the need of a climb and a blow. It is associated in our minds with a
+story:--"Between the passages by which Jonathan sought to go over unto
+the Philistines' garrison there was a sharp rock on the one side and a
+sharp rock on the other side. . . . And Jonathan said to the young man
+that bare his armour: 'Come and let us go over unto the garrison of
+these uncircumcised: it may be that the Lord will work for us: for there
+is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few.' And his
+armour-bearer said unto him: 'Do all that is in thine heart: turn thee,
+behold I am with thee according to thy heart.'"
+
+We have a rock to climb, and there is nothing the least romantic
+about it. We shall have to climb it "upon our hands and upon our feet."
+It is all grim earnest. "We make our way wrapped in glamour to the
+Supreme Good, the summit," writes Guido Rey, the mountaineer, in the joy
+of his heart. But later it is: "One precipice fell away at my feet, and
+another rose above me. . . . It was no place for singing." Friends, we
+shall come to such places on the Matterhorn of life. As we follow the
+Gleam wherever it leads, may we count upon the upholding of those for
+whom we have written--the lovers of little children?
+
+And now, in conclusion, all I would say has already been so perfectly
+said, that I cannot do better than copy from the writings of two who
+fought a good fight and have been crowned--Miss Ellice Hopkins, brave,
+sensitive, soldier-soul on the hardest of life's battlefields; and
+George Herbert, courtier, poet, and saint. "Often in that nameless
+discouragement," wrote Miss Hopkins, as she lay slowly dying, "before
+unfinished tasks, unfulfilled aims and broken efforts, I have thought of
+how the creative Word has fashioned the opal, made it of the same stuff
+as desert sands, mere silica--not a crystallised stone like the diamond,
+but rather a stone with a broken heart, traversed by hundreds of small
+fissures which let in the air, the breath, as the Spirit is called in
+the Greek of our Testament; and through those two transparent mediums of
+such different density it is enabled to refract the light, and reflect
+every lovely hue of heaven, while at its heart burns a mysterious spot
+of fire. When we feel, therefore, as I have often done, nothing but
+cracks and desert dust, we can say: So God maketh His precious opal!"
+
+We would never willingly disguise one fraction of the truth in our
+desire to win sympathy and true co-operation. There will be hours of
+nameless discouragement for all who climb the rock. For some there will
+be the "broken heart."
+
+And yet there is a joy that is worth it all a thousand times--well worth
+it all. Who that has known it will doubt it? This reach of water
+recalls it. The palms, as we look at them, seem to lift their heads in
+solemn consciousness of it. For the water-side--where we stand with
+those for whom we have travailed in soul, when for the first time they
+publicly confess their faith in Christ--is a sacred place to us.
+
+[Illustration: THE PLACE OF BAPTISM.]
+
+Has our story wandered sometimes into sorrowful ways? To be true it has
+to be sorrowful sometimes. We look back to the day of its beginning, the
+day that our first little Temple child came and opened a new door to us.
+
+          Since that time many a bitter storm
+          My soul hath felt, e'en able to destroy,
+          Had the malicious and ill-meaning harm
+                  His swing and sway;
+          But still Thy sweet original joy
+          Sprung from Thine eye did work within my soul,
+          And surging griefs when they grew bold control,
+                  And got the day.
+
+It is true. Many a bitter storm has come; there have been the shock and
+the darkness of new knowledge of evil, and grief beside which all other
+pain pales, the grief of helplessness in the face of unspeakable wrong.
+But still, above and within, and around, like an atmosphere, like a
+fountain, there has been something bright, even that "sweet original
+joy" which nothing can darken or quench.
+
+          If Thy first glance so powerful be
+          A mirth but opened and sealed up again,
+          What wonders shall we feel when we shall see
+                Thy full-orbed love!
+          When Thou shalt look us out of pain,
+          And one aspect of Thine spend in delight,
+          More than a thousand worlds' disburse in light
+                In heaven above!
+
+And not alone, oh, not alone, shall we see Him as He is! There will be
+the little children too.
+
+_Those who care to know how the Temple Children's work began will find
+the story in_ "THINGS AS THEY ARE." _Preface by Eugene Stock; 320 pp.
+and Thirty-two Illustrations from Photographs taken specially for this
+work. Cloth, 2s. 6d. net (post free 2s. 10d.) Also,_ "OVERWEIGHTS OF
+JOY." _Preface by Rev. T. Walker, C.M.S. With Thirty-four Illustrations
+chiefly from Photographs taken specially for this work. Cloth, 2s. 6d.
+net (post free 2s. 10d.), Morgan & Scott Ld., 12, Paternoster Buildings,
+London._
+
+
+
+ONLY A LIMITED NUMBER OF COPIES REMAIN
+
+OF THE
+
+
+ORIGINAL EDITION OF
+
+LOTUS BUDS
+
+
+CONTAINING
+
+FIFTY PHOTOGRAVURE ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Cloth Boards, 14s. 6d. _net_ (_post free_, 15s.).
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"THE MOST STRIKING MISSIONARY BOOK EVER PUBLISHED."
+
+_Her Majesty Queen Alexandra graciously accepted a copy._
+
+          "The feature of the book is fifty photogravure
+          illustrations from photographs specially taken of
+          the children. Many of these--indeed, all of
+          them--are very charming. Some of them are mere
+          babies, others of larger growth, but in each case
+          the photographer has succeeded in presenting
+          pictures which will elicit high admiration. The
+          laughing faces, curly hair, and fine physical
+          development of the little Indians, make
+          photographs exceedingly attractive. Indeed, we
+          have never seen a more 'taking' series of children
+          of the Orient. . . . The book will interest not only
+          supporters of missions but all lovers of
+          children."--_The Westminster Gazette._
+
+          "The photogravure illustrations--fifty in
+          number--are perfect as works of art. Some are
+          pictures of scenery; most are characteristic
+          representations of the children. All are
+          full-page."--_British Weekly._
+
+          ". . . the beautiful little faces depicted in the
+          photogravures which adorn the volume. There are
+          fifty of these photogravures in the book, the
+          major portion being of children, and we regard it
+          as extremely improbable that more splendid
+          pictures are to be found in any other
+          work."--_Baby._
+
+          "The most wonderful photographs."--_Contemporary
+          Review._
+
+          "We have seldom seen more attractive illustrations
+          than those of the Indian children which are here
+          reproduced."--_East and West._
+
+          "They are the finest photographs of children we
+          have ever seen, and beautifully produced."--_The
+          Record._
+
+          "We must, in conclusion, compliment all concerned
+          in the manner in which this appeal for the
+          children has been issued--the author, the artist,
+          and the publishers (Messrs. Morgan & Scott Ld.),
+          having combined to produce in 'Lotus Buds' a fine
+          piece of work."--_The Publishers' Circular._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+          MORGAN & SCOTT LD., 12, Paternoster Buildings, London, E.C.
+
+
+
+
+ALSO BY AMY WILSON-CARMICHAEL
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THINGS AS THEY ARE: MISSION WORK IN SOUTHERN INDIA
+
+With Preface by EUGENE STOCK. 320 pages, and Thirty-two beautiful
+Illustrations from Photographs taken specially for this work. Ninth
+Edition. Paper, 1s. 6d. _net_ (_post free_, 1s. 9d.); Cloth Boards,
+2s. 6d. _net_ (_post free_, 2s. 10d.).
+
+DR. A. RUDISILL, M.E. Press, Madras:--"In 'Things as They Are' are
+pictured by pen and camera some things as they are. It is all the more
+needful now when so many are deceived, and are being deceived, as to the
+true nature of idolatry, that people at home who give and pray should be
+told plainly that what Paul wrote about idolaters in Rome and Corinth is
+still true of idolaters in India."
+
+"The account of native life, of the customs of the people, of the few
+pleasures they enjoy, and the many sorrows that oppress them, is as
+accurate as it is lucid and entertaining. It will be well to give this
+book studious attention; it is so completely sincere and so free from
+prejudice; and there are many excellent illustrations after
+photographs."--_Literary World._
+
+
+OVERWEIGHTS OF JOY: MISSION WORK IN SOUTHERN INDIA
+
+Preface by Rev. T. WALKER, C.M.S. 320 pages, and Thirty-four beautiful
+Illustrations from Photographs taken specially for this work. Paper 1s.
+6d. _net_ (_post free_, 1s. 9d.).; Cloth Boards, 2s. 6d. _net_
+(_post free_, 2s. 10d.). (Companion Volume to "Things as They Are.")
+
+"There is a life and enthusiasm and devotion, combined with literary
+ability and winsomeness of style, which make the book very captivating,
+as well as very touching. It is quite wonderfully illustrated with
+sunsets on the Ghauts and all kinds of wonders, and withal it is a song
+of spiritual triumph from a soul that feels intensely the cost of the
+Cross. A book, indeed, for every Christian home."--_The Churchman._
+
+"One of the most striking and inspiring missionary books of recent
+years."--_The Christian World._
+
+
+THE BEGINNING OF A STORY
+
+Being the story of the beginning of the work among Temple children,
+related for the friends of the Temple children. Bound in Art Covers,
+tied with silk cord. Artistic design embossed in gold, 6d. _net_
+(_post free_, 8d.).
+
+"This little book tells a touching story. It is hoped that many who are
+interested in the work on behalf of Indian children exposed to terrible
+peril will circulate this booklet to further a cause which has aroused
+widespread and prayerful interest."--_Irish Baptist Magazine._
+
+"This is a delightful booklet in its attractive blue and gold covers,
+and with the picture of the smiling Indian maiden looking out upon
+us."--_Bible Standard._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MORGAN & SCOTT LD., 12, Paternoster Buildings, London, E.C.
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Obvious punctuation errors were corrected.
+
+The original contained each chapter number and title on a page preceding
+the actual start of the chapter. These repeated Chapter Titles were
+removed to avoid redundancy.
+
+Varied hyphenation, such as "armchair" and "arm-chair", was retained.
+The Bear Garden is not hyphenated when used in titles but is hyphenated
+within the text.
+
+Page 8, "puchies" changed to "p�chies" (kill the poor p�chies)
+
+Page 8, "puchie" changed to "p�chie" (each detested "p�chie")
+
+Page 22, "subjeect" changed to "subject" (is the subject of)
+
+Page 102, "Premalia" changed to "Pr�malia" (scene to the Pr�malia)
+
+Page 237, "form" changed to "from" (from Bunyan's)
+
+Page 237, "C. H." changed to "G. H." (by G. H. Morrison)
+
+Page 238, "suprintends" changed to "superintends" (superintends the
+more)
+
+Page 256, "opportunties" changed to "opportunities" (watching for
+opportunities)
+
+Page 256, "aviod" changed to "avoid" (To avoid the Penal)
+
+Page 298, "own their" changed to "their own" (from their own homes)
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOTUS BUDS***
+
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+******* This file should be named 29427-8.txt or 29427-8.zip *******
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+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Lotus Buds, by Amy Carmichael</title>
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Lotus Buds, by Amy Carmichael</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: Lotus Buds</p>
+<p>Author: Amy Carmichael</p>
+<p>Release Date: July 16, 2009  [eBook #29427]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOTUS BUDS***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>E-text prepared by the Bookworm, Emmy,<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net/c/">http://www.pgdp.net</a>)<br />
+    from digital material generously made available by<br />
+    Internet Archive/American Libraries<br />
+    (<a href="http://www.archive.org/details/americana">http://www.archive.org/details/americana</a>)</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;" cellpadding="10">
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">
+      Note:
+    </td>
+    <td>
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive/American Libraries. See
+      <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/lotusbuds00carmiala">
+      http://www.archive.org/details/lotusbuds00carmiala</a>
+	</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[i]</a></span></p>
+
+<h1>LOTUS BUDS</h1>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[ii]</a></span></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 354px;">
+<img src="images/frontis.jpg" width="354" height="500" alt="The Great Rock. (Page 338.)" title="" />
+<span class="caption">The Great Rock. (<i><a href="#Page_338">Page 338</a></i>.)</span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h2>LOTUS BUDS</h2>
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+
+<h2>AMY WILSON-CARMICHAEL</h2>
+
+<div class='center'><i>Keswick Missionary C.E.Z.M.S.</i><br />
+
+<br />
+AUTHOR OF<br />
+"THINGS AS THEY ARE"; "OVERWEIGHTS OF JOY";<br />
+"THE BEGINNING OF A STORY," ETC.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+WITH FIFTY HALF-TONE ILLUSTRATIONS<br />
+FROM PHOTOS SPECIALLY TAKEN FOR THIS WORK<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+MORGAN AND SCOTT LD.<br />
+12 PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS<br />
+LONDON &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;MCMXII<br />
+</div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[iv]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class='copyright'><i>Copyright, Morgan &amp; Scott Ld., 1909</i><br />
+
+<br /><br /><br />
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Editions">
+<tr><td align='left'>FIRST EDITION, <i>Quarto</i> (<i>Fifty Photogravure Illustrations</i>)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right'>2,000 <i>Nov., 1909</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>EDITION DE LUXE (<i>Fifty Photogravures on Japon Vellum</i>)</td><td align='right'>250 <i>Nov., 1909</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>OCTAVO EDITION (<i>Fifty Half-tone Engravings</i>)</td><td align='right'>5,250 <i>July, 1912</i></td></tr>
+</table></div></div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><i>TO THOSE WHO CARE</i></h2>
+
+
+<div class='unindent'><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class="smcap">Dohnavur, Tinnevelly District,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><span class="smcap">South India</span></span><br />
+<br />
+<i>Christmas, 1909.</i><br /></div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+Each for himself, we live our lives apart,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Heirs of an age that turns us all to stone;</span><br />
+Yet ever Nature, thrust from out the heart,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Comes back to claim her own.</span><br />
+<br />
+Still we have something left of that fair seed<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">God gave for birthright; still the sound of tears</span><br />
+Hurts us, and children in their helpless need<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Still call to listening ears.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='sig'>
+<span class="smcap">Owen Seaman.</span><br />
+<i>From</i> "In a Good Cause."<br /></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><i>FOREWORD</i></h2>
+<h3><i>TO THE</i></h3>
+<h2><i>PRESENT EDITION</i></h2>
+
+
+<div class='cap'><i>WHEN first "Things as they are" trod the
+untrodden way, it walked as a small
+child walks when for the first time it ventures
+forth upon young, uncertain feet. It has to walk;
+it does not know why: it only knows there is no
+choice about it. But there is an eager looking
+for an outstretched hand, and an instant gratefulness
+always, for even a finger. A whole hand
+given without reserve is something never forgotten.</i></div>
+
+<p><i>It was only a child after all, and it had not
+anticipated having to find its way alone among
+strangers. It had thought of nothing further than
+a very short walk among familiar faces. If it
+had understood beforehand how far it would have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span>
+to walk, I doubt if it would have had the courage
+to start; for it was not naturally brave. But
+once on its way it could not turn back; and
+thanks to those kindly outstretched hands, it grew
+a little less afraid, and it went on.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Then another small wayfarer followed. It
+also was very easily discouraged; an unfriendly
+push would have knocked it over at once. But
+nobody seemed to want to push so unpretentious a
+thing, so it gained courage and went on.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>And now a more grown-up looking traveller
+(though indeed its looks belie it) has started on
+its way; more diffident, if the truth must be told,
+than even its predecessors. For it thought within
+itself&mdash;Perhaps there will be no welcoming hands
+held out this time; hands may grow tired of such
+kind offices. But it has not been so. And now
+the sense of gratefulness cannot longer be repressed.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>All of which means that I want to thank
+sincerely those kings of the Book World&mdash;Reviewers&mdash;and
+those dwellers in that world who are my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span>
+Readers, for their insight and the sympathy to
+which I owe so much.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Once I read of a soldier who wrote a letter
+home from the midst of a battle, on a crumpled
+piece of paper laid upon a cannon ball. His
+home people he knew would overlook the appearance
+of the paper and the lack of various things
+expected in a letter written in a quiet room upon
+a study table. And he knew he could trust them
+not to bring too fine a criticism to bear upon the
+unstudied words hot from the battle's heart.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>I have thought sometimes that these books were
+not unlike that soldier's letter; and those who read
+them seem to me very like his home people, for
+they have been so generous in the kindness of their
+welcome.</i></p>
+
+<div class='sig'>
+<i>Amy Wilson-Carmichael.</i><br />
+</div>
+<div class='unindent'>
+<i>Dohnavur,</i><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Tinnevelly District</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>S. India.</i></span><br />
+<br />
+<i>Feb. 19, 1912.</i><br /></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[xi]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>THE WRITER TO THE READER</h2>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>THE photographs (except two) were taken by Mr. Penn,
+of Ootacamund, whose work is known to all who care
+to possess good photographs of the South Indian hills.
+The babies were a new experience to him, and something of
+a trial, I fear, after the mountains, which can be trusted to
+sit still.</div>
+
+<p>The book has been written for lovers of children. Those
+who find such young life tiresome will find the story dull,
+and the kindest thing it can ask of them is not to read it
+at all.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[xiii]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left' colspan='2'><small>CHAPTER</small></td><td align='right'><small>PAGE</small></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>I.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>LOTUS BUDS</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>II.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>OPPOSITES</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_7">5</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>III.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>THE SCAMP</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_17">15</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>IV.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>THE PHOTOGRAPHS</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_25">23</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>V.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>TARA AND EVU</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_33">31</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VI.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>PRINCIPALITIES, POWERS, RULERS</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_43">41</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VII.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>HOW THE CHILDREN COME</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_53">51</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VIII.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>OTHERS</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_63">61</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>IX.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>OLD D&Eacute;VAI</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_69">67</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>X.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>FAILURES?</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_77">75</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XI.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>GOD HEARD: GOD ANSWERED</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_87">85</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XII.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>TO WHAT PURPOSE?</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_97">95</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XIII.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>A STORY OF COMFORT</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_105">103</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XIV.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>PICKLES AND PUCK</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_115">113</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XV.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>THE HOWLER</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_123">121</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XVI.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>THE NEYOOR NURSERY</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_131">129</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XVII.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>IN THE COMPOUND AND NEAR IT</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_143">141</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XVIII.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>FROM THE TEMPLE OF THE ROCK</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_155">153</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XIX.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>YOS&Eacute;PU</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_161">159</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[xiv]</a></span>XX.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>THE MENAGERIE</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_171">169</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXI.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>MORE ANIMALS</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_185">183</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXII.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>THE PARROT HOUSE</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_193">191</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXIII.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>THE BEAR GARDEN</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_203">201</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXIV.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>THE ACCALS</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_215">215</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXV.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>THE LITTLE ACCALS</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_229">227</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXVI.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>THE GLORY OF THE USUAL</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_237">235</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXVII.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>THE SECRET TRAFFIC</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_247">245</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXVIII.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>BLUE BOOK EVIDENCE</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_255">253</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXIX.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>"VERY COMMON IN THOSE PARTS"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_263">261</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXX.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>ON THE SIDE OF THE OPPRESSORS THERE WAS POWER</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_271">269</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXXI.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>AND THERE WAS NONE TO SAVE</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_281">279</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXXII.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>THE POWER BEHIND THE WORK</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_293">291</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXXIII.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>IF THIS WERE ALL</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_303">301</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXXIV.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>"TO CONTINUE THE SUCCESSION"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_311">309</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXXV.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>WHAT IF SHE MISSES HER CHANCE?</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_323">321</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXXVI.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>"THY SWEET ORIGINAL JOY"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_333">331</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[xv]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="List of Illustrations">
+<tr><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right'><small>PAGE</small></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>THE GREAT ROCK</td><td align='left'><a href="#Page_ii"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>LOTUS FLOWERS</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_2">3</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>"GOD'S FIRE"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_8">8</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>"AIYO! DID YOU THINK I WOULD HAVE DONE IT?"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_12">12</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>CHELLALU WATCHING THE PICTURE-CATCHER</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>"OH, IT'S A JOKE!"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_20">20</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>"THAT THING AGAIN!"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_25">25</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>PY&Acirc;RIE AND VINEETHA</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_26">26</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>"DISGUSTING!"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>"LOOK AT THE POSE!"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_29">30</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>TARA</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_33">33</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>STURDY AND STOLID, AND LITTLE VEERA</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_63">63</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>PEBBLES</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_66">66</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>LATHA (FIREFLY) BLOWING BUBBLES</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_72">72</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>SEELA, MALA, AND NULLINIE</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_105">105</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>THE COTTAGE NURSERY</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_108">108</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>"PICKLES" AND HER FRIENDS</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_115">115</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>THE DOHNAVUR COUNTRY IN FLOOD</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_124">124</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>PAKIUM AND NAVEENA</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_126">126</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>ON THE ROAD TO NEYOOR</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_131">131</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF NAGERCOIL</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_132">132</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>THE NEYOOR NURSERY</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_136">136</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[xvi]</a></span>THE OLD NURSERY (THE "ROOM OF JOY")</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_143">143</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>THE COURTYARD</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_144">144</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A COMING-DAY FEAST</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_146">146</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>THE RED LAKE</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_148">148</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>AT THE DOOR OF THE TEMPLE</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_150">150</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>THE WATER CARRIERS</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_161">161</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>THE BELOVED TINGALU</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_164">164</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>TWO VIEWS OF LIFE</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_171">171</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>MORE ANIMALS: DEPRESSED</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_185">185</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>TUBBING</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_188">188</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>RED LAKE, AND HILL AS SEEN FROM THE TARAHA NURSERY</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_193">193</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>CHILDREN WADING</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_196">196</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>CHILDREN WADING</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_197">197</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>ESLI, AND LITTLE KOHILA</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_198">198</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>PREETHA AWARE OF A FOE</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_200">200</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>JULLANIE AMONG THE GRASSES</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_203">203</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>ARULAI AND RUKMA, WITH NAVEENA</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_210">210</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>PONNAMAL, PREETHA, AND TARA</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_215">215</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>SELLAMUTTU AND SUSEELA</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_216">216</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>SUHINIE, AND HER BABY, SUNUNDA</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_218">218</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>THREE CONVERT WORKERS: SUNDOSHIE, SUHINIE, AND JEYANIE</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_220">220</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>SEWING-CLASS IN THE COURTYARD</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_222">222</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>THREE LITTLE ACCALS</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_229">229</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>PREENA AND PREEYA</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_230">230</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>AFTER HER BOTTLE</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_237">237</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>NORTH LAKE AND HILLS</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_238">238</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>FROM THE ROCK, DOHNAVUR</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_338">338</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>THE PLACE OF BAPTISM</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_340">340</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3>Lotus Buds</h3><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/illus-01.jpg" width="550" height="388" alt="LOTUS FLOWERS. From that same pool, afterwards gathered by permission and given to us." title="" />
+<span class="caption">LOTUS FLOWERS.<br />
+
+From that same pool, afterwards gathered by permission and given to us.</span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p>
+<h2>LOTUS BUDS</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3>Lotus Buds</h3>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>NEAR an ancient temple in Southern India is a large
+calm, beautiful pool, enclosed by stone walls, broken
+here and there by wide spaces fitted with steps leading
+down to the water's edge; and almost within reach of the
+hand of one standing on the lowest step are pink Lotus lilies
+floating serenely on the quiet water or standing up from it
+in a certain proud loveliness all their own.</div>
+
+<p>We were travelling to the neighbouring town when we
+came upon this pool. We could not pass it with only a glance,
+so we stopped our bullock-carts and unpacked ourselves&mdash;we
+were four or five to a cart&mdash;and we climbed down the
+broken, time-worn steps and gazed and gazed till the beauty
+entered into us.</p>
+
+<p>Who can describe that harmony of colour, a Lotus-pool
+in blossom in clear shining after rain! The grey old walls,
+the brown water, the dark green of the Lotus leaves, the
+delicate pink of the flowers; overhead, infinite crystalline
+blue; and beyond the old walls, palms.</p>
+
+<p>With us was a young Indian friend. "I will gather
+some of the lilies for you," he said, with the quick Indian
+desire to give pleasure; but some one interposed: "They must
+not be gathered by us. The pool belongs to the Temple."</p>
+
+<p>It was as if a stone had been flung straight at a mirror.
+There was a sense of crash and the shattering of some bright<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>
+image. The Lotus-pool was a Temple pool; its flowers are
+Temple flowers. The little buds that float and open on the
+water, lifting young innocent faces up to the light as it
+smiles down upon them and fills them through with almost
+a tremor of joyousness, these Lotus buds are sacred things&mdash;sacred
+to whom?</p>
+
+<p>For a single moment that thought had its way, but only
+for a moment. It flashed and was gone, for the thought was
+a false thought: it could not stand against this&mdash;"All souls
+are Mine."</p>
+
+<p>All souls are His, all flowers. An alien power has possessed
+them, counted them his for so many generations, that we have
+almost acquiesced in the shameful confiscation. But neither
+souls nor flowers are his who did not make them. They were
+never truly his. They belong to the Lord of all the earth, the
+Creator, the Redeemer. The little Lotus buds are His&mdash;His
+and not another's. The children of the temples of South
+India are His&mdash;His and not another's.</p>
+
+<p>So now we go forth with the Owner Himself to claim His
+own possession. There is hope in the thought, and confidence
+and the purest inspiration. And, stirred to the very depths,
+as we are and must be many a time when we see the tender
+Lotus buds gathered by a hand that has no right to them,
+and crushed underfoot; bewildered and sore troubled, as
+the heart cannot help being sometimes, when the mystery of
+the apparent victory of evil over good is overwhelming:
+even so there will be always a hush, a rest, a repose of spirit,
+as we stand by the Lotus-pools of life and seek in His Name
+to gather His flowers.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h3>Opposites</h3>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>BALA is nearly four. There are so many much younger
+things in the nursery, that Bala feels almost grown
+up: four will be quite grown up; it will be nice to
+be four. Bala takes life seriously, she has always done so;
+she thinks it would be monotonous to have too many
+frivolous babies. But Bala's eyes can sparkle as no other
+eyes ever do; and her mirth is something by itself, like a
+little hidden fountain in the heart of a wood, with the
+sweetness of surprise in it and very pure delight.</div>
+
+<p>When Bala came to us first she was between one and
+two, an age when most babies have a good deal to say.
+Bala said nothing. She was like a book with all its leaves
+uncut; and some who saw her, forgetting that uncut books
+are sometimes interesting, concluded she was dull. "Quite
+a prosaic child," they said; but Bala did not care. There
+are some babies, like some grown-up people, who show all
+they have to show upon first acquaintance and to all.
+Others cover the depths within, and open only to their own.
+Bala is one of these; and even with her own she has seasons
+of reserve.</p>
+
+<p>Her first remark, however, shown rather than said, was
+not romantic. She was too old for a bottle, and she seemed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>
+to feel sore over this. But she noted the time the infants
+were fed, and followed the nurses about while they were
+preparing the meal; and when they sat down to give it,
+each to her respective baby, Bala would choose the one of
+most uncertain appetite, and sit down beside it and wait.
+There was an expression on her face at such times which
+suggested a hymn, set it humming in one's head in fact,
+in spite of all efforts to escape it. More than once we have
+caught ourselves singing it, and pulled up sharply: "Even
+me! Even me! Let some droppings fall on me."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/illus-02.jpg" width="550" height="393" alt="&quot;God&#39;s Fire.&quot; Taken on the bank of the Red Lake, near Dohnavur." title="" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;God&#39;s Fire.&quot;<br />Taken on the bank of the Red Lake, near Dohnavur.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Most of our family remind us very early that they trace
+their descent to the mother of us all. Bala, on the contrary,
+was good: so we almost forgot she was human, and began
+to expect too much of her; but she got tired of this after
+a while, and one day suddenly sinned. The surprise acted
+like "hypo," and fixed the photograph.</p>
+
+<p>The place was the old nursery, which has one uncomfortably
+dark corner in it. Something had offended Bala; she marched
+straight into that corner and stamped. We can see her&mdash;poor
+little girl&mdash;as she rumpled her curls with both her
+hands, and flashed on the world a withering glance. "Scorn
+to be scorned by those I scorn" was written large all over
+the indignant little face.</p>
+
+<p>After this shock we were prepared for anything, but
+nothing special happened; only when the demands made upon
+her are unreasonable, then Bala retires into herself and
+turns upon all foolish insistence a face that is a blank. If
+this point is passed, the dark eyes can flash. But such
+revealings are rare.</p>
+
+<p>When Bala was something under three, she was very
+tender-hearted. One evening, after the first rains had flooded
+the pools and revived the mosquitoes, the nursery wall was
+the scene of many executions; and Bala could not bear it.
+"Sittie, don't kill the poor <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'puchies'">p&ucirc;chies</ins>!" she said pitifully;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>
+and Sittie, much touched, stopped to comfort and explain.
+The other babies were delighting in the slaughter, pointing
+out with glee each detested "<ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'puchie'">p&ucirc;chie</ins>"; but Bala is not like the
+other babies. Later, the ferocious instinct common to most
+young animals asserted itself in a relish for the horrible,
+which rather contradicted the mosquito incident. Bala
+visibly gloats over the gory head of Goliath, and intensely
+admires David as he operates upon it. Her favourite part
+of the story about his encounter with the lion is the suggestive
+sentence, "I caught him by the beard"; and Bala
+loves to show you exactly how he did it. But then that is
+different from seeing it done; and after all it is only a story,
+and it happened long ago.</p>
+<div class='sidenote'>God's Fire</div>
+<p>I have told how the ignorant once called Bala prosaic.
+Bala knows nothing of poetry, but is full of the little seeds
+of that strange and wonderful plant; and the time to get
+to know her is when the evening sky is a golden blaze, or
+glows with that mystic glory which wakens something
+within us and makes it stir and speak.</p>
+
+<p>"God has not lighted His fire to-night," she said wistfully
+one evening when the West was colourless; but when
+that fire is lighted she stands and gazes satisfied. "What
+does God do when His fire goes out?" was a question on
+one such evening, as the mountains darkened in the passing
+of the after-glow; and then: "Why does He not light it
+every night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Amma! I have looked into Heaven!" she said suddenly
+to me after a long silence. "I have seen quite in, and I know
+what it is like." "What is it like? Can you tell me?" and
+the child's voice answered dreamily: "It was shining, very
+shining." Then with animation, in broken but vivid Tamil:
+"Oh, it was beautiful! all a garden like our garden, only
+bigger, and there were flowers and flowers and flowers!"&mdash;here
+words failed to describe the number, and a comprehensive<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>
+sweep of the hand served instead. "And our dolls
+can walk there. They never can down here, poor things! And
+Jesus plays with our babies there" (the dear little sisters who
+have gone to the nursery out of sight, but are unforgotten
+by the children). "He plays with Indraneela&mdash;lovely games."</p>
+
+<p>"What games, Bala?" I asked, wondering greatly what
+she would say. There was a long, thoughtful pause, and
+Bala looked at me with grave, contented eyes:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"New games," she said simply.</p>
+
+<p>Bala's opposite is Chellalu. We never made any mistake
+about her. We never thought her good. Not that she is
+impossibly bad. She was created for play and for laughter,
+and very happy babies are not often very wicked; but she
+is so irrepressible, so hopelessly given up to fun, that her
+kindergarten teacher, Rukma, smiles a rueful smile at the
+mention of her name. For to Chellalu the most unreasonable
+thing you can ask is implicit obedience, which unfortunately
+is preferred by us to any amount of fun. She will learn to
+obey, we are not afraid about that; but more than any of
+our children, her attitude towards this demand has been one
+of protest and surprise. She thinks it unfair of grown-up
+people to take advantage of their size in the arbitrary way
+they do. And when, disgusted with life's dispensations, she
+condescends to expostulate, her "Ba-a-a-a" is a thing to
+affright. But this is the wrong side of Chellalu, and not
+for ever in evidence. The right side is not so depressing.</p>
+
+<p>It is a brilliant morning in late November. The world,
+all washed and cooled by the rains, has not had time to get
+hot and tired, and the air has that crystal quality which is
+the charm of this season in South India. Every wrinkle on
+the brown trunks of the trees in the compound, every twig
+and leaf, stands out with a special distinctness of its own,
+and the mountains in the distance glisten as if made of
+precious stones.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Blameless Chellalu</div>
+<p>Suddenly, all unconscious of affinity or contrast, a little
+person in scarlet comes dancing into the picture, which opens
+to receive her, for she belongs to it. Her hands are full
+of Gloriosa lilies, fiery red, terra-cotta, yellow, delicate old-rose
+and green&mdash;such a mingling of colour, but nothing discordant&mdash;and
+the child, waving her spoils above her head, sings at
+the top of her voice something intended to be the chorus
+of a kindergarten song:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+Oh, the delight of the glorious light!<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The joy of the shining blue!</span><br />
+Beautiful flowers! wonderful flowers!<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Oh, I should like to be you!</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"But, Chellalu, where did you get them?" for the lilies
+in the garden are supposed to be safe from attack. Chellalu
+looks up with frank, brown eyes. "For you!" she says briefly
+in Tamil; but there is a wealth of forgiveness in the tone
+as she offers her armful of flowers. Chellalu wonders at
+grown-up hearts which can harbour unworthy suspicions
+about blameless little children. As if she would have picked
+them!</p>
+
+<p>"But, Chellalu, where did you get them?" and still looking
+grieved and surprised and forgiving, Chellalu explains that
+yesterday evening the elder sisters went for a walk in the
+fields, and brought home so many lilies, that after all just
+claims were met there were still some over&mdash;an expressive
+gesture shows the heap&mdash;so Chellalu thought of her Ammal
+(mother) and went and picked out the best for her. Then by
+way of emphasis the story is attempted in English: "Very
+good? Yesh. Naughty? No. Kindergarten room want
+flowers? No. I" (patting herself approvingly) "very good;
+yesh." With Chellalu, speech is a mere adjunct to conversation,
+a sort of footnote to a page of illustration.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>
+The illustration is the thing that speaks. So now both
+Tamil and English are illuminated by vivid gesture of hands,
+feet, the whole body indeed; curls and even eyelashes play
+their part, and the final impression produced upon her
+questioner is one of complete contrition for ever having
+so misjudged a thing so virtuous.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 348px;">
+<img src="images/illus-03.jpg" width="348" height="500" alt="&quot;AIYO!&quot; (Fingers and toes curled in grieved surprise.) &quot;Did you think I would have done it?&quot;" title="" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;AIYO!&quot;<br />(Fingers and toes curled in grieved surprise.)<br />&quot;Did you think I would have done it?&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>But Chellalu wastes no sympathy upon herself. She is
+accustomed to be believed; and perfectly happy in her mind,
+casts a keen glance round, for who knows what new delights
+may be somewhere within reach! "Ah!"&mdash;the deep-breathed
+sigh of content&mdash;is always a danger signal where this innocent
+child is concerned. I turn in time to avert disaster, and
+Chellalu, finding life dull with me, departs.</p>
+
+<p>Then the little scarlet figure with its crown of careless
+curls scampers across the sunny space, and dives into the
+shadow of a tree. There it stays. Something arresting has
+happened&mdash;some skurry of squirrel up the trunk, or dart of
+lizard, or hurried scramble of insect, under cover out of reach
+of those terrible eyes. Or better still, something is "playing
+dead," and the child, fascinated, is waiting for it to resurrect.
+And then the song about the lilies begins again, only it is
+all a jumble this time; for Chellalu sings just as it comes,
+untrammelled by thoughts about sequence or sense, and when
+she forgets the words she calmly makes them up. And I
+cannot help thinking that Chellalu is very like her song;
+here is an intelligible bit, a line or two in order, then a
+cheerful tumble up, and an irresponsible conclusion. The
+tune too seems in character&mdash;"Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird
+on the wing"; the swinging old Jacobite air had fitted itself
+to a nursery song about the brave fire-lilies, and something
+in its abandon to the happy mood of the moment seems to
+express the child.</p>
+
+<p>It is not easy to express her. "If you had to describe
+Chellalu, how would you do it?" I asked my colleague this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>
+morning, hoping for illumination. "I would not attempt it!
+Who would?" she answered helpfully.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Only More So</div>
+<p>"Chellalu! Oh, you need ten pairs of eyes and ten pairs
+of hands, and even then you could never be sure you had her"&mdash;this
+was her nurse's earliest description. She was six months
+old then, she is three and three-quarters now; but she is
+what she was, "only more so."</p>
+
+<p>Before Chellalu had a single tooth she had developed
+mother-ways, and would comfort distressed babies by thrusting
+into their open mouths whatever was most convenient.
+At first this was her own small thumb, which she had once
+found good herself; but she soon discovered that infants can
+bite, and after that she offered rattle-handles. Later, she
+used to stagger from one hammock to another and swing
+them. And often, before she understood the perfect art of
+balance, she would find herself, to her surprise, on the floor,
+as the hammock in its rebound knocked her over. She felt
+this ungrateful of the baby inside; but she seemed to reflect
+that it was young and knew no better, for she never retaliated,
+but picked herself up and began again. These hammocks,
+which are our South Indian cradles, are long strips of white
+cotton hung from the roof, and they make delightful swings.
+Chellalu learned this early, and her nurse's life was a burden
+to her because of the discovery.</p>
+
+<p>"She could walk before she could stand"&mdash;this is another
+nursery description, and truer than it sounds. Certainly no
+one ever saw Chellalu learning to walk. She was a baby
+one day, rapid in unexpected motion, but only on all fours;
+the next day&mdash;or so it seems, looking back&mdash;she was everywhere
+on her two feet. "Now there will be no place where
+she won't be!" groaned the family, the first time she was
+seen walking about with an air of having done it all her
+life. And appalling visions rose of Chellalu standing on the
+wall of the well looking down, or sitting in the bucket left<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>
+by some careless water-drawer just on the edge of the wall,
+or trying to descend by the rope.</p>
+
+<p>Before this date such diversions as the classic Pattycake
+had been much in favour. Chellalu's Attai (the word here
+and hereafter signifies Mrs. Walker, "Mother's elder sister")
+had taught it to her; and whenever and wherever Chellalu
+saw her Attai, she immediately began to perform "Prick it
+and nick it" with great enthusiasm. But after she could
+walk, Chellalu would have nothing more to do with such
+childish things. "Show us Edward Rajah!" the older
+children would say; and instead of standing up with a regal
+dignity and crowning her curls with the appropriate gesture,
+Chellalu would merely look surprised. They had forgotten.
+She was not a baby now. Such trifles are for babies.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h3>The Scamp</h3>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>"PAT-A-CAKE is a thing of the past, but the stage from
+the highest point of view is still distinctly attractive";
+so decided Chellalu, and resolved to devote herself
+thenceforth to this new and engrossing pursuit. She chose the
+scene of her first public performance without consulting us. It
+was the open floor of the church, on a Sunday morning, in the
+midst of a large congregation. This was how it happened.</div>
+
+<p>Chellalu's Attai, who in those days was unaware of all the
+painful surprises in store, had taken her to morning service,
+and allowed her to sit beside her on the mat at the back of the
+church. All through the first part of the service Chellalu was
+good; and as the sermon began, she was forgotten. In our
+church we sit on the floor, men on one side, women and
+children on the other. A broad aisle is left between, and the
+Iyer (Mr. Walker), refusing to be boxed up in the usual
+manner, walks up and down as he preaches. This interested
+Chellalu.</p>
+
+<p>That morning the sermon was to children, and the subject
+was "Girdles." The East of this ancient India is the East to
+which the prophet spoke by parable and picture; and, following
+that time-worn path, the preacher pictured the parable
+of Jeremiah's linen girdle: the attention of the people was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>
+riveted upon him, and no one noticed what was happening on
+the mat at the end of the church. Only we, up at the front
+with all the other children, saw, without being able to stop it,
+the dreadful pantomime. For Chellalu, wholly absorbed and
+pleased with this unexpected delight, first stood on the mat
+and acted the girdle picture; then, growing bolder, advanced
+out into the open aisle, and, following the preacher's gestures,
+reproduced them all exactly. It was a moment of tension; but
+if ever a child had a good angel in attendance, Chellalu has,
+for something always stops her before the bitter end. I forget
+what stopped her then; something invisible, and so, doubtless,
+the angel. But we did not breathe freely till we had her safe
+at home.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 351px;">
+<img src="images/illus-04.jpg" width="351" height="500" alt="CHELLALU, WATCHING THE PICTURE-CATCHER WITH SOME SUSPICION. &quot;Whatever is he doing with that black box?&quot;" title="" />
+<span class="caption">CHELLALU, WATCHING THE PICTURE-CATCHER WITH SOME SUSPICION.<br />&quot;Whatever is he doing with that black box?&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Chellalu's visible angel is the gentle Esli, a young convert-helper,
+of a meek and lowly disposition. At first sight nothing
+seems more unsuitable, for Chellalu needs a firm hand. But
+firmness without wisdom would have been disastrous; so as we
+had not the perfect combination, we chose the less dangerous
+virtue, and gave the nursery scamp to the gentlest of us all.
+Sometimes, to tell the whole unromantic truth, we have been
+afraid less Esli was spilling emotion in vain upon this graceless
+soul; and we have suggested an exchange of angels&mdash;but somehow
+it has never come to pass. Once we almost did it. For a
+noise past all bounds called us down to the nursery, and we
+found the cause of it in a huddled heap in the corner.
+"Chellalu! what is the matter?" Only the softest of soft
+sobs, heard in the silence that followed our advent, and one
+round shoulder heaved, and the curly head went down on
+the arm in an attitude of woe. Now this is not Chellalu's
+way at all. Soft sobbing is not in her line; and I turned to
+the twenty-nine children now prancing about in unholy glee,
+and they shouted the explanation: "Oh, she is Esli Accal!
+She was very exceedingly naughty. She would not come when
+Accal called; she raced round the room so fast that Accal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>
+could not catch her, and then she jumped out of her cumasu"
+(the single small garment worn), "and ran out into the garden!
+And Esli Accal sat down in a corner and cried. And Chellalu
+is Esli Accal!"</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Their Real Use</div>
+<p>But the pet opportunity in those glad days was when some
+freak of manner in friend or visitor suggested a new game.
+We used to wish, sometimes, that these kind people understood
+how much pleasure they were giving to the artless babe
+who was studying them with such interest, while they, all
+unconscious of their real use, imagined probably she was
+thinking of nothing more serious than sweets. After an
+hour in the bungalow, Chellalu would wander off, apparently
+because she was tired of us, but really because she was full
+of a new and original idea, and wanted an audience. Once
+she puzzled the nursery community who had not been visiting
+the bungalow, by mincing about on pointed toes, with shoulders
+shrugged like a dancing master in caricature. The babies
+thought this a very nice game, and for weeks they played it
+industriously.</p>
+
+<p>Chellalu talked late&mdash;she has long ago made up for lost time&mdash;but
+she was never at a loss for an answer to a question which
+could be answered by action. "Who is in the nursery now?"
+we asked her one afternoon when she had escaped before the
+tea-bell, that trumpet of jubilee to the nursery, had rung.
+She smiled and sat down slowly, and then sighed. Another
+sigh, and she proceeded to perform her toilet. When the
+small hands went up to the head with an action of decorously
+swinging the back hair up and coiling it into a loose knot, and
+when a spasmodic shake suggested it must be done over again,
+there was no doubt as to who was in charge. No one but the
+excellent Pakium, one of our earlier workers, ever did things
+quite like this. No one else was so ponderous. No one
+sighed in that middle-aged manner, no one but Pakium. We
+never could blame Pakium for Chellalu's escape. As well<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>
+blame a mature cat for the escapades of her kitten. Chellalu,
+watching for a clue as to her fate, would sigh again profoundly.
+It was never easy to return her.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 354px;">
+<img src="images/illus-05.jpg" width="354" height="500" alt="&quot;OH, IT&#39;S A JOKE!&quot;" title="" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;OH, IT&#39;S A JOKE!&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>We were not sorry when this phase passed into something
+safer for herself, though perhaps not so charming to the
+public. Chellalu at two and three-quarters had surgical
+ambitions. Medical work she considered slow. She liked
+operations. Her first, so far as we know, was performed
+upon the unwilling eye of a smaller and weaker sister. "Lie
+down!" she had commanded, and the patient had lain down.
+"Open your eyes!" At this point the victim realised what
+she was in for, and her howls brought deliverance; but not
+before Chellalu had the agitated baby's head in a firm
+grip between her knees, and holding the screwed-up
+eye wide open with one hand, was proceeding to drop in
+"medicine" with the other. Mercifully the medicine was
+water.</p>
+
+<p>Thwarted in this direction, Chellalu applied herself to
+bandaging. She would persuade someone to lend her a
+finger or a toe; the owner was assured it was sore&mdash;very
+sore. She would then proceed to bandage it to the best of
+her ability. But all this was mere play. What Chellalu's
+soul yearned for was a real knife, or even only a needle, provided
+it would prick and cause red blood to flow. Oh to
+be allowed to operate properly, as grown-up people do!
+Chellalu had seen them do it&mdash;had seen thorns extracted
+from little bare feet, and small sores dressed; and it had
+deeply interested her. The difficulty was, no one would
+offer a limb. She walked up and down the nursery one
+morning with a bit of an old milk tin, very jagged and sharp
+and inviting, and secreted in her curls was a long, bright
+darning needle; but though she took so much trouble to
+prepare, no one would give her a chance to perform, and
+Chellalu was disgusted. Someone who did not know her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>
+suggested she should perform on herself. This disgusted
+her still more. Do doctors perform on themselves!</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Yesh: No</div>
+<p>Chellalu's latest phase introduces the kindergarten. For
+an educational comrade, perceiving our defects in this direction,
+furnished a kindergarten for us, and gave us a kind
+push-off into these pleasant waters; so the little boat sails
+gaily, and the children at least are content.</p>
+
+<p>Chellalu has never been so keen about this institution as
+the other babies are. "Do you like the kindergarten?" some
+one asked her the other day; and she answered with her
+usual decision: "Yesh. No." We thought she was talking
+at random, and tested her by questions about things which
+we knew she liked or disliked. But she was never caught.
+"Well, then, don't you like the kindergarten?" "Yesh.
+No." It was evident she knew what she meant, and said it
+exactly. Bits of it she likes, other bits she thinks might
+be improved. The trouble is that she has an objection to
+sitting in the same place for more than a minute at
+longest. Other babies, steady, mature things of five, are
+already evolving quite orderly sentences in English&mdash;the
+language in which the kindergarten is partly taught&mdash;and
+we feel they are getting on. Chellalu never stops long
+enough to evolve anything, and yet she seems to be doing
+a little. From the first week she has talked all she knew
+in unabashed fashion. "Good morning very much" was an
+early production; and it was followed by many oddments
+forgotten now, but comical in effect at the time, which
+perhaps may explain the otherwise inexplicable fact that
+she sometimes learns something.</p>
+
+<p>One only of those early dashes into the unexplored land
+is remembered, because it enriched us with a new synonym.
+It was at afternoon tea that a sympathetic Sittie (the word
+means "Mother's younger sister"), knowing that Chellalu
+had received something thoroughly well earned, asked her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>
+in English: "What did Ammal give you this morning?"
+Chellalu caught at the one familiar word in this sentence
+(for the babies learn the names of the flowers in the garden
+before they are troubled with lesser matters), and she
+answered brightly: "Morning-glory!" So Morning-glory has
+become to us an <i>alias</i> for smacks.</p>
+
+<p>This same Morning-glory is the <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'subjeect'">subject</ins> of one of the
+kindergarten songs. For after searching through two or
+three hundred pages of nursery rhymes, and interviewing
+many proper kindergarten songs, we found few that belonged
+to the Indian babies' world; and so we had to make them
+for ourselves. These songs are about the flowers and the
+birds and other simple things, and are twittered by the
+tiniest with at least some intelligence, which at present is
+as much as we can wish. All the babies sing to the flowers,
+but it is Chellalu who gives them surprises. One day we
+saw her standing under a bamboo arch, covered with her
+favourite Morning-glory. She had two smaller babies with
+her, one on either side. "Amma! <i>Look!</i>" she called; but
+italics are inadequate to express the emphasis. "<span class="smcap">Look</span>,
+Morning&mdash;glory&mdash;kissing&mdash;'chother," and she pointed with
+eagerness to the nestling little clusters of lilac, growing, as
+their pretty manner is, close to each other. Then, seizing
+each of the babies in a fervent and somewhat embarrassing
+embrace, she hugged and kissed them both; and finally
+wheeling round on the flowers, addressed them impressively:
+"For&mdash;all&mdash;loving&mdash;little&mdash;Indian&mdash;children&mdash;want&mdash;to&mdash;be&mdash;like&mdash;you."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h3>The Photographs</h3>
+
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 350px;">
+<img src="images/illus-06.jpg" width="350" height="500" alt="&quot;THAT THING AGAIN!&quot; (Page 28.)" title="" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;THAT THING AGAIN!&quot; (<a href="#Page_28"><i>Page 28</i></a>.)</span>
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class='cap'>I &nbsp;DO not know how they will strike the critical public,
+but the photos are so much better than we dared to
+expect, that we are grateful and almost satisfied. Of
+course, they are insipid as compared with the lively originals;
+but the difficulty was to get them of any truthful
+sort whatsoever, for the babies regarded the photographer&mdash;the
+kindest and mildest of men&mdash;with the gravest suspicion:
+and the moment he appeared, little faces, all
+animation before, would stiffen into shyness, and the light
+would slip out of them, and the naturalness, so that all
+the camera saw, and therefore all it could show, was a
+succession of blanks.</div>
+
+<p>Then, too, when our artist friend was with us we were
+in the grasp of an epidemic of cholera. Morning and
+evening, and sometimes into the night, we were tending
+the sick and dying in the village; and in the interval
+between we had little heart for photographs. But the
+visit of a real photographer is a rare event in Dohnavur,
+and we forced ourselves to try to take advantage of it.
+Remembering our difficulties, we wonder we got anything
+at all; and we hope that stranger eyes will be kind.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 352px;">
+<img src="images/illus-07.jpg" width="352" height="500" alt="PY&Acirc;RIE AND VINEETHA. &quot;Do smile, you little Turk!&quot;" title="" />
+<span class="caption">PY&Acirc;RIE AND VINEETHA.<br />&quot;Do smile, you little Turk!&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Often when we looked at the pretty little reversed
+picture in the camera, with its delicate colouring and the
+grace of movement, we have wished that we could send
+it as we saw it, all living and true. The photos were
+taken in the open air; underfoot was soft terra-cotta-coloured
+sand; overhead, the cloudless blue. In such a setting the
+baby pictures look their brightest, something very different
+from these dull copies in sepia. An Oriental scene in
+print always looks sorry for itself, and quite apologetic.
+It knows it is almost a farce, and very flat and poor.</p>
+
+<p>Then there were difficulties connected with character.
+Our photographer was more accustomed to the dignified
+ways of mountains than to the extremely restless habit of
+children; and he never could understand why they would
+not sit for him as the mountains sat, and let him focus
+them comfortably. The babies looked at things from an
+opposite point of view, and strongly objected to delays
+and leisureliness of every description. Sometimes when the
+focussing process promised to be much prolonged, we put
+a child we did not wish to photograph in the place of
+one upon whom we had designs, and then at the last
+moment exchanged her. But the baby thus beguiled
+seemed to divine our purpose; and, resenting such ensnarements,
+would promptly wriggle out of focus. It was
+like trying to observe some active animalcul&aelig; under a
+high power. The microscope is perfect, the creatures are
+entrapped in a drop of water on the slide; but the game
+is not won by any means. Sometimes, after spoiling more
+plates than was convenient, our artist almost gave up in
+despair; but he never quite gave up, and we owe what
+we have to his infinite patience.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The B&ecirc;te Noir</div>
+<p>Py&acirc;rie was the most troublesome of these small sitters,
+though she was old enough to know better. My mother
+was with us when she came to us, a tiny babe and very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>
+delicate. She had loved her and helped to nurse her, and
+so we wanted a happy photograph for her sake; but
+nothing was further from Py&acirc;rie's intentions, and instead
+of smiling, she scowled. Our first attempt was in the
+compound, where a bullock-bandy stood. Py&acirc;rie and
+Vineetha, a little girl of about the same age, were very
+pleased to climb over the pole and untwist the rope and
+play see-saw; but when the objectionable camera appeared,
+they stared at it with aversion, and no amount of coaxing
+would persuade Py&acirc;rie to smile. "Can't you do something
+to improve her expression?" inquired the photographer,
+emerging from his black hood; then someone said in desperation:
+"<i>Do</i> smile, you little Turk!" Vineetha, about
+whose expression we were not concerned, obediently smiled;
+but Py&acirc;rie looked thunderclouds, and turned her head away.
+She was caught before she turned, poor dear, so that
+photograph was a failure.</p>
+
+<p>Once again our kind friend tried. This time he gave
+her a doll. Py&acirc;rie is most motherly. She is usually tender
+and loving with dolls, and we hoped for a sweet expression.
+But in this we were disappointed. She accepted the
+doll&mdash;a beautiful thing, with a good constitution and imperturbable
+temper; and she looked it straight in the
+face&mdash;a rag face painted&mdash;smiling as we wanted her to
+smile. Then she smote it, and she scolded it, and called
+for a stick and whacked it, and called for a bigger stick
+and repeated the performance. Finally she stopped, laid
+the doll upon the step, sat down on it, and smiled. But
+she was hopelessly out of focus by this time, and it was
+weary work getting her in. She smiled during the process
+in a perfectly exasperating manner, but the moment all
+was ready she suddenly wriggled out; and when invited
+to go in again, she shook her head decidedly, and pointing
+to the camera with its glaring glass eye, covered at that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>
+moment with its cloth, she remarked, "Naughty! Naughty!"
+and we had to give her up.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/illus-08.jpg" width="550" height="387" alt="&quot;DISGUSTING!&quot; SHE REMARKED IN EXPLICIT YOUNG TAMIL, AND LOOKED DISGUSTED." title="" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;DISGUSTING!&quot; SHE REMARKED IN EXPLICIT YOUNG TAMIL, AND LOOKED DISGUSTED.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Perhaps she would be happier in someone's arms," next
+suggested the long-suffering artist; and so one morning, just
+after her bath, she was caught up, sweet and smiling, and
+played with till the peals of merry laughter assured us of an
+easy victory. But the camera was no sooner seen stalking
+round to the nursery, than suspicions filled Py&acirc;rie's breast.
+That thing again! And the photograph taken under such
+circumstances is left to speak for itself. Why did it follow
+her everywhere? Life, haunted by a camera, was not worth
+living&mdash;in which sentiment some of us heartily concur.</p>
+<div class="sidenote"><i>I</i> want a birthday</div>
+
+<p>Once an attempt was made when Py&acirc;rie and two other
+little girls were busily playing on the doorstep. Py&acirc;rie soon
+perceived and expressed her opinion about the fraud&mdash;for the
+camera's stealthy approach could not be kept from the
+children. "Disgusting!" she remarked in explicit young
+Tamil, and looked disgusted. The photograph which resulted
+was perfect in detail of little rounded limb and curly head,
+but it was lamentable as regards expression; so once more
+our persevering friend tried to catch her unawares. He
+showed us the result at breakfast in the shape of a negative
+which we recognised as Py&acirc;rie. He seemed very pleased.
+"Look at the pose!" he said. There was pose certainly, but
+where was the smile? Py&acirc;rie's one idea had evidently been
+to ward off something or someone; and our artist explained
+it by saying that in despair of getting her quiet for one second,
+he had directed his servant to climb an almost overhanging
+tree, and the child apparently thought he was going to tumble
+on the top of her, and objected. "I got another of her smiling
+beautifully, but the plate is cracked," we were told, after the
+table had admired the pose. That is a way plates have. The
+one you most want cracks.</p>
+<div class="figright" style="width: 353px;">
+<img src="images/illus-09.jpg" width="353" height="500" alt="&quot;&#39;LOOK AT THE POSE!&#39; He said. There was pose, certainly, but where was the smile?&quot; (Page 28.)" title="" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;&#39;LOOK AT THE POSE!&#39;<br /> He said. There was pose, certainly, but where was the smile?&quot; (<i><a href="#Page_28">Page&nbsp;28.</a></i>)</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Poor little Py&acirc;rie; we sometimes fear lest her "pose"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>
+should be too true of her. She takes life hardly, and often
+protests. "<i>I</i> want a birthday!"&mdash;this was only yesterday,
+when everyone was rejoicing over a birthday jubilation.
+Py&acirc;rie alone was sorrowful. She stood by her poor little
+lonely self, with her head thrown back and her mouth wide
+open, and her tears ran into her open mouth as she wailed:
+"Aiyo! Aiyo! (Alas! Alas!) <i>I</i> want a birthday!"</p>
+
+
+<p>But she is such a loving child, so loyal to her own and so
+unselfish to all younger things, that we hope for her more
+than we fear. And yet underneath there is a fear; and we
+ask those who can understand to remember this little one
+sometimes, for the world is not always kind to its poor little
+foolish Py&acirc;ries.</p>
+
+<p>I am writing in the afternoon, and two little people are
+playing on the floor. One has a picture-book, and the other is
+looking eagerly as she turns the pages and questions: "What
+is it? What is it?" I notice it is always Py&acirc;rie who asks
+the question, and Vineetha who answers it: "It is a cow. It is
+a cat." "Why don't you let Vineetha ask you what it is?"
+I suggest; but Py&acirc;rie continues as before: "What is it?
+What is it?" varied by "What colour is it? What shape is
+it? Who made it?" and the mischief in her eyes (would that
+our artist could have caught it!) explains the game. It is
+decidedly better to be teacher than scholar, because suitable
+questions can cover all ignorance. Py&acirc;rie has not been to the
+kindergarten of late, and has reason to fear Vineetha is somewhat
+ahead of her; so she ignores my proposals, and continues
+her safe questions. We sometimes think we shall one night be
+heard talking in our sleep, and the burden of our conversation
+will be always&mdash;"What is it? What colour is it? What
+shape is it? Who made it?"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h3>Tara and Evu</h3>
+
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 355px;">
+<img src="images/illus-10.jpg" width="355" height="500" alt="TARA." title="" />
+<span class="caption">TARA.</span>
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class='cap'>OUR nurseries are full of contrasts, but perhaps the two
+who are most unlike are the little Tara and Evu, aged,
+at the hour of writing, three years and two and a half.
+I am hammering at my typewriter, when clear through its
+metallic monotony comes in distinct double treble, "Amma!
+Tala!" "Amma! Evu!" They always announce each other
+in this order, and with much emphasis. If it is impossible to
+stop, I give them a few toys, and they sit down on the mat
+exactly opposite my table and play contentedly. This lasts
+for a short five minutes; then a whimper from Tara makes
+me look up, and I see Evu, with a face of more mischief than
+malice, holding all the toys&mdash;Tara's share and her own&mdash;in
+a tight armful, while Tara points at her with a grieved
+expression which does not touch Evu in the least. A word,
+however, sets things right. Evu beams upon Tara, and pours
+the whole armful into her lap. Tara smiles forgivingly, and
+returns Evu's share. Evu repentantly thrusts them back.
+Tara's heart overflows, and she hugs Evu. Evu wriggles out
+of this embrace, and they play for another five minutes or
+so without further misadventure.</div>
+
+<p>Only once I remember Evu sinned beyond forgiveness.
+The occasion was Py&acirc;rie's rag-doll of smiling countenance, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>
+had been badly neglected by the family. But Tara felt for
+it and loved it. She was small at the time, and the doll was
+large, and Tara must have got tired of carrying it; but she
+would not tell it so, and for one whole morning she staggered
+about with the cumbersome beauty tilted over her shoulder,
+which gave her the appearance of an unbalanced but very
+affectionate parent.</p>
+
+<p>This was too much for Evu, to whom the comic appeals
+much more than the sentimental. She watched her opportunity,
+and pounced upon the doll. Tara gave chase; but Evu's
+fat legs can carry her faster than one would suppose, and
+Tara's wails rose to a shriek when across half the garden's
+width she saw that ruthless sinner swing her treasure round
+by one arm and then deliberately jump on it. It was hours
+before Tara recovered.</p>
+
+<p>Such a breach of the peace is happily rare; for the two
+are a pretty illustration of the mutual attraction of opposites.
+At this moment they are playing ball. This is the manner
+of the game: Tara sits in a high chair and throws the ball
+as far as she can. Evu dashes after it like an excited kitten,
+and kitten-wise badly wants to tumble over and worry it; for
+it is made of bits of wool, which, as every sensible baby knows,
+were only put in to be pulled out. She resists the temptation,
+however, and presents the ball to Tara with a somewhat
+inconsequent "Tankou!" "Tankou!" returns Tara politely,
+and tosses the ball again. This time Evu sits down with her
+back to Tara, and proceeds to investigate the ball. It is
+perfectly fascinating. The ends are all loose and quite easily
+pulled out. Evu forgets all about Tara in her keen desire to
+see to the far end of this delight. "Evu!" comes from the
+chair in accents of dignified surprise. "Tala!" exclaims Evu
+abashed, and hurries up with the ball. "Tankou!" she says
+as before, and Tara responds "Tankou!" This is an integral
+part of the game. If either forgets it, the other corrects her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>
+by remarking inquiringly, "Tankou?" whereupon the echo
+replies in a tone of apology, "Tankou!"</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Devotions</div>
+<p>Both these babies are devout, as most things Indian are.
+But Evu cannot sit still long enough to be promoted to go
+to church; and perhaps this is the reason why in religious
+matters Tara takes the lead, for she does go to church. In
+secularities it is always Evu who initiates, and Tara admiringly
+follows. The ball game was exceptional only because Evu
+prefers the <i>r&ocirc;le</i> of kitten to that of queen.</p>
+
+<p>This little characteristic is shown in common ways. The
+two are sitting on your knee entirely comfortable and content.
+The prayer-bell rings. Down struggles Tara. "To prayers
+I must go!" she says with decision in Tamil. "Evu too,"
+urges Evu, also in Tamil. "Tum!" says Tara in superior
+English, and waits. Evu "tums," and they hastily depart.</p>
+
+<p>Or it is the time for evening hymns and good-night kisses.
+We have sung through the chief favourites, ending always
+with, "Jesus, tender Shepherd." "Now sing, 'Oh, luvvly lily
+g'oing in our garden!'" This from Tara. Echo from Evu:
+"Yes; 'Oh, luvvly lily g'oing in our garden!'" You point out
+to the garden: "It is dark, there are no lovely lilies to be seen;
+besides, that is not exactly a hymn; shall we have 'Jesus,
+tender Shepherd,' again, and say good-night?" But this is not
+at all satisfactory. Tara looks a little hurt. "Tender Shepperd,
+<i>no!</i> Oh, luvvly lily!" Evu wonders if we are making excuses.
+Perhaps we have forgotten the tune, and she starts it:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+Oh, lovely lily,<br />
+Growing in our garden,<br />
+Who made a dress so fair<br />
+For you to wear?<br />
+Who made you straight and tall<br />
+To give pleasure to us all?<br />
+Oh, lovely lily,<br />
+Who did it all?<br />
+<br />
+Oh, little children,<br />
+Playing in our garden,<br />
+God made this dress so fair<br />
+For us to wear.<br />
+God made us straight and tall<br />
+To give pleasure to you all.<br />
+Oh, little children,<br />
+God did it all.<br />
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Then Tara smiles all round, and you are given to understand
+you have earned your good-night kisses. Evidently
+to Tara at least there is a sense of incompleteness somewhere
+if the lovely lilies are excluded from the family
+devotions.</p>
+
+<p>To Tara and to Evu, as to most babies, the garden is a
+pleasant place. But when they grow up and make gardens,
+they will not fill them with forbidden joys as we do. One
+of the temptations of life is furnished by inconsiderate ferns,
+which hold their curly infant fronds just within reach.
+Then there are crotons, with bright leaves aggressively yellow
+and delightful, and there are "tunflowers"; and the babies
+think us greedy in our attitude towards all these things.
+The croton was especially alluring; and one day Tara was
+found tiptoe on a low wall, reaching up with both hands,
+eagerly pulling bits of leaf off. She was brought to me to
+be judged; and I said: "Poor leaves! Shall we try to put
+them on again?" And hand in hand we went to the garden,
+and Tara tried. But the pulled-off bits would not fit on
+again; and Tara's face was full of serious thought, though
+she said nothing. Next day she was found on the same
+low wall, reaching up tiptoe in the same sinful way to the
+shining yellow leaves overhead. Quite suddenly she stopped,
+put her hands behind her back, and never again was she
+known to pick croton leaves to pieces.</p>
+
+<p>The same plan prevailed with the ferns. The poor little
+crumples of silver and green moved her to pity, and she left
+them to uncurl in peace when once she had tried and sadly failed
+to help them. But the sunflowers' feelings did not affect her
+in quite the same way. The kind we have in abundance is
+that little dwarf variety with a thin stalk, and a cheerful
+face which smiles up at you even after you behead it, and
+does not seem to mind. Tara was convinced such treatment
+did not hurt them. They would stop smiling if it did. But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span>
+one day she suddenly seemed to feel a pang of compunction,
+for she looked at the little useless heads and sighed. I had
+suggested their being fitted on again, as with the croton
+leaves and ferns. But this idea had failed; and what
+worked the change I know not, for Tara never told. But
+"tunflowers" now are left in peace so far as she is concerned;
+and she is learning to pick the free grasses and wild-flowers,
+which happily grow for everybody, and to make sure their
+stalks are long enough to go into water, which is the last
+thing untutored babies seem to think important.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Tara's Way</div>
+<p>There is much to be done for all our children, but perhaps
+for Tara especially, if she is to grow up strong in soul to
+fight the battles of life. We felt this more than ever on
+the day of our last return from the hills, after nearly seven
+weeks' absence. On the evening when we left them, we had
+gone round the nurseries after the little ones had fallen asleep,
+and said goodbye to each of them without their knowing
+it; but when we came to Tara's mat, and kissed the little
+sleeping face, she stirred and said, "Amma!" in her sleep;
+and we stole away fearing she should wake and understand.
+Now in the early morning we were home again, and all
+the children who were up were on the verandah to welcome
+us, each in her own way. It was Tara's way which
+troubled us.</p>
+
+<p>At first most of the babies were shy, for six weeks
+are like six years to the very young; but soon there was
+a general rush and a thoroughly cheerful chatter. Tara did
+not join in it. She stood outside the little dancing dazzle
+of delight&mdash;the confusion of little animated coloured dots
+is rather like the shake of a kaleidoscope&mdash;and she just
+looked and looked. Then, as we drew her close, the little
+hands felt and stroked one's face as if the evidence of eye
+and ear were not enough to make her sure beyond a doubt
+that her own had come back to her; and then, as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>
+assurance broke, she clung with a little cry of joy, and
+suddenly burst into tears.</p>
+
+<p>If only we could hold her safe and sheltered in our arms
+for ever! How the longing swept through one at that
+moment: for the winds of the world are cold. But it cannot
+be, it should not be, for such love would be weak indeed.
+Rather do we long to brace the gentle nature so that its
+very sensitiveness may change to a tender power, and the
+fountain of sweet waters refresh many a desert place. But
+who is sufficient for even this? Handle the little soul carelessly,
+harden rather than brace, misinterpret the broken
+expression, misunderstand the signs&mdash;and the sweet waters
+turn to bitterness. God save us from such mistake!</p>
+
+<p>We covet prayer for our children. We want to know
+that around them all is thrown that mysterious veil of protection
+which is woven out of prayer. We need prayer,
+too, for ourselves, that our love may be brave and wise.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Kittenhood</div>
+<p>Evu's disposition is different. It would not be easy to
+imagine Evu overcome by her feelings as Tara was at that
+hour of our return. One cannot imagine a kitten shedding
+tears of joy; and Evu is a kitten, a dear little Persian kitten,
+with nothing worse than mischief at present to account for.
+Of that there is no lack. "Oh, it is Evu!" we say, and everyone
+knows what to expect when "it is Evu." Evu's chief
+sentiment that morning, so far as she expressed it, was
+rather one of wonder at our ignorant audacity. "You
+vanished in the night when we were all asleep, and now
+you suddenly drop from the skies before we are properly
+awake, and expect us all to begin again exactly where we
+left off. How little you know of babies!" Doubtless this
+sentence was somewhat beyond her in language; but Evu is
+not dependent on language, and she conveyed the sense of
+it to us. She backed out of reach of kisses, and stood with
+a small finger upraised; much as a kitten might raise its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>
+paw in mock protest to its mother. She soon made friends,
+however, and proved herself an affectionate kitten, though
+wholly unemotional.</p>
+
+<p>When Tara is naughty, as she is at times, like most people
+of only three, a reproachful look brings her spirits down to
+the lowest depths of distress. Evu is more inclined to hold
+up that funny little warning first finger, and shake it straight
+in your face. This, at two and a half, is terrible presumption;
+but the brown eyes are so innocent, you cannot be too shocked.
+Sometimes, however, the case is worse, and Evu tries to sulk.
+She sits down solemnly on the ground, and throws her four
+fat limbs about in a dreadful recklessness, supposed to strike
+the grown-up offender dumb with awe and penitence. Sometimes
+she even tries to put out her lower lip, but it was not
+made a suitable shape, for it smiles in spite of itself; and
+then there is a sudden spring; and two little arms are round
+your neck, and you are being told, if you know how to
+listen, what a very tiresome thing it is to feel obliged to
+sin. Then, with the comforting sense of irresponsible kittenhood
+fully restored, Evu discovers some new diversion, and
+you find yourself weakly wishing kittens need not grow
+into cats.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h3>Principalities, Powers, Rulers</h3>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>IT may seem a quick transition from nursery to battle-field;
+but rightly to understand this story, it must be remembered
+that our nursery is set in the midst of the
+battle-field. It is a little sheltered place, where no sound of
+war disturbs the babies at their play, and the flowers bloom
+like the babies in happy unconsciousness of battles, and
+make a garden for us and fill it full of peace; but underlying
+the babies' caresses and the sweetness of the flowers
+there is always a sense of conflict just over, or soon coming
+on. We "let the elastic go" in the nursery. We are happy,
+light-hearted children with our children; sometimes we even
+wonder at ourselves; and then remember that the happiness of
+the moment is a pure, bright gift, not meant to be examined,
+but just enjoyed, and we enjoy it as if there were no
+battles in the world or any sadness any more.</div>
+
+<p>And yet this book comes hot from the fight. It is not a
+retrospect written in the calm after-years, when the outline
+of things has grown indistinct and the sharpness of life is
+blurred. There is nothing mellowed about a battle-field.
+Even as I write these words, the post comes in and brings
+two letters. One tells of a child of twelve in whom the
+first faint desires have awakened to lead a different life.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>
+"She is a Temple girl. Pray that she may have grace to
+hold on; and that if she does, we may be guided through
+the difficult legal complications. Poor little girl! It makes
+one sick to think of her spoiled young life!" The other is
+a Tamil letter, about another child who is in earnest, so far
+as the writer can ascertain, to escape from the life planned
+out for her. She learned about Jesus at school, and responded
+in her simple way; but was suddenly taken from school, and
+shut up in the back part of the house and not allowed to
+learn any more. "Like a little dove fluttering in a cage,
+so she seemed to me. But she is a timid dove, and the
+house is full of wickedness. How will she hold out against
+it? By God's grace I was allowed to see her for one moment
+alone. I gave her a little Gospel. She kissed it with her
+eyes" (touched her eyes with it), "and hid it in her dress."</p>
+
+<p>Only a little while ago we traced a bright young
+Brahman girl to a certain Temple house, and by means of
+one of our workers we made friends with her. The child, a
+little widow, was ill, and was sent to the municipal hospital
+for medicine. It was there our worker met her, and the
+child whispered her story in a few hurried words. She had
+been kidnapped (she had not time to tell how), and shut up
+in the Temple house, and told she must obey the rules of
+the house and it was useless to protest. "If we could help
+you," she was asked, "would you like to come to us?"
+The child hesitated&mdash;the very name "Christian" was abhorrent
+to her&mdash;but after a moment's doubt she nodded, and then
+slipped away. Our worker never saw her again. The conversation
+must have been noticed by the child's escort, and
+reported. She was sent off to another town, and all
+attempts to trace her failed.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">"The Great"</div>
+<p>And the god to whom these young child-lives are
+dedicated? In South India all the greater symbols of deity
+are secluded in the innermost shrine, the heart of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>
+Temple. In our part of the country the approach to the
+shrine is always frequented by Brahman priests, who would
+never allow the foreigner near, even if he wished to go
+near. "Far, far! remove thyself far!" would be the
+immediate command, did any polluting presence presume to
+draw near the shrine. There are idols by the roadside, and
+these are open to all; but they are lesser creations. The
+Great, as the people call that which the Temple contains, is
+something apart. It is to these&mdash;The Great&mdash;that little
+children are dedicated; the whole Temple system is worked
+in their name.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you ever seen the god to whom your little ones
+would have been given?" is a question we are often asked;
+and until a few days ago we always answered, "Never." But
+now we have seen it, seen it unexpectedly and unintentionally,
+as we waited for an opportunity to talk to the
+crowds of people who had assembled to see it being
+ceremonially bathed. We cannot account for our being
+allowed to see it, except by the fact that the Brahmans
+had withdrawn for the moment, and we being, as our
+custom is, in Indian dress, were not noticed in the crowd.</p>
+
+<p>Near the place where the idol was being bathed, with
+much pomp by the priests, was a little rest-house, where we
+had waited till some child told us all was over. Then we
+came out and mingled with the throng, not fearing they
+would misunderstand our motive. While we talked with
+them, the Brahmans, who had been bathing in the river
+after the water had been sanctified by the god, began to
+stream up the steps and pass through the crowd, which
+opened respectfully and made a wide avenue within itself:
+for well the smallest child in that crowd understood that
+no touch might defile those Brahmans as they walked,
+wringing out their dripping garments and their long
+black hair.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>How we searched the faces as they passed!&mdash;sensual,
+cynical, cold faces, faces of utter carelessness, faces full of
+pride and aloofness. But there were some so different&mdash;earnest
+faces, keen faces, faces sensitive and spiritual. Oh,
+the pathos of it all! How our hearts went out to these,
+whose eager wistfulness marked them out as truly religious
+and sincere! How we longed that they should hear the
+word, "Come unto Me, and I will give you rest"! They
+passed, men young and old, women and children, and very
+many widows; and then suddenly two palanquins which
+had been standing near were carried down to the awning
+where the idol had been bathed; and before we realised
+what was happening, they passed us. In the first was the
+disk, the symbol of the god; in the second, the god itself.</p>
+
+<p>"We wrestle not against flesh and blood; but against
+principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the
+darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high
+places"&mdash;this was the word that flashed through us then.
+That small, insignificant, painted, and bejewelled image, in
+its gaudy little palanquin, was not only that. It was the
+visible representative of Powers.</p>
+
+<p>We thought of a merry child in our nursery who was
+dedicated at birth to this particular Power. By some glad
+chance that little girl was the first to run up to us in welcome
+upon our return home in the evening. We thought of her
+with thankfulness which cannot be expressed; but the
+sorrow of other children bound to this same god swept
+over us as we stood gazing after the palanquins, till they
+became a coloured blur in the shimmering sunshine. There
+was one such, a bright little child of eight, who was in
+attendance upon an old blind woman belonging to that
+Temple. "Yes," she had answered to our distressed
+questions, "she is my adopted daughter. Should I not
+have a daughter to wait upon me and succeed me? How<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>
+can I serve the god, being blind?" We thought of another,
+only six, who was to be given to the service "when she
+was a suitable age." Her parents were half-proud and
+half-ashamed of their intention; and when they knew we
+were aware of it, they denied it, and we found it impossible
+to do anything.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">"Only as Souls"</div>
+<p>We turned to the people about us. They were laughing
+and chatting, and the women were showing each other the
+pretty glass bangles and necklets they had bought at the
+fair. Glorious sunshine filled the world, the whole bright
+scene sparkled with life and colour, and all about us was
+a "lucid paradise of air." But "only as souls we saw the
+folk thereunder," and our spirit was stirred within us. There
+is something very solemn in such a scene&mdash;something that
+must be experienced to be understood. The pitiful triviality,
+the sense of tremendous forces at work among these
+trivialities; the people, these crowds of people, absorbed in
+the interests of the moment&mdash;and Eternity so near; all this
+and much more presses hard upon the spirit till one understands
+the old Hebrew word: "The burden which the
+prophet did see."</p>
+
+<p>Does this sound intolerant and narrow, as if no good
+existed outside our own little pale? Surely it is not so.
+We are not ignorant of the lofty and the noble contained
+in the ancient Hindu books; we are not of those who cannot
+recognise any truth or any beauty unless it is labelled with
+our label. We know God has not left Himself without
+witnesses anywhere. But we know&mdash;for the Spirit of Truth
+Himself has inspired the description&mdash;how desolate is the
+condition of those who are without Christ. We dare not
+water down the force of such a description till the words mean
+practically nothing. We form no hard, presumptuous creed
+as to how the God of all the earth will deal with these
+masses of mankind who have missed the knowledge of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>
+Him here; we know He will do right. But we know, with
+a knowledge which is burnt into us, how very many of the
+units live who compose these masses. We know what they
+are missing to-day, through not knowing our blessed
+Saviour as a personal, living Friend; and we know what
+it means to the thoughtful mind to face an unknown
+to-morrow.</p>
+
+<p>A Hindu in a town in the northern part of our district
+lay dying. He knew that death was near, and he was in
+great distress. His friends tried to comfort him by reminding
+him of the gods, and by quoting stanzas from the
+sacred books; but all in vain. Nothing brought him any
+comfort, and he cried aloud in his anguish of soul.</p>
+
+<p>Then to one of the watchers came the remembrance of
+how, as a little lad, he had seen a Christian die. In his
+desperation at the failure of all attempts to comfort the
+dying man, he thought of this one little, far-back memory;
+and though he could hardly dare to hope there would be
+much help in it, he told it to his friend. The Christian
+was Ragland, the missionary. He was living in a little
+house outside the town, when a sudden h&aelig;morrhage surprised
+him, and he had no time to prepare for death. He
+just threw himself upon his bed, and looking up, exclaimed,
+"Jesus!" and passed in perfect peace. Outside the window
+was a little Hindu boy, unobserved by any in the house. He
+had climbed up to the window, and, leaning in, watched all
+that happened, heard the one word "Jesus," saw the quick
+and peaceful passing; and then slipped away unnoticed.</p>
+
+<p>The dying Hindu listened as his friend described it to
+him. And this little faint ray was the only ray of comfort
+that lightened the dark way for him.</p>
+
+<p>Compare that experience with this:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">"Oh for a Love&mdash;&mdash;"</div>
+<p>The missionary to whom this tale was told by the Hindu
+who had tried to console his dying friend, was himself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>
+smitten with dangerous illness, and lay in the dim borderland,
+unable to think or frame a prayer. Then like the
+melody of long familiar music, without effort, without
+strain, came the calming words of the old prayer: "Lighten
+our darkness, we beseech Thee, O Lord; and by Thy great
+mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night;
+for the love of Thine only Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ."</p>
+
+<p>Could any two scenes present a more moving contrast?
+Could any contrast contain a more persuasive call?</p>
+
+<p>As we went in and out among the crowd, there were
+many who turned away uninterested; but some listened, and
+some sat down by the wayside to read aloud, in the sing-song
+chant of the East, the little booklets or Gospels we
+gave them. We, who are constantly among these people,
+feel our need of a fresh touch, as we speak with them
+and see them day by day. We need renewed compassions,
+renewed earnestness. It is easy to grow accustomed to
+things, easy to get cool. We pray not only for those at
+home, who as yet are not awake to feel the eloquence and
+the piteousness of the great "voiceless silence" of these
+lands, but we pray for ourselves with ever deepening
+intensity:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+Oh for a love, for a burning love, like the fervent flame of fire!<br />
+Oh for a love, for a yearning love, that will never, never tire!<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Lord, in my need I appeal unto Thee;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Oh, give me my heart's desire!</span><br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3>How the Children Come</h3>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>THEY come in many ways through the help of many
+friends. We have told before<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> how our first two
+babies came to us through two pastors, one in the
+north, the other in the south of our district. Since then
+many Indian pastors and workers, and several warm-hearted
+Christian apothecaries and nurses in Government service,
+have become interested; with the result that little children
+who must otherwise have perished have been saved.</div>
+
+<p>One little babe, who has since become one of our very
+dearest, was redeemed from Temple life by the wife of a
+leading pastor, who was wonderfully brought to the very place
+where the little child was waiting for the arrival of the
+Temple people. We have seldom known a more definite
+leading. "I being in the way, the Lord led me," was surely
+true of that friend that day, and of other Indian sisters who
+helped her. Later, when she came to stay with us, she told
+us about it. "When first I heard of this new work, I was
+not in sympathy with it. I even talked against it to others.
+But when I saw that little babe, so innocent and helpless,
+and so beautiful too, then all my heart went out to it. And
+now&mdash;&mdash;" Tears filled her eyes. She could not finish her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>
+sentence. Nor was there any need; the loving Indian heart
+had been won.</p>
+
+<p>My mother was with us when this baby came; and she
+adopted her as her own from the first, and always had the
+little basket in which the baby slept put by her bedside.
+When the mosquitoes began to be troublesome, the basket
+was slipped under her own mosquito net, lest the little pink
+blossom should be disturbed. But the baby did not thrive
+at first; and the pink, instead of passing into buff, began to
+fade into something too near ivory for our peace of mind.
+It was then the friend who had saved the little one came
+to stay with us; and she proposed taking her and her nurse
+out to her country village, in hopes of getting a foster-mother
+for her there. So my mother, the pastor's wife, the baby, and
+her nurse, went out to the Good News Village, and stayed
+in the pastor's hospitable home. The hope which had drawn
+them there was not fulfilled; but the memory of that visit
+is fresh and fragrant. We read of alienation between Indian
+Christians and missionaries. We are told there cannot be
+much mutual affection and contact. We often wonder why
+it should be so, and are glad we know by experience so little
+of the difficulty, that we cannot understand it. We have found
+India friendly, and her Christians are our friends. In these
+matters each can only speak from personal experience. Ours
+has been happy. There may be unkindness and misunderstanding
+in India, as in England; but nowhere could there
+be warmer love, more tender affection.</p>
+
+<p>All sorts of people help us in this work of saving the
+children. Once it was a convert-schoolboy who saw a widow
+with a baby in her arms. Noticing the bright large eyes,
+and what he described as the "blossoming countenance of the
+child," he got into conversation with the mother, and learned
+that she had been greatly tempted by Temple women in the
+town, who had admired the baby and wanted to get it. "If<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>
+I give her to them, she will never be a widow," was the allurement
+there. The bitterness of widowhood had entered into
+her soul, and poisoned the very mother-love within her; and
+yet there was something of it left, for she did not want her
+babe to be a widow. The boy, with the leisureliness of the
+East, dropped the matter there; and only in a casual fashion,
+a week or so later, mentioned in a letter that he had seen
+this pretty child, and that probably, the mother would end
+in yielding to the temptation to give her to the Temple&mdash;"but
+it may be by the grace of God that you will be
+able to save her." We sent at once to try to find the
+mother; but she had wandered off, and no one knew her
+home. However, the boy was stirred to prayer, and we
+prayed here; and a search through towns and villages
+resulted at last in the mother being traced and the child
+being saved.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Talk on the Verandah</div>
+<p>Christian women have helped us. One such, sitting on
+her verandah after her morning's work, heard two women
+in the adjoining verandah discuss the case of a widow who
+had come from Travancore with a bright little baby-girl,
+whom she had vowed she would give to one of our largest
+temples. The Christian woman had heard of the Dohnavur
+nurseries, and at once she longed to save this little child, but
+hardly knew how to do it. She feared to tell the two women
+she had overheard their conversation, so in the simplicity of
+her heart she prayed that the widow might be detained and
+kept from offering her gift till our worker, old D&eacute;vai, could
+come; and she wrote to old D&eacute;vai.</p>
+
+<p>Happily D&eacute;vai was at home when the letter reached her;
+otherwise days would have been lost, for her wanderings are
+many. She went at once, and found the mother most reasonable.
+Her idea had been to acquire merit for herself, and an
+assured future for her child, by giving it to the gods; but
+when the matter was opened to her, she was willing to give<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>
+it to us instead. In her case, as in the other, our natural
+instinct would have been to try to make some provision by
+which the mothers could keep their babies; but it would not
+have been possible. The cruel law of widowhood had begun
+to do its work in them. The Temple people's inducements
+would have proved too much for them. The children would
+not have been safe.</p>
+
+<p>Once it was a man-servant who saved a lovely child. He
+heard an aside in the market which put him on the track.
+The case was very usual. The parents were dead, and the
+grandmother was in difficulties. For the parents' sake she
+wanted to keep the dear little babe; but she was old, and
+had no relatives to whose care she could commit it. Mercifully
+we were the first to hear about this little one; for
+even as a baby she was so winning that Temple people
+would have done much to get her, and the old grandmother
+would almost certainly have been beguiled into giving her to
+them. How often it has been so! "She will be brought up
+carefully according to her caste. All that is beautiful will
+be hers, jewels and silk raiment." The hook concealed within
+the shining bait is forgotten. The old grandmother feels she
+is doing her best for the child, and the little life passes out
+of her world.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a dear little thing, and the man (its grandfather)
+seemed really fond of it. He said he would not part with
+it; but its parents are both dead, and he did not know
+what might happen to it if he died." This from the letter
+of a fellow-missionary, who saved the little one and sent
+her out to us, is descriptive of many. "Not the measure
+of a rape-seed of sleep does she give me. I have done
+my best for her since her mother died, but her noise is
+most vexatious." This was a father's account of the
+matter only a week or two ago. "Have you no women
+relations?" we asked him. "Numerous are my womenfolk,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>
+but they are all cumbered with children: how can they
+help me?"</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Not Waifs and Strays</div>
+<p>Given these circumstances of difficulty, and the strong
+under-pull of Temple influence&mdash;is it wonderful that many an
+orphaned babe finds her way to the Temple house? For in
+the South the child of the kind we are seeking to save is
+never offered to us because there is no other place where she is
+wanted. Everywhere there are those who are searching for
+such children; and each little one saved represents a counter-search,
+and somewhere, earnest prayer. The mystery of our
+work, as we have said before, is the oftentimes apparent
+victory of wrong over right. We are silent before it. God
+reigns; God knows. But sometimes the interpositions are
+such that our hearts are cheered, and we go on in fresh
+courage and hope.</p>
+
+<p>Among our earliest friends were some of the London
+Missionary Society workers of South Travancore. One of
+these friends interested her Biblewomen; and when, one
+morning, one of these Biblewomen passed a woman with
+a child in her arms on the road leading to a well-known
+Temple, she was ready to understand the leading, and made
+friends with the mother. She found that even then she
+was on her way to a Temple house. A few minutes later
+and she would not have passed her on the road.</p>
+
+<p>There was something to account for this directness of
+leading. At that time we had our branch nursery at Neyoor,
+in South Travancore, ten miles from the place where the
+Biblewoman met the mother. On that same morning,
+Ponnamal, who was in charge there, felt impelled to go to
+the upper room to pray for a little child in danger. She
+remained in prayer till the assurance of the answer was
+given, and then returned to her work. That evening a bandy
+drove up to the nursery, and she saw the explanation of
+the pressure and the answer to the prayer. A little child<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>
+was lifted out of the bandy, and laid in her arms. She stood
+with her nurses about her, and together they worshipped
+God.</p>
+
+<p>This prayer-pressure has been often our experience when
+special help is needed to effect the salvation of some little
+unknown child. It was our Prayer-day, July 6, 1907. Three
+of us were burdened with a burden that could not be lightened
+till we met and prayed for a child in peril. We had no
+knowledge of any special child, though, of course, we
+knew of many in danger. When we prayed for the
+many, the impression came the more strongly that we
+were meant to concentrate upon one. Who, or where, we
+did not know.</p>
+
+<p>Five days later, a letter reached us from a friend in the
+Wesleyan Mission, working in a city five hundred miles
+distant. The letter was written on the 8th:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"On the morning of the 6th, a woman who knows our Biblewomen
+well, told them of a little Brahman baby in great
+danger; so J. and two others went at once and spent the
+greater part of the morning trying to save the child. It was
+in the house of a so-called Temple woman, who had adopted
+it, and she had taken every care of it. For some reason she
+wanted to go away, and could not take it with her. Two or
+three women of her own kind were there and wanted it. One
+had money in her hand for it. But J. had already got the
+baby into her arms, and reasoned and persuaded until the
+woman at last consented. They at once brought it here.
+Had the friendly woman not told J., the baby would now be
+in the hands of the second Temple woman. I visited the
+woman afterwards. She had two grown girls in the room
+with her, the elder such a sweet girl. She told me openly
+it was all according to custom, and that God had arranged
+their lives on those lines, and they could not do otherwise.
+It is terribly sad, and such houses abound."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">"Father, we adore Thee"</div>
+<p>Happenings of this sort&mdash;if the word "happen" is not
+irreverent in such a connection&mdash;have a curiously quieting
+effect upon us. We are very happy; but there is a feeling
+of awe which finds expression in words which, at first reading,
+may not sound appropriate; but we write for those who
+will understand:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+Oh, fix Thy chair of grace, that all my powers<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">May also fix their reverence ;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.</span><br />
+Scatter, or bind, or bend them all to Thee!<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Though elements change and Heaven move,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Let not Thy higher court remove,</span><br />
+But keep a standing Majesty in me.<br /></div>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> "Overweights of Joy."</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>Others</h3>
+
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/illus-11.jpg" width="550" height="386" alt="STURDY AND STOLID, AND LITTLE VEERA &mdash;whose story, however, is different." title="" />
+<span class="caption">STURDY AND STOLID, AND LITTLE VEERA<br />&mdash;whose story, however, is different.<br /><br /></span>
+</div>
+
+<div class='cap'>WE have some children who were not in Temple
+danger, but who could not have grown up good if
+we had not taken them. "If peril to the soul
+is of importance," wrote the pastor who sent us two little
+girls, "then it is important you should take them": so we
+took them. These little ones were in "peril to the soul,"
+because their nominal Christian mother had, after her
+husband's death, married a Hindu, against the rules of her
+religion and his. The children were under the worst influence;
+and both were winning little things, who might
+have drifted anywhere. We have found it impossible to
+refuse such little ones, even though danger of the Temple
+kind may not be probable.</div>
+
+<p>Such a child, for example, is the little girl the
+Moslem is ready to adopt and convert to the faith. Our
+first redeemed from this captivity (literally slavery under
+the name of adoption) was a cheerful little person of six,
+with the sturdy air the camera caught, and a manner all
+her own. An American missionary in an adjoining district
+heard of her and her little sister, and wrote to know if we
+would take them if he could save them. We could not
+say No; so he tried, and succeeded in getting the elder<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>
+child; the little one had been already "adopted," and he
+could not get her. "The whole affair was the most
+astonishing thing I have ever seen in India," he wrote when
+he sent the little girl. The child upon arrival made friends
+with another, and confided to her in a burst of confidence:
+"Ah, she was a jewel, my own little sister&mdash;not like me,
+not dark of skin, but 'fair' and tender; and the great
+man in the turban saw her and desired her, and he took
+her away; and she cried and cried and cried, because she
+was only such a very little girl."</p>
+
+<p>"The business was being discussed out in the open
+street"&mdash;the writer was another missionary&mdash;"the pastor
+heard of it from a Christian who was passing, and saw the
+cluster of Muhammadans round the mother and her children.
+It was touch-and-go with the child." These two, Sturdy and
+Stolid, side by side in the photograph, are in all ways quite
+unlike the typical Temple child; but the danger from which
+they were delivered is as real, and perhaps in its way as
+grave.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">We know what her Heart is Saying</div>
+<p>One of the sweetest of our little girls, a child with a
+spiritual expression which strikes all who see her, came to
+us through a young catechist who heard of her and
+persuaded her people to let her come to Dohnavur. She
+is an orphan; and being "fair" and very gentle, needed
+a mother's care. Her nearest relatives had families of
+their own, and were not anxious for this addition to their
+already numerous daughters; and the little girl, feeling
+herself unwanted, was fretting sadly. Then an offer came
+to the relations&mdash;not made expressly in words, but implied&mdash;by
+which they would be relieved of the responsibility of
+the little niece's future. All would not have been straight
+for the child, however, and they hesitated. The temptation
+was great; and in the end it is probable they would have
+yielded, had not the catechist heard of it, and influenced<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>
+them to turn from temptation. It was the evening of our
+Prayer-day when the little Pearl came; and when we saw
+the sweet little face, with the wistful, questioning eyes like
+the eyes of a little frightened dog taken away alone among
+strangers, and when we heard the story, and knew what
+the child's fate might have been, then we welcomed her as
+another Prayer-day gift. We do not look for gratitude
+in this work; who does? But sometimes it comes of itself;
+and the grateful love of a child, like the grateful love of a
+little affectionate animal lifted out of its terror and comforted,
+is something sweet and tender and very good to
+know. The Pearl says little; but her soft brown eyes look
+up into ours with a trustful expression of peaceful
+happiness; and as she slips her little hand into ours and gives
+it a tight squeeze, we know what her heart is saying,
+and we are content.</p>
+
+<p>Two more of these "others" are the two in the photograph
+who are playing a pebble game. Their parents died leaving
+them in the care of an aunt, a perfectly heartless woman
+whose record was not of the best. She starved the children,
+though she was not poor; and then punished them severely
+when, faint with hunger, they took food from a kindly
+woman of another caste. Finally she gave them to a
+neighbour, telling her to dispose of them as she liked.</p>
+
+<p>About this time our head worker, Ponnamal, was travelling
+in search of a child of whom we had heard in a town near
+Palamcottah. She could not find the child, and, tired and
+discouraged, turned into the large Church Missionary Society
+hall, where a meeting was being held to welcome our new
+Bishop. As Ponnamal was late, she sat at the back, and
+could not hear what was going on; so she gave herself up
+to prayer for the little child whom she had not found,
+and asked that her three days' journey might not be all
+in vain.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 351px;">
+<img src="images/illus-12.jpg" width="351" height="500" alt="PEBBLES." title="" />
+<span class="caption">PEBBLES.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>As she prayed in silence thus, another woman came in
+and sat down at the back near Ponnamal. When Ponnamal
+looked up, she saw it was a friend she had not met for years.
+She began to tell her about her search for the child; and
+this led on to telling about the children in general, and the
+work we were trying to do. The other had known nothing
+of it all before; but as she listened, a light broke on her
+face, and she eagerly told Ponnamal how that same morning
+she had come across a Hindu woman in charge of two little
+girls. The Tamils when they meet, however casually, have
+a useful habit of exchanging confidences. The woman had
+told Ponnamal's friend what her errand was. Ponnamal's
+talk about children in danger recalled the conversation of
+the morning. In a few hours more Ponnamal was upon the
+track of the Hindu woman and her two little charges. It
+ended in the two little girls being saved.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h3>Old D&eacute;vai</h3>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>SHE has been called "Old D&eacute;vai" ever since we knew her,
+twelve years ago; and she is still active in mind and
+body. "As I was then, even so is my strength now
+for war, both to go out and to come in," she would tell you
+with a courageous toss of the old grey head. Her spirit at
+least is untired.</div>
+
+<p>We knew her first as a woman of character. One Sunday,
+in our Tamil church, a sermon was preached upon the love
+of the Father as compared with the love of the world. That
+Sunday D&eacute;vai went home and acted upon the teaching in
+such fashion that she had to suffer from the scourge of the
+tongue in her own particular world. But she went on her
+way, unmoved by adverse criticism. Some years later, when
+we were in perplexity as to how to set about our search
+for children in danger of being given to temples, old D&eacute;vai
+offered to help. She was peculiarly suitable, both in age
+and in position, for this most delicate work; and we accepted
+her offer with thanksgiving. Since then she has travelled
+far, and followed many a clue discovered in strange ways
+and in strange company. Perhaps no one in South India
+knows as much as D&eacute;vai knows about the secret system by
+which the Temple altars are supplied with little living victims;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>
+but she has no idea of how to put her knowledge into shape
+and express it in paragraph form. We learn most from her
+when she least knows she is saying anything interesting.</p>
+
+<p>When first we began the work, our great difficulty was,
+as it is still, to get upon the track of the children before the
+Temple women heard of them. Once they were known to
+be available, Temple scouts appeared mysteriously alert;
+and it is doubly difficult to get a little child after negotiations
+have been opened with the subtle Temple scout. How often
+old D&eacute;vai has come to us sick at heart after a long, fruitless
+search and effort to save some little child who, perhaps,
+only an hour before her arrival was carried off in triumph
+by the Temple people! "I pursued after the bandy, and I
+saw it in the distance; but swiftly went their bullocks, and
+I could not overtake it. At last they stopped to rest, and
+I came to where they were. But they smiled at me and
+said: 'Did you ever hear of such a thing as you ask in
+foolishness? Is it the custom to give up a child, once it is
+ours?'" Sometimes a new story is invented on the spot.
+"Did you not know it was my sister's child; and I, her only
+sister, having no child of my own, have adopted this one as
+my own? Would you ask me to give up my own child,
+the apple of my eye?" Oftener, however, the clue fails, and
+all D&eacute;vai knows is that the little one is nowhere to be
+found. Once she traced it straight to a Temple house, won
+her way in, and pleaded with tears, offering all compensation
+for expenses incurred (travelling and other) if only the
+Temple woman would let her take the child. But no: "If it
+dies, that matters little; but disgrace is not to be contemplated."
+When all else fails, we earnestly ask that the little one in
+danger may be taken quickly out of that polluted atmosphere
+up into purer air; and it is startling to note how
+solemnly the answer to that prayer has come in very many
+instances.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Knock at Night</div>
+<p>The clue for which we are always on the watch is often
+like a fine silk thread leading down into dark places where
+we cannot see it, can hardly feel it; it is so thin a thread.
+Sometimes, when we thought we held it securely, we have lost
+it in the dark.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes it seems as if the Evil One, whose interest
+in these little ones may be greater than we know, lays a
+false clue across our path, and bewilders us by causing us
+to spend time and strength in what appears to be a wholly
+useless fashion. Once old D&eacute;vai was lured far out of
+our own district in search of two children who did not even
+exist. She had taken all precautions to verify the information
+given, but a false address had baffled her; and we can
+only conclude that, for some reason unknown to us, but
+well known to those whom we oppose, they were permitted
+on that occasion to gain an advantage over us. We
+made it a rule, after that will-of-the-wisp experience, that
+any address out of our own district must be verified; and
+that the nearest missionary thereto, or responsible Indian
+Christian, must be approached, before further steps are
+taken. This rule has saved many a fruitless journey; but
+also we cannot help knowing it has sometimes occasioned
+delays which have had sad results. For distances are great
+in India. D&eacute;vai herself lives two days' journey from us,
+and her address is uncertain, as she sets off at a moment's
+notice for any place where she has reason to think a child
+in danger may be saved. Then, too, missionaries and responsible
+Indian Christians are not everywhere. So that sometimes
+it is a case of choosing the lesser of two evils, and
+choosing immediately.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 350px;">
+<img src="images/illus-13.jpg" width="350" height="500" alt="LATHA (FIREFLY) BLOWING BUBBLES." title="" />
+<span class="caption">LATHA (FIREFLY) BLOWING BUBBLES.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Once in the night a knock came to D&eacute;vai's door. A man
+stood outside, a Hindu known to her. "A little girl has
+just been taken to the Temple of A., where the great festival
+is being held. If you go at once you may perhaps get her."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>
+The place named was out of our jurisdiction; but in such
+cases D&eacute;vai knows rules are only made to be broken. Off
+she went on foot, got a bandy <i>en route</i>, reached the town
+before the festival was over, found the house to which she
+had been directed&mdash;a little shut-up house, doors and windows
+all closed&mdash;managed, how we never knew, to get in, found a
+young woman, a Temple woman from Travancore, with a little
+child asleep on the mat beside her, persuaded her to slip
+out of the house with the child without wakening anyone,
+crept out of the town and fled away into the night, thankful
+for the blessed covering darkness. The child was being
+kept in that house till the Temple woman to whom she
+was to be given produced the stipulated "Joy-gift," after
+which she would become Temple property. Some delay in
+its being given had caused that night's retention in the little
+shut-up house. The child, a most lovable little girl, had been
+kidnapped and disguised; and the matter was so skilfully
+managed, that we have never been able to discover even the
+name of her own town. We only know she must have been
+well brought up, for she was from the first a refined little
+thing with very dainty ways. She and her little special
+friend are sitting on the steps looking at Latha (Firefly), who
+is blowing bubbles. The other little one has a similar but
+different history. Her father brought her to us himself,
+fearing lest she should be kidnapped by one related to her
+who much wanted to have her. "I, being a man, cannot be
+always with the child," he said, "and I fear for her."</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">"It"</div>
+<p>On another occasion the clue was found through D&eacute;vai's
+happening to overhear the conversation of two men in a
+wood in the early morning. One said to the other something
+about someone having taken "It" somewhere; and D&eacute;vai,
+whose scent is keen where little "Its" are concerned, made
+friends with the men, and got the information she wanted
+from them. Careful work resulted in a little child's salvation;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>
+but D&eacute;vai hardly dared believe it safe until she reached
+Dohnavur. When that occurred we were all at church; for
+special services were being held in week-day evenings, and
+old D&eacute;vai had to possess her soul in patience till we came
+out of church. Then there was a rush round to the
+nursery, and an eager showing of the "It." I shall never
+forget the pang of disappointment and apprehension. Several
+little ones had been sent to us who could not possibly live;
+and the nurses had got overborne, and we dreaded another
+strain for them. It was a tiny thing, three pounds and
+three-quarters of pale brown skin and bone. Its face was
+a criss-cross of wrinkles, and it looked any age. But "Man
+looketh upon the outward appearance" would have been
+assuredly quoted to us, regardless of context, had we ventured
+upon a remark to old D&eacute;vai, who poured forth the
+story of its salvation in vivid sentences. Next evening the
+old grannie of the compound told us the baby could not
+live till morning. She laid it on a mat and regarded it
+critically, felt its pulses (both wrists), examined minutely
+its eyes and the bridge of its nose: "No, not till morning.
+Better have the grave prepared, for early morning will be
+an inconvenient hour for digging." Others confirmed her
+diagnosis, and sorrowfully the order was given and the
+grave was dug.</p>
+
+<p>But the baby lived till morning; and though for two years
+it needed a nurse to itself, and over and over again all but
+left us, this baby has grown one of our healthiest; and now
+when old D&eacute;vai comes to see us she looks at it, and then
+to Heaven, and sighs with gratitude.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h3>Failures?</h3>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>BUT sometimes old D&eacute;vai brings us little ones who do
+not come to stay. Failures, the world would call
+them. Twice lately this has happened, and each
+time unexpectedly; for the babies had stories which seemed
+to imply a promise of future usefulness. Surely such a
+deliverance must have been wrought for something special,
+we say to ourselves, and refuse to fear.</div>
+
+<p>One dear little fat "fair" baby was brought to us as a
+surprise, for we had not heard of her. It had seemed so
+improbable that D&eacute;vai could get her, that she had not written
+to us to ask us to pray her through the battle, as she
+usually does. The sound of the bullock-bells' jingle one
+moonlight night woke us to welcome the baby. She had
+travelled fifty miles in the shaky bullock-cart, and she was
+only a few days old; but she seemed healthy, and we had
+no fears. "Ah, the Lord our God gave her to me, or never
+could I have got her! Her mother had determined to give
+her to the Temple; and when I went to persuade her, she
+hid the baby in an earthen vessel lest my eyes should see
+her. But earthen pots cannot hide from the eyes of the
+Lord. And here she is!" The details, fished out of D&eacute;vai
+by dint of many questions, made it clear that in very truth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>
+the Lord, to whom all souls belong, had worked on behalf
+of this little one; moving even Hindu hearts, as His brave
+old servant pleaded, making it possible to break through
+caste and custom, those prison walls of most cruel convention,
+till even the Hindus said: "Let the Christian
+have the babe!" We do not know why she was taken.
+She never seemed to sicken, but just left us; perhaps she was
+needed somewhere else, and Dohnavur was the way there.</p>
+
+<p>The other meant even more to us, for she was our first
+from Benares, the heart of this great Hinduism; and her
+very presence seemed such a splendid pledge of ultimate
+victory.</p>
+
+<p>This little one was saved through a friend, a Wesleyan
+missionary, who had interested her Indian workers in the
+children. The baby's mother was a pilgrim from Benares,
+and her baby had been born in the South. A Temple woman
+had seen it and was eager to get it, for it was a child of
+promise. Our friend's worker heard of this, and interposed.
+The mother consented to give her baby to us. It was not
+a case in which we dare have persuaded her to keep it; for
+such babies are greatly coveted, and the mother was already
+predisposed to give her child to the gods.</p>
+
+<p>When we heard of this little one, old D&eacute;vai was with us.
+She had only just arrived after a journey of two days with
+a little girl, but she knew the perils of delay too well to
+risk them now. "Let me go! I will have some coffee, and
+immediately start!" So off she went for five more days of
+wearisome bullock-cart and train. But her face beamed
+when she returned and laid a six-weeks-old baby in our
+arms&mdash;a baby fair to look upon. We gathered round her
+at once, and she lay and smiled at us all. Hardly ever have
+we had so sweet a babe. But the smiling little mouth was
+too pale a pink, and the beautiful eyes were too bright.
+She had only been with us a month when we were startled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>
+by the other-world look on the baby's face. We had seen
+it before; we recognised it, and our hearts sank within us.
+That evening, as she lay in her white cradle, the waxy hands
+folded in an unchildlike calm, she looked as if the angel of
+Death had passed her as she slept, and touched her as he
+passed.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Passion-flowers</div>
+<p>She stayed with us for another month, and was nursed
+day and night till more and more she became endeared to
+us; and then once more we heard the word that cannot be
+refused, and we let her go. We laid passion-flowers about
+her as she lay asleep. The smile that had left her little
+face had come back now. "She came with a smile, and she
+went with a smile," said one who loved her dearly; and the
+flowers of mystery and glory spoke to us, as we stood and
+looked. "Who for the joy that was set before Him ;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.
+endured." The scent of the violet passion-flower will always
+carry its message to us. "Let us be worthy of the grief
+God sends."</p>
+
+<p>And oh that such experiences may make us more earnest,
+more self-less in our service for these little ones! Someone
+has expressed this thought very tenderly and simply:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+Because of one small low-laid head, all crowned<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">With golden hair,</span><br />
+For evermore all fair young brows to me<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">A halo wear.</span><br />
+I kiss them reverently. Alas, I know<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The pain I bear!</span><br />
+<br />
+Because of dear but close-shut holy eyes<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Of heaven's own blue,</span><br />
+All little eyes do fill my own with tears,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Whate'er their hue.</span><br />
+And, motherly, I gaze their innocent,<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 3em;">Clear depths into.</span><br />
+<br />
+Because of little pallid lips, which once<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">My name did call,</span><br />
+No childish voice in vain appeal upon<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">My ears doth fall.</span><br />
+I count it all my joy their joys to share,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And sorrows small.</span><br />
+<br />
+Because of little dimpled hands<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Which folded lie,</span><br />
+All little hands henceforth to me do have<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">A pleading cry.</span><br />
+I clasp them, as they were small wandering birds,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Lured home to fly.</span><br />
+<br />
+Because of little death-cold feet, for earth's<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Rough roads unmeet,</span><br />
+I'd journey leagues to save from sin and harm<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Such little feet.</span><br />
+And count the lowliest service done for them<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">So sacred&mdash;sweet.</span><br />
+</div>
+<div class="sidenote">"Until He find it"</div>
+<p>But grief is almost too poignant a word for what is so
+stingless as this. And yet God the Father, who gives the
+love, understands and knows how much may lie behind two
+words and two dates. "Given ;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. Taken ;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;." Only indeed
+we do bless Him when the cup holds no bitterness of fear
+or of regret. There is nothing ever to fear for the little
+folded lambs. If only the veil of blinding sense might drop
+from our eyes when the door opens to our cherished
+little children, should we have the heart to toil so hard
+to keep that bright door shut? Would it not seem
+almost selfish to try? But the case is different when
+the child is not lifted lovingly to fair lands out of sight, but
+snatched back, dragged back down into the darkness from
+which we had hoped it had escaped. This work for the
+children, which seems so strangely full of trial of its own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>
+(as it is surely still more full of its own particular joy), has
+held this bitterness for us, and yet the bitter has changed
+to sweet; and even now in our "twilight of short knowledge"
+we can understand a little, and where we cannot we are
+content to wait.</p>
+
+<p>Four years ago, after much correspondence and effort, a
+little girl was saved from Temple service in connection with
+a famous Temple of the South from which few have ever
+been saved. She had been dedicated by her father, and her
+mother had consented. D&eacute;vai got a paper signed by them
+giving her up to us instead. But shortly after she left the
+town, the father regretted the step he had taken, and
+followed D&eacute;vai, unknown to her. Alas, the child had not
+been with us an hour before she was carried off.</p>
+
+<p>For two years we heard nothing of her. Old D&eacute;vai, who
+was broken-hearted about the matter, tried to find what had
+been done with her, but it was kept secret. She almost gave
+up in despair.</p>
+
+<p>At last information reached her that the child was in the
+same town; and that her father having died of cholera, the
+mother and another little daughter were in a certain house
+well known to her. She went immediately and found the
+older child had not been given to the gods. Something of
+her pleadings had lingered in the father's memory, and he
+had refused to give her up. But the mother was otherwise
+minded, and intended to give both children to the Temple.
+D&eacute;vai had been guided to go at the critical time of decision.
+The mother was persuaded, and D&eacute;vai returned with two
+sheaves instead of one&mdash;and even that one she had hardly
+dared to expect. Once more we were called to hold our gifts
+with light hands. The younger of the welcome little two
+was one of ten who died during an epidemic at Neyoor.
+The elder one is with us still&mdash;a bright, intelligent child.</p>
+
+<p>The only other one whom we have been compelled to give<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>
+up in this most hurting way was saved through friends on
+the hills, who, before they sent the little child to us, believed
+all safe as to claims upon her afterwards. She was a pretty
+child of five, and we grew to love her very much; for her
+ways were sweet and gentle and very affectionate. Lala,
+Lola, and Leela were a dear little trio, all about the same
+age, and all rather specially interesting children.</p>
+
+<p>But the father gave trouble. He was not a good man,
+and we knew it was not love for his little daughter which
+prompted his action. He demanded her back, and our friends
+had to telegraph to us to send her home. It was not an easy
+thing to do; and we packed her little belongings feeling as if
+we were moving blindly in a grievous dream, out of which
+we must surely awaken.</p>
+
+<p>There was some delay about a bandy, but at last it was
+ready and standing at the door. We lifted the little girl into
+it, put a doll and a packet of sweets in her hands, and gave
+our last charges to those who were taking her up to the hills,
+workers upon whom we could depend to do anything that
+could yet be done to win her back again. Then the bandy
+drove away.</p>
+
+<p>But we went back to our room and asked for a great and
+good thing to be done. We thought of little Lala, with her
+gentle nature which had so soon responded to loving influence,
+and we knew her very gentleness would be her danger now;
+for how could such a little child, naturally so yielding in disposition,
+withstand the call that would come, and the pressure
+that had broken far stronger wills? So we asked that she
+might either be returned to us soon or taken away from the
+evil to come. A week passed and our workers returned without
+her; they evidently felt the case quite hopeless. But the
+next letter we had from our friends told us the child was safe.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Carried by the Angels</div>
+<p>She had left us in perfect health, but pneumonia set in
+upon her return to the colder air of the hills. She had been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>
+only a few days ill, and died very suddenly&mdash;died without
+anyone near her to comfort her with soothing words about
+the One to whom she was going. Even in the gladness
+that she was safe now, there was the pitiful thought
+of her loneliness through the dark valley; and we seemed
+to see the little wistful face, and felt she would be so
+frightened and shy and bewildered; and we longed to know
+something about those last hours. But one of the heathen
+women who had been about her at the last told what she
+knew, and our friends wrote what they heard. "She said
+she was Jesus' child, and did not seem afraid. And she said
+that she saw three Shining Ones come into the room where
+she was lying, and she was comforted." Oh, need we ever
+fear? Little Lala had been with us for so short a time that
+we had not been able to teach her much; and so far as any
+of us know, she had heard nothing of the ministry of angels.
+We had hardly dared to hope she understood enough about
+our Lord Himself to rest her little heart upon Him. But we
+do not know everything. Little innocent child that she was,
+she was carried by the angels from the evil to come.</p>
+
+<p>Old D&eacute;vai keeps a brave heart. When she comes to see
+us, she cheers herself by nursing the cheerful little people she
+brought to us, small and wailing and not very hopeful. She
+is full of reminiscences on these occasions. "Ah," she will
+say, addressing an astonished two-year-old, "the devil and
+all his imps fought for you, my child!" This is unfamiliar
+language to the baby; but D&eacute;vai knows nothing of our
+modern ideas of education, and considers crude fact advisable
+at any age. "Yes, he fought for you, my child. I was sitting
+on the verandah of the house wherein you lay, and I was
+preaching the Gospel of the grace of God to the women, when
+five devils appeared. Yea, five were they, one older and four
+younger. Men were they in outward shape, but within them
+were the devils. I had nearly persuaded the women to let me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>
+have you, my child; and till they fully consented, I was filling
+up the interval with speech, for no man shall shut my mouth.
+And the women listened well, and my heart burned within
+me&mdash;for it was life to me to see them listening&mdash;when lo!
+those devils came&mdash;yea, five, one older and four younger&mdash;sent
+by their master to confound me. And they rose up against
+me and turned me out, and told the women folk not to
+listen; and you&mdash;I should never get you, said they; and so
+it appeared, for with such is might, and their master waxes
+furious when he knows his time is short. But the Lord on
+high is mightier than a million million devils, and what are
+five to Him? He rose up for me against them and discomfited
+them"&mdash;D&eacute;vai does not go into secular particulars&mdash;"and
+so you were delivered from the mouth of the lion, my child!"</p>
+
+<p>We are not anxious that our babies should know too
+much ancient history. Enough for them that they are in
+the fold&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+I am Jesus' little lamb,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Happy all day long I am;</span><br />
+He will keep me safe from harm,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For I'm His lamb&mdash;</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='unindent'>is enough theology for two-year-olds; but D&eacute;vai's visits are
+not so frequent as to make a deep impression, and the baby
+thus addressed, after a long and unsympathetic stare, usually
+scrambles off her knee and returns unscathed to her own
+world.</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<h3>God Heard: God Answered</h3>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>OLD D&eacute;vai, with her vivid conversation about the one old
+devil and four younger, does not suggest a conciliatory
+attitude towards the people of her land. And it may
+be possible so to misinterpret the spirit of this book as to see
+in it only something unappreciative and therefore unkind. So
+it shall now be written down in sincerity and earnestness that
+nothing of the sort is intended. The thing we fight is not
+India or Indian, in essence or development. It is something
+alien to the old life of the people. It is not allowed in the
+V&eacute;das (ancient sacred books). It is like a parasite which has
+settled upon the bough of some noble forest-tree&mdash;on it, but
+not of it. The parasite has gripped the bough with strong
+and interlacing roots; but it is not the bough.</div>
+
+<p>We think of the real India as we see it in the thinker&mdash;the
+seeker after the unknown God, with his wistful eyes. "The
+Lord beholding him loved him," and we cannot help loving as
+we look. And there is the Indian woman hidden away from
+the noise of crowds, patient in her motherhood, loyal to the
+light she has. We see the spirit of the old land there; and it
+wins us and holds us, and makes it a joy to be here to live for
+India.</p>
+
+<p>The true India is sensitive and very gentle. There is a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>
+wisdom in its ways, none the less wise because it is not the
+wisdom of the West. This spirit which traffics in children is
+callous and fierce as a ravening beast; and its wisdom descendeth
+not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.
+And this spirit, alien to the land, has settled upon it, and made
+itself at home in it, and so become a part of it that nothing
+but the touch of God will ever get it out. We want that
+touch of God: "Touch the mountains, and they shall smoke."
+That is why we write.</p>
+
+<p>For we write for those who believe in prayer&mdash;not in the
+emasculated modern sense, but in the old Hebrew sense, deep
+as the other is shallow. We believe there is some connection
+between knowing and caring and praying, and what happens
+afterwards. Otherwise we should leave the darkness to cover
+the things that belong to the dark. We should be for ever
+dumb about them, if it were not that we know an evil
+covered up is not an evil conquered. So we do the thing
+from which we shrink with strong recoil; we stand on the
+edge of the pit, and look down and tell what we have seen,
+urged by the longing within us that the Christians of England
+should pray.</p>
+
+<p>"Only pray?" does someone ask? Prayer of the sort we
+mean never stops with praying. "Whatsoever He saith unto
+you, do it," is the prayer's solemn afterword; but the prayer
+we ask is no trifle. Lines from an American poet upon what
+it costs to make true poetry, come with suggestion here:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+Deem not the framing of a deathless lay<br />
+The pastime of a drowsy summer day.<br />
+But gather all thy powers, and wreck them on the verse<br />
+That thou dost weave.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The secret wouldst thou know</span><br />
+To touch the heart or fire the blood at will?<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Let thine eyes overflow,</span><br />
+Let thy lips quiver with the passionate thrill.<br /></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">"And call.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. So will I hear thee"</div>
+<p>"Arise, cry out in the night; in the beginning of the night
+watches pour out thine heart like water before the Lord; lift
+up thine hands towards Him for the life of thy young
+children!"</p>
+
+<p>The story of the children is the story of answered prayer.
+If any of us were tempted to doubt whether, after all, prayer is
+a genuine transaction, and answers to prayer no figment of
+the imagination&mdash;but something as real as the tangible things
+about us&mdash;we have only to look at some of our children. It
+would require more faith to believe that what we call the
+Answer came by chance or by the action of some unintelligible
+combination of controlling influences, than to accept the
+statement in its simplicity&mdash;God heard: God answered.</p>
+
+<p>In October, 1908, we were told of two children whose mother
+had recently died. They were with their father in a town
+some distance from Dohnavur; but the source from which our
+information came was so unreliable that we hardly knew
+whether to believe it, and we prayed rather a tentative
+prayer: "If the children exist, save them." For three months
+we heard nothing; then a rumour drifted across to us that
+the elder of the two had died in a Temple house. The
+younger, six months old, was still with her father. On
+Christmas Eve our informant arrived in the compound with
+his usual unexpectedness. The father was near, but would
+not come nearer because the following day being Friday (a
+day of ill-omen), he did not wish to discuss matters concerning
+the child; he would come on Saturday. On Saturday he
+came, carrying a dear little babe with brilliant eyes. She
+almost sprang from him into our arms, and we saw she was
+mad with thirst. She was fed and put to sleep, and hardly
+daring yet to rejoice (for the matter was not settled with the
+father), we took him aside and discussed the case with him.
+There were difficulties. A Temple woman had offered a
+large sum for the child, and had also promised to bequeath<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>
+her property to her. He had heard, however, that we had
+little children who had all but been given to Temples,
+and he had come to reconnoitre rather than to decide.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">"Though it tarry, wait for it&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.</div>
+<p>The position was explained to him. But the Temple meant
+to him everything that was worshipful. How could anything
+that was wrong be sanctioned by the gods? The child's mother
+had been a devout Hindu; and as we went deeper and deeper
+into things with him, it was evident he became more and more
+reluctant to leave the little one with us. "Her mother would
+have felt it shame and eternal dishonour." We were in the
+little prayer-room, a flowery little summer-house in the garden,
+when this talk took place. On either side are the nurseries, and
+playing on the wide verandahs were happy, healthy babes; their
+merry shouts filled the spaces in the conversation. Sometimes
+a little toddling thing would find her way across to the prayer-room,
+and break in upon the talk with affectionate caresses.
+To our eyes everything looked so happy, so incomparably
+better than anything the Temple house could offer, that it
+was difficult to adjust one's mental vision so as to understand
+that of the Hindu beside us, to whose thought all the happiness
+was as nothing, because these babes would be brought up
+without caste. In the Temple house caste is kept most carefully.
+If a Temple woman breaks the rules of her community
+she is out-casted, excommunicated. "You do not keep caste!
+you do not keep caste!" the father repeated over and over
+again in utter dismay. It was nothing to him that the babes
+were well and strong, and as happy as the day was long;
+nothing to him that cleanliness reigned, so far as constant
+supervision could ensure it, through every corner of the compound.
+We did not profess to keep caste; we welcomed every
+little child in danger of being given to Temples, irrespective
+altogether of her caste. All castes were welcome to us, for all
+were dear to our Lord. This was beyond him; and he declared he
+would never have brought his child to us, had he understood it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>
+before. "Let her die rather! There is no disgrace in death."
+As he talked and expounded his views, he argued himself
+further and further away from us in spirit, until he became
+disgusted with himself for ever having considered giving the
+baby to us. All this time the baby lay asleep; and as we
+looked at the little face and noted the "mother-want," the
+appealing expression of pitiful weariness even in sleep, it was
+all we could do to turn away and face the almost inevitable
+result of the conversation. Once the father, a splendid looking
+man, tall and dignified, rose and stood erect in sudden
+indignation. "Where is the babe? I will take her away and
+do as I will with her. She is my child!" We persuaded him
+to wait awhile as she was asleep, and we went away to pray.
+Together we waited upon God, whose touch turns hard rocks
+into standing water, and flint-stone into a springing well,
+beseeching Him to deal with that father's heart, and make it
+melt and yield. And as we waited it seemed as if an answer
+of peace were distinctly given to us, and we rose from our
+knees at rest. But just at that moment the father went to
+where his baby slept in her cradle, and he took her up and
+walked away in a white heat of wrath.</p>
+
+<p>The little one was in an exhausted condition, for she had
+not had suitable food for at least three days. It was the time
+of our land-winds, which are raw and cold to South Indian
+people; and it seemed that the answer of peace must mean
+peace after death of cold and starvation. It would soon be
+over, we knew; twenty-four hours, more or less, and those
+great wistful eyes would close, and the last cry would be cried.
+But even twenty-four hours seemed long to think of a
+child in distress, and her being so little did not make it easier
+to think of her dying like that. So on Sunday morning I
+shut myself up in my room asking for quick relief for her, or&mdash;but
+this seemed almost asking too much&mdash;that she might be
+given back to us. And as I prayed, a knock came at the door,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>
+and a voice called joyously, "Oh, Amma! Amma! Come! The
+father stands outside the church; he has brought the baby
+back!"</p>
+
+<p>But the child was almost in collapse. Without a word he
+dropped the cold, limp little body into our arms, and prostrated
+himself till his forehead touched the dust. We had not time
+to think of him, we hardly noted his extraordinary submission,
+for all our thought was for the babe. There was no pulse to
+be felt, only those far too brilliant eyes looked alive. We
+worked with restoratives for hours, and at last the little limbs
+warmed and the pulse came back. But it was a bounding,
+unnatural pulse, and the restlessness which supervened confirmed
+the tale of the brilliant eyes&mdash;the little babe had been
+drugged.</p>
+
+<p>From that day on till our Prayer-day, January 6th, it
+was one long, unremitting fight with death. We wrote to
+our medical comrade in Neyoor, and described the symptoms,
+which were all bad. He could give us little hope. Gradually
+the brilliance passed from the eyes, and they became what
+the Tamils call "dead." The film formed after which none
+of us had ever seen recovery. Then we gathered round the
+little cot in the room we call Tranquillity, and we gave the
+babe her Christian name Vimala, the Spotless One; for we
+thought that very soon she would be without spot and
+blameless, another little innocent in that happy band of
+innocents who see His Face.</p>
+
+<p>On the evening of the 5th, friends of our own Mission
+who were with us seemed to lay hold for the life of the
+child with such fresh earnestness and faith, that we ourselves
+were strengthened. Next morning we believed we
+saw a change in the little deathlike face, and that evening
+we were sure the child's life was coming back to her.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">".&nbsp;.&nbsp;.Because it will surely come"</div>
+<p>It was not till then we thought of the father, who, after
+signing a paper made out for him by our pastor, who is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>
+always ready to help us, had returned to his own town.
+When we heard all that had occurred we saw how our God
+had worked for us. It was not fear of his baby's death that
+had moved the man to return to us. "What is the death
+of a babe? Let her die across my shoulders!" He was not
+afraid of the law. After all persuasions had failed, we had
+tried threats: the thing he purposed to do was illegal. The
+Collector (chief magistrate) would do justice. "What care
+I for your Collector? How can he find me if I choose to lose
+myself? How can you prove anything against me?" And
+in that he spoke the truth. There are ways by which the
+intention of the law concerning little children can be most
+easily and successfully circumvented. Our pleadings had
+not touched him. "Is she not my child? Was her mother
+not my wife? Who has the right to come between this
+child of mine and me her father?" And so saying
+he had departed without the slightest intention of coming
+back again. But a Power with which he did not reckon had
+him in sight; and a Hand was laid upon him, and it bent
+him like a reed. We hope some ray of a purer light than
+he had ever experienced found its way into his darkened
+soul, and revealed to him the sin of his intention. But we
+only know that he left his child and went back to his own
+town. God had heard: God had answered.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<h3>To what Purpose?</h3>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>AMONG the closest of our little children's friends is
+one whose name I may not give, lest her work
+should be hindered; for in this work of saving the
+little ones, though we have the sympathy of many, we
+naturally have to meet the covert opposition of very many
+more, and it is not well to give too explicit information as
+to the centres of supply. This dear friend's help has been
+invaluable. From the first she has stood by us, interesting
+her friends, Indian and English, in the children, and stirring
+them into practical co-operation. Then, when the babies
+have been saved and had to be cared for and sent off, she
+made nothing of the trouble, and above all she has never
+been discouraged. Sometimes things have been difficult.
+Some have doubted, and many have criticised, and even
+the kindest have lost heart. This friend has never lost
+heart.</div>
+
+<p>For not all the chapters of the Temple children's story
+can be written down and printed for everyone to read.
+We think of the unwritten chapters, and remember how
+often when the pressure was greatest the thought of that
+undiscouraged comrade has been strength and inspiration.
+No one except those who, in weakness and inexperience, have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>
+tried to do something not attempted before can understand
+how the heart prizes sympathy just at the difficult times,
+and how such brave and steadfast comradeship is a thing
+that can never be forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>Among the babies saved through this friend's influence was
+one with a short but typical story.</p>
+
+<p>The little mite was seen first in her mother's arms, and
+the mother was standing by the wayside, as if waiting.
+Something in her attitude and appearance drew the attention
+of an Indian Christian, whom our friend had interested in
+the work, and she got into conversation with the mother,
+who told her that her husband had died a fortnight before
+the baby's birth, and she, being poor though of good caste,
+was much exercised about the little one's future. How could
+she marry her properly? She had come to the conclusion
+that her best plan would be to give her to the Temple. So
+she was even then waiting till someone from a Temple house
+would come and take her little girl.</p>
+
+<p>The news that such a child is to be had soon becomes
+known to those who are on the watch, and it is improbable
+that the mother would have had long to wait. The Christian
+persuaded her to give up the idea, and the little babe was
+saved and sent to us. On the journey to Dohnavur a Temple
+woman chanced to get into the carriage where the little
+baby slept in its basket. There was nothing to tell who
+she was; and like the other women in the carriage, she was
+greatly interested in its story. But presently it became evident
+that her interest was more than superficial. She looked
+well at the baby and was quiet for a time; then she said to
+the Christian who was bringing it to us: "I see it is going to
+be an intelligent child. Let me have it; I will pay you." The
+Christian of course refused, and asked her how she knew
+it was going to be intelligent. "Look at its nose," said the
+Temple woman. "See, here is money!" and she offered it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>
+"Let me have the baby! You can tell your Missie Ammal
+it died in the train!"</p>
+<div class="sidenote">"He banged the door!"</div>
+
+<p>Sometimes our babies have to run greater risks than this
+in their journeys south to us. The distances which have to
+be covered by train and bullock-cart are great, and the
+travelling tedious. And there are many delays and opportunities
+for difficulties to arise; so that when we know a
+baby is on its way to us we feel we want to wrap it round
+in prayer, so that, thus invisibly enveloped, it will be protected
+and carried safely all the way. Once a little child, travelling
+to us from a place as distant, counting by time, as Rome is
+from London, was observed by some Brahman men, who
+happened to be at the far end of the long third-class
+carriage. Our worker, who was alone with the child, noticed
+the whispering and glances toward her little charge, and
+wrapped it closer in its shawl, and, as she said, "looked out
+of the window as if she were not at all afraid, and prayed
+much in her heart." Presently a station was reached. The
+language spoken there was not her vernacular, but she
+understood enough to know something was being said about
+the baby. Then an official appeared, and there was a cry
+quite understandable to her: "A Brahman baby! That
+Christian there is kidnapping a Brahman baby!" The official
+stopped at the carriage door. She was pushed towards him
+amidst a confused chatter, a crowd gathered at the door in a
+moment, and someone shouted in Tamil, above the excited
+clamour on the platform: "Pull her out! A Christian with a
+Brahman baby!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then did my heart tremble! I held the baby tight in
+my arms. The man in clothes said, 'Show it to me!'
+And he looked at its hands and he looked at its feet,
+and he said: 'This is no child of yours!' But as I began
+to explain to him, the train moved, and he banged the
+door; and I praised God!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>India is a land where strange things can be accomplished
+with the greatest ease. As all went well it is idle to imagine
+what might have been; but we knew enough to be thankful.</p>
+
+<p>Among the unwritten chapters is one which touches a
+problem. There are some little children&mdash;often the most
+valuable to the Temple women&mdash;who cannot live with us, but
+can live with them, because the baby in the Temple house is
+nursed by a foster-mother for the sake of merit, and thus it
+is given its best chance of life; whereas with us it is impossible
+to get foster-mothers. Indian children of the castes
+approved for the service are not, as a class, as robust as
+others; the secluded lives of their mothers, and the rigid
+rules pertaining to widows (girl-children born after the
+mother becomes a widow are, as has been seen, in special
+danger), partly account for this; and in other cases there are
+other reasons. Whatever the cause, however, the effect is
+manifest. The baby is seldom the little bundle of content
+of our English nurseries. It may become so later on, if all
+goes well. Often it lives upon its birth-strength for four
+months, or less, and then slips away. We have often hesitated
+about taking such babies; and then we have found
+that by refusing one who is likely to die we have discouraged
+those who were willing to help us, and the next baby in danger
+has been taken straight to the house where its welcome was
+assured. So we have hardly ever dared to refuse, and we have
+taken little fragile things whose days we knew were numbered
+unless a foster-mother could be found, for it seemed to us that
+death with us was better than life with the Temple people;
+and also we have not dared to risk losing the next, who might
+be healthy. "One dies, one lives," say the Temple women in
+their wisdom, and take all who are suitable in caste and in
+appearance. "She will be 'fair,'" or, "She will be intelligent,"
+settles the matter for them. They give the baby a chance:
+should we do less?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span></p>
+<div class="sidenote">"To what Purpose?"</div>
+
+<p>One night I woke suddenly with the feeling of someone
+near, and saw, standing beside my bed out on the verandah,
+the friend who has sent us so many little ones. She had
+something wrapped in a shawl in her arms, and as she moved
+the shawl a thin cry smote me with a fear, for a baby who
+has come to stay does not cry like that.</p>
+
+<p>It was a dear little baby, one of the type the Temple
+women prize, and will take so much trouble to rear. The little
+head was finely formed, and the tiny face, in its minute perfection
+of feature, looked as if some fairy had shaped it out of
+a cream rose-petal. Alas, there was that look we know so well
+and fear so much&mdash;that look of not belonging to us, the
+elsewhere, other-world look. But we could not do this work
+at all, we would not have the heart to do it, if we did not hope.
+So we go on hoping.</p>
+
+<p>The baby filled the next half-hour, for a thing so small can
+be hungry and say so; and together we heated the water and
+made the food, till, satisfied at length that her little charge
+was comfortable, our friend lay down to rest. "Jesus therefore
+being weary with His journey, sat thus on the well."
+There is something in the utter weariness after a long, hot
+journey, ending with seven hours in a bullock-cart over rough
+tracks by night, which always recalls that word of human
+tiredness. How I wished that the morning were not so near
+as I saw my friend asleep at last! A few hours later she was
+on her homeward way, and we were left with our hopes and
+our fears, and the baby.</p>
+
+<p>For three weeks we hoped against fear, till there was no
+room left for any more hope, or for anything but prayer that
+the child might cease to suffer. And after a month of struggle
+for life, the tiny, tossing thing lay still.</p>
+
+<p>"To what purpose is this waste?" Was it strange that
+the question came again to ourselves, and to others too? Our
+dear friend's toilsome travelling&mdash;a journey equal in expenditure<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>
+of time to one from London to Vienna and back again,
+and very much more exhausting, the faithful nurse's patience,
+the little baby's pain! And all the love that had grown through
+the weeks, and all the efforts that had failed, the very train
+ticket and bandy fare&mdash;was it all as water spilt on the
+ground? Was it waste?</p>
+
+<p>We knew in our hearts it was not. The dear little babe
+was safe; and it might be that our having taken her, though
+she was so very delicate, would result in another, a healthy
+child, being saved, who, if she had been refused, would never
+have been brought. This hope comforted us; and we prayed
+definitely for its fulfilment, and it was fulfilled. For shortly
+after that little seed had been sown in death, information came
+from the same source through which she had been saved, that
+another child was in danger of being adopted by Temple
+women; and this information would not have been given to
+our friend had the first child been refused. Nundinie we called
+this little gift: the name means Happiness.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes in moments of depression and disappointment
+we go for change of air and scene to the <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Premalia'">Pr&eacute;malia</ins> nursery;
+and the baby Nundinie, otherwise Dimples, of whom more
+afterwards, comes running up to us with her welcoming smile
+and outstretched arms; while others, with stories as full of
+comfort, tumble about us, and cuddle, and nestle, and pat
+us into shape. Then we take courage again, and ask forgiveness
+for our fears. It is true our problems are not always
+solved, and perhaps more difficult days are before; but we will
+not be afraid. Sometimes a sudden light falls on the way,
+and we look up and still it shines: and what can we do but
+"follow the Gleam"?</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+<h3>A Story of Comfort</h3>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/illus-14.jpg" width="550" height="389" alt="SEELA IS THE BABY IN THE MIDDLE. She slipped into the picture at the last moment, and so was caught unawares. Mala is to the right; Nullinie to the left. (This little one&#39;s left hand and foot are partially paralyzed through drugging in infancy.)" title="" />
+<span class="caption">SEELA IS THE BABY IN THE MIDDLE.<br />She slipped into the picture at the last moment, and so was caught unawares. Mala is to the right; Nullinie to the left. (This little one&#39;s left hand and foot are partially paralyzed through drugging in infancy.)</span>
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class='cap'>AMONG the stories of comfort is one that belongs to
+our merry little Seela. She is bigger now than
+when the despairing photographer broke thirteen
+plates in the vain attempt to catch her; but she is still
+most elusive and alluring, a veritable baby, though over
+two years old. Some months ago, the Iyer measured her,
+and told her she was thirty-two inches of mischief. For
+weeks afterwards, when asked her name, she always replied
+with gravity, "Terty-two inses of mistef."</div>
+
+<p>All who have to do with babies know how different
+they can be in disposition and habits. There is the shop-window
+baby, who shows all her innocent wares at once
+to everyone kind enough to look. She is a charming
+baby. And there is the little wild bird of the wood, who
+will answer your whistle politely, if you know how to
+whistle her note; but she will not trust herself near you
+till she is sure of you. Seela is that sort of baby. We
+have watched her when she has been approached by some
+unfamiliar presence, and seen her summon all her baby
+dignity to keep her from breaking into tears of overwhelming
+shyness. Give her time to observe you from
+under long, drooping lashes; give her time to make sure&mdash;then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>
+the mischief will sparkle out, and something of
+the real child. But only something, never all, till you
+become a relation; with those who are only acquaintances
+Seela, like Bala, has many reserves.</p>
+
+<p>Seela's joy is to be considered old and allowed to go
+to the kindergarten. She takes her place with the bigger
+babies, and tries to do all she sees them do. Sometimes
+a visitor looks in, and then Seela, naturally, will do nothing;
+but if the visitor is wise and takes no notice, she will
+presently be rewarded by seeing the eager little face light
+up again, and the fat hands busily at work. Seela is not
+supposed to be learning very seriously; but she seems to
+know nearly as much as some of the older children, and
+her quaint attempts at English are much appreciated.
+Seela has her faults. She likes to have her own way, and
+once was observed to slap severely an offender almost
+twice her own size; but on the whole she is a peaceful
+little person, beloved by all the other babies, both senior
+and junior. Her great ambition is to follow Chellalu into
+all possible places of mischief. Anything Chellalu can do
+Seela will attempt; and as she is more brave than steady
+on her little feet, she has many a narrow escape. Her
+latest escapade was to follow her reckless leader in an
+attempt to walk round the top of the back of a large
+armchair, the cane rim of which is a slippery slant, two
+inches wide.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Table Manners</div>
+
+<p>On the morning of her arrival, not liking to leave her
+even for a few minutes, I carried her to the early tea-table,
+when she saw the Iyer and smiled her first smile to
+him. From that day on she has been his loyal little
+friend. At first his various absences from home perplexed
+her. She would toddle off to his room and hunt everywhere
+for him, even under his desk and behind his waste-paper
+basket, and then she returned to the dining-room<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>
+with a puzzled little face. "Iyer is not!" "Where is he,
+Seela?" "Gone to Heaven!" was her invariable reply.
+When he returned from that distant sphere she never
+displayed the least surprise. That is not our babies' way.
+She calmly accepted him as a returned possession; stood
+by his chair waiting for the invitation, "Climb up"; climbed
+up as if he had never been away&mdash;and settled down to
+bliss.</p>
+
+<p>Part of this bliss consists in being supplied with morsels
+of toast and biscuit and occasional sips of tea. Sometimes
+there is that delicious luxury, a spoonful of the unmelted
+sugar at the bottom of the cup. For Seela is a baby after
+all, and does not profess to be like grown-up people who
+do not appreciate nice things to eat, being, of course, entirely
+superior to food; but, excitable little damsel as she
+is in all other matters, her table manners are most correct,
+and she shows her appreciation of kind attentions in
+characteristic fashion. A smile, so quick under the black
+lashes that only one on the look-out for it would see it,
+a sudden confiding little nestle closer to the giver&mdash;these are
+her only signs of pleasure; and if no notice is taken of
+her, she sits in silent patience. Sometimes, if politeness be
+mistaken for indifference, a shadow creeps into her eyes,
+a sort of pained surprise at the obtuseness of the great;
+but she rarely makes any remark, and never points or
+asks, as the irrepressible Chellalu does in spite of all our
+admonitions. If, however, Seela is being attended to and
+fed at judicious intervals, and she knows the intention is
+to feed her comfortably, then her attitude is different.
+She feels a reminder will be acceptable; and as soon as
+she has disposed of a piece of biscuit, she quietly holds up
+an empty little hand, and glances fearlessly up to the face
+that looks down with a smile upon her. This little silent,
+empty hand, held up so quietly, has often spoken to us<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>
+of things unknown to our little girl; and as if to enforce
+the lesson, the other babies, to our amusement, apparently
+noticing the gratifying result of Seela's upturned hand,
+began to hold up their little hands with the same silent
+expectancy, till all round the table small hands were
+raised in perfect silence, by hopeful infants of observant
+habits and strong faith.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/illus-15.jpg" width="550" height="385" alt="THE COTTAGE NURSERY." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE COTTAGE NURSERY.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Mala, the rather stolid-looking little girl to the right of
+the photograph, is Seela's elder sister. She is not so square-faced
+as the photograph shows her, and she is much more
+interesting. This little one seems to us to have in some
+special sense the grace of God upon her; for her nursery
+life is so happy and blameless and unselfish, that we rarely
+have to wish her different in anything. Her coming, with
+little Seela's, is one of the very gladdest of our Overweights
+of Joy.</p>
+
+<p>We heard of the little sisters through a mission schoolmaster,
+who&mdash;knowing that they had been left motherless,
+and that a Hindu of good position had obtained something
+equivalent to powers of guardianship, and thus empowered
+had placed them with a Temple woman&mdash;was most anxious
+to save them, and wrote to us; and, as he expressed it,
+"also earnestly and importunately prayed the benign British
+Government to intervene."</p>
+<div class="sidenote">"And he said.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. But God said"</div>
+
+<p>The Collector to whom the petition was sent was a friend
+of ours. He knew about the nursery work, and was ready
+to do all he could; but he did not want a disturbance with
+the Caste and Temple people, and so advised us to try to
+get the children privately. We sent our wisest woman-worker,
+Ponnamal, to the town, and she saw the principal
+people concerned; but they entirely refused to give up the
+children. The man who had adopted them had got his
+authority from the local Indian sub-magistrate; and contended
+that as the Government had given them to him,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>
+no one had any right to take them from him; "and even if
+the Government itself ordered me to give them up, I never
+will. I will never let them go." This in Tamil is even more
+explicit: "The hold by which I hold them I will never let
+go." Ponnamal returned, weary in mind and in body, after
+three days of travelling and effort; she had caught a glimpse
+of the baby, and the little face haunted her. The elder child
+was reported very miserable, and she had seen nothing of
+her. The guardian, of course, had not dealt with her
+direct; but she heard he had taken legal advice, and was
+sure of his position. There was nothing hopeful to report.
+Once again we tried, but in vain. By this time a new bond
+had been formed, for the guardian had become attached to
+little Seela, and spent his time, so we heard, in playing with
+her. He let it be known that nothing would ever make
+him give her up. "She is in my hand, and my hand will
+never let go."</p>
+
+<p>Then suddenly news came that he was dead. The baby
+had sickened with cholera. He had nursed her and contracted
+the disease. In two days he had died. He had
+been compelled to let go.</p>
+
+<p>Then the feeling of all concerned changed completely.
+It hardly needed the Collector's order, given with the
+utmost promptitude, to cause the Temple woman to give
+the children up. To the Indian mind, quick to see the
+finger of God in such an event, the thing was self-evident.
+An unseen Power was at work here. Who were they that
+they should withstand it? A telegram told us the children
+were safe, and next day we had them here.</p>
+
+<p>The baby was happy at once; but the elder little one, then
+a child of about three and a half, was very sorrowful. She
+was so pitifully frightened, too, that at first we could do
+nothing with her; and there was a look in her eyes that
+alarmed us, it was so distraught and unchildlike. "My<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>
+mother did her best for them," wrote the kind schoolmaster
+to whose house the children had been taken when the Temple
+woman gave them up; "but the elder one has fever. She is
+always muttering to herself, and can neither stand nor sit."
+She could stand and sit now, only there was the "muttering,"
+and the terrible look of bewilderment worse than pain. For
+days it was a question with us as to whether she would ever
+recover perfectly. That first night we had to give her
+bromide, and she woke very miserable. Next day she stood
+by the door waiting for her mother, as it seemed; for under
+her breath she was constantly whispering, "Amma! Amma!"
+("Mother! Mother!") She never cried aloud, only sobbed
+quietly every now and then. She would not let us touch
+her, but shrank away terrified if we tried to pet her. All
+through the third day she sat by the door. This was better
+than the weary standing, but pitiful enough. On the morning
+of the fourth day she sat down again for a long watch; but
+once when her little hand went up to brush away a tear,
+we saw there was a toy in it, and that gave us hope. That
+night she went to bed with a doll, an empty tin, and a ball
+in her arms; and the next day she let us play with her in
+a quiet, reserved fashion. Next morning she woke happy.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Teachers&mdash;unawares</div>
+
+<p>The babies teach us much, and sometimes their unconscious
+lessons illuminate the deeper experiences of life. One such
+illumination is connected in my mind with the little trellised
+verandah, shown in the photograph, of the cottage used as a
+nursery when Mala and Seela came to us.</p>
+
+<p>It was the hour between lights, and five babies under two
+years old were waiting for their supper&mdash;Seela, Tara, and Evu
+(always a hungry baby), Ruhinie, usually irrepressible, but
+now in very low spirits, and a tiny thing with a face like
+a pansy&mdash;all five thinking longingly of supper. These five
+had to wait till the fresh milk came in, as their food was
+special; that evening the cows had wandered home with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>
+more than their usual leisureliness from their pasture out
+in the jungle, and so the milk was late.</p>
+
+<p>The babies, who do not understand the weary ways of
+cows, disapproved of having to wait, and were fractious.
+To add to their depression, the boy whose duty it was to
+light the lamps and lanterns had been detained, and the
+trellised verandah was dark. So the five fretful babies
+made remarks to each other, and threw their toys about
+in that exasperated fashion which tells you the limits of
+patience have been passed; and the most distressed began
+to whimper.</p>
+
+<p>At this point a lantern was brought and set behind me,
+so that its light fell upon the discarded toys, miscellaneous
+but beloved&mdash;a china head long parted from its body, one
+whole new doll, a tin with little stones in it, a matchbox,
+and other sundries. If anything will comfort them, their
+toys will, I thought, as I directed their attention to the tin
+with its pleasant rattling pebbles, and the other scattered
+treasures on the mat. But the babies looked disgusted. Toys
+were a mockery at that moment. Evu seized the china head
+and flung it as far as ever she could. Tara sat stolid, with
+two fingers in her mouth. Seela turned away, evidently
+deeply hurt in her feelings, and the other two cried. Not
+one of them would find consolation in toys.</p>
+
+<p>Then the pansy-faced baby, Pr&acirc;sie, pointed out to the
+bushes, where something dangerous, she was quite sure, was
+moving; and she wailed a wail of such infectious misery that
+all the babies howled. And one rolled over near the lantern
+which was on the floor behind me, and for safety's sake I
+moved it, and its light fell on my face. In a moment all
+five babies were tumbling over me with little exclamations
+of delight, and they nestled on my lap, caressing and
+content.</p>
+
+<p>Are there not evenings when our toys have no power to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>
+please or soothe? There is not any rest in them or any
+comfort. Then the One whom we love better than all His
+dearest gifts comes and moves the lantern for us, so that our
+toys are in the shadow but His face is in the light. And
+He makes His face to shine upon us and gives us peace.</p>
+
+<p>"For Thou, O Lord my God, art above all things best; .&nbsp;.&nbsp;.
+Thou alone most sufficient and most full; Thou alone most
+sweet and most comfortable.</p>
+
+<p>"Thou alone most fair and most loving; Thou alone most
+noble and most glorious above all things; in whom all things
+are at once and perfectly good, and ever have been and
+shall be.</p>
+
+<p>"And therefore whatever Thou bestowest upon me beside
+Thyself, or whatever Thou revealest or promisest concerning
+Thyself, so long as I do not see or fully enjoy Thee, is too
+little, and fails to satisfy me.</p>
+
+<p>"Because, indeed, my heart cannot truly rest nor be entirely
+contented unless it rest in Thee, and rise above all Thy gifts
+and all things created.</p>
+
+<p>"When shall I fully recollect myself in Thee, that through
+the love of Thee I may not feel myself but Thee alone, above
+all feeling and measure in a manner not known to all?"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+
+<h3>Pickles and Puck</h3>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/illus-16.jpg" width="550" height="392" alt="&quot;PICKLES&quot; AND HER FRIENDS. &quot;Pickles&quot; sits with her thumb in her mouth, distrustful of photographers." title="" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;PICKLES&quot; AND HER FRIENDS.<br />&quot;Pickles&quot; sits with her thumb in her mouth, distrustful of photographers.<br /><br /></span>
+</div>
+
+<div class='cap'>"AMMA! Amma!" then in baby Tamil, "Salala has
+come!" And one of the most enticing of the little
+interruptions to a steady hour's work scrambles
+over the raised doorstep, tripping and tumbling in her
+eagerness to get in. Now she is staggering happily about
+the room on fat, uncertain feet. Upsets are nothing to Sarala.
+She shakes herself, rubs a bumped head, smiles if you smile
+down at her, and picks herself up with a sturdy independence
+that promises something for her future. She has travelled
+to-day, stopping only to visit her Pr&eacute;ma Sittie, a long way
+across the field all by herself. She has braved tumbles and
+captures, for her nurse may any minute discover her flight;
+and even now, safe in port, she keeps a wary eye on the
+door which opens on the nursery side of the compound. If
+she thinks I am about to suggest her departure, she immediately
+engages me in some interest of her own. She has
+ways and wiles unknown to any baby but herself; and if all
+seems likely to fail, she sits down on the floor, and first puts
+out her lower lip as far as it will go, and then springs up,
+climbs over you, clings with all four limbs at once, and buries
+her curly tangle deep into your neck. But if the case is
+hopeless, she sits down on the floor again and digs her small<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span>
+fists into her eyes, in silent indignation and despair. Then
+comes a howl impossible to smother, and at last such bitter
+bursts of woe as nothing short of dire necessity can force
+you to provoke. This is Sarala, one of the most affectionate,
+most wilful, most winsome of all the babies. She is truthful.
+She has just this moment pulled a drawing-pin out of its place,
+which happened to be within reach, and her solemn "Aiyo!"
+(Alas!) "Look, Amma!" shows she feels she has sinned, but
+wants to confess. Life will have many a battle for this
+baby; but surely if she is truthful and loving, and we are
+loving and wise, the Lord who has redeemed her will carry
+her through.</div>
+
+<p>Her first great battle royal was with the new Sittie,<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> who
+immediately upon arrival loved the babies. The battle was
+about Sarala's evening meal, which she refused to take from
+the new Sittie because she had offended her small majesty
+a few minutes before by allowing another baby to share the
+lap of which Sarala wished to have complete possession; and
+the baby had crawled off disgusted with the ways of such
+a Sittie.</p>
+
+<p>As a rule we avoid collisions at bedtime. The day should
+end peacefully for babies; but the contest once begun had to
+be carried through, for Sarala is not a baby to whom it is wise
+to give in where a conflict of wills is concerned. Next morning
+it was evident she remembered all about it. When the
+new Sittie (now called Pr&eacute;ma Sittie by the children)<a name="FNanchor_C_3" id="FNanchor_C_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_3" class="fnanchor">[C]</a> came to
+the nursery, Sarala hurried off and would have nothing to do
+with her. From the distance of the garden she would catch
+sight of her advancing form, and retreat round a corner.
+Sometimes if Pr&eacute;ma Sittie sat down on the floor and fondled
+another baby, Sarala would crawl up from behind, put her arms
+round her neck, and even begin to sit down on her knee; but
+if her Sittie made the first advance, she was instantly repelled.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>
+This continued for a fortnight; and as Sarala was only a year
+and eight months old at the time, a fortnight's memory rather
+astonished us. In the end she forgot, and now there are no
+more devoted friends than Pr&eacute;ma Sittie and Sarala.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Twins</div>
+
+<p>But it was the other Sittie, Piria Sittie by name,<a name="FNanchor_D_4" id="FNanchor_D_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_D_4" class="fnanchor">[D]</a> who
+first made Sarala's acquaintance. She and I went to Neyoor
+together when the branch nursery was there; and as the new
+nursery was almost ready for the babies, we lightened the
+immense undertaking of removal by carting off whatever we
+could of furniture and infants. Sarala has eyes which can
+smile bewitchingly, and a voice which can coo with delicious
+affection; but those sweet eyes can look stormy, and cooing
+is a sound remote from Sarala's powers in opposite directions;
+so we wondered, as we packed her into the bandy, what
+would happen that night. If we had known Sarala better
+we should not have wondered. All this child wants to make
+her good is someone to hold on to. She woke frequently
+during the night, for we were not entirely comfortable, wedged
+sideways and close as herrings in a barrel. But all she did
+when she awoke was to push a soft little arm round either
+one or other of us, and cuddle as close as she possibly could;
+the least movement on our part, however, she deeply resented
+and feared. A limpet on a rock is nothing to this baby. Her
+very toes can cling.</p>
+
+<p>Sarala's private name is Pickles. Her twin in mischief is
+Puck, and she, too, is fond of paying visits to the bungalow.
+But she always comes as a surprise; she never announces
+herself. You are busy with your back to the door when that
+curious feeling, a sense of not being quite alone, comes over
+you, and you turn and see an elfish thing, very still and small
+and shy, but with eyes so comical that Puck is the only
+possible name by which she could be called. Seen unexpectedly,
+playing among the flowers in a fragment of green garment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>
+washed to the softness of a tulip leaf, you feel she only needs
+a pair of small wings and a wand to be entirely in character.</p>
+
+<p>Puck has none of Pickles' faults, and a good many of her
+virtues. She is a most good-tempered little person, loving
+to be loved, but equally delighted that others should share the
+petting. She gives up to everybody, and smiles her way
+through life; such a comical little mouth it is, to match the
+comical eyes. All she ever asks with insistence is somewhere
+to play. Bereft of room to play, Puck might become disagreeable,
+though a disagreeable Puck is something unimaginable.
+Yesterday it was needful to keep her in the shade; and as
+a special policeman-nurse could not be told off to keep watch
+over her, she was tied by a long string to the nursery door.
+At first she was sorely distressed; but presently the comic side
+struck her, and she sat down and began to tie herself up more
+securely. If they do such things at all they should do them
+better, she seemed to think. And this is Puck all through.
+She will find the laugh hidden in things, if she can. Sometimes
+in her eagerness to make everybody as happy as she is herself
+she gets into serious trouble. She was hardly able to walk
+when she was discovered comforting a crying infant by taking
+a bottle of milk from an older babe (who, according to her
+thinking, had had enough) and giving it to the younger one
+who seemed to need it more. What the older baby said is
+not recorded.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Disgraced Dohnavur</div>
+
+<p>Puck in trouble is a pitiful sight. She tries not to give
+in to feelings of depression. She screws her smiling lips tight,
+twists her face into a pucker, and shuts her eyes till you only
+see two slits marked by the curly eyelashes. But if her
+emotions are too much for her she gives herself up to them
+thoroughly. There is no whining or whimpering or sulking;
+she wails with a wail that rivals Pickles' howl. "What an
+awful child!" remarked a visitor one morning, in a very
+shocked tone, as she went the round of the nurseries and came<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>
+upon Puck on the floor abandoned to grief. We wondered
+if our friend knew how much more awful most babies are,
+and we wished the usually charming Puck had chosen
+some other moment to disgrace herself and us. But no, there
+she sat, her two small fists crushed over her mouth&mdash;for
+we insist that when the babes feel obliged to cry, they shall
+smother the sound thereof as much as may be&mdash;and the visitor
+retired, feeling, doubtless, thankful the awful child was not
+hers. But Puck's griefs are of short duration. Ten minutes
+later she was climbing the chain from which the swing hangs,
+trying to fit her little toes into the links, and laughing, with
+the tears still wet on her cheeks, because the chain shook so
+that she could not climb it properly, though she tried it
+valiantly, hand over head, like a dancing bear on a pole.
+Puck's Guardian Angel, like Chellalu's, must be ever in
+attendance.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> Miss Lucy Ross.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_3" id="Footnote_C_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_3"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> "Pr&eacute;ma" means <i>Beloved</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_D_4" id="Footnote_D_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_D_4"><span class="label">[D]</span></a> Miss Mabel Wade, who joined us November 15, 1907. "Piria," like
+"Pr&eacute;ma," means <i>Beloved</i>.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+
+<h3>The Howler</h3>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>PICKLES and Puck at their worst and both together
+are nothing to the Howler in her separate capacity.
+We called her the Howler because she howled.</div>
+
+<p>We heard of her first through our good Pakium, who,
+during a pilgrimage round the district, paid a visit to the
+family of which she was the youngest member. "She lay
+in her cradle asleep"&mdash;Pakium kindled over it&mdash;"like an
+innocent little flower, and she once opened her eyes&mdash;such
+eyes!&mdash;and smiled up in my face. Oh, like a flower is the
+babe!" And much speech followed, till we pictured a tender,
+flower-like baby, all sweetness and smiles.</p>
+
+<p>Her story was such as to suggest fears, though on the
+surface things looked safe. Her grandfather, a fine old man,
+head of the house, was sheltering the baby and her mother
+and three other children; for the son-in-law had "gone to
+Colombo," which in this case meant he desired to be free
+from the responsibilities of wife and family. He had left no
+address, and had not written after his departure. So the old
+man had the five on his hands. A Temple woman belonging
+to a famous South-country Temple, knowing the circumstances,
+had made a flattering offer for the baby, then just
+three months old. The grandfather had refused; but the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>
+grandmother was religious, and she felt the pinch of the
+extra five, and secretly influenced her daughter, so that it
+was probable the Temple woman would win if she waited
+long enough. And Temple women know how to wait.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/illus-17.jpg" width="500" height="351" alt="THE DOHNAVUR COUNTRY IN FLOOD." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE DOHNAVUR COUNTRY IN FLOOD.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>A year passed quietly. We had friends on the watch,
+and they kept us informed of what was going on. The
+idea of dedication was becoming gradually familiar to the
+grandfather, and he was ill and times were hard. But still
+we could do nothing, for to himself and his whole clan
+adoption by Christians was a far more unpleasant alternative
+than Temple-dedication. After all, the Temple people never
+break caste.</p>
+
+<p>Once a message reached us: "Send at once, for the
+Temple women are about to get the baby"; and we sent,
+but in vain. A few weeks later a similar message reached
+us; and again the long journey was made, and again there
+was the disappointing return empty-handed. It seemed useless
+to try any more.</p>
+
+<p>About that time a comrade in North Africa, Miss Lilias
+Trotter, sent us her new little booklet, "The Glory of the
+Impossible." As we read the first few paragraphs and
+roughly translated them for our Tamil fellow-workers, such
+a hope was created within us that we laid hold with fresh
+faith and a sort of quiet, confident joy. And yet, when we
+wrote to our friends who were watching, their answer was
+most discouraging. The only bright word in the letter was
+the word "Impossible."</p>
+
+<p>"Far up in the Alpine hollows, year by year, God works
+one of His marvels. The snow-patches lie there, frozen
+into ice at their edges from the strife of sunny days and
+frosty nights; and through that ice-crust come, unscathed,
+flowers in full bloom.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">The Glory of the Impossible</div>
+
+<p>"Back in the days of the bygone summer the little
+soldanella plant spread its leaves wide and flat on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>
+ground to drink in the sun-rays; and it kept them stored
+in the root through the winter. Then spring came and
+stirred its pulses even below the snow-shroud. And as it
+sprouted, warmth was given out in such strange measure
+that it thawed a little dome of the snow above its head.
+Higher and higher it grew, and always above it rose the
+bell of air till the flower-bud formed safely within it; and
+at last the icy covering of the air-bell gave way and let
+the blossom through into the sunshine, the crystalline texture
+of its mauve petals sparkling like the snow itself,
+as if it bore the traces of the fight through which it had
+come.</p>
+
+<p>"And the fragile things ring an echo in our hearts that
+none of the jewel-like flowers nestled in the warm turf on
+the slopes below could waken. We love to see the impossible
+done, and so does God."</p>
+
+<p>These were the sentences which we read together. To
+the South Indian imagination Alpine snow is something
+quite inconceivable; but the picture on the cover and snow-scene
+photographs helped, and the Indian mind is ever
+quick to apprehend the spiritual, so the booklet did its
+work.</p>
+
+<p>We have two seasons here, the wet and the dry. The dry
+is subdivided into hot, hotter, and hottest; but the wet stands
+alone. It is a time when the country round Dohnavur is
+swamp or lake according to the level of the ground; and we
+do not expect visitors&mdash;the heavy bullock-carts sink in the
+mud and make the way too difficult. If a letter had come
+just then asking us to send for the baby, we should certainly
+have tried to go; but no letter came, and it was then, when
+everything said, "Impossible," that suddenly all resistance
+gave way and the grandfather said: "Let her go to the
+Christians."</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 351px;">
+<img src="images/illus-18.jpg" width="351" height="500" alt="PAKIUM AND NAVEENA." title="" />
+<span class="caption">PAKIUM AND NAVEENA.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>We were sitting round the dinner-table one wet evening,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>
+thinking of nothing more exciting than the flying and creeping
+creatures which insisted upon drowning themselves in our
+soup, when the jingle of bullock-bells made us look at each
+other incredulously; and then, without waiting to wonder
+who it was, we all ran out and met Rukma running in from
+the wet darkness. "It's it! it's it!" she cried, and danced
+into the dining-room, decorum thrown to the pools in the
+compound. "Look at it!" and we saw a bundle in her arms.
+And it howled.</p>
+
+<p>From that day on for nearly a week it continued consistently
+to howl. We called the little thing Naveena, for the
+name means "new"; and it was our nearest approach to Soldanella,
+which we should have called her if we did not keep to
+Indian names for our babies. New and fresh as that little
+flower of joy, so was our new little gift to us, a new token
+for good. But flowers and howlers&mdash;the words draw their
+little skirts aside and refuse to touch each other. From
+certain points of view, in this case as so often, the sublime
+and the ridiculous were much too close together. The very
+crows made remarks about the baby when she wakened the
+morning with her howls. Mercifully for the family's nerves
+she fell asleep at noon; but as soon as she woke she began
+again, and went on till both she and we were exhausted.
+There were no tears, the big dark eyes were only entirely
+defiant; and the baby stood straight up with her hands
+behind her back and her mouth open&mdash;that was all. But
+we knew it meant pure misery, though expressed so very
+aggressively; and we coaxed and petted when she would
+allow us, and won her confidence at last, and then she
+stopped.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Friends</div>
+
+<p>It took months to tame the little thing. She had been
+allowed to do exactly as she liked; for she was her grandfather's
+pet, and no one might cross her will. We had to
+go very gently; but eventually she understood and became<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span>
+a dear little girl, reserved but very affectionate, and scampish
+to such a degree that Chellalu, discerning a congenial spirit,
+decided to adopt her as "her friend."</p>
+
+<p>This fact was announced to us at the babies' Bible-class,
+when the word "friend," which was new to the babies, was
+being explained. It has four syllables in Tamil, and the
+babies love four-syllabled words. They were rolling this
+juicy morsel under their tongues with sounds of appreciation,
+when Chellalu pointed across to Naveena, and with an
+air of possession remarked, "<i>She</i> is my friend." The other
+babies nodded their heads, "Yes, Naveena is Chellalu's
+friend!" Naveena looked flattered and very pleased.</p>
+
+<p>These friends in a kindergarten class are rather terrible.
+They are always separated&mdash;as the Tamil would say, if one
+sits north the other sits south&mdash;but even so there are means
+of communication. This morning, passing the door of the
+kindergarten room, I looked in and saw something not
+included in the time-table. We have a little yellow bellflower
+here which grows in great profusion; and some vandal
+taught the babies to blow it up like a little balloon, and then
+snap it on the forehead. The crack it makes is delightful.
+We do not like this game, and try to teach the babies to
+respect the pretty flowers; but there are so many sins in the
+world, that we do not make another by actually forbidding
+it; we trust to time and sense and good feeling to help us.
+So it comes to pass that the worst scamps indulge in this
+game without feeling too guilty; and now I saw Chellalu
+with a handful of the flowers, cracking them at intervals, to
+the distraction of the teacher and the delight of all the class.
+One other was cracking flowers too. It was Naveena, and
+there was a method in her cracks. When Rukma turned to
+Chellalu, Naveena cracked her flower. When she turned to
+Naveena, then Chellalu cracked hers. How they had eluded
+the search which precedes admission to the kindergarten<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>
+nobody knew; but there they were, each with a goodly handful
+of bells. At a word from Rukma, however, they handed them
+over to her with an indulgent smile, and even offered to
+search the other babies in case they had secreted any; and
+as I left the room the lesson continued as before, but the
+friends' intention was evident: they had hoped to be turned
+out together.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+
+<h3>The Neyoor Nursery</h3>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"The roads are rugged, the precipices steep; there may be
+feelings of dizziness on the heights, gusts of wind, peals of thunder,
+nights of awful gloom. Fear them not!</p>
+
+<p>"There are also the joys of sunlight, flowers such as are not
+in the plain, the purest of air, restful nooks, and the stars smile
+thence like the eyes of God."&mdash;<span class="smcap">P&egrave;re Didon</span> (<i>translated by Rev.
+Arthur G. Nash</i>).</p></div>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/illus-19.jpg" width="550" height="385" alt="ON THE ROAD TO NEYOOR." title="" />
+<span class="caption">ON THE ROAD TO NEYOOR.</span><br /><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='cap'>AND now for a chapter of history. We had not been
+long at the new work before we discovered difficulties
+unimagined before, and impossible to describe
+in detail. Some of these concerned the health of the younger
+children; and eventually it seemed best to move the infants'
+nursery to within reach of medical help, and keep the bigger
+babies and elder children, whose protection was another grave
+anxiety, with us at Dohnavur.</div>
+
+<p>Shortly before that time we had been brought into
+touch with the medical missionaries at Neyoor, in South
+Travancore. The senior missionary, Dr. Fells, was about to
+retire; but his successor, Dr. Bentall, cordially agreed to let
+us rent a little house in the village and fill it with babies,
+though he knew such a houseful might materially add to
+the fulness of his already overflowing day. He, and afterwards<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>
+Dr. Davidson (now the only survivor at Neyoor of
+that kind trio of doctors), seemed to think nothing a trouble
+if only it helped a friend. So the little house was taken
+and the babies installed.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/illus-20.jpg" width="500" height="350" alt="ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF NAGERCOIL, WHERE WE STOPPED TO REST." title="" />
+<span class="caption">ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF NAGERCOIL, WHERE WE STOPPED TO REST.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The first day, September 25, 1905, is a day to be
+remembered. I had gone on before to prepare the house,
+and for a day and a half waited in uncertainty as to what
+had happened to the little party which was to have
+followed close behind. I had left one baby ill. She
+was the first child sent to us from the Canarese
+country; and I thought of the friends who had sent her,
+newly interested and stirred to seek these little ones, and
+of what it would mean of discouragement to them if she
+were taken, and my heart held on for her.</p>
+
+<p>At last the carts appeared in sight. It was the windy
+season, and six carts had been overturned on the road, so
+they had travelled slowly. Then a wheel came off one of
+their carts and an accident was narrowly averted. This
+had caused the delay. The baby about whom I had feared
+had recovered in time to be sent on. She was soon quite
+well, and has continued well from that day to this.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">The Welcome</div>
+
+<p>How familiar the road between Dohnavur and Neyoor
+became to us, as the months passed and frequent journeys
+were made with little new babies! Sometimes those
+journeys were very wearisome. There was great heat, or a
+dust-laden wind filled the bandy to suffocation and blew
+out the spirit-lamp when we stopped to prepare the babies'
+food. How glad we used to be when, in the early evening,
+the white gleam of the stretch of water outside Nagercoil
+appeared in sight! We used to stop and bathe the babies,
+and feed them under some convenient trees, and then go
+on to our friends with whom we were to spend the night,
+trusting that the soothing effect of the bathe and food
+would not pass off until after our arrival. Those friends,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>
+our comrades of the L.M.S., like the Medicals at Neyoor,
+seemed made of kindness. How often their welcome has
+rested us after the long day!</p>
+
+<p>Next morning we tried to start early, so as to arrive at
+Neyoor before the sun shone in fever-threatening strength
+straight in through the open end of the cart. This plan,
+however, proved too difficult, so we found it better to travel
+slowly straight on from Dohnavur to Neyoor. In this way we
+missed the blazing sun; but we also missed the refreshment
+of our friends at Nagercoil, and arrived more or less tired
+out, after a journey which, because of slow progress and
+frequent stops, was equal in time to one from London to
+Marseilles. But the welcome at the nursery made up for
+everything.</p>
+
+<p>How vividly the photograph recalls it! The house
+opened upon the main street of the village, and there was
+nearly always a watcher on the look-out for us. Sometimes
+it was Isaac, our good man-of-all-work, who never
+failed Ponnamal through the two years he was with us.
+Then we would hear a call, and Ponnamal (we used to call
+her the Princess, but dignity gives place to something more
+human at such moments) would come flying down the
+path with a face which made words superfluous. Then
+there was the scramble out of the bandy, and the handing
+down of babies and exclamations about them; and all the
+nurses seemed to be kissing us at once and making their
+amazed babies kiss us, and everything was for one happy
+moment bewilderingly delightful.</p>
+
+<p>Then there was the run round the cradles in which
+smaller babies were sleeping, and an eager comparing of
+notes as to the improvement of each. And if there were
+no improvement, how well one remembers the smothered
+sense of disappointment&mdash;smothered in public at least, lest
+the nurses should be discouraged. Then came a cup of tea<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>
+on the mat in the little front room, where four white
+hammock-cradles hung, one in each corner; while Ponnamal
+sat beside me with three babies on her knee and two or
+three more somewhere near her. The babies used to study
+me in their wise and serious fashion, and then make careful
+advances. And so we would make friends.</p>
+
+<p>Ponnamal had always much to tell about the exhaustless
+kindness of the doctors and their wives and the lady
+superintendent of the hospital. And the chief Tamil medical
+Evangelist had been true to his name, which means Blessedness.
+Once, in much distress of mind, we sent a little
+babe to the nursery, hardly daring to hope for her. When
+she arrived, the doctors were both away on tour, and the
+medical Evangelist was in charge. He attended to her at
+once, and by God's grace upon his work was able to relieve
+the little child, who has prospered ever since.</p>
+
+<p>But I must leave unrecorded many acts of helpfulness.
+In those early days of doubt and difficulty, almost forgotten
+by us now, we beckoned to our "partners which were in the
+other ship," and their Master and ours will not forget how
+they held out willing hands and helped us.</p>
+
+<p>It was not always plain sailing, even at Neyoor. "You
+are fighting Satan at a point upon which he is very sensitive;
+he will not leave you long in peace," wrote an experienced
+friend. On Palm Sunday, 1907, our first little band of young
+girls, fruit of this special work, confessed Christ in baptism,
+and we stood by the shining reach of water, and tasted of a
+joy so pure and thrilling that nothing of earth may be
+likened to it. A fortnight later we were ordered to the
+hills, and then the trouble came.</p>
+
+<p>The immediate cause was overcrowding. Why did we
+overcrowd?</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Could we Refuse?</div>
+
+<p>Friends at home to whom the facts about Temple service
+were new, were stirred to earnest prayer. Out here fellow-missionaries<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>
+helped us to save the children. God heard the
+prayer and blessed the work, and children began to come.
+Soon our one little room became too full. We had babies
+in the bungalow and on our verandah, babies everywhere.
+Then money came to build two more rooms, but they were
+soon too full. At Neyoor the pressure was worse, for we
+could only rent two small houses; and though we put up
+mat shelters, and the children lived as much as possible in
+the open air, it was difficult to manage. But how could we
+refuse the little children? The Temple women were ready to
+take them if we had refused. Their houses are never too full.
+There was no other nursery to which they could be sent.
+Little children who had passed the troublesome infant stage
+could sometimes find a home elsewhere; but only the Temple
+houses were open at all times to babies. Could we have
+written to the friend who had saved a little child: "Hand
+her back to the Temple. It is the will of our Father that
+this little one should perish"? Should we have done it?
+We dare not do it. We prayed that help would be sent to
+build new nurseries, and we went on and did our best; but
+it was difficult.</p>
+
+<p>We had just reached the hills in early April, and were
+forbidden to return, when news reached us of a fatal
+epidemic of dysentery which had broken out in the Neyoor
+nursery. Unseasonable rains had fallen and driven the
+babies indoors; this increased the overcrowding. The doctors
+were away. Letters telling us about the disaster had been
+lost&mdash;how, we never knew&mdash;so that the second which reached
+us, taking it for granted we had the first, gave no details,
+only the names of the smitten babes&mdash;nineteen of them, and
+five dead. Then trouble followed trouble. "While he was
+yet speaking, there came also another." Some evil men who
+had sought to injure us before, caused us infinite anxiety.
+And for a time that cannot be counted in days or in weeks<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>
+it was like living through a nightmare, when everything
+happens in painful confusion and the sense of oppression is
+complete.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/illus-21.jpg" width="550" height="391" alt="THE NEYOOR NURSERY." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE NEYOOR NURSERY.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Out of the maelstrom came a letter from Ponnamal.
+"We are being comforted," she wrote. "You will be longing
+to come to us, but oh, do not come! If you were here all
+your strength would be given to fighting this battle with
+death, and you would have no strength left for prayer.
+God wanted to have one of us free to pray; and so He has
+taken you up to the mountain, as He took Moses when the
+people were fighting down in the plain." This was the true
+inward meaning of it all, and I knew it. But Ponnamal is
+far from strong, and I feared for her; and to stay away with
+the babies ill&mdash;it was the very hardest thing I had ever
+been asked to do.</p>
+
+<p>When the trouble passed there were ten in heaven.
+One, a little child of two, had been saved so wonderfully
+from Temple dedication that we had looked forward to
+a future of special blessing for her; and another was a
+very lovely babe, dear to the missionary who, after much
+toil and many disappointments, had been comforted by
+saving her. Each of the ten had cost someone much. But
+this is an earthly point of view. They had cost Him most
+who had taken them, and he is only an owner in name
+who has no right to do as he will with his own.</p>
+
+<p>The other side, the purely human side, pressed heavily
+just then. The doctors had most kindly at once ordered
+a mission room, vacated at that season, to be lent to the
+nursery, and another little house was taken for the month.
+How Ponnamal kept all four houses going in an orderly
+fashion, how she kept her nurses together through that time
+of almost panic, and how she herself, frail and delicate as
+she is, kept up till all was over, we cannot understand from
+any point of view but the Divine. She only broke down<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>
+once. It was when her dearest child, our merry, beautiful
+little Heart's Joy, who, having more strength than most, had
+battled longer and almost recovered, suddenly sank. The
+visible cause was that a special nutrient, which, being costly,
+we stocked in small quantities, ran short, and the fresh supply
+reached the nursery just too late. "If only it had come
+yesterday!" moaned Ponnamal, and we with her when we
+heard of the series of contretemps which had delayed its
+arrival. The torture of second causes is as the blackness of
+darkness, but the Lord gave deliverance from it; for just
+as she had to part with all that was left her of our little
+Heart's Joy, a letter came from Dr. Davidson which was God's
+own blessed comfort to a heart almost broken. She never
+refers to that letter without the quick tears starting. "I
+could let my little treasure go after I read that letter. It
+strengthened me."</p>
+<div class="sidenote">"The Lord sat as King at the Flood"</div>
+
+<p>While all this was going on in Neyoor, Chellalu, then just
+two years old, was very ill in Dohnavur. Mr. and Mrs.
+Walker were still there, and they nursed her night and day;
+but at last a letter came, evidently meant to prepare me
+for fresh sorrow. "Every little lamb belongs to the Good
+Shepherd, not to us," the letter said, and told of a temperature
+106&deg; and rising. The child, all spirit and frolic, had little
+reserve strength, and there was not much cause for hope.
+But we were spared this parting. Chellalu is with us still.</p>
+
+<p>The sky was clearing again and we were beginning to
+breathe freely, when the worst that had ever touched us in
+all our years of work came suddenly upon us. How small
+things that affect the body appear when the point of attack
+wheels round to the soul! The death of all the babies
+seemed as nothing compared with the falling away of one
+soul. But God is the God of the waves and the billows,
+and they are still His when they come over us; and again
+and again we have proved that the overwhelming thing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>
+does not overwhelm. Once more by His interposition
+deliverance came. We were cast down, but not destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>A time of calm succeeded this storm. Money came to build
+nurseries at Dohnavur, and buy more of the special nutrients
+we so much required. The Neyoor remnant picked up, and
+the nurses took heart again. I went out to them as soon
+as I could after our return from the hills, and found
+those who were left well and strong. "They shall see His
+face" had been the text in <i>Daily Light</i>, the evening the
+news reached me of the little procession heavenwards. I
+looked at the ten names written in the margin of my
+book; and, recalling the story of each, could be glad they
+have seen the face of the One who loves them best. Lower
+down on the page come the words, "We shall be satisfied."
+We thought of our babies satisfied so soon; and then we
+knelt together and said, "Even so, Father: for so it seemeth
+good in Thy sight."</p>
+
+<p>Pretty pictures all in colours and bright sunshine tempt
+one to linger over that visit. I can see the white hammocks
+slung from the trees in the nursery compound, and happy
+baby-faces looking out of them. And another shows me
+one who had been like a sister to Ponnamal, lightening
+her load whenever she could; sitting with two dear babies
+in her arms, and another clinging round her neck. "She
+comes and helps us often in the mornings when we are
+very busy," said Ponnamal about the doctor's wife, as I
+noticed the babies' affection for her and her sweet, kind ways
+with them. "Sometimes when I am feeling down and home-sick,
+she comes in like this and plays with the babies,
+and cheers us all up." The Indian woman is very home-loving.
+Only devotion to the children could have kept the
+nurses and Ponnamal so long in exile for their sake; and
+there were times when even Ponnamal's brave heart sank.
+Then these love-touches helped.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span></p>
+<div class="sidenote">Goodbye to Neyoor</div>
+
+<p>When the time came for the nursery party to leave
+Neyoor and return to Dohnavur, after two and a half years
+in that hospitable mission, we were sorry to part. Days
+like the days we had passed through test the stuff of which
+souls are made, and they prove what we call friendship.
+After the fire has spent itself, the fine gold shines out purified,
+and there is something solemn in its light. We had grown
+close to our friends in Neyoor; but the cloud had moved, so
+far as we could read the sign, and it seemed right to return.
+The missionaries were away when the day came, but the
+Christians surrounded Ponnamal with tokens of goodwill.
+"The nursery has been like a little light in our midst," they
+said; and this word cheered her more than all other words.
+And so farewelled, they arrived home, all glad and warm
+with the glow that comes when hearts meet each other
+and each finds the other kind.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+
+<h3>In the Compound and Near it</h3>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/illus-22.jpg" width="550" height="390" alt="THE OLD NURSERY. THE &quot;ROOM OF JOY.&quot;" title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE OLD NURSERY. THE &quot;ROOM OF JOY.&quot;</span>
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class='cap'>"NOW I know why God put you in Dohnavur when
+He wanted this work done. He hid you from the
+eyes of the world for the little children's sake. He
+knew this work could never have been done by the road-side,
+so He hid you."</div>
+
+<p>The speaker was a Christian friend from Palamcottah, an
+Indian lawyer who, for the first time, had come out to see us.
+He had found our approaches appalling, and had wondered
+at first why we lived in such an out-of-the-way place, three
+or four miles from the nearest road, and twenty-four from
+civilisation. When he saw the children he understood.
+Later, he helped us in an attempt to save two little ones
+in danger, and insisted not only upon paying his own and
+our worker's expenses, but in sending us a gift for the
+nurseries. With the gift came a letter full of loving,
+Indian sympathy; and again he added as before: "The Lord
+hid you in that quiet place for the little children's sake."
+Sometimes when the inconveniences of jungle life press upon
+us, we remember our friend's words: "This work could never
+have been done by the road-side, so He hid you."</p>
+
+<p>We have children with us who would not have been safe
+for a day had we lived near a large town or near a railway.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>
+The stretch of open country between us and Palamcottah
+(the Church Missionary Society centre of the Tinnevelly
+district), to cover which, by bullock-cart, takes as long as to
+travel from London to Brussels, is not considered very safe for
+solitary Indian travellers, as the robber clan frequent it, and
+this is an added protection for the children. Several times,
+to our knowledge, unwelcome visitors have been deterred from
+making a raid upon us, by the rumour of the robbers on
+the road. We are also most mercifully quite out of the beat
+of the ordinary exploiter of missions; few except the really
+keen care for such a journey; so that we get on with our
+work uninterrupted by anything but the occasional arrival
+of welcome friends and comrades. These, when they visit us
+for the first time, are usually much astonished to find something
+almost civilised out in the wilds, and they walk round
+with an air of surprise, and quite inspiring appreciation,
+being kindly pleased with little, because they had looked
+for less.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/illus-23.jpg" width="550" height="390" alt="THE COURTYARD." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE COURTYARD.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The compound in which the nurseries are built is a field,
+bounded on three sides by fields, and on the fourth by the
+bungalow compound. The Western Ghauts with their foothills
+make it a beautiful place.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Coming-days</div>
+
+<p>The buildings are not beautiful. With us, as elsewhere,
+doubtless, even the break of a gable in the straight, barn-like
+roof makes a difference in the estimate, and we have
+never had a margin for luxuries. But the walls are coloured
+a soft terra-cotta, the roofs are a dull red; while the porches
+(hidden by the palm trunks in the photograph) are a mass
+of greenery and bloom; and the garden at the moment of
+writing is rejoicing in over a hundred lilies, brilliant yellow
+and flame colour, each head with its many flowers rising
+separate and radiant in the sunshine. Then we have
+oleanders, crimson and pink and white, and little young
+hibiscus trees, crimson and rose and cream. The arches<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>
+in the new nursery garden are covered with the lilac of
+morning-glory; and the Prayer-room in the middle of the
+garden is a mass of violet passion-flower, the pretty pink
+antigone, and starry jessamine. The very hedges at this
+season are out in yellow flower, and a trellis round the
+nursery kitchen is a delight of colour; so though our buildings
+are simple, we think the lines have fallen unto us in pleasant
+places.</p>
+
+<p>The first picture shows the old nursery, used now for
+the kindergarten. It opens off the courtyard shown in the
+second photo. This courtyard serves as an open-air room,
+a bright little place which is filled with merrier children
+than the sober photograph shows. Tamils old and young
+move when they laugh or even smile; in fact they wriggle.
+Being still, with them, meant being seriously subdued; and
+so, where time-exposures were required, we had to choose
+between solemn photos, or no photos at all.</p>
+
+<p>Opening off the courtyard on the opposite side to the kindergarten
+is a room used as a store-room and Bible-class room
+combined. It was so very uncomfortable that last Christmas,
+as a surprise for the children, we divided the room into two
+halves with a curtain between. Their half is made pretty
+with pictures and texts, painted in blue on pale brown
+wood. The children call this part of the room the Tabernacle.
+The part beyond the curtain is the court of the
+Gentiles.</p>
+
+<p>The Coming-Day Feasts are a feature of Dohnavur life.
+Now that there are so many feasts to celebrate, we find it
+more convenient to combine; and the photograph overleaf
+shows as much as it can of one such happy feast. The children
+who are being f&ecirc;ted are distinguished from the others by
+having flowers in their hair. No Indian feast is complete
+without flowers. Jessamine is the favourite, but the prettiest
+wreaths are made of pink oleander; and sometimes a girl<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span>
+will surprise us with a new and lovely combination, as of
+brown flowering grasses and yellow Tecoma bells.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/illus-24.jpg" width="550" height="386" alt="A COMING-DAY FEAST." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A COMING-DAY FEAST.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Opposite the kindergarten room is the first of the two
+new nurseries&mdash;the lively Parrot-house. This nursery, really
+the Taraha (Star, called after its English giver, whose name
+means "star") is the abode of the middle-aged babies, aged
+between two years and four. Most of these attend the
+kindergarten, and are very proud of the fact.</p>
+
+<p>The Pr&eacute;malia nursery (Abode of Love), given by two
+friends in memory of a mother translated, lies beyond the
+Taraha. Here the tiny infants live, and we call it the
+Menagerie. This nursery, like the other, looks out on the
+glorious mountains. If beautiful things can make babies
+good, ours should be very good.</p>
+
+<p>On the eastern side of the field we have lately built two
+small sick-rooms, used oftener as overflow nurseries. These
+little rooms have names meaning "peace" and "tranquillity";
+and those of us who have lived in them with our babies,
+sick or well, find the names appropriate. In the foreground
+there is a garden, in the background the mountain; and
+to give purpose to it all, the foreground is full of life. A
+new nursery now being built is a welcome gift from Australia;
+and a new field with a noble tree, in whose shade a hundred
+children could play, is the gift of a friend who stayed with
+us for one bright week last year.</p>
+
+<p>All this is a later development, unthought of when our
+artist friend was with us. We have often wished for him
+since the nurseries filled. When he was with us our choice
+of subject was very limited: now, wherever we look we see
+pictures, which to be properly caught ask for colour photography.</p>
+
+<p>The story of these buildings is the story of the Ravens,
+so old and yet so new. When first the work began, we had
+only one mud-floored room for nursery, kitchen, bedroom,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>
+and everything else that was needed. We hardly knew
+ourselves whereunto things would grow, and feared to
+run before the Lord by even a prayer for buildings. And yet
+we could not go on as we were. The birds were soon
+too many for the nest, and we needed more nests. No
+one knew of our need; for visitors at that time were few
+at Dohnavur, and we told no one. But money began to
+come. We ventured on a single room without a verandah
+or even foundations&mdash;built of sun-dried bricks as inexpensively
+as possible. But it was a palace to us. While
+we were building it, more little children came. We felt we
+should need more room, but had not more money; so we
+told the builders to wait for a day while we gave ourselves to
+prayer about the matter. Was the work going to grow
+much more? We were fearful of making mistakes. Were
+we right to incur fresh responsibility?&mdash;for buildings need
+to be kept in condition, and the cheaper they are the more
+care they need. No one at home was responsible for us.
+No one had authorised this new work. It would not be
+fair to saddle those on whom the burden might eventually
+fall with responsibilities for which they were not responsible.
+And yet surely the work of saving these little children had
+been given to us to do? Someone was responsible. Surely,
+unless we were utterly wrong and had mistaken the Shepherd's
+Voice, surely He was responsible! He could not
+mean us to search for the lambs for whom only the wolves
+had been searching, and then leave them out in the open,
+found but unfolded, or packed so close in the little fold
+that they could not grow as little lambs should?</p>
+<div class="sidenote">The Registered Letter</div>
+
+<p>We rolled the burden off that day as to the ultimate
+responsibility, and we asked definitely for all that was
+needed to build another room.</p>
+
+<p>Three days later a registered letter came from a bank in
+Madras. It contained an anonymous gift of one hundred<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>
+rupees, and was marked, "For a new nursery." The date
+showed that it had been posted in Madras on the day of
+our waiting upon God for guidance as to His wishes. A
+few days later, the same amount, with the same direction as
+to its use, was sent to us from the same bank. The giver,
+as we knew long afterwards, was a fellow-missionary in
+Tinnevelly, whose order to send these sums to us was given
+before even we ourselves had fully understood the meaning
+of the leading. The second room was built on to the first,
+and the children called it the Room of Joy.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/illus-25.jpg" width="550" height="391" alt="THE RED LAKE. Water Palms, with Mountains in the background." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE RED LAKE.<br />Water Palms, with Mountains in the background.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>There are no secrets in India. The Hindu masons were
+amazed at what they at once recognised as the hand of the
+Lord upon the work, and they spread the story everywhere.
+Later, when they built the nursery where poor little Mala
+stood and mourned, they understood why they had to stop
+before the verandah was built. Only enough was in hand
+to build the bare room; but to their eyes, as to ours, a
+verandah was much needed, and they were content to wait
+till what was required for one came. In this land of
+blazing sunshine and drenching monsoon a house without
+a verandah is hardly habitable, and a small square room
+without one has a Manx-cat appearance.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">"These are Thy wonders, Lord"</div>
+
+<p>The story of the rooms has been repeated in the story of
+the work ever since. "Do not thank us. It is only a
+belated tenth," wrote a fellow-missionary not long ago, as
+she sent a gift for the nurseries. Belated tenths have
+reached us sometimes when they have been like visible
+ravens flying straight from the blue above. All the long
+journeys in search of the children, all the expenses connected
+with their salvation, all that has been required to
+provide nurses and food (including the special nourishment
+without which the more delicate could not live at all), all
+that is now being needed for their education&mdash;all has come and
+is coming as the ravens came to Elijah. The work has been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span>
+a revelation of how many hearts are sensitive and obedient
+to the touch of the Spirit; for sometimes help has reached
+us in such a way and in such form that we could not but
+stand and worship, awestruck by the token of the nearness
+of our God. There is many a spot marked in garden or in
+field or in the busy nursery or our own quiet room, where,
+with the open letter in our hand&mdash;the letter of relief from
+a pressure unknown even to the nearest fellow-worker&mdash;we
+have knelt in spirit with Jacob and said: "Surely the Lord
+is in this place!" and almost added, so dense are we in
+unilluminated moments, "and I knew it not."</p>
+
+<p>Framed between red roofs and foliage, there are far blue
+glimpses of mountains shown in this lakeside photograph.
+We do not see the water from the compound. It lies on
+the other side of the boundary fields and hedges; but we
+see the mountains with perfect distinctness of outline,
+scarped with bare crags, which in the early morning are
+sometimes pink, and in the evening, purple. But the time
+to see the mountains in their glory is when the south-west
+monsoon is flinging its masses of cloud across to us. Then
+the mountains, waking from the lazy sleep of the long, hot
+months, catch the clouds on their pointed fangs, toss them
+back and harry them, wrap themselves up in robes of them,
+and go to sleep again.</p>
+
+<p>The road that skirts the Red Lake leads through two
+ancient Hindu towns, from both of which we have children
+saved, in each case as by a miracle. In the first of these old
+towns there is a Temple surrounded by a mighty wall.</p>
+
+<p>There are two large gates and one small side door in
+the wall; and, passing in through the small side door, one
+sees another wall almost as strong as the first, and realises
+something of the power that built it. The Temple is in the
+centre of the large enclosure. It is a single tower opening
+off the inner court. In the outer court a pillared hall is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>
+used as stable for the Temple elephant, and two camels
+lounge in the roughly kept garden in front. This Temple,
+with its double walls, its massive, splendidly-carved doors
+and expensive animal life, is somewhat of a surprise to the
+visitor, who hardly expects to see so much in a little old
+country town on the borders of the wilds. But Hinduism
+has not lost hold of this old remote India yet. There are
+some who think that the country town is the place to see
+it in strength.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/illus-26.jpg" width="550" height="408" alt="AT THE DOOR OF THE TEMPLE." title="" />
+<span class="caption">AT THE DOOR OF THE TEMPLE.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>It was early in August, three years ago, that we heard of
+a baby girl in that town, devoted from birth to the god.
+We set wheels in motion, and waited. A month passed and
+nothing was done. We could not go ourselves and attempt
+to persuade the mother to change the vow she had made,
+as any movement on our part would only have riveted
+the links that fettered the child to the god. We had to be
+quiet and wait. At last, one evening in September, a Hindu
+arrived in the town with whom our friends who were on
+the watch had intimate connection. He, too, knew about the
+child; and he knew a way unknown to our friends by which
+the mother might be influenced, and he consented to try.
+His arrival just at that juncture appeared to us, who were
+waiting in daily expectation of an answer of deliverance, as
+the evident beginning of that answer; thus our faith was
+quickened and we waited in keen hope. Two days later,
+after dark, there was a rush from the nursery to the
+bungalow. "The baby has come!" Another moment, and
+we were in the nursery. A woman&mdash;one of our friends&mdash;was
+standing with what looked like a parcel wrapped in a
+cloth hidden under her arm. Even then, though all was
+safe, she was trembling; and outside, two men, her relations,
+stood on guard. She opened the white cloth, and inside
+was the baby.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Her Choice</div>
+
+<p>The men assured us that all was right. The mother had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>
+been convinced of the wrongness of dedicating the little babe,
+and would give us no trouble. But a day or two later, she
+came and demanded it back. She could not stand the derision
+of her friends, who told her she had sinned far more in giving
+her child to those who would break its caste than she ever
+could have done had she given it to the Temple. We pacified
+her with difficulty, and were thankful when the little thing
+was safe in the Neyoor nursery. For in those days, before
+we learned how best to protect our children, we were
+often glad to have some place even more out of reach than
+Dohnavur.</p>
+
+<p>The second of these old towns is famous for its rock, and
+its Temple built into the rock. Looking down from above
+one can see inside the courtyard as into an open well. Connected
+with this Temple, some years ago, there was a beautiful
+young Temple woman, who had been given as a child&mdash;as
+all Temple women must be&mdash;to the service of the gods.
+She had no choice as regarded herself&mdash;probably the idea
+of choice never entered her mind&mdash;but for her babe she
+determined to choose; and yet she knew of no way of
+deliverance.</p>
+
+<p>But there was a way of deliverance, and if it had only
+been for this one child's sake, and for the sake of the relief
+it must have been to that fear-haunted mother, we are glad
+with a gladness too deep for words that the nursery was here.
+For the mother heard of it. There were lions in the path.
+She quietly avoided them, and through others who were
+willing to help she sent her child to us. She herself would
+not come. She waited a mile or so from the bungalow till
+the matter was concluded, then returned to her home alone.</p>
+
+<p>A week later she appeared suddenly at the bungalow. It
+was only to make sure the little one was safe and well, and
+in order to sign a paper saying she was wholly given to us.
+This done she disappeared again, refusing speech with anyone,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>
+and for months we heard nothing of her. Then cholera
+swept our countryside, and we heard she had taken it and
+died. We leave her to God her Creator, who alone knows
+all the story of her life: we only know enough to make us
+very silent. And through the quiet we hear as it were a
+voice that chants a fragment from an old hymn: "We
+believe that <b>THOU</b> shalt come to be our Judge."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>From the Temple of the Rock</h3>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>ANOTHER little girl who came from that same Temple
+of the Rock has a story very different from the other,
+and far more typical.</div>
+
+<p>It was on a blazing day in June, when the very air, tired
+of being hot, leaned heavily upon us, and we felt unequal
+to contest, that a cough outside my open door announced a
+visitor. "Come in!" Another cough, and I looked out and
+saw a shuffling form disappear round the corner of the house.
+I called again, and the figure turned. It was a man who
+had helped us before, but about whose <i>bon&acirc;-fides</i> we had
+doubts; so we asked without much hopefulness what he had
+to tell us. He said he had reason to believe a certain Temple
+woman known to him had a child she meant to dedicate
+to the god of a Temple a day's journey distant. Then he
+paused. "Do you know where she is now?" "She is on
+her way to the Temple." "It would be well if she came here
+instead." "If that is the Animal's desire it may be possible
+to bring her." "Has she gone far? Could you overtake
+her?" "She is waiting outside your gate."</p>
+
+<p>At such a moment it is wise to show no surprise and no
+anxiety. All the burning eagerness must be covered up with
+coolness. But in the hour that intervened before the woman<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>
+"at the gate" could be persuaded to come further, we quieted
+ourselves in the Lord our God and held on for the little child.</p>
+
+<p>At last the shuffling step and the sound of voices told us
+they had come&mdash;two women, the man, and a child. The child
+was a baby of something under two, a sad-looking little thing,
+with great, dark, pathetic eyes looking out from under limp
+brown curls. She was very pale and fragile; and when the
+woman who carried her set her down upon the floor and
+propped her against the wall, she leaned against it listlessly,
+with her little chin in her tiny hand, in a sorrowful, grown-up
+fashion. I longed to take her and nestle her comfortably; but,
+of course, took no notice of her. Any sign of pity or sympathy
+would have been misunderstood by the women. All through
+the interminable talk upon which her fate depended, that
+child sat wearily patient, making no demands upon anyone;
+only the little head drooped, and the mouth grew pitiful in
+its complete despondency.</p>
+
+<p>The ways of the East are devious. The fact that the child
+had been brought to us did not indicate a decision to give
+her to us instead of to the Temple. The woman and the man
+who had persuaded them to come had much to say to one
+another, and there was much we had to explain. A child
+given to Temple service is not in all cases entirely cut off
+from her people. If the Temple woman's hold on her is
+sure, her relations are sometimes allowed to visit her; so
+far as friendly intercourse goes she is not lost to them.
+But with us things are different. For the child's own sake
+we have to refuse all intercourse whatever. Once given to
+us, she is lost to them as if they had never had her. We
+adopt the little one altogether or not at all.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Till the Battle is Won</div>
+
+<p>It is a delicate thing to explain all this so clearly that
+there can be no misunderstanding about it, without so
+infuriating the relations that they will have nothing more
+to do with us. Naturally their view-point is entirely different<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>
+from ours, and they cannot appreciate our reasons. At such
+a time we lean upon the Invisible, and count upon that
+supernatural help which alone is sufficient for us; we count
+also upon the prayers of those who know what it is to
+pray through all opposing forces, till the battle is won by
+faith which is the victory.</p>
+
+<p>It was strange to watch the women as the talk went on.
+The <i>woman</i> within them had died, there was nothing of it
+left to which we could appeal; everything about them was
+perverted, unnatural. I looked at the insensitive faces and
+then at the sensitive face of the child, and entered deeper
+than ever into the mercifulness of God's denunciations of sin.</p>
+
+<p>Once towards the close of what had been a time of some
+tension, the leader of the two women suddenly sprang up,
+snatched at the tired baby, and flung out of the room with
+her. She had been gradually hardening; and I had felt rather
+than seen the shutting down of the prison-house gates upon
+that little soul, and had, as a last resource, appealed to the
+sense, not wholly atrophied, the sense that recognises the
+supernatural. God is, I told them briefly; God takes cognisance
+of what we are and do: God will repay: some time,
+somewhere, God will punish sin. The arrow struck through
+to the mark. Startled, indignant, overwhelmed by the sweep
+of an awful conviction, with a passionate cry she rushed
+away; and we lived through one breathless moment, but
+the next saw the child dropped into our arms, safe at last.</p>
+
+<p>Facts about any matter of importance are usually other
+than at first stated; but we have reason to believe that in
+this instance our shuffling friend spoke the truth. The women
+were really on their way to the Temple when he waylaid
+them. The wonder was that they allowed themselves to be
+persuaded by him to come to us. But if nothing happened
+except what we might naturally expect would happen in
+this work, we might as well give it up at once. If we did<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>
+not expect our Jericho walls to fall down flat, it would be
+foolish indeed to continue marching round them.</p>
+
+<p>It was a relief when the women left the compound, after
+signing a paper committing the child to us. There is defilement
+in the mere thought of evil, but such close contact with
+it is a thing by itself. The sense of contamination lasted for
+days; and yet would that we could go through it every day
+if the result might be the same! For the child woke up to
+a new life, and became what a child should be. At first it
+was very pitiful. She would sit hour after hour as she had
+sat through that first hour, with her chin in hand, her eyes
+cast down, and the little mouth pathetic. We found that,
+in accordance with a custom prevailing in the coterie of
+Temple women belonging to the Temple of the Rock, she had
+been lent by her mother to another woman when she was
+an infant, the other lending her baby in exchange. This
+exchange had worked sadly; for the little one had asked for
+something which had not been given her, and her two years
+had left her starved of love and experienced in loneliness.
+But when she came to us everything changed; for love and
+happiness took her hands and led her back to baby ways,
+and taught her how to laugh and play: and now there is
+nothing left to remind us of those two first years but a
+certain droop of the little mouth when she feels for the
+moment desolate, or wants some extra petting.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+
+<h3>Yos&eacute;pu</h3>
+
+
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 381px;">
+<img src="images/illus-27.jpg" width="381" height="550" alt="THE WATER CARRIERS." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE WATER CARRIERS.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class='cap'>NO description of the compound would be complete
+without mention of Yos&eacute;pu, friend of the babies.</div>
+
+<p>This photograph shows the Indian equivalent of
+pumps and water-pipes. We have neither; so all the water
+required for a family of about a hundred has to be drawn
+from the well and carried to the kitchens and nurseries. The
+elder girls, who would otherwise help with the work, according
+to South Indian custom, are already fully employed with the
+babies. So at present the men do it all. They also buy
+the grain and other food-stuffs, look after the cows and
+vegetable garden&mdash;a necessity for those who dwell far from
+markets&mdash;and in all other possible masculine ways are of
+service to the family.</p>
+
+<p>Chief of these men is Yos&eacute;pu, whose seamed and wrinkled
+and most expressive face I wish we had photographed, instead
+of this not very interesting string of solemnities.</p>
+
+<p>Yos&eacute;pu is not like a man, he is more like a dear dog.
+He has the ways of our dog-friends, their patience and
+fidelity, their gratefulness for pats.</p>
+
+<p>He came to us in a wrecked condition, thin and weak
+and rather queer. He had been beaten by his Hindu
+brother for becoming a Christian, and it had been too<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>
+much for him. The first time we saw him, a few minutes
+after his arrival, he was standing leaning against a post
+with folded hands and upturned eyes and a general expression
+of resignation which went to our hearts. We found
+afterwards he was not feeling resigned so much as hungry,
+and he was better after food.</p>
+
+<p>For a week he slept, ate, and meditated. Sometimes he
+would hover round us, if such a verb is admissible for his
+seriousness of gait. He would wait till we noticed him,
+then sigh and extend his hand. He wanted us to feel his
+pulse&mdash;both pulses. This ceremony always refreshed him,
+and he would return to his corner of the verandah and
+meditate till his next meal came.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes, however, more attention was required. He
+would linger after his pulses were felt, and we knew he
+was not satisfied. One day a happy thought struck us.
+The Tamil loves scent. The very babies sniff our hands if
+we happen to be using scented soap, and tell each other
+rapturously what they think about that "chope." Scent is
+the one thing they cannot resist. A tin of sweets on our
+table may be untouched for days, few babies being wicked
+enough to venture upon it in our absence; but a bottle of
+scent is irresistible, and scented "chope" on our washing-stands
+has a way of growing thin. The baby will emerge
+from our bathrooms rubbing suspiciously clean hands, and
+in her innocence will invite us to smell them. Then we
+know why our "chope" disappears. So now that Yos&eacute;pu
+needed something to lift him over the trials of life, we
+remembered the gift of a good Scottish friend, and tried
+the effect of eau-de-Cologne. It worked most wonderfully.
+Yos&eacute;pu held out his two hands joined close lest a single
+drop should spill, and then he stood and sniffed. It would
+have made a perfect advertisement&mdash;the big brown man
+with his hands folded over his nose, and an expression of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>
+absolute bliss upon every visible feature. Now, when Yos&eacute;pu
+is down-hearted, we always try eau-de-Cologne.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Blessed be Drudgery</div>
+
+<p>His first move towards being of use was when some of
+our children had small-pox and were put up in a half-finished
+room which was being built. "It has walls and it has a roof,
+therefore it is suitable," was Yos&eacute;pu's opinion; and he offered
+to nurse the children. One evening we heard a terrible noise;
+it was like three cracked violins gone mad, all playing different
+tunes at the same time. It was only Yos&eacute;pu singing
+hymns to the children. "For spiritual instruction is a thing
+to be desired, and there is nothing so edifying as music."</p>
+
+<p>After this he announced his intention of becoming a
+water-carrier. "Water is a pure thing and a necessity.
+The young children demand much water if their bodies are
+to be"&mdash;here followed Scriptural quotations meant in deepest
+reverence. "I will be responsible for the baths of all the
+babes." And from that time Yos&eacute;pu has been responsible.
+Solemnly from dawn to dusk, with breathing spaces for
+meals and meditation, he stalks across from nurseries to
+well and from well to nurseries. He is a man of few
+smiles; but he is the cause of many, and we all feel
+grateful to Yos&eacute;pu for his goodness to us. Often on
+melancholy days he comes and comforts us.</p>
+
+<p>It was so one anxious day before we went to the hills,
+when we were trying to plan for the safety of our family.
+We can only take a limited number of converts with us, and
+no babies; the difficulty is then which to take, which to hide,
+and which to leave in the nurseries. We were in the midst
+of this perplexity when Yos&eacute;pu arrived. He stood in silence,
+and then sighed, as his cheerful custom is. We made the
+usual inquiries as to his health, physical and spiritual. Both
+soul and body (his invariable order, never body and soul)
+were well, he said; his pulse did not need to be felt to-day:
+no, there was something weightier upon his mind. There are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span>
+times when it is like extracting a tooth to get a straight
+answer from Yos&eacute;pu, for he resents directness in speech;
+he thinks it barbarous. At last it came. "Aiyo! Aiyo!"
+(Alas! Alas!) "My sun has set; but who am I, that I should
+complain or assault the decrees of Providence? But Amma!
+remember the word of truth: 'Then shall ye bring down
+my grey hairs with sorrow to the grave.'" And he slowly
+unwound his wisp of a turban, held it in his folded hands,
+and shook down his lanky, jet-black locks with a pathos
+that was almost sublime.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 384px;">
+<img src="images/illus-28.jpg" width="384" height="550" alt="THE BELOVED TINGALU." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE BELOVED TINGALU.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>It took time to pierce to the meaning of it: the children
+were being scattered&mdash;the reason must be that we felt the
+bath-water carrying too much for his powers through the hot
+weeks. It was not so! He was strong to draw and to bear.
+The babies should never be deprived of their baths! But
+to-day as he went to the well he had heard what broke his
+heart; and he laid his hand upon the injured organ, and
+sighed with a sigh that assured us his lungs at least were
+sound. "<i>Tingalu</i> is to go away! The apple of my eye! that
+golden child who smiles upon me, and says, 'Oh, elder brother,
+good morning!' You are not going to leave her with me!
+Therefore spake I the word of truth concerning my grey
+hairs." Then quoting the text again, he turned and walked
+away.</p>
+
+<p>Once the beloved Tingalu was slightly indisposed. She has
+not often the privilege of being ill, and so, when the opportunity
+offers, she does the invalid thoroughly; it would be
+a pity, Tingalu thinks, to be anything but correct. But
+Yos&eacute;pu was much concerned. He appeared in the early
+morning with his usual cough and sigh. "Amma! Tingalu
+is ill!" "She will soon be better, Yos&eacute;pu; she is having
+medicine." "What sort of medicine, Amma?" and Yos&eacute;pu
+mentioned the kind he thought suitable. "That is exactly
+what she has had; you will see her playing about to-morrow."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>
+"But no smile is on her face to-day; I fear for the babe."
+(Tingalu never smiles when ill. Invalids should not smile.)
+Yos&eacute;pu suggested another medicine to supplement the first,
+and departed.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">I will pay for it</div>
+
+<p>Next morning he came again, anxious and cast down in
+countenance. I had to keep him waiting; and when I came
+out, he was standing beside my verandah steps, head on one
+side, eyes shut, hands folded as if in prayer. "Well, Yos&eacute;pu,
+what is it?" "Amma! the light of your eyes revives me!"
+"Well, tell me the trouble." "All yesterday I saw you not;
+it was a starless night to me!" This is merely the preface.
+"But, Yos&eacute;pu, what is wrong?" "Tingalu, that golden child
+with a voice like a bird, she lies on her mat. I am concerned
+about the babe," (Tingalu, turned four, is as hardy as a gipsy),
+"I fear for her delicate interior. Those ignorant children"
+(the convert nurses would have been pleased if they had heard
+him) "know nothing at all. It may be they will feed her
+with curry and rice this morning. That would be dangerous.
+Amma! Let her have bread and milk, <i>and I will pay
+for it!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>Yos&eacute;pu came a few days ago with a request for a doll.
+"Who for?" "For myself." "But are you going to play
+with it?" Yos&eacute;pu acknowledged he was, and he wished it
+to have genuine hair, a pink silk frock, and eyes that would
+open and shut. We had not anything so elaborate to give
+him, and he had to be contented with a black china head and
+painted eyes; but he was pleased, and took it away carefully
+rolled up in his turban, which serves conveniently for head-gear,
+towel, scarf, and duster. When and where he plays
+with the doll no one knows, but he assures us he does; and
+we have mentally reserved the first pink silk, with eyes that
+will open and shut, that a benevolent public sends to us, for
+Yos&eacute;pu.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. The words were hardly written when a shadow
+fell across the paper, and the unconscious subject of this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span>
+chapter remarked as I looked up: "1 Corinthians vii. 31."
+"Do you want anything, Yos&eacute;pu?" "Amma! 1 Corinthians
+vii. 31." "Well, Yos&eacute;pu?" "As it is written in that chapter,
+and that verse: 'The fashion of this world passeth away.'
+Amma, if within the next two months a visitor comes to
+Dohnavur carrying a picture-catching box, I desire that you
+arrange for the catching of my picture. This, Amma, is my
+desire."</p>
+
+<p>The Western mind is very dense; and for a moment
+I could not see the connection between the text and the
+photograph. Yos&eacute;pu is never impatient. He squatted down
+beside me, dropped his turban round his neck, held his left
+foot with his left hand, and emphasised his explanation with
+his right.</p>
+
+<p>"Amma, the wise know that life is uncertain. I am a
+frail mortal. You, who are as mother and as father to this
+unworthy worm, would feel an emptiness within you if I
+were to depart." "But, Yos&eacute;pu, I hope you are not going to
+depart." This was exactly what Yos&eacute;pu had anticipated. He
+smiled, then he sighed. "Amma! did I not say it before?
+1 Corinthians vii. 31: 'The fashion of this world passeth away.'
+Therefore I said, Let me have my picture caught, so that
+when I depart you may hang it on your wall and still
+remember me."</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Within me pulled the Strings of Love</div>
+
+<p>Yos&eacute;pu's latest freak has been to take a holiday. "My
+internal arrangements are disturbed; composure of mind will
+only be obtained by a month's respite from secularities."
+Yos&eacute;pu had once announced his intention of offering himself
+to the National Missionary Society, and we thought
+he now referred to becoming an ascetic for a month and
+wandering round the country, begging-bowl in hand; for he
+solemnly declared as he stroked his bony frame: "The Lord
+will provide." But his intention was a real holiday. He
+would go and see the brother who had beaten him, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>
+forgive him. We suggested the brother might beat him
+again. He smiled at our want of faith, and went for his
+holiday. A month was the time agreed upon, but within
+three days he was back. He could not stay away, he
+explained, with a shame-faced air of affection. "Within me
+pulled the strings of love; pulled, yea, pulled till I returned."
+Faithful, quaint, and wholly original Yos&eacute;pu! He calls
+himself our servant, but we think of him as our friend.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+
+<h3>The Menagerie</h3>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+Fate which foresaw<br />
+How frivolous a baby man would be&mdash;<br /><br /><br />
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 350px;">
+<img src="images/illus-29.jpg" width="350" height="500" alt="TWO VIEWS OF LIFE." title="" />
+<span class="caption">TWO VIEWS OF LIFE.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class='cap'>THE event of the week, from a Tamil point of view,
+is the midday Sunday service; so we take care of
+the nurseries during that hour, and send all grown-up
+life to church. In the Pr&eacute;malia nursery the babies
+range from a few days old to eighteen months, and
+sometimes two years. There is a baby for every mood, as
+one beloved of the babies says; and the babies seem to know
+it. We have a lively time there on Sundays; for by noon
+the morning sleep is over, and nineteen or twenty babies are
+waking up one after the other or all together. And most
+of them want something, and want it at once.</div>
+
+<p>These babies are of various dispositions and colour&mdash;nut-brown,
+biscuit, and buff; and there are two who, taken
+together, suggest chocolate-cream. Chocolate is a dear child,
+very good-tempered and easy to manage. Cream is a
+scamp. We see in her another Chellalu, and watch with
+mingled feelings her vigorous development.</p>
+
+<p>Chocolate has another name. It is Beetle. This does not
+sound appreciative, but Beetle is beloved. The name was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>
+discovered by her affectionate Piria Sittie, who came upon
+her one morning lying on her back in the swinging cot,
+kicking her four limbs in the air in the agitated manner of
+that insect unexpectedly upset. But no beetle ever smiled
+as ours does.</p>
+
+<p>Cream, whose real name is Nundinie, oftener called
+Dimples, because she dimples so when she laughs, is a baby
+of character. She early discovered her way to the bungalow,
+and scorning assistance or superintendence found her
+way over as soon as she could walk. Afternoon tea is never
+a sombre meal, for the middle-aged babies attend it in relays
+of four or five; and Dimples and her special chum, Lulla,
+like to arrive in good time for the full enjoyment of the
+function. Dimples sits down properly in a high chair close
+beside her Attai, who, according to her view of matters, was
+created to help her to sugar. Lulla, so as to be even nearer
+that exhaustless delight, insists upon her Attai's knee; and
+tapping her face with her very small fingers, immediately
+points to the sugar bowl.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Diversions</div>
+
+<p>These preliminaries over, Dimples sets herself to pay for
+her seat. She smiles upon her Attai first, then upon all the
+company. If the Iyer is present, she notices him kindly:
+there is nothing in all nature so patronising as a baby. If
+in the mood, she will imitate her friends like her predecessor
+Scamp No. 1; or folding her fat arms will regard us all with
+a quizzical expression more comical than play. Her latest
+invention is drill. She stands straight up in her chair, and
+goes through certain actions intended to represent as much
+as she knows of that interesting exercise. We are kept
+anxious lest she should overbalance; but she is a wary babe,
+and always suddenly sits down when she gets to the edge
+of a tumble. Sometimes, however, when these diversions
+are in progress, we have wished that the family could see
+how very much more entertaining she is in her own nursery.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>
+There, from the beginning of the day till the sad moment
+when it ends, she seems to be engaged in entertaining somebody.
+Sometimes it is one of the Accals, those good elder
+sisters to whom the babies owe so much. Dimples thinks
+she looks tired. Tired people must be cheered, so Dimples
+devotes herself to her. Sometimes it is another baby who
+is dull. Dull babies are anomalies. Dimples feels responsible
+till the dull baby revives. Or it is just her own happy
+little self who is being entertained. If ever a baby enjoyed
+a game for its own sweet sake, it is Dimples.</p>
+
+<p>But one thing she does not enjoy, and that is being put
+to bed at night. Our babies are anointed with oil, according
+to the custom of the East, before being put to sleep; but
+the moment Dimples sees the oil-bottle in her nurse's hand,
+she knows her fate is sealed and protests with all her might.
+Once she contrived to seize the bottle, pull out the cork,
+and spill the oil before she was discovered. She seemed to
+argue that as she was invariably oiled before being put to
+bed, the best way to avoid ever being put to bed would be
+to get rid of the oil. Another evening she succeeded in
+diverting her nurse into a long search for the cork, thereby
+delaying the fatal last moment; it was finally found in her
+mouth. When, in spite of all efforts to wriggle out of
+reach, she is captured, anointed, and put in her hammock,
+Dimples knows she must not get out; but her wails are so
+lamentable that it is difficult to restrain ourselves from
+throwing discipline to the winds, and if by any chance we
+do, her smiles are simply ravishing. But we hear about it
+afterwards.</p>
+
+<p>If Dimples is asleep when we take charge of the nursery,
+we find things fairly quiet and almost flat. But she usually
+wakens early, and always in a good temper. It is instructive
+to see the way she scrambles out of her hammock
+before she is quite awake, and her sleepy stagger across the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>
+room is often interrupted by a tumble. Dimples does not
+mind tumbles. If her curly head has been rather badly
+knocked, she looks reproachfully at the floor, rubs her head,
+and gets up again. By the time she reaches us she is wide
+awake and most engaging.</p>
+
+<p>In C. F. Holder's <i>Life of Agassiz</i> we are told that
+the great scientist "could not bear with superficial study:
+a man should give his whole life to the object he had
+undertaken to investigate. He felt that desultory, isolated,
+spasmodic working avails nothing, but curses with narrowness
+and mediocrity." This is exactly the view of one of
+our babies, already introduced, the little wise Lulla, who
+always knows her own mind and sticks to her intentions,
+unbeguiled by any blandishments.</p>
+
+<p>This baby is a tiny thing, with a round, small head,
+covered with soft, small curls; and this head is very full of
+thoughts. Her face, which she rarely shows to a stranger,
+is like a doll in its delicate daintiness; but the mouth is
+very resolute, and the eyes very grave. Her hands and feet
+are sea-shell things of a pretty pinky brown, and her ways
+are the ways of a sea-anemone in a pool among the
+rocks.</p>
+
+<p>Lulla, because of her anemone ways, is sometimes unkindly
+called "Huffs." She does not understand that there
+are days when those who love her most have little time
+to give to her. Lulla naturally argues that where there
+is a will there is a way, and desultory, isolated, spasmodic
+affection is worth little; so next time her friend appears,
+she explains all this to her by means of a single gesture:
+she draws her tentacles in.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Agassiz</div>
+
+<p>But it is when Lulla has undertaken to investigate a
+tin of sweets that she most suggests Agassiz. The tin has
+a lid which fits tightly, and Lulla's fingers are very small
+and not very strong. The tin, moreover, is on the window-sill<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span>
+just out of reach, though she stands on tip-toe and
+stretches a little eager hand as far as it will go. Then
+it is you see persistence. Lulla finds another baby, leads
+her to the window and points up to the tin. The other
+baby tries. They both try together; if this fails, Lulla finds
+a taller one, and at last successful, sits down with the tin
+held tightly in both hands, and turns it over and shakes
+it. This process seems to inspire fresh hope and energy;
+for she sets to work round the lid, which is one of the
+fitting-in sort, and carefully presses and pulls. Naturally
+this does nothing, and she shakes the tin again. The joyful
+sound of rattling sweets stimulates to fresh attempts upon
+the lid. She tugs and pulls, and thumps the refractory
+thing on the floor. By this time the other babies, attracted
+by the hopeful rattle, have gathered round and are watching
+operations; some offer to help, but all such offers are
+declined. This oyster is Lulla's. She has undertaken to
+force it. Agassiz and his fishes are on her side. She will
+not give it up. But she is not getting on; and she sits
+still for a moment, knitting her brow, and frowning a little
+puzzled frown at the refractory tin.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly her forehead smooths, the anxious brown eyes
+smile, Lulla has thought a new good thought. The babies
+struggle up and offer to help Lulla up, but she shakes
+her head. She seems to feel if she herself unaided, of her
+own free will, hands her problem over to her Ammal or
+her Sittie, only so she may achieve her purpose without
+loss of self-respect.</p>
+
+<p>Lulla's beloved nurse is a motherly woman, older than
+most of our workers. Her name is Annamai. When the
+nurses return from church, each makes straight for her
+baby; and the babies always respond with a cordial and
+pretty affection. But Lulla welcoming Annamai is something
+more than pretty. The big white-robed figure no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>
+sooner appears in the garden than the tiny Lulla is all
+a-quiver with excitement. But it is a quiet excitement; and
+if you take any notice, the tentacles suddenly draw in,
+and the little face is as wax. If no one seems to notice,
+then Lulla lets herself go. She all but dances in her eagerness,
+while Annamai is slowly sailing up the walk; and
+when she reaches the verandah, Lulla can wait no longer;
+one spring and she is in her arms, nestling, cuddling,
+burying her curls in her neck; then looking up confidentially,
+little Lulla begins to talk; everything we have done and
+said is being whispered into Annamai's ear. It does not
+matter that Lulla cannot yet speak any language known
+to men; she can make Annamai understand, and that is
+all she cares. Once we remember watching her, as she took
+the remnant of a sweet we had given her, out of her
+mouth and poked it into Annamai's. Could love do more?</p>
+
+<p>Dimples and Lulla are quite inseparable. Lulla is to
+Dimples what Tara is to Evu. She immensely admires her
+vigorous little junior, and tries to copy her whenever
+possible. One delicious game seems to have been suggested
+by the arches in the garden. Dimples and Lulla stand on
+all fours close together. Then they lean over till their
+heads touch the ground, and look through the arch. If
+you are on the babies' level (that is on the floor), you will
+enjoy this game.</p>
+
+<p>Another Sunday morning entertainment is kissing.
+Dimples advances upon Lulla. Lulla falls upon Dimples.
+Then Dimples hugs Lulla, nearly chokes her, almost certainly
+overturns her. The two roll over and over like kittens.
+Dimples seizes Lulla by her curls and vehemently kisses face,
+neck, and anything else she can get at; and then backs off,
+propelling herself on two feet and one hand, in which position
+she looks like a puppy on three paws. Lulla smooths her
+ruffled curls and person generally, regards Dimples with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>
+gravity, and, if in an affectionate humour herself, leads the
+attack upon Dimples, and the programme is repeated.</p>
+
+<p>But the joy of the hour is to spin in the hammocks. These
+contrivances being hung from the roof swing freely, and the
+special excitement is to hold on with both hands, and run
+round so that the hammock twists into a knot and spins when
+released, with the baby inside it, in a giddy waltz till the coil
+untwists itself. This looks dangerous, and when the game
+was first invented we rather demurred. But we are wiser
+now, and we let them spin. Lulla especially enjoys this
+madness. It is startling to see the tiny thing whirl like a
+reckless young teetotum. But if you weakly interfere, Lulla
+thinks you want to learn the art, and goes at it with even
+madder zest, till her very curls are dizzy.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">"Daren't laugh and wouldn't cry</div>
+
+<p>Dimples and Lulla in disgrace are a piteous spectacle.
+Dimples opens her mouth till it is almost square, and the most
+plaintive wail proceeds from it for about a minute and a half.
+Then she stops, looks sadly on the world, surprised and hurt at
+its unkindness to her, and then suddenly she discovers something
+interesting to do; and hastily rubbing her knuckles into
+her eyes to clear them as quickly as maybe of tears, she
+scrambles on to her feet, and forgets her injuries. Once she
+had been very naughty, and had to be smacked. It is never
+easy to smack Dimples, and fortunately she seldom requires
+it; but hard things have to be done, so that morning the fat
+little hands, to their surprise, knew the feel of chastening pats.
+"She daren't laugh, and she wouldn't cry"; this description,
+her Piria Sittie's, is the best I can offer of that baby's
+attitude. The thing could not possibly be a joke, but if
+meant otherwise, it was an indignity far past tears.</p>
+
+<p>Lulla is quite different. She drops on the floor, if admonished,
+as if her limbs had suddenly become paralysed, and
+takes absolutely no notice of the offending disciplinarian.
+She simply ignores her, and gazes mutely beyond her. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>
+offence is not one for explanation, and if invited to repent, her
+aloofness of demeanour is perfectly withering. But take her up
+in your arms, and she buries her curls in your neck, and coos
+her apologies (or is it forgiveness?) in your ear, and loves you
+all the better for the momentary breach.</p>
+
+<p>Our babies are often parables. Lulla stands for the Single
+Eye. How often we have watched her and learned the lesson
+from her! She sees someone to whom she wants to go at what
+must seem to her an immense distance. And the distance is
+filled with obstacles, some of them quite enormous. But Lulla
+never stops to consider possibilities. Difficulties are simply
+things to be climbed over. She looks at the goal and makes
+straight for it. Her only care is to reach it. Sometimes at
+afternoon tea, when she is sitting on someone's lap, facing an
+empty, uninteresting plate, she sees another plate three chairs
+distant, and upon that plate there is a biscuit or some other
+sweet attraction. Upon such occasions Lulla all but plunges
+into space between the chairs, in her singleness of purpose.
+Having reached the lap nearest that plate, she turns and
+smiles at her late entertainer just to make sure she is not
+offended. But even if she knew she would be, Lulla would not
+hesitate. Curly head foremost, eyes on the goal: that is Lulla.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Mixed pickles</div>
+
+<p>We have a custom at Dohnavur which perplexes the sober-minded.
+We call most of our possessions by names other than
+their own. These names are entirely private. We have to
+keep to this rule of privacy, otherwise we get shocks. "O
+Lord, look upon our beloved Puppy, and make her tooth
+come through; and bless Alice (in Wonderland), whose inside
+has gone wrong," was the petition offered in all seriousness,
+which finally moved us to prudence. We do not feel
+responsible for these names, for they come of themselves, and
+we see them when they come. That is all we have to do
+with them. Besides the Beetle and the Sea-anemone we have
+a dear Cockatoo, who screws her nose and her whole face<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>
+up into a delightful pucker when she either laughs or cries,
+and then suddenly unscrews it in the middle of either
+emotion and looks entirely demure. This is the little
+Vimala, who, under God, owes her life to her Piria Sittie's
+splendid nursing. This baby has always got a private little
+secret of joy hidden away somewhere inside. We surprise
+her sometimes, sitting alone on the floor talking to herself
+about it; and then she tells us bits of it&mdash;as much as she
+thinks we can understand. But most of it is still hidden
+away, her own private little secret. And there is an Owlet,
+a Coney, a Froglet, and a Cheshire Cat, a Teddy-bear, a
+Spider, a Ratlet, and a Rosebud. We are aware that this
+list is rather mixed; but to be too critical would end in
+being nothing, so we are a Menagerie.</p>
+
+<p>The Rosebud is like her name, small and sweet. When she
+wants to kiss her friends, which is whenever she sees them,
+her mouth is like the pink point of a moss-rose bud just
+coming through the moss. George Macdonald, perfect interpreter
+of babies, must have had our Preethie's double in his
+mind when he wrote:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+Whence that three-cornered smile of bliss?<br />
+Three angels gave me at once a kiss.<br />
+How did you come to us, you dear?<br />
+God thought of you, and so I am here.<br />
+</div>
+
+<p>The Owlet is twin to that quaint little bird, so its name
+flew to her and stayed. This babe has round eyes with long
+curling lashes. When she is good, these round eyes beam, and
+every one forgets that anything so fascinating can ever be
+other than good. When she is naughty the case is exactly
+reversed. This baby's proper name is Lullitha, which means
+Playfulness, and illustrates a side of her character undiscovered
+by the visitor who only sees the Owlet sitting on her
+perch with serious, watchful, unblinking eyes, regarding the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>
+intruder. But most babies are complex characters, and are
+not known in an hour.</p>
+
+<p>The Teddy-bear is a fine child with perfect lungs, a
+benevolent smile, and an appetite. Her ruling passion at
+present is devotion to her food. She feels unjustly treated
+because we do not see our way to feed her lavishly at her
+own five meal-times and also at the meal-times of all the
+other babies in the nursery.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Teddy</div>
+
+<p>On Sunday morning, when we are in charge, we hear her
+views upon this subject expressed in a manner wholly her
+own. She has just drained her own bottle, and is indignantly
+explaining that it is not nearly enough, when another bottle
+arrives for another baby, and this is too much for Teddy's
+equanimity. We all know how hard it is to keep up under
+the shock of adversity. Teddy does not attempt to keep
+up; she invariably topples over. But the way she does this
+is instructive. She sits stiff and straight for one brief
+moment, her milky mouth wide open, her hands outstretched
+in despairing appeal; then she clasps her head with her hands
+in a tragic fashion, absurd in a very fat infant, sways backwards
+and forwards two or three times till the desperate
+rock ends suddenly, as the poor Teddy-bear overbalances and
+bursts with a mighty burst. But the storm is too furious to
+last, and she soon subsides with a gusty sob and a short
+snort.</p>
+
+<p>Poor little injured Teddy-bear! If it were not for her
+splendid health we might believe her oft-repeated tale of
+private starvation. "They only feed me when you are here to
+see! Other times they give me nothing at all!" She tells us
+this frequently in her own particular language, but the sturdy
+limbs belie it. This babe in matters of affection and mischief
+is as strenuous and original as she is about the one supreme
+affair pertaining to her elastic receptacle&mdash;to quote a Tamil
+friend's polite reference to the cavity within us&mdash;and many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>
+more edifying scenes might have been shown from her
+eventful life. But undoubtedly the predominating note at
+the present hour is her insatiable hunger, and when her name
+is mentioned in the nursery there is a smile and a new tale
+about her amazing appetite.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+
+<h3>More Animals</h3>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/illus-30.jpg" width="550" height="384" alt="MORE ANIMALS: DEPRESSED. Nurses: Karuna to left (the Duckling of &quot;Things as They Are&quot;); and Annamai, to right, Lulla&#39;s beloved." title="" />
+<span class="caption">MORE ANIMALS: DEPRESSED.<br />Nurses: Karuna to left (the Duckling of &quot;Things as They Are&quot;); and Annamai, to right, Lulla&#39;s beloved.</span>
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class='cap'>IN full contrast to Teddy-bear is that floppy child, the Coney.
+In Hart's <i>Animals of the Bible</i>, there is a picture of this
+baby, only the fore-paws should be raised in piteous appeal
+to be taken up. The Coney is really a pretty child with pathetic
+eyes and a grateful smile; but she was long in learning to
+walk, and felt aggrieved when we remonstrated. Her feet, she
+considered, were created to be ornamental rather than useful,
+and no amount of coaxing backed up with massage could
+persuade her otherwise. So she was left behind in the march;
+and when her contemporaries departed for the middle-aged
+babies' nursery, she stayed behind with the infants. And the
+infants had no pity. They regarded her as a sort of hassock,
+large and soft and good to jump on. More than once we have
+come into the nursery and found the big, meek child of three
+kneeling resignedly under a window upon which an adventurous
+eighteen-months wished to climb; and often we have
+found her prostrate and patient under the dancing feet of
+Dimples.</div>
+
+<p>However, the Coney can walk now. This triumph was
+effected with the help of an Indianised go-cart, which did what
+all our persuasions had entirely failed to do. But the process
+was not pleasant. The poor Coney would stand mournfully<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span>
+holding the handle of her instrument of torture, longing with
+a yearning unspeakable to sit down and give it up for ever.
+Someone would pass, and hope would rise in her heart. She
+would be carried now, carried out of sight of that detested
+go-cart. But no, the callous-hearted only urged her to proceed.
+She would howl then with a howl that told of bitter disappointment.
+Sometimes she would sit down flat and regard
+the thing with a blighting glance, the hatred of a gentle
+nature roused to unwonted vehemence. Always her wails
+accompanied the rumbling of its wheels.</p>
+
+<p>"The Conies are but a feeble folk, yet they make their
+houses in the rocks." One day in deep depression of spirits
+the Coney arrived at the kindergarten. She sat down before
+the threshold, which is three inches high, and climbed carefully
+over it. She found herself in a new world, where
+babies were doing wonderful things and enjoying all they
+did. The Coney decided to join a class, and was offered beads
+to thread. Life with beautiful beads to thread became worth
+living, and it may be in the course of time that the tortoise
+will overtake the hare. In any case we find much cheer
+in the conclusion of the verse, for if our Coney builds in
+the Rock her being rather feeble will not matter very
+much.</p>
+
+<p>Those who possess that friend of our youth, <i>Alice</i>, as
+illustrated by Sir John Tenniel, may find the photograph
+twice reproduced of our fat Cheshire Cat. This baby is remarkable
+for two things: she smiles and she vanishes. The
+time to see the vanishing conducted with more celerity than
+Alice ever saw it, is when the babies' warning call is sounded
+across the verandah and a visitor appears in the too near
+horizon. This baby then vanishes round the nearest corner.
+There is nothing left of her, not even a smile. In fact, the
+chief contrast between her and the cat among the foliage is
+that with our Cat the smile goes first.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span></p>
+<div class="sidenote">"Beetle! Open your mouth!"</div>
+
+<p>Sunday morning, to return to the beginning, is full of
+possible misadventure. Sometimes the babies seem to agree
+among themselves that it would be well to be good. Then
+their admiring Sittie and Ammal have nothing to do but
+enjoy them. But sometimes it is otherwise. First one baby
+pulls her sister's hair, and the other retaliates, till the two get
+entangled in each other's curls. Piria Sittie flies to the rescue,
+disentangles the combatants and persuades them to make
+friends. Meanwhile three restless spirits in bodies to match
+have crept out through the open door (it is too hot if we
+shut the doors), and we find them comfortably ensconced in
+forbidden places. The Beetle is a quiet child. She retires
+to a corner and looks devout. Presently a sound as of scraping
+draws our attention to her. "Beetle! Open your mouth!"
+Beetle opens her mouth. It is packed with whitewash off
+the wall. Then a scared cry rings through the nursery, and
+all the babies, imagining awful things imminent, tumble
+one on top of the other in a wild rush into refuge. It
+is only a large grasshopper which has startled the Cheshire
+Cat, whose great eyes are always on the look-out for possible
+causes of panic. The grasshopper is banished to the garden
+and the Cheshire Cat smiles all over her face. Peace restored,
+Dimples and the Owlet remember a dead lizard they found
+in a corner of the verandah, and set off to recover it. These
+two walk exactly like mechanical toys; and as they strut
+along hand in hand, or one after the other, they look like
+something wound up and going, in a Christmas shop window.
+Presently they return with the lizard. Its tail is loose, and
+they sit down to pull it off. This is not a nice game, and
+something else is suggested. Dimple's mouth grows suddenly
+square; she wants that lizard's tail.</p>
+
+<p>Then a dear little child called Muff (because she ought to
+be called Huff if the name had not been already appropriated),
+who has been solemnly munching a watch, decides<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>
+it is time to demand more individual attention. She objects
+to the presence of another baby on her Sittie's lap. Why
+should two babies share one lap? The thing is self-evidently
+wrong. One lap, one baby, should be the rule in
+all properly conducted nurseries. Muff broods over this in
+silence, then slides off the crowded lap and sits down disconsolate,
+alone. Tears come, big sad tears, as Muff meditates;
+and it takes time to explain matters and comfort,
+without giving in to the one-lap-one-baby theory.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/illus-31.jpg" width="550" height="386" alt="TUBBING." title="" />
+<span class="caption">TUBBING.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>We have several helpful babies. Dimples has been discovered
+paying required attentions to things smaller than
+herself; and the Wax Doll pats the Rosebud if she thinks it
+will reassure her, when (as rarely happens) that pet of the
+family is left stranded on a mat. But Puck is the most inventive.
+It was one happy Sunday morning that we came
+upon her feeding the Ratlet on her own account. The Ratlet
+was making ungrateful remarks; and we hurried across to
+her and saw that Puck, under the impression doubtless that
+any hole would do, was pouring the milk in a steady stream
+down the poor infant's nose. Puck smiled up peacefully.
+She was sure we would be pleased with her. But the Ratlet
+continued eloquent for very many minutes.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">The Spider and the Cod-fish</div>
+
+<p>Sometimes (but this is an old story now) our difficulties
+were increased by the Spider's habit of whimpering, which
+had a depressing effect upon the family. This poor baby
+was a weak little bag of bones when first she came to us.
+The bag was made of shrivelled skin of a dusty brown colour.
+Her hair was the colour of her skin, and hung about her
+head like tattered shreds of a spider's web. She sat in a
+bunch and never smiled. Something about her suggested a
+spider. Her Tamil name is Chrysanthemum, which by the
+change of one letter becomes Spider. So we called her
+Spider.</p>
+
+<p>At first we were not anxious about her; for such little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span>
+children pick up quickly if they are healthy to begin with,
+as we believed she was. But she did not respond to the good
+food and care, and only grew thinner and more miserable as
+the weeks passed, till she looked like the first picture in a
+series of advertisements of some marvellous patent food,
+and we wondered if she would ever grow like the fat and
+flourishing last baby of the series. For two months this
+state of things continued; she grew more wizened every day;
+and the uncanny spider-limbs and attitude gave her the air
+of not being a human baby at all, but a terrible little specimen
+which ought not to be on view but should be hidden
+safely away in some private medical place&mdash;on a shelf in a
+bottle of spirits of wine.</p>
+
+<p>We are asked sometimes if such tiny things can suffer
+other than physically. We have reason to think they can.
+As all else failed, we took a little girl from school for whom
+the Spider had an affection, and let her love her all day long;
+and almost at once there was a change in the sad little face
+of the Spider. She had been cared for by an old grandfather
+after her mother's death, and it seemed as if she had fretted
+for him and needed someone all to herself to make up for
+what she was missing.</p>
+
+<p>This little girl, the Cod-fish by name, was devoted to the
+Spider. She nestled her and played with her&mdash;or attempted
+to, I should say, for at first the Spider almost resented any
+attempts to play. "She doesn't know how to smile!" said
+the Cod-fish disconsolately after a week's petting and loving
+had resulted only in fewer whimpers, but not as yet in smiles.
+A few days later she came to us, and announced with much
+emotion: "She has smiled three times!" Next day the record
+rose to seven; after that we left off counting.</p>
+
+<p>The Spider is fat and bonnie now. Her skin is a clear
+and creamy brown, and her hair has lost its dustiness; but
+she still likes to sit crumpled up, and a small alcove in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>
+kitchen is her favourite haven when tired of the world.
+Seen unexpectedly in there, bunched in a tight knot, her
+dark, keen little eyes peering out of the light-coloured little
+face, she still suggests a spider. But it is a cheerful Spider,
+which makes all the difference.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+
+<h3>The Parrot House</h3>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/illus-32.jpg" width="550" height="385" alt="RED LAKE AND HILL. As seen (without the water) from the Taraha Nursery." title="" />
+<span class="caption">RED LAKE AND HILL.<br />As seen (without the water) from the Taraha Nursery.</span>
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class='cap'>THE time to see the Taraha nursery at its best is
+between late evening and early morning, and again
+about noon. It is perfectly peaceful then. Thirty
+mats are spread upon the floor. Thirty babies are strewn
+upon the mats. All the thirty are asleep. A sleeping baby
+is good. Thirty babies all good at once is something we
+cannot promise at any other hour.</div>
+
+<p>Shading your lantern, and walking carefully so as not to
+tread on more scattered limbs than may be, you wander
+round the nursery and meditate upon the beautiful ways
+of childhood. There is something so touching in sleeping
+innocence, and you are touched. Here two chubby babies
+are lying locked in each other's arms. You have to look
+twice before you see which limbs belong to which. There
+another is hugging a doll minus its head. Next to her a
+baby sleeps pillowed on another, and the other does not
+mind. In the middle of the floor, far from her mat, a sturdy
+three-year-old sprawls content. You pick her up gently
+and lay her on her mat. With an expression of determined
+resolution the baby rolls off again; and if you attempt
+another remove, an ominous pucker of the forehead warns
+you to desist. You wonder if the babies are quite as good<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span>
+as they seem. One of the dear, fat, devoted little pair you
+noticed at first, stirs, disentangles herself from her neighbour,
+and gives her a slight kick. There is a smothered,
+sleepy howl, and the kick is returned. "Water!" wails the
+first fat baby. "Water!" wails the second. You get water,
+give it, pat both fat babies till they go to sleep, and then
+cautiously retire. It would be a pity if all the babies were
+to waken thirsty and kick each other. At the door you
+turn and look back. Graceful babies, clumsy babies, babies
+who lie extended like young pokers, babies curled like
+kittens. All sorts of babies, good, bad, and middling, but all
+blessedly asleep.</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sleep, baby, sleep!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thy father guards his sheep,</span><br />
+Thy mother shakes the dreamland-tree<br />
+Down fall the little dreams for thee,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sleep, baby, sleep!</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sleep, baby, sleep!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Our Saviour loves His sheep.</span><br />
+He is the Lamb of God on high,<br />
+Who for our sakes came down to die.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sleep, baby, sleep!</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>The pretty German lullaby rises unbidden, and is pushed
+away by the quick, sad thoughts that will not listen to it.
+For under all the laughter and nursery frolic and happiness,
+we cannot but remember why these little ones are here.
+Round about the compound in a great triangle there are
+three Temple towers. They are out of sight though near
+us, but we cannot forget they are there. They stand for
+that which deprives these children of their birthright. Oh
+for the day when those Temple towers will fall and the
+reign of righteousness begin! There was a time when it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>
+seemed impossible to desire that the fire should be allowed
+to touch the stately and beautiful things of the world.
+Now there is something that satisfies as nothing else could
+in the vision of that purifying fire; and the promise that
+stands out like a light in the darkness is that which tells
+that the Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they
+shall gather out of His kingdom, all things that offend.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Higher Critics</div>
+
+<p>In the tiny babies' nursery many a crooning Indian
+lullaby is sung to the babies in their swinging white
+cradles; but in the Taraha nursery we sing sweet old hymns,
+in Tamil and English, and then all sensible people are
+supposed to go to sleep. But one evening after the singing,
+two little tots settled down for a talk. Said one lying
+comfortably on her back with her two hands clasped behind
+her head: "Who takes care of us at night when we all
+go to sleep?" Said the other in a mixture of Tamil and
+English: "Jesus-tender-Shepherd takes care of us&mdash;Jesus-loves-me-this-I-know."
+The first baby rolled over upon her
+small sister with a crow of derision. "It is not! It is
+Accal! I woke one night and saw her!" The other baby
+insisted she was making a mistake. "Accal sleeps, all people
+sleep; they lie down like us and go to sleep. Only Jesus
+stays awake, and never, never goes to sleep." "Never,
+never?" questioned the first, and was quiet for a minute
+considering the matter; then with a sceptical little laugh,
+"Did you ever wake up and see Him?"</p>
+
+<p>If the babies were always in a state of calm repose, the
+Taraha's pet name, Parrot-house, would be inappropriate:
+but for nearly ten hours of the day they are awake and
+talkative. Talk, however, is a mild word by which to
+describe their powers of conversation. Sometimes we wonder
+if they never tire of chattering, and then we remember they
+have only lately learned to talk. They have not had time
+to tire.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/illus-33.jpg" width="550" height="380" alt="CHILDREN WADING" title="" />
+<span class="caption">CHILDREN WADING</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Once we listened, hoping that the trailing clouds of glory
+so recently departed had left some trace of illumination in
+this their first expression in earth's language of their feelings
+and emotions. But we found them very mundane. Most of
+the conversation concerned their "saman," a comprehensive
+Indian word used by people with limited vocabularies to
+express all manner of things to play with. Their "saman"
+was various. Dolls, of course, and the remnants of dolls;
+tins and the lids thereof; bits of everything which could
+break; corks, stones, seeds, half cocoa-nut shells; rags of
+many ages and colours; scraped down morsels of brick;
+withered flowers and leaves; sticks of all sorts and sizes;
+English Christmas cards, sometimes with much domestic
+information on the back; unauthorised sundries from the
+kindergarten&mdash;delivered up with a smile intended to assure
+you that they were only being kept for Sittie; and p&ucirc;chies.
+P&ucirc;chies are insects. We have one baby who collects p&ucirc;chies.
+"Look!" she said, one morning before prayers, "Deah little
+five p&ucirc;chies!" and she opened her hand and five red and
+black beetles crawled slowly out, to the delight of the
+devout, who scrambled up from their orderly rows with
+shrieks of appreciation.</p>
+
+<p>But if the babies' conversation was unenlightening, their
+chosen avocations are not uninteresting. They are always
+busy about something, and, from their point of view, something
+important. There are, of course, some among the
+thirty who are unimaginative and unenterprising. These sit
+in the sand and play. Others have more to do. Life to
+them is full of the unknown. The unknown is full of
+possibilities. The great thing is to experiment. Nothing is
+too insignificant to explore, and all five senses are useful
+to the thoroughly competent baby.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">"Watching a Miracle"</div>
+
+<p>They knew, of course, all the flowers, and the discovery
+of anything fresh was always followed by a scene which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>
+suggested a colony of small and active ants hauling some large
+object to their nest; for the nearest grown-up person was
+invariably hailed, and pulled, and pushed, and hurried along
+till the "new flower" was reached. Then, if the object was
+incautious enough to stoop down to examine it, the ants,
+ant-wise, would envelope it, climbing, swarming all over it,
+till there was nothing to be seen but ants.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/illus-34.jpg" width="550" height="388" alt="CHILDREN WADING." title="" />
+<span class="caption">CHILDREN WADING.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>They knew the habits of caterpillars, and especially they
+had knowledge about the wonderful silver chrysalis which
+pins itself to the pointed leaves of the oleander. They
+knew what was packed up inside, and some with wide-open
+eyes had watched the miracle slowly evolving as the
+butterfly unpacked itself, and sunned its crumpled velvet
+wings, till the crumples smoothed, and the wings dried, and
+the butterfly fluttered away. They knew, too, the less
+approachable ways of the wild bees, and where they hive,
+and what happens if they are disturbed; and they knew the
+private feelings of calves, and which likes to be treated as a
+brother and which resents such liberties. Crows they knew
+intimately, and squirrels a little; for infants fallen from their
+nests have often been taken care of, much against their foolish
+wills, until old enough to look after themselves. Their namesakes,
+the parrots, they knew very well; and the dainty little
+sunbirds that flash from flower to flower like little living
+jewels in the sunlight; and the clever tailor-bird, which sews
+its own nest, knotting its thread like a grown-up human
+being; and the wise leaf-insect that can hardly be found till
+it moves; and the great, green, frisky grasshopper that
+seems to invite a chase.</p>
+
+<p>We found they knew, alas, too much about the misuse of
+everything growing in the field! The tamarind fruit makes
+condiment, but eaten raw it gives fever; and the babies think
+we are wrong here, and they are fond of forgetting our rules.
+Many kinds of grasses are very good to eat; and here again<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>
+we are mistaken, for we know not the flavour of grasses.
+Seeds may be useful to plant; but those who think their use
+ends there, are short-sighted and ignorant people. Upon these
+and other matters the babies feel we have much to learn.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/illus-35.jpg" width="550" height="385" alt="ESLI AND LITTLE KOHILA. Taken a year earlier." title="" />
+<span class="caption">ESLI AND LITTLE KOHILA.<br />Taken a year earlier.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>One weird joy has been theirs, and they never will forget
+it. For one whole blissful afternoon they followed the snake-charmer
+about at a respectful distance; and they cannot understand
+why we are not anxious they should dance as he danced,
+and pipe as he piped, round the hopeful holes they discover in
+the red mud walls.</p>
+
+<p>Other things they had learned to do, not wholly innocent.
+They must have made friends with the masons who built their
+new nursery, and persuaded them to do their work in a sympathetic
+spirit; for they knew the weak points hidden from
+our eyes, and how pleasant it is to scoop mortar out of cracks
+between the bricks of the floor. They had learned how most
+of their toys were made, and how a doll could be most easily
+dissected, and the particular taste of its inside. They knew,
+too, the lusciousness of divers sorts of sand&mdash;this last, however,
+being a mixture of crime and disease, and treated as such, is
+not a popular sin. Finally, to our lasting disgrace, they had
+learned, after a series of thoughtful experiments, how best to
+obey a command and yet elude its intention; thus on a wet
+day, when they were commanded not to go out, their Sittie
+found them lying full length in a long row on the edge of the
+verandah, their heads protruding so as to catch the lovely
+drip from the roof. And all these things they had carefully
+learned in spite of a certain amount of supervision; and, being
+entirely unsuspicious, they will take you into their confidence
+and let you share the forbidden fruit, if you are so inclined.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">The Kindness of the Babies</div>
+
+<p>But, after all, perfection of goodness would make us more
+anxious than even these enormities; we should fear our babies
+were growing too good&mdash;a fear not pressing at present. The
+Parrot-house only overwhelms when the birds begin to sing.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span>
+Then indeed all who can, flee far away, for the babies once
+started are difficult to stop. They are sure you like it as much
+as they do, and are anxious to oblige you when you visit their
+world. So they sing with the greatest earnestness, and as
+they invariably hang on to every available part of you, and
+punctuate their melodies with kisses and embraces, escape is
+not always practicable.</p>
+
+<p>The Taraha nursery was our first substantial building. It
+is built upon foundations raised well off the ground, and has
+a wide verandah. When first it was opened and the children
+were invited to take possession, they did so most completely.
+One quaint little person of barely three, called Kohila, whose
+small, repressed face in the photograph gives no hint of
+character, used to stalk up and down the verandah with an
+air of proprietorship which left no doubt in any mind as to
+her opinion on the subject. Another (sharing the swinging
+cot with Kohila in the photo) sat on the top step and smiled
+encouragingly to visitors. It was nice to be smiled at, but
+there was something very condescending in the smile. Another
+stood guard over the plants, which grew in pots much bigger
+than herself all the way down the verandah. If any presumed
+to touch them, she would dart out upon them with an indignant
+chirrup. For days after the great event&mdash;the opening of
+the Taraha&mdash;small parties waited on visitors, formed in procession
+before and behind, and escorted them round, explaining
+all mysteries, and insisting upon due admiration. Everything
+had to be interviewed, from teaspoons to pots of fern. This
+concluded, the guests were politely dismissed, and departed,
+let us hope, properly penetrated with a sense of the kindness
+of the babies.</p>
+
+<p>There have always been some who object to visitors. One
+of these showed her objection, not by crying and running
+away, as undignified babies do, but by sitting exactly where
+she was when she first caught sight of the intruder, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>
+staring straight into space with a very stony stare. A sensitive
+visitor could hardly have had the temerity to pass her,
+but normal visitors are not sensitive. Sometimes they
+attempted to make friends. This was too much. One fat
+arm would be slowly raised till it covered the baby's eyes,
+and in this position she would sit like a small petrifaction,
+till the horror had withdrawn.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/illus-36.jpg" width="550" height="387" alt="PREETHA AWARE OF A FOE. Tara on the left: the Coney on the right." title="" />
+<span class="caption">PREETHA AWARE OF A FOE.<br />Tara on the left: the Coney on the right.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>This baby, Preetha by name, has in most matters a way of
+her own. One of her little peculiarities is a strong preference
+for solo music as compared with concert. She listens attentively
+to others' performances, then disappears. If followed,
+she will be found alone in a corner, with her face to the wall
+and her back to the world; and if she thinks herself unobserved,
+you will be regaled with a solo. This experience is
+interesting to the musical. It is never twice alike. Sometimes
+it is a succession of sounds, like a tune that has lost its
+way; sometimes, a recognisable version of the chorus lately
+learned. At other times she delivers her soul in a series of
+short groans and grunts, beating time with her podgy hands.
+If she perceives through the back of her head that someone is
+looking or listening, she stops at once; and no persuasions can
+ever produce that special rehearsal again. Of late this baby,
+being now nearly three, has awakened to a sense of life's
+responsibilities, and she evidently wishes to prepare to meet
+them suitably. Yesterday evening she came to me with an
+exceedingly serious face, pointed in the direction of the kindergarten
+room, and then tapping herself, remarked: "Amma! I
+kindergarten." No more was said; but we know we shall soon
+see her solemnly waddling into the schoolroom, and we
+wonder what will happen. Will she continue to insist upon
+a corner to herself?</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+
+<h3>The Bear Garden</h3>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/illus-37.jpg" width="550" height="385" alt="JULLANIE AMONG THE GRASSES." title="" />
+<span class="caption">JULLANIE AMONG THE GRASSES.</span>
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class='cap'>"THE fruit of the lotus&mdash;a capsule&mdash;ripens below the
+surface of the water. When the seeds are ripe and
+leave the berry, a small bubble of air attached to
+them brings them to the surface, and the seeds are carried
+wherever the wind and waves take them until the bubble
+bursts; when the seed, being heavier than water, sinks to the
+bottom, and then begins to grow to form a new plant, which
+may be at some distance from the parent one. In this simple
+way the lotus plant is enabled to spread." So says our botany
+book; and the thought of the lotus seed in its little air-boat
+floating away over the water to be sown, perhaps, far from
+the parent plant, is full of suggestion, and leads us straight to
+the Bear-garden.</div>
+
+<p>A lotus-pool, a bear-garden&mdash;the connection is not obvious.
+<i>Alice</i> in her wanderings never wandered into bewilderment
+more profound than such a mixture of ideas. But this is
+the way we get to it: We have called these little children
+Lotus-buds&mdash;for such they are in their youngness and innocence;
+and the underlying thought runs deeper, as those who
+have read the first chapter know&mdash;but the Lotus-buds must
+grow into flowers and must be sown as living seeds, perhaps
+far away from the happy place they knew when they were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span>
+buds. The little air-boat will come for them. The breath of
+the Spirit that bloweth where it listeth will carry them where
+it will, and we want them to be ready to be sown wherever
+the pools of the world are barren of lotus flowers. And this
+brings us straight to the newest of our beginnings in Dohnavur&mdash;the
+Kindergarten.</p>
+
+<p>An ideal kindergarten is a place where the teachers train
+the scholars, and we hope to have that in time; at present the
+case is opposite, and that is why it has its name, the name that
+conflicts with the lotus-pool&mdash;the Bear-garden.</p>
+
+<p>In this peaceful room Classes B, C, and D have taken their
+young teachers in hand&mdash;Rukma, Preena, and Sanda. Of
+these Rukma (Radiance) has the clearest ideas about discipline;
+Preena (the Elf) knows best how to coax; and
+Sanda, excellent Mouse that she is, has the gift of patience.
+These three (who after all are only school-girls, continuing
+their own education with their Pr&eacute;ma Sittie) are attempting
+to instruct the babies on the lines of organised play; but the
+babies feel they have much to teach their teachers, and this
+is how they do it:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Pr&eacute;ma Sittie goes into the room when the kindergarten is
+in progress, and from three classes at once babies come
+springing towards her with squeals of joy, and they clasp
+her knees and look up with eyes full of affection and confidence
+in their welcome. "Go back to your place!" she says,
+and tries to look severe; with a chuckle the children obey,
+and she looks round and takes notes.</p>
+
+<p>Chellalu is lying full-length on the bench, with a look of
+supreme content on her face, and her two feet against the wall.
+Py&acirc;rie has turned her back to the picture that is being shown,
+and is tying a handkerchief round her head. Ruhinie, an
+India-rubber-ball sort of baby, has suddenly bounced up from
+her seat, and is starting a chorus, of which she is fond, at the
+top of her not very gentle voice; and Komala, a perfect sprite,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>
+is tickling the child who sits next to her. "Sittie!" exclaims
+the distracted teacher, "they won't learn anything!" Or if
+she happens to be the Mouse, she is calmly engaged with the
+one good child in her class.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Babel</div>
+
+<p>The next group is stringing beads on pieces of wire. "Look,
+look!" and an eager babe holds out her wire for admiration,
+and probably spills her beads in her effort to secure
+attention. If she does, there is a general scramble, beads
+rolling loose on the floor being quite irresistible. One wicked
+baby sits by herself and strings her beads on her curls.</p>
+
+<p>A few minutes later it is mat-plaiting; and the agile little
+fingers are diligently weaving pieces of blue and yellow
+material, bits over from their elder sisters' garments, beautifully
+unconscious that they are supposed to be working the
+colours alternately. Sometimes in the gayest way they
+exclaim: "Sittie! It's wrong! it's wrong!" Occasionally
+there is a howl from a child who has been pinched by another,
+or whose neighbour has helped herself to her beads. Sittie
+crosses the room hurriedly. "What's the matter?" With
+tears rolling down her cheeks the victim points to her oppressor.
+"May you do that?" is the invariable English
+question. It is answered by a shake of the head, the tiniest
+baby understanding that particular remark. The injured
+baby smiles. A reproof, or at worst a pat on the fat arm
+next to hers, satisfies her sense of justice, and she is
+content.</p>
+
+<p>When an English lesson begins, those afflicted with delicate
+nerves are happier elsewhere. One class has a toy farmyard,
+another a set of tea-things, the third a doll which every
+member of the class is aching to embrace. The teachers and
+children alike are inclined to talk with emphasis; and if you
+stand between the three classes you hear queer answers to
+queerer questions, and wonder if the babies at Babel were
+anything like so bewildering.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But this vision of the kindergarten is hardly a fortnight
+old; for Classes B, C, and D are of recent development, and are
+made up of some heedless characters, as Chellalu and Py&acirc;rie,
+who could not keep up with class A, and a few more young
+things from the nursery who were wilder than wild rabbits
+from the wood when we began. Also it should be stated
+that from the babies' point of view white people are only
+playthings. "They were very good before you came!" is
+the unflattering remark frequently addressed to us; and
+as we discreetly retire, the babies do seem to become
+suddenly beautifully docile. But even so they might be
+better, as an unconscious comedy over-seen this morning
+proves. I was in the porch outside the door, when Rukma,
+pointing to a blackboard on which were written sundry words,
+told Chellalu to show her "cat," and I looked in interested to
+know if Chellalu really knew anything of reading. Chellalu
+brandished the pointer, then turned to Rukma with a confidential
+smile, "Cat? Where is it, Accal? Is it at the top or
+at the bottom?" Rukma, who has a keen sense of the comic,
+seemed to find it difficult to look as she felt she ought.
+Chellalu caught the twinkle in her eye, and throwing herself
+heartily into the spirit of the game, which was evidently
+intended to be a kindergarten version of Hunt the Mouse
+through the Wood, she searched the blackboard for cat. Then
+to Rukma: "Accal! dear Accal! Tell <i>me</i>, and I'll tell <i>you!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing that helps us so much to be good as to be
+believed in and thought better than we are; and the converse
+is true, so we do not want to be always suspecting Chellalu of
+sin; but this last was entirely too artless, and this was
+apparently Rukma's view, for she sent Chellalu back to her
+seat and called up another baby, who, fairly radiating virtue,
+immediately found the cat.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Compassions of the Wise</div>
+
+<p>The next room&mdash;which Class A (the first to be formed)
+has to itself&mdash;is a haven of peace after the Bear-garden. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>
+is a pleasant room like the other, pretty with pictures and
+with flowers. And the little bright faces make it a happy
+place, for this class, though serious-minded, is exceedingly
+cheerful. There is the demure little Tingalu, the good child
+of the kindergarten, its hope and stay in troublous hours,
+and the quaint little trio, Jeya, Jullanie, and Sella&mdash;this
+last is called Cock-robin by the family, for she has eyes and
+manners which remind us of the bird, and she hardly ever
+walks, she hops. Mala and Bala are in the class, and a
+lively scamp called Puvai.</p>
+
+<p>The kindergarten is worked in English, helped out with
+Tamil when occasion requires. This plan, adopted for reasons
+pertaining to the future of the children, is resulting in something
+so comical that we shall be sorry when the first six
+months are over and the babies grow correct. At present they
+talk with delightful abandon impossible to reproduce, but very
+entertaining to those who know both languages. They tack
+Tamil terminations to English verbs, and English nouns make
+subjects for Tamil predicates. They turn their sentences
+upside down and inside out, and any way in fact which occurs
+to them at the moment, only insisting upon one thing: you
+must be made to understand. They apply everything they
+learn as immediately as possible, and woe to the unwary
+flounderer in the realm of natural science who offers an
+explanation of any phenomena of nature other than that
+taught in the kindergarten. The learned baby regards you
+with a tender sort of pity. Poor thing, you are very ignorant;
+but you will know better in time&mdash;if only you will come to
+the kindergarten, the source of the fountain of knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>The ease and the quickness with which a new word is
+appropriated constantly surprises us. As for example: one
+morning two babies wandered round the Prayer-room, and,
+discovering passion-flowers within reach, eagerly begged for
+them in Tamil. One of the two pushed the other aside and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>
+wanted all the flowers. "Greedy! greedy!" I said reprovingly,
+in English. "Greedy <i>mine!</i>" was the immediate rejoinder, and
+the little hand was held out with more certainty than ever now
+that the name of the flower was known. "Greedy <i>my</i> flower!
+<i>Mine!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>But some of the quaintest experiences are when the
+eloquent baby, determined to express herself in English, falls
+back upon scraps of kindergarten rhyme and delivers it in
+all seriousness. On the evening before my birthday I was
+banished from my room, and the children decorated it
+exactly as they pleased. When I returned I was implored
+not to look at anything, as it was not intended to be seen
+till next morning. Next morning the babies came in procession
+with their elders, and while I was occupied with
+them out on the verandah, Chellalu and her friend Naveena,
+discovering something unusual in my room, escaped from the
+ranks and went off to examine the mystery. I found them
+a moment later gazing in astonished joy at the glories there
+revealed. "Who did it all?" gasped Chellalu, whose intention,
+let us hope, was perfectly reverent. "God did it all!"</p>
+
+<p>The one kindergarten class taught entirely in Tamil is the
+Scripture lesson, illustrated whenever possible by pictures;
+and being always taught about sacred things in Tamil, the
+babies have no doubt about the language in use in Bible
+days. But sometimes a little mind is puzzled, as an instructive
+aside revealed a day or two ago. For their teacher
+had told them in English, not as a Scripture lesson, but just
+as a story, about Peter and John and the lame man. The
+picture was before them, and they understood and followed
+keenly; but one little girl whispered to another, who happened
+to be the well-informed Cock-robin: "Did Peter and John talk
+English or Tamil?" "Tamil, of course!" returned Cock-robin,
+without a moment's hesitation.</p>
+
+<p>The Scripture lessons are usually given by Arulai, whose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>
+delight is Bible teaching. "So that as much as lieth in you
+you will apply yourself wholly to this one thing, and draw
+all your cares and studies this way," is a word that always
+comes to mind when one thinks of Arulai and her Bible.
+She much enjoys taking the babies, believing that the impressions
+created upon the mind of a little child are practically
+indelible.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Practical Politics</div>
+
+<p>Sometimes these impressions are expressed in vigorous
+fashion. Once the subject of the class was the Good
+Samaritan. The babies were greatly exercised over the
+scandalous behaviour of the priest and the Levite. "Punish
+them! Let them have whippings!" they demanded. Arulai
+explained further. But one baby got up from her seat and
+walked solemnly to the picture. "Take care what you are
+doing!" she remarked impressively in Tamil, shaking her
+finger at the two retreating backs. "Naughty! naughty!"&mdash;this
+was in English&mdash;"take care!"</p>
+
+<p>One of the favourite pictures shows Abraham and Isaac
+on the way to the mount of sacrifice. This story was told
+one morning with much reverence and feeling, and the
+babies were impressed. There were tears in Bala's eyes as
+she gazed at the picture, but she brushed them away
+hurriedly and hoped no one had noticed. Only Chellalu
+appeared perfectly unconcerned. She had business of her
+own on hand, and the story, it seemed, had not touched
+her. The babies are searched before they come to school,
+and all toys, bits of string, old tins, and sundries are
+removed from their persons. But there are ways of evading
+inquisitors. Chellalu knows these ways. She now produced
+a long wisp of red tape from somewhere&mdash;she did not tell
+us where&mdash;and proceeded to tie her feet together. This
+accomplished, she curled herself up on the bench like a
+caterpillar on a leaf, and to all appearances went to sleep.
+Why was she not awakened and compelled to behave<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>
+properly? asks the reader, duly shocked. Perhaps because
+on that rather special morning the teacher preferred her
+asleep.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 386px;">
+<img src="images/illus-38.jpg" width="386" height="550" alt="ARULAI AND RUKMA, WITH NAVEENA." title="" />
+<span class="caption">ARULAI AND RUKMA, WITH NAVEENA.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The story finished, the children were questioned, and
+they answered with unwonted gravity. "What did Isaac
+say to his father as they walked alone together?" An
+awed little voice had begun the required answer, when
+Chellalu suddenly uncurled, sat up, and said in clear, decided
+Tamil: "He said, 'Father! do not kill me!' <i>Yesh!</i> that was
+what he said."</p>
+
+<p>When first the babies heard about Heaven, they all
+wanted to go at once, and with difficulty were restrained
+from praying to be taken there immediately. There was
+one naughty child who, when she was given medicine,
+invariably announced, "I will not stay in this village: I am
+going to Heaven! I am going now!" But they soon grew
+wiser. It was our excitable, merry little Jullanie who
+summed up all desires with most simplicity: "Lord Jesus,
+please take me there or anywhere anytime; only wherever
+I am, please stay there too!" Some of the babies are carnal:
+"When I go to that village (Heaven), I shall go for a ride
+on the cherubim's wings. I will make them take me to all
+sorts of places, just wherever I want to go."</p>
+<div class="sidenote">The Way to Heaven</div>
+
+<p>The latest pronouncement, however, was for the moment
+the most perplexing. "Come-anda-look-ata-well!" said
+Chellalu yesterday evening, the sentence in a single long
+word. The well is being dug in the Menagerie garden and
+is surrounded by a trellis, beyond which the babies may not
+pass, unless taken by one of ourselves. As we drew near
+to the well, Chellalu pointed to it and said: "Amma! That
+is the way to Heaven!" This speech, which was in Tamil,
+considerably surprised me, as naturally we think of Heaven
+above the bright blue sky. The yawning gulf of the
+unfinished well suggested something different.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But Chellalu was positive. "It is the way to Heaven. <i>I</i>
+may not go there, but <i>you</i> may! Yesh! <i>you</i> may go to
+Heaven, Amma, but <i>I</i> may not!" She had nothing more
+to say; and we wondered how she could possibly have
+arrived at so extraordinary a conclusion, till we remembered
+that it had been explained to the babies that any baby
+falling in would probably be drowned and die, and so until
+it was finished and made safe no baby must go near it.
+Chellalu had evidently argued that as to die meant going to
+Heaven, the well must be the way to Heaven; and as only
+grown-up people might go near it, they, and they alone
+apparently, were allowed to go to Heaven.</p>
+
+<p>These babies are nothing if not practical. Arulai had been
+teaching the story of the Unmerciful Servant; and to bring
+it down to nursery life, supposed the case of a baby who
+snatched at other babies' toys, and was unfair and selfish.
+Such a baby, if not reformed, would grow up and be like
+the Unmerciful Servant. The babies looked upon the back
+of the offender as shown in the picture. "Bad man! Nasty
+man!" they said to each other, pointing to him with
+aversion. And Arulai closed the class with a short prayer
+that none of the babies might ever be like the Unmerciful
+Servant.</p>
+
+<p>The prayer over, the babies rushed to the table where
+their toys were put during the Scripture lesson. Py&acirc;rie got
+there first, and, gathering all she could reach, she swept
+them into her lap and was darting off with them, when a
+word from Arulai recalled her. For a moment there was
+a struggle. Then she ran up to Tingalu, the child she had
+chiefly defrauded, poured all her treasures into her lap, and
+then sprang into Arulai's arms with the eager question:
+"Acca! Acca! Am I not a <i>Merciful</i> Servant?"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+
+<h3>The Accals</h3>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"This sacred work demands not lukewarm, selfish, slack souls,
+but hearts more finely tempered than steel, wills purer and harder
+than the diamond."&mdash;<span class="smcap">P&egrave;re Didon.</span></p></div>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/illus-39.jpg" width="550" height="382" alt="PONNAMAL, WITH PREETHA ON HER KNEE, AND TARA BESIDE HER." title="" />
+<span class="caption">PONNAMAL, WITH PREETHA ON HER KNEE, AND TARA BESIDE HER.</span>
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class='cap'>THE Accals, without whom this work in all its various
+branches could not be undertaken, are a band of
+Indian sisters (the word Accal means older sister)
+who live for the service of the children. First among the
+Accals is Ponnamal (Golden). With the quick affection of
+the East the children find another word for Gold and call
+her doubly Golden Sister.</div>
+
+<p>Sometimes we are asked if we ever find an Indian fellow-worker
+whom we can thoroughly trust. The ungenerous
+question would make us as indignant as it would if it were
+asked about our own relations, were it not that we know
+it is asked in ignorance by those who have never had the
+opportunity of experiencing, or have missed the happiness
+of enjoying, true friendship with the people of this land.
+Those who have known that happiness, know the limitless
+loyalty and the tender, wonderful love that is lavished on
+the one who feels so unworthy of it all. If there is distance
+and want of sympathy between those who are called to be
+workers together with the great Master, is not something
+wrong? Simple, effortless intimacy, that closeness of touch
+which is friendship indeed, is surely possible. But rather
+we would put it otherwise, and say that without it service<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>
+together, of the only sort we would care to know, is perfectly
+impossible.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 347px;">
+<img src="images/illus-40.jpg" width="347" height="500" alt="SELLAMUTTU AND SUSEELA." title="" />
+<span class="caption">SELLAMUTTU AND SUSEELA.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>In our work all along we have had this joy to the full.
+God in His goodness gave us from the first those who
+responded at once to the confidence we offered them. In
+India the ideal of a consecrated life is a life with no reserves&mdash;which
+seeks for nothing, understands nothing, cares for
+nothing but to be poured forth upon the sacrifice and service.
+Pierce through the various incrustations which have over-laid
+this pure ideal, give no heed to the effect of Western
+influence and example, and you come upon this feeling,
+however expressed or unexpressed, at the very back of all&mdash;the
+instinct that recognises and responds to the call to
+sacrifice, and does not understand its absence in the lives
+of those who profess to follow the Crucified. Who, to whom
+this ideal is indeed "The Gleam," that draws and ever draws
+the soul to passionate allegiance, can fail to find in the Indian
+nature at its truest and finest that kinship of spirit which
+knits hearts together? "And it came to pass when he had
+made an end of speaking, that the soul of Jonathan was knit
+with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own
+soul": this tells it all. The spring of heart to heart that we
+call affinity, the knitting no hand can ever afterward unravel&mdash;these
+experiences have been granted to us all through our
+work together, and we thank God for it.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Pure Justice</div>
+
+<p>Ponnamal's work lies chiefly among the convert-nurses
+and the babies. She has charge of the nurseries and of the
+food arrangements, so intricate and difficult to the mere lay
+mind; she trains her workers to thoroughness and earnestness,
+and by force of example seems to create an atmosphere
+of cheerful unselfishness that is very inspiring. How
+often we have sent a young convert, tempted to self-centredness
+and depression, to Ponnamal, and seen her
+return to her ordinary work braced and bright and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>
+sensible. We are all faulty and weak at times, and every
+nursery, like every life, has its occasional lapses; but on
+the whole it is not too much to say that the nurseries are
+happy places, and Ponnamal's influence goes through them
+all like a fresh wind. And this in spite of very poor health.
+For Ponnamal, who was the leader of our itinerating band,
+broke down hopelessly, and thought her use in life had
+passed&mdash;till the babies came and brought her back to
+activity again. And the joy of the Lord, we have often
+proved, is strength for body as well as soul.</p>
+
+<p>Sellamuttu, who comes next to Ponnamal, is the "Pearl"
+of previous records, and she has been a pearl to us through
+all our years together. She is special Accal to the household
+of children above the baby-age&mdash;a healthy, high-spirited
+crow of most diverse dispositions; and she is loved by one
+and all with a love which is tempered with great respect,
+for she is "all pure justice," as a little girl remarked
+feelingly not long ago, after being rather sharply reproved
+for exceeding naughtiness: "within my heart wrath burned
+like a fire; but my mouth could not open to reply, for inside
+me a voice said, 'It is true, entirely true; Accal is perfectly
+just.'"</p>
+
+<p>This Accal, however, is most tender in her affections, and
+among the babies she has some particular specials. One of
+these is the solemn-faced morsel of the photograph, to save
+whom she travelled, counting by time, as far as from London
+to Moscow and back; and the baby arrived as happy and well
+as when the friends at "Moscow" sent her off with prayers
+and blessings and kindness. But the photograph was a
+shock. "Aiyo!" she said, quite upset to see her delight so
+misrepresented, "that is not Suseela! There is no smile,
+no pleasure in her face!" We comforted her by the
+assurance that any one who understood babies and their
+ways would consider the camera responsible for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>
+expression. And at least the baby was obedient. Had
+she not told her to make a salaam, and had not the little
+hand gone up in serious salute? A perfectly obedient baby
+is Sellamuttu's ideal, and she was satisfied.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/illus-41.jpg" width="550" height="387" alt="TO THE RIGHT, SUHINIE, AND HER BABY SUNUNDA" title="" />
+<span class="caption">TO THE RIGHT, SUHINIE, AND HER BABY SUNUNDA</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Both these sisters came to us at some loss to themselves,
+for both could have lived at home at ease if they had been
+so inclined. Ponnamal lost all her little fortune by joining
+us. She could, perhaps, have recovered it by going to law,
+but she did not feel it right to do so, and she suffered
+herself to be defrauded. "How could I teach others to be
+unworldly if I myself did what to them would appear worldly-minded?"
+That was all she ever said by way of explanation.</p>
+
+<p>Next to Ponnamal and Sellamuttu come the motherly-hearted
+Gnanamal and Annamai. They came to us when we
+were in circumstances of peculiar difficulty. The work was just
+beginning, and we had not enough trustworthy helpers; so,
+wearied with disturbed nights, we were almost at the end of
+our strength. "Send us help!" we prayed, and went on
+each trying to do the work of three. It was one hot, tiring
+afternoon, when we longed to forget everything and rest for
+half an hour, but could not, because there was so much to do,
+that a bright, capable face appeared at the door of our room,
+and Annamai, Lulla's beloved, came in and said: "God sent me,
+and my relative" (naming a mission catechist) "brought me.
+And so I have come!"</p>
+
+<p>And Gnanamal&mdash;we were in dire straits, for a dear little
+babe had suffered at the hands of one who thought first of
+herself and second of her charge, and the most careful tending
+was needed if the baby was to survive&mdash;it was then Gnanamal
+came and took charge of the delicate child, and became the
+comfort and help she has ever continued to be. When there is
+serious illness, and night-nursing is required, Gnanamal is
+always ready to volunteer; though to her, as to most of us in
+India, night work is not what the flesh would choose. Then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>
+in the morning, when we go to relieve her, we find her
+bright as ever, as if she had slept comfortably all the time.
+We think this sort of help worth gratitude.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Whose Names are in the Book of Life</div>
+
+<p>The convert-workers, dear as dear children, but, thank God,
+dependable as comrades, come next in age to the head Accals.
+Arulai Tara (known to some as "Star") is what her name
+suggests, something steadfast, something shining, something
+burning with a pure devotion which kindles other fires. We
+cannot imagine our children without their beloved Arulai.
+Then there is Sundoshie (Joy), to the left next Suhinie in
+the photo, a young wife for whom poison was prepared
+three times, and whose escape from death at the hand of
+husband and mother-in-law was one of those quiet miracles
+which God is ever working in this land of cruelty in dark
+places. And Suhinie (Gladness), whose story of deliverance
+has been told before;<a name="FNanchor_E_5" id="FNanchor_E_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_E_5" class="fnanchor">[E]</a> and Esli, the gift of a fellow-missionary,
+a most faithful girl; and others younger, but
+developing in character and trustworthiness. All these young
+converts need much care, but the care of genuine converts is very
+fruitful work; and one interesting part of it is the fitting of
+each to her niche, or of fitting the niche to her. Discernment
+of spirit is needed for this, for misfits means waste energy and
+great discomfort; and energy is too good a thing to waste,
+and comfort too pleasant a thing to spoil. So those who are
+responsible for this part of the work would be grateful
+for the remembrance of any who know how much depends
+upon it.</p>
+
+<p>Among the recognised "fits" in our family is "the Accal
+who loves the unlovable babies." This is Suhinie. We tried
+her once with the Taraha children; but the terrible activity of
+these young people was altogether too much for the slowly
+moving machinery of poor Suhinie's brain, and she was
+perfectly overwhelmed and very miserable. For Suhinie<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span>
+hates hurry and sudden shocks of any sort, and the babies
+of maturer years discovered this immediately; and Suhinie,
+waddling forlornly after the babies, looked like a highly
+respectable duck in charge of a flock of impertinent robins.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/illus-42.jpg" width="550" height="387" alt="THREE CONVERT WORKERS." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THREE CONVERT WORKERS.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>It was quite a misfit, and Suhinie's worst came to the top,
+and we speedily moved her back again to the Pr&eacute;malia
+nursery.</p>
+
+<p>For there you see Suhinie in her true sphere. Give her a
+poor, puny babe, who will never, if she can help it, let her Accal
+have an undisturbed hour; give her the most impossible, most
+troublesome baby in the nursery, and then you will see Suhinie's
+best. We discovered this when Ponnamal was in charge of
+the Neyoor nursery. Ponnamal had one small infant so cross
+that nobody wanted her. She would cry half the night,
+a snarly, snappy cry, that would not stop unless she was
+rocked, and began again as soon as the rocking was stopped.
+Ponnamal gave her to Suhinie.</p>
+
+<p>"Night after night till two in the morning she would sing
+to that fractious child"&mdash;this was Ponnamal's story to me
+when next I went to Neyoor. "She never seemed to tire;
+hymn after hymn she would sing, on and on and on. I never
+saw her impatient with it; she just loved it from the first."
+And a curious thing began to happen: the baby grew like
+her Accal. This likeness was not caught in the photograph,
+but is nevertheless so observable that visitors have often
+asked if the little one were her own child.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Sinners</div>
+
+<p>This baby, Sununda by name, is greatly attached to Suhinie.
+As she is over two years old now, she has been promoted to
+the Taraha, and being an extremely wilful little person, she
+sometimes gets into trouble. One day I was called to
+remonstrate, and a little "morning glory" was required, and
+I put her in a corner to think about it. Another sinner had
+to be dealt with, and when I returned Sununda was nowhere
+to be found. I searched all over the Taraha and in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span>
+garden, and finally found her in the Pr&eacute;malia cuddled close
+to Suhinie. "She has told me all about it," said Suhinie,
+who was nursing another edition of difficult infancy; and she
+looked down on the curly head with eyes of brooding affection,
+like a tender turtle-dove upon her nestling. Then the
+roguish brown eyes smiled up at me with an expression of
+perfect confidence that I would understand and sympathise
+with the desire to share the troubles of this strange, sad
+life with so beloved an Accal.</p>
+
+<p>The question of discipline is sometimes rather difficult
+with so many dispositions, each requiring different dealing.
+We try, of course, to fit the penalty to the crime, so that
+the child's sense of justice will work on our side; and in
+this we always find there is a wonderful unconscious co-operation
+on the part of the merest baby. But the older
+children used to be rather a problem. Some had come to
+us after their wills had become developed and their characters
+partly formed. Most of them were with us of their
+own free will, and could have walked off any day, for
+they knew where they would be welcome. Discipline under
+these circumstances is not entirely easy. But three years
+ago something of Revival Power swept through all our
+family. It was not the Great Revival for which we wait,
+but it was something most blessed in effect and abiding in
+result; and ever since then the tone has been higher and
+the life deeper, so that there is something to which we can
+appeal confident of a quick response. But children will be
+scampish; and once their earnestness of desire to be good
+was put to unexpected and somewhat drastic proof.</p>
+
+<p>At that time the mild Esli had charge of the sewing-class,
+and the class had got into bad ways; carelessness and
+chattering prevailed, so Esli came in despair to me, and I
+talked to the erring children. They were sorry, made no
+excuses, and promised to be different in future. I left them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>
+repentant and thoroughly ashamed of themselves, and went
+to other duties.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/illus-43.jpg" width="550" height="385" alt="SEWING-CLASS IN THE COURTYARD." title="" />
+<span class="caption">SEWING-CLASS IN THE COURTYARD.</span>
+</div>
+<div class="sidenote">The Mark</div>
+
+<p>Shortly afterwards Arulai found them in a state of
+great depression. They told her they had promised to be
+good at the sewing-class, but were afraid they would
+forget. Arulai's ideas are usually most original, and she
+sympathised with the children, but told them there was no
+need for them ever to forget. They asked eagerly what
+could be done to help them to remember. They had
+prayed, but even so had doubts. Was there anything to
+be done besides praying? Arulai said there was, and she
+expounded certain verses from the Book of Proverbs.
+"Sometimes the best way to make a mark upon the mind
+is to make a mark upon the body," she suggested, and
+asked the children if they would like this done. The
+children hesitated. They were aware that Arulai's "marks"
+were likely to be emphatic, for Arulai never does things
+by halves. But their devotion to her and belief in her
+overcame all fears; and being genuinely anxious to reform,
+they one and all consented. So she sent a small girl off
+to look for a cane; and presently one was produced, "thin
+and nice and suitable," as I was afterwards informed. The
+younger children were invited to take the cane and look
+at it, and consider well how it would feel. This they did
+obediently, but still stuck undauntedly to their determination,
+in fact, were keen to go through with it. Then Arulai
+explained that when the King said, "Chasten thy son while
+there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying,"
+he must have been thinking of a very little boy who had
+not the sense to know what was good for him. They had
+sense. The mark on the body would be waste punishment
+if it were not received willingly and gratefully; so if any
+child cried or pulled her hand away, she would stop. Then
+the children all stood up and held out their hands&mdash;what a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>
+moment for a photograph! Arulai's "mark upon the body"
+was a genuine affair, but the class received it with fortitude
+and gratitude.</p>
+
+<p>When I heard this history, an hour or so after its
+occurrence, I rather demurred. The children had appeared
+to be sincerely sorry when I spoke to them, and if so, why
+proceed to extremities? But Arulai answered with wisdom
+and much assurance: "They have been talked to before
+and have been sorry, but they forgot and did it again.
+This time they will not forget." And neither did they. As
+long as that class continued, its behaviour was exemplary;
+and "the mark upon the mind," to judge by their demeanour,
+remained as fresh as it must have been on that
+memorable day when the "mark" upon the body effected
+its creation. The story ought to end here; but most stories
+have a sequel, and this has two.</p>
+
+<p>The first occurred a few weeks later. A little girl, one
+of the sewing-class, had slipped into the habit of careless
+disobedience, followed too often by sulks. If we happened
+to come across her just when the thunder-clouds were
+gathering, we could usually divert her attention and avert
+the threatened trouble; but if we did not happen to meet
+her just at the right moment, she would plunge straight into
+the most outrageous naughtiness with a sort of purposeful
+directness that was difficult to deal with. Knowing the
+child well, we often let her choose her own punishments;
+and she did this so conscientiously that at last, as she herself
+mournfully remarked, "they were all used up," and there
+was nothing left but the most ancient&mdash;and perhaps in
+some cases most efficacious, which, the circumstances being
+what they were, I was naturally reluctant to try. But the
+child, trained to be perfectly honest with herself, apparently
+thought the thing over, and calmly made up her mind to
+accept the inevitable; for when, anxious she should not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>
+misunderstand, I began to explain matters to her, I was
+met by this somewhat astonishing response: "Yes, Amma,
+I know. I know you have tried everything else" (she said
+this almost sympathetically, as if appreciating my dilemma),
+"and so you have to do it. I do not like it at all, but
+Arulai Accal says it is no use unless I take it willingly,
+so Amma, please give me a good caning." (The idiom is
+the same in Tamil as in English, but there is a stronger
+word which she now proceeded to use with great deliberation.)
+"Yes, Amma, a <i>hot</i> caning&mdash;with my full mind I
+am willing. And I will not cry. Or if I do cry" (this was
+added in a serious, reflecting sort of way), "let not your
+soul spare for my crying!"</p>
+
+<p>The second is less abnormal. Esli, whose placid soul had
+been sadly stirred at the time of the infliction of the "mark,"
+was so impressed by its salutary effect that she conceived
+a new respect for the methods of King Solomon. The application
+of "morning glory" is a privilege reserved, as a rule,
+for ourselves; but one day, being doubtless hard pressed,
+Esli produced a stick&mdash;a very feeble one&mdash;and calling up the
+leader of all rebels, addressed herself to her. Chellalu, as
+might have been expected, was taken by surprise; and for
+one short moment Esli was permitted to follow the ways
+of the King. But only for a moment: for, suddenly apprehending
+the gravity of the situation, and realising that
+such precedent should not pass unchallenged, Chellalu, with
+a quick wriggle, stood forth free, seized the stick with a
+joyous shout, snapped it in two, and flourished round the
+room: then stopping before her afflicted Accal, she solemnly
+handed her one of the pieces, and with a bound and a
+scamper like a triumphant puppy, was off to the very end
+of her world with the other half of that stick.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">"Not Lukewarm, Selfish, Slack Souls"</div>
+
+<p>When the Elf came to us on March 6, 1901, and we began
+to know some of the secrets of the Temple, we tried to save<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span>
+several little children, but we failed. The thought of those
+first children with whom we came into touch, but for whom
+all our efforts were unavailing, is unforgettable. We see
+them still, little children&mdash;lost. But we partly understand
+why we had to wait so long; we had not the workers then to
+help us to take care of them. We had only some of the older
+Accals, who could not have done it alone. These convert-girls,
+who now help us so much, were in Hindu homes; some
+of them had not even heard of Christ, whose love alone makes
+this work possible. For India is not England in its view of
+such work. There is absolutely nothing attractive about it.
+It is not "honourable work," like preaching and teaching.
+No money would have drawn these workers to us. Work
+which has no clear ending, but drifts on into the night if
+babies are young or troublesome&mdash;such work makes demands
+upon devotion and practical unselfishness which appeal to
+none but those who are prepared to love with the tireless
+love of the mother. "I do not want people who come to
+me under certain reservations. In battle you need soldiers
+who fear nothing." So wrote the heroic P&egrave;re Didon; and,
+though it may sound presumptuous to do so, we say the
+same. We want as comrades those who come to us without
+reservations. But such workers have to be prepared, and
+such preparation takes time. "Tarry ye the Lord's leisure,"
+is a word that unfolds as we go on.</p>
+
+<p>Yet we find that the work, though so demanding, is full
+of compensations. The convert in her loneliness is welcomed
+into a family where little children need her and will soon
+love her dearly. The uncomforted places in her heart become
+healed, for the touch of a little child is very healing. If she
+is willing to forget herself and live for that little child, something
+new springs up within her; she does not understand
+it, but those who watch her know that all is well. Sometimes
+long afterwards she reads her own heart's story and opens it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span>
+to us. "I was torn with longing for my home. I dreamed
+night after night about it, and I used to waken just wild to
+run back. And yet I knew if I had, it would have been
+destruction to my soul. And then the baby came, and you
+put her into my arms, and she grew into my heart, and she
+took away all that feeling, till I forgot I ever had it." This
+was the story of one, a young wife, for whom the natural
+joys of home can never be. But if there is selfishness or
+slackness or a weak desire to drift along in easiness, taking
+all and giving nothing, things are otherwise. For such the
+nurseries hold nothing but noise and interruptions. We ask
+to be spared from such as these. Or if they come, may
+they be inspired by the constraining love of Christ and "The
+Glory of the Usual."</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_E_5" id="Footnote_E_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_E_5"><span class="label">[E]</span></a> <i>Overweights of Joy</i>, ch. xxiii. Suhinie left the nursery for a few hours'
+rest at noon on February 2, 1910. She fell asleep, to awaken in heaven.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXV</h2>
+
+<h3>The Little Accals</h3>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+But Thou didst reckon, when at first<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thy word our hearts and hands did crave,</span><br />
+What it would come to at the worst<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">To save.</span><br />
+Perpetual knockings at Thy door,<br />
+Tears sullying Thy transparent rooms.<br /><br /><br />
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/illus-44.jpg" width="550" height="389" alt="THREE LITTLE ACCALS." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THREE LITTLE ACCALS.</span>
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class='cap'>THESE lines come with insistence as I look at the little
+Accals, who follow in order after the Accals, convert
+children, most of them, now growing up to helpfulness.
+If part of the story of one such young girl is told, it
+may help those to whom such tales are unfamiliar to understand
+and to care.</div>
+
+<p>December 16, 1903, was spent by three of us in a rest-house
+on the outskirts of a Hindu town. We were on our way to
+Dohnavur from Madras, where we had seen Mr. and Mrs.
+Walker off for England. The two days' journey had left us
+somewhat weary; and yet we were strong in hope that day,
+for we knew there was special thought for us on board ship
+and at home, and something special was being asked as a
+birthday gift of joy. Arulai (Star) and Preena (the Elf), the
+two who were with me, were full of expectation. The day had
+often been marked by that joy of joys, a lost sheep found;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span>
+and as we looked out at the heathen town with its many
+people so unconscious of our thoughts about them, we wondered
+where we should find the one our thoughts had singled
+from among the crowd, and we went out to look for her.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 351px;">
+<img src="images/illus-45.jpg" width="351" height="500" alt="PREENA AND PREEYA (To left and right) getting ready for a Coming-Day Feast." title="" />
+<span class="caption">PREENA AND PREEYA<br />(To left and right) getting ready for a Coming-Day Feast.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Up and down the long white streets we looked for her;
+on the little narrow verandahs, in the courtyards of the
+houses, in their dark inner rooms when we were invited
+within, out again into the sunshine&mdash;but we could not find her.
+That evening I remember, though we did not say so to each
+other, we felt a little disappointed. We had not met one who
+even remotely cared for the things we had come to bring.</p>
+
+<p>No one had responded. There was not, so far as we knew
+it, even a little blade to point to, much less a sheaf to lay
+at His feet. After nightfall a woman came to see us. But
+she was a Christian, and beyond trying to cheer her to more
+earnest service among the heathen, there was nothing to be
+done for her. She left us, she told us afterwards, warmed
+to hope; and she talked to a child next morning, a little
+relative of her own, whose heart the Lord opened.</p>
+
+<p>For three months we heard nothing; then unexpectedly
+a letter came. "The child is much in earnest, and she has
+made up her mind to join your Starry Cluster" (a name
+given by the people to our band, which at that time was
+itinerating in the district), "so I purpose sending her at once."
+The parents, for reasons of their own, agreed to the arrangement,
+and the little girl came to Dohnavur. It was wonderful
+to watch her learning. She is not intellectually brilliant, but
+the soul awakened at once, and there was that tenderness
+of response which refreshes the heart of the teacher. She
+seemed to come straight to our Lord Jesus and know Him
+as her Saviour, child though she was; and soon the longing
+to win others possessed her, and a younger child, who was
+her special charge among the nursery children, was influenced
+so gently and so willingly, that we do not know the time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span>
+when, led by her little Accal, she too came to the Lover of
+children.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">"Across the Will of Nature"</div>
+
+<p>But one day, suddenly, trouble came. The parents appeared
+in the Dohnavur compound and claimed their daughter; and
+we had no legal right to refuse her, for she was under age.
+We shall never forget the hour they came. They had haunted
+the neighbourhood, as we afterwards heard, and prowled
+about outside the compound, watching for an opportunity
+to carry the child off without our knowledge. But she was
+always with the other children, so that plan failed. When
+first she heard they had come, she fled to the bungalow. "My
+parents have come! My father is strong! Oh, hide me!
+hide me!" she besought us. "I cannot resist him! I cannot!"
+and she cried and clung to us. But when we went out to
+meet them, she was perfectly quiet; and no one would have
+known from her manner as she stood before them, and
+answered their questions, without a tremble in her voice,
+how frightened she had been before.</p>
+
+<p>"What is this talk about being a Christian?" the father
+demanded stormily. "What can an infant know about such
+matters? Are you wiser than your fathers, that their religion
+is not good enough for you?" And scathing mockery followed,
+harder to bear than abuse. "Come! Say salaam to the
+Missie Ammal, and bring your jewels" (she had taken them
+off), "and let us go home together." The child stood absolutely
+still, looking up with brave eyes; and to our astonishment
+said, as though it were the only thing to be said: "But
+I am a Christian. I cannot go home."</p>
+
+<p>We had not thought of her saying this. We had, indeed,
+encouraged her as we had encouraged ourselves, to rest in
+our God, who is unto us a God of deliverances; but we had
+not suggested any line of resistance, and were not prepared
+for the calm refusal which so quietly took it for granted
+that she had no power to refuse.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The father was evidently nonplussed. He knew his little
+daughter, a timid child, whose translated name, Fawn,
+seems to express her exactly, and he gazed down upon her
+in silence for one surprised moment, then burst out in wrath
+and indignant revilings. "Snake! nurtured in the bosom only
+to turn and sting! Vile, filthy, disgusting insect, born to
+disgrace her caste!" And they cursed her as she stood.</p>
+
+<p>Then their mood changed, and they tried pleadings, much
+more difficult to resist. The father reminded her of his
+pilgrimage to a famous Temple at her birth: "He had
+named her before the gods." Her mother touched on
+tenderer memories, till we could feel the quiver of soul, and
+feared for the little Fawn. Then they promised her liberty
+at home. She should read her Bible, pray to the true God,
+"for all gods are one." I saw Fawn shut her eyes for a
+moment. What she saw in that moment she told me afterwards:
+a fire lighted on the floor, a Bible tossed into it, two
+schoolboy brothers (whose leanings towards Christianity had
+been discovered) pushed into an inner room, the sound of
+blows and cries. "And after that my brothers did not want
+to be Christians any more." Poor little timid Fawn! We
+hardly wonder as we look at her that she shrank and shut
+her eyes. I have seen a child of twelve held down by a
+powerful arm and beaten across the bare shoulders with a
+cocoa-nut shell fastened to the end of a stick; I have seen
+her wrists twisted almost to dislocation&mdash;seen it, and been
+unable to help. I think of the child, now our happy Gladness,
+lover of the unlovable babies; and I for one cannot wonder
+at the little Fawn's fear. But aloud she only said: "Forgive
+me, I cannot go home."</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Not Peace, but a Sword</div>
+
+<p>The father grew impatient. "Get your jewels and let us
+be gone!" Fawn ran into the house, brought her jewels, and
+handed them to her father. He counted them over&mdash;pretty
+little chains and bangles, and then he eyed her curiously. A<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span>
+child to give up her jewels like this&mdash;he found it unaccountable.
+And then he began to argue, but Fawn answered him
+with clearness and simplicity, and he could not perplex her.
+She knew Whom she believed.</p>
+
+<p>At last they rose to go, cursing the day she was born
+with a curse that sounded horrible. But their younger
+daughter, whom they had brought with them, threw herself
+upon the ground, tearing her hair, beating her breast, shrieking
+and rolling and flinging the dust about like a mad thing.
+"I will not go without my sister! I will not go! I will not
+go!" And she clung to Fawn, and wept and bewailed till
+we hardly dared to hope the child would be able to withstand
+her. For a moment the parents stood and waited.
+We, too, stood in tension of spirit. "They have told her to
+do it," whispered Fawn, and stood firm. Then the father
+stooped, snatched up the younger child, and departed, followed
+by the mother.</p>
+
+<p>All this time two of our number had been waiting upon
+God in a quiet place out of sight. One of the two went
+after the parents, hoping for a chance to explain matters
+to the mother. As she drew near she heard the wife say
+in an undertone to her husband: "Leave them for to-day.
+Wait till to-night. You have carried off the younger in
+your arms against her will. What hinders you doing the
+same to the elder?" And that night we prayed that the
+Wall of Fire might be round us, and slept in peace.</p>
+
+<p>As a dream when one awaketh, so was the memory of that
+afternoon when we awoke next morning. And as a dream
+so the parents passed out of sight, for they left before the
+dawn. But weeks afterwards we heard what had happened
+that night. They had lodged in the Hindu village outside our
+gate. There has never been a Christian there, and the people
+have never responded in any way. It is a little shut-in place
+of darkness on the borders of the light. But when the parents<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span>
+proposed a raid upon the bungalow that night they would not
+rise to it. "No, we have no feud with the bungalow. We
+will not do it." The nearest white face was a day's journey
+distant, and a woman alone, white or brown, does not count
+for much in Hindu eyes. But the Wall of Fire was around
+us, and so we were safe.</p>
+
+<p>If the story could stop here, how easy life would be! One
+fight, one fling to the lions, and then the palm and crown.
+But it is not so. The perils of reaction are greater for the
+convert than the first great strain of facing the alternative,
+"Diana or Christ." Home-sickness comes, wave upon wave,
+and all but sweeps the soul away; feelings and longings
+asleep in the child awake in the girl, and draw her and woo
+her, and blind her too often to all that yielding means. She
+forgets the under-side of the life she has forsaken; she
+remembers only the alluring; and all that is natural pleads
+within her, and will not let her rest. "Across the will of
+Nature leads on the path of God," is sternly true for the
+convert in a Hindu or Moslem land.</p>
+
+<p>And so we write this unfinished story in faith that some
+one reading it will remember the young girl-converts as well
+as the little children. Fawn has been kept steadfast, but she
+still needs prayer. These last five years have held anxious
+hours for those who love her, and to us, as to all who have
+to do with converts. "Perpetual knockings at Thy door,
+tears sullying Thy transparent rooms," are words that go
+deep and touch the heart of things.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVI</h2>
+
+<h3>The Glory of the Usual</h3>
+
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 355px;">
+<img src="images/illus-46.jpg" width="355" height="500" alt="AFTER HER BOTTLE." title="" />
+<span class="caption">AFTER HER BOTTLE.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class='cap'>"AND all things were done in such excellent methods, and
+I cannot tell how, but things in the doing of them
+seemed to cast a smile"&mdash;is a beautiful sentence
+<ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'form'">from</ins> Bunyan's <i>Holy War</i>, which has been with us ever
+since we began the Nursery work. Lately we found its
+complement in a modern book of sermons, <i>The Unlighted
+Lustre</i>, by <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'C. H.'">G. H.</ins> Morrison. "No matter how stirring your
+life be, it will be a failure if you have never been wakened
+to the glory of the usual. There is no happiness like the
+old and common happiness, sunshine and love and duty and
+the laughter of children.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. There are no duties that so
+enrich as dull duties."</div>
+
+<p>The ancient voice and the new voice sing to the same sweet
+tune; and we in our little measure are learning to sing it too.</p>
+
+<p>As we have said, India is a land where the secular does not
+appeal. When we were an Itinerating Band, we had many
+offers from Christian girls and women to join us, as many
+in one month as we now have in five years. Sometimes it
+has seemed to us that we were set to learn and to teach a new
+and difficult lesson, the sacredness of the commonplace. Day
+by day we learn to rub out a little more of the clear chalked
+line that someone has ruled on life's black-board; the Secular<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span>
+and the Spiritual may not be divided now. The enlightening
+of a dark soul or the lighting of a kitchen fire, it matters
+not which it is, if only we are obedient to the heavenly
+vision, and work with a pure intention to the glory of
+our God.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/illus-47.jpg" width="550" height="386" alt="NORTH LAKE AND HILLS." title="" />
+<span class="caption">NORTH LAKE AND HILLS.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The nursery kitchen is a pleasant little place. We hardly
+ever enter it without remembering and appreciating John
+Bunyan's pretty thought, for there things in the doing of
+them seem to cast a smile. Ponnamal, who, as we said,
+<ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'suprintends'">superintends</ins> the more delicate food-making work, has trained
+two of her helpers to carefulness; and these two&mdash;one a
+motherly older woman with a most comfortable face, the
+other the convert, Joy&mdash;look up with such a welcome that
+you feel it good to be there. Scrubbing away at endless
+pots and pans and milk vessels is a younger convent-girl,
+who, when she first came to us, disapproved of such exertion.
+She liked to sit on the floor with her Bible on her lap and
+a far-away look of content on her face until the dinner-bell
+rang. Now she scrubs with a sense of responsibility.</p>
+
+<p>All the younger converts have regular teaching, for they
+have much to learn, and all, older and younger, have daily
+classes and meetings; above all, it is planned that each has
+her quiet time undisturbed. But it is early understood that
+to be happy each must contribute her share to the happiness
+of the family; and one of the first lessons the young convert
+has to learn is to honour the "Grey Angel," Drudgery, and
+not to call her bad names.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">The Story of a Raven</div>
+
+<p>The kitchen has an outlook dear to the Tamil heart. A
+trellis covered with pink antigone surrounds it, but a window
+is cut in the trellis so that the kitchen may command the
+bungalow. "While I stirred the milk I saw everything you
+did on your verandah," remarked one of the workers lately,
+in tones of appreciation. The opposite outlook is the mountain
+shown in the photograph; only instead of water we have the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span>
+kitchen-garden with its tropical-looking plantains and creeping
+marrows. "And the warm melon lay like a little sun on the
+tawny sand," is a line for an Eastern garden when the great
+marrows ripen suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>The kitchen thus favoured without, is adorned within,
+according to the taste of its owners, with those very interesting
+pictures published by the makers of infant foods. "How
+do you choose them?" we asked one day. "The truest and
+the prettiest," was the satisfactory answer. Our Dohnavur
+text, which hangs in every nursery, looks down upon the
+workers, and, as they put it, "keeps them sweet in heart":
+"Love never faileth."</p>
+
+<p>When first we began to cultivate babies we were very
+ignorant, and we asked advice of all who seemed competent
+to give it. The advice was most perplexing. Each mother
+was sure the food that had suited her baby was the best of
+all foods, and regarded all others as doubtful, if not bad. One
+whom we greatly respected told us Indian babies would be
+sure to get on anyhow, as it was their own land. And one
+seriously suggested rice-water as a suitable nourishment.
+Naturally we began with the time-honoured milk and barley-water,
+and some throve upon it. But we found each baby
+had to be studied separately. There was no universal
+(artificial) food. We could write a tractlet on foods, and if
+we did we would call it "Don't," for the first sentence in it
+would be, "Don't change the food if you can help it." This
+tractlet would certainly close with a word of thanks to those
+kind people, the milk-food manufacturers, who have helped
+us to build up healthy children; for feelings of personal
+gratitude come when help of this kind is given.</p>
+
+<p>The nursery kitchen is a room full of reminders of help.
+"I have commanded the ravens," is a word of strength to
+us. Once we were very low. A little child had died under
+trying circumstances. One of the milk-sellers, instead of using<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span>
+the vessel sent him, poured his milk into an unclean copper
+vessel, and it was poisoned. He remembered that it would
+not be taken unless brought in the proper vessel, so at the
+last moment he corrected his mistake, but the correction was
+fatal, for there was no warning. The milk was sterilized as
+usual and given to the child. She was a healthy baby, and
+her nurse remembers how she smiled and welcomed her bottle,
+taking it in her little hands in her happy eagerness. A few
+hours later she was dead.</p>
+
+<p>At such times the heart seems foolishly weak, and things
+which would not trouble it otherwise have power to make it
+sore. We were four days' journey from the nursery at the
+time, and had the added anxiety about the other babies, to
+whom we feared the poisoned milk might have been given, and
+we dreaded what the next post might bring. Just at that
+moment it was suggested, with kindest intentions, that perhaps
+we were on the wrong track, the work seemed so difficult and
+wasteful.</p>
+
+<p>It was mail-day. The mail as usual brought a pile of letters,
+and the top envelope contained a bill for foods ordered from
+England some weeks before. It came to more than I had
+expected, in spite of the kindness of several firms in giving
+a liberal discount; and for a moment the rice-water talk
+(to give it a name which covers all that type of talk) came
+back to me with hurt in it: "To what purpose is this waste?"
+But with it came another word: "Take this child away (away
+from the terrible Temple) and nurse it for Me." And with the
+pile of letters before me, and the bill for food in my hand, I
+asked that enough might be found in those letters to pay it.
+It did not occur to me at the moment that the prayer was
+rather illogical. I only knew it would be comforting, and like
+a little word of peace, if such an assurance might even then
+come that we were not off the lines.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Because He hath Heard</div>
+
+<p>Letter after letter was empty. Not empty of kindness,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span>
+but quite empty of cheques. The last envelope looked thin
+and not at all hopeful. Cheques are usually inside reliable-looking
+covers. I opened it. There was nothing but a piece
+of unknown writing. But the writing was to ask if we
+happened to have a need which a sum named in the letter
+would meet. This sum exactly covered the bill for the foods.
+When the cheque eventually reached me it was for more than
+the letter had mentioned, and covered all carriage and duty
+expenses, which were unknown to me at the time the first
+letter came, and to which of course I had not referred in my
+reply. Thus almost visibly and audibly has the Lord, from
+whose hands we received this charge to keep, confirmed His
+word to us, strengthening us when we were weak, and comforting
+us when we were sad with that innermost sense of His
+tenderness which braces while it soothes.</p>
+
+<p>Surely we who know Him thus should love the Lord because
+He hath heard our voice and our supplication. Every advertisement
+on the walls of the little nursery kitchen is like an
+illuminated text with a story hidden away in it:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+When Thou dost favour any action,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">It runs, it flies;</span><br />
+All things concur to give it a perfection.<br />
+</div>
+
+<p>The nursery kitchen, we were amused to discover, has a
+sphere of influence all its own. Our discovery was on this
+wise:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>One wet evening we were caught in a downpour as we were
+crossing from the Taraha nursery to the bungalow, and we
+took shelter in the kindergarten room, which reverts to the
+Lola-and-Leela tribe when the kindergarten babies depart.
+The tribe do not often possess their Sittie and their Ammal
+both together and all to themselves, now that the juniors are
+so numerous, and they welcomed us with acclamations.
+"Finish spreading your mats," we said to them, as they seemed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span>
+inclined to let our advent interrupt the order of the evening;
+and we watched them unroll their mats, which hung round the
+wall in neat rolls swung by cords from the roof, and spread
+them in rows along the wall. Beside each mat was what
+looked like a mummy, and beside each mummy was a matchbox
+and a small bundle of rags.</p>
+
+<p>Presently the mummies were unswathed, and proved to be
+dolls in more or less good condition. Each was carefully laid
+upon a morsel of sheet, and covered with another sheet folded
+over in the neatest fashion. "If we teach them to be particular
+when they are young, they will be tidy when they are
+old," we were informed. It was pleasant to hear our own
+remarks so accurately repeated.</p>
+
+<p>The matchboxes were next unpacked; each contained a bit
+of match, a small pointed shell, a pebble (preferably black), and a
+couple of minute cockles. "I suppose you don't know what all
+these are?" said Lola, affably. "That," pointing to the match,
+"is a spoon; and this," taking the pointed shell up carefully, "is
+a bottle. This is the 'rubber,' of course," and the black pebble
+was indicated; "and these" (setting the cockle-shells on a piece
+of white paper on the floor) "are bowls of water, one for the
+bottle and the other for the rubber." We suggested one bowl
+of water would hold both bottle and rubber; but Lola's entirely
+mischievous eyes looked quite shocked and reproving. "Two
+bowls are better," was the serious reply; "it is very important
+to be clean." "What does your child have?" we inquired
+respectfully. "Barley-water and milk, two-and-a-half ounces
+every two hours&mdash;that's five tablespoonfuls, you know." "And
+Leela's?" "Oh, Leela's child is delicate. She has to have
+Benger. Two ounces every two hours; and it has to be a long
+time digested." "Do all your children have their food every
+two hours?" Lola looked surprised, and Leela giggled: how
+very ignorant we seemed to be! "No, only the tiny ones; our
+babies are very young. After they get older they have more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span>
+at a time and not so often. That child there," pointing to
+another mat, "has Condensed, as we haven't enough cow's
+milk for them all. It suits her very well. She has six
+ounces at a time; once before she goes to sleep, and then none
+till she wakens in the morning. She's a very healthy child."
+"How do you know the time?" we asked, prepared for anything
+now. "Oh, we have watches. This is mine," and a toy from a
+Christmas cracker was produced; "Leela's watch is different"
+(it was indeed different&mdash;a mere figment of the imagination),
+"but she can look at mine when she wants to." "Why does
+your child sleep with Leela's?" (All the other infants had
+separate sleeping arrangements.) Lola looked shy, and Leela
+looked shyer. These little matters of affection were not
+intended for public discussion.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">The Usual</div>
+
+<p>By this time the rain had cleared, so we prepared to depart,
+and the further entertainments provided for us by the cheerful
+tribe that evening do not belong to this story. We escaped
+finally, damp with much laughter in a humid atmosphere.
+"Come every evening!" shouted the tribe, as at last we
+disappeared, and we felt much inclined to accept the
+invitation.</p>
+
+<p>The kitchen is a busy place in the morning, and again
+in the evening, when the fresh milk is carried to it in shining
+aluminium vessels to be sterilized or otherwise dealt with.
+But even in the busiest hours there is almost sure to be a
+baby set in an upturned stool, in which she sits holding on
+to the front legs in proud consciousness of being able to sit
+up. Or an older one will be clinging to the garments of the
+busy workers, or perched beside them on a stool. Once we
+found Tara and Evu seated on the window-sill. Ponnamal
+was making foods at the table under the window, and the
+little bare feet were tucked in between bowls and jugs of
+milk. "But, indeed, they are quite clean," explained Ponnamal,
+without waiting for remark from us, for she knew<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span>
+what we were thinking of her table decorations. "We dusted
+the sand off their little feet before we lifted them up." The
+babies said nothing, but looked doubtfully up at us, as if not
+very sure of our intentions. But Ponnamal's eyes were so
+appealing, and the little buff things in blue with a trellis
+of pink flowers for background made such a pretty picture,
+that we had not the heart to spoil it. Then the little faces
+smiled gratefully upon us, and everybody smiled. The kitchen
+is a happy place of innocent surprises.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVII</h2>
+
+<h3>The Secret Traffic</h3>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Sir, to leave things out of a book because they will not be
+believed, is meanness."&mdash;<span class="smcap">Dr. Johnson.</span></p></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>WHEN first, upon March 7, 1901, we heard from the
+lips of a little child the story of her life in a
+Temple house, we were startled and distressed, and
+penetrated with the conviction that such a story ought to
+be impossible in a land ruled by a Christian Power. The
+subject was new to us; we knew nothing of the magnitude
+of what may be called "The Secret Traffic of India"&mdash;a traffic
+in little children, mere infants oftentimes, for wrong purposes;
+and we did not appreciate, as we do now, the delicacy and
+difficulty of the position from a Government point of view,
+or the quiet might of the forces upon the other side. And
+though with added knowledge comes an added sense of
+responsibility, and a fear of all careless appeal to those
+whose burden is already so heavy, yet with every fresh discovery
+the conviction deepens that something should be done&mdash;and
+done, if possible, soon&mdash;to save at least this generation
+of children, or some of them, from destruction.</div>
+
+<p>"It is useless to move without a body of evidence at
+your back," said a friend in the Civil Service to us at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span>
+close of a long conversation. "If you can get the children,
+of course they themselves will furnish the best evidence;
+but, anyhow, collect facts." And this was the beginning of
+a Note-book, into which we entered whatever we could
+learn about the Temple children, and in which we kept
+letters relating to them.</p>
+
+<p>By Temple children throughout this book we mean children
+dedicated to gods, or in danger of being so dedicated. Dedication
+to gods implies a form of marriage which makes
+ordinary marriage impossible. The child is regarded as
+belonging to the gods. In Southern India, where religious
+feeling runs strong, and the great Temples are the centres
+of Hindu influence, this that I have called "The Traffic"
+is worked upon religious lines; and so in trying to save the
+children we have to contend with the perverted religious
+sense. Something of the same kind exists in other parts of
+India, and the traffic under another name is common in
+provinces where Temple service as we have it in the South
+is unknown. Again, in areas where, owing to the action of
+the native Government, Temple service, as such, is not recognised,
+so that children in danger of wrong cannot, strictly
+speaking, be called Temple children, there is yet need of
+legislation which shall touch all houses where little children
+are being brought up for the same purpose; so that the
+subject is immense and involved, and the thought of it
+suggests a net thrown over millions of square miles of
+territory, so finely woven as to be almost invisible, but
+so strong in its mesh that in no place yet has it ever given
+way. And the net is alive: it can feel and it can hold.</p>
+
+<p>But all through this book we have kept to the South&mdash;to
+the area where the evil is distinctly and recognisably
+religious. Others elsewhere have told their own story;
+ours, though in touch with theirs (in that its whole motive
+is to save the little children), is yet different in manner,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span>
+in that it is avowedly Christian. India is a land where
+generalisations are deceptive. So we have kept to the South.</p>
+
+<p>We ourselves became only very gradually aware of what
+was happening about us. As fact after fact came to light,
+we were forced to certain conclusions which we could not
+doubt were correct. But at first we were almost alone in
+these conclusions, because it was impossible to take others
+with us in our tedious underground hunt after facts. So
+the question was often asked: "But do the children really
+exist?"</p>
+<div class="sidenote">"If"</div>
+
+<p>I have said we were almost alone, not quite. Members
+of the Indian Civil Service, who are much among the people,
+knew something of the custom of child-dedication, but found
+themselves unable to touch it. Hindu Reformers, of course,
+knew; and two or three veteran missionaries had come into
+contact with it and had grieved over their helplessness to
+do anything. One of these had written a pamphlet on the
+subject twenty years before our Nursery work began. He
+sent it to me with a sorrowful word written across it,
+"Result? Nil." But we do not often meet our civilian
+friends, for they are busy, and so are we; and the few
+missionaries whose inspiring sympathy helped us through
+those earlier years were in places far from us, and so were
+all the Reformers. So perhaps it was not wonderful that,
+beset by doubting letters from home and a certain
+amount of not unnatural incredulity in India, we sometimes
+almost wondered if we ourselves were dreaming. "Well, if
+they do exist, I hope you will be able to find them!"&mdash;varied
+by, "Well, if you do find them, they will be a proof of their
+own existence!"&mdash;were two of the most encouraging remarks
+of those early days.</p>
+
+<p>From the beginning of this work, as stated before, we
+have tried to collect facts about the traffic and the customs
+connected with it. Notes were kept of conversations with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span>
+Hindus and others, and these notes were compared with
+what evidence we were able to gather from trustworthy
+sources. These brief notes of various kinds we offer in
+their simplicity. We have made no attempt to tabulate or
+put into shape the information thus acquired, believing that
+the notes of conversations taken down at the time, and the
+quotations from letters copied as they stand, will do their
+work more directly than anything more elaborate would.
+Where there is a difference of detail it is because the
+customs differ slightly in different places. No names are
+given, for obvious reasons; but the letters were written by
+men of standing, living in widely scattered districts in
+the South. The evidence contained in them was carefully
+sifted, and in many cases corroborated by personal investigation,
+before being considered evidence: so that we believe
+these chapters may be accepted as fact. Dated quotations
+from the <i>Madras Mail</i> are sufficient to prove that we are
+not writing ancient history:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>January 2, 1909.</i>&mdash;"The following resolution was put
+from the chair and carried unanimously: 'The Conference
+(consisting of Hindu Social Reformers) cordially supports
+the movement started to better the condition of unprotected
+children in general, and appreciates particularly the
+agitation started to protect girls and young women from
+being dedicated to Temples.'"</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Mysore</div>
+
+<p><i>May 8, 1909.</i>&mdash;"Once more we have an illustration from
+Mysore of the fact that the Government of a Native State
+are able to tread boldly on ground which the British
+Government in India are unable to approach. At various
+times, in these columns and elsewhere, has the cry raised
+against the employment of servants of the gods in Hindu
+Temples been uttered; but, as far as the Government are
+concerned, it has fallen, if not on deaf ears, on ears stopped
+to appeals of this kind, which demand action that can be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span>
+interpreted as a breach of that religious neutrality which is
+one of the cardinal principles of British rule in India. The
+agitation against it is not the agitation of the European
+whose susceptibility is offended at a state of things that he
+finds hard to reconcile with the reverence and purity of
+Divine worship; but it is the outcry of the reverent Hindu
+against one of the corrupt and degrading practices that, in
+the course of centuries, have crept into his religion. In this
+particular instance the Mysore Government cannot be accused
+of acting hastily. As long ago as February, 1892, they issued
+a circular order describing the legitimate services to be performed
+in Temples by Temple women. In 1899, the Muzrai
+Superintendent, Rai Bahadur A. Sreenivasa Charlu, directed
+that the Temple women borne on the Nanjangud Temple
+establishment should not be allowed to perform <i>tafe</i> (or
+dancing) service in the Temple; but that the allowances
+payable to them should be continued for their lifetime, and
+that at their death the vacancies should not be filled up.
+Against this order the Temple women concerned memorialised
+H.H. the Maharajah as long ago as 1905, and the order
+disposing of it has only just been issued. In the course of
+the latter the Government say:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"'From the Shastraic authorities quoted by the two
+Agamiks employed in the Muzrai Secretariat, it is observed
+that the services to be performed by Temple women form
+part and parcel of the worship of the god in Hindu Temples,
+and that singing and dancing in the presence of the deity
+are also prescribed. It is, however, observed that in the
+case of Temple women personal purity and rectitude of
+conduct and a vow of celibacy were considered essential.
+But the high ideals entertained in ancient days have now
+degenerated.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. The Government now observe that whatever
+may have been the original object of the institution
+of Temple women in Temples, the state in which these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>
+Temple servants are now found fully justifies the action
+taken by them in excluding the Temple women from every
+kind of service in sacred institutions like Temples. Further,
+the absence of the services of these women in certain
+important Temples in the State has become established
+for nearly fifteen years past, and the public have become
+accustomed to the idea of doing without such services.'</p>
+
+<p>"The exclusion of Temple women from Temple services
+obtains in Mysore in the case of a few large Temples whose
+<i>Tasdik Pattis</i> have been revised. But the time has come, the
+Government think, for its general application, and they
+therefore direct that the policy enunciated in the abstract
+given above should be extended to all Muzrai Temples in the
+State. It is to be hoped that the good example thus set
+will bear fruit elsewhere, where the Temple women evil is
+more notorious than it was in Temples of Mysore."</p>
+
+<p>A copy of the Government document to which this cutting
+relates lies before me. It is bravely and clearly worded, and
+its intention is evident. The high-minded Hindu&mdash;and there
+are such, let it not be forgotten&mdash;revolts from the degradation
+and pollution of this travesty of religion, and will
+abolish it where he can. <i>But let it be remembered that,
+good as this law is, it does not and it cannot touch the
+great Secret Traffic itself. That will go on behind the law,
+and behind the next that is made, and the next, unless
+measures are devised to ensure its being thoroughly enforced.</i></p>
+
+<p>Cuttings from newspapers, quotations, evidence&mdash;it is not
+interesting reading, and yet we look to our friends to
+go through to the end with us. Let us pause for a moment
+here and remember the purpose of it all; and may the
+thought of some little, loved child make an atmosphere for
+these chapters!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>Blue Book Evidence</h3>
+
+<div class='center'>
+"The precipitous sides of difficult questions."&mdash;E. B. B.<br /><br />
+</div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>OUR first evidence consists of abridged extracts from the
+Census Report for 1901. After explaining the different
+names by which Temple women are known in
+different parts of the Madras Presidency, the Report continues:
+"The servants of the gods, who subsist by dancing and music
+and the practice of 'the oldest profession in the world,' are
+partly recruited by admissions and even purchases from other
+classes.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. The rise of the Caste and its euphemistic name
+seem to date from the ninth and tenth centuries, during which
+much activity prevailed in South India in the matter of building
+Temples and elaborating the services held in them.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.
+The duties then, as now, were to fan the idol with Tibetan
+ox-tails, to carry the sacred light, and to sing and dance
+before the god when he is carried in procession. Inscriptions
+show that in <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1004 the great Temple of the Chola
+king at Tanjore had attached to it four hundred women of
+the Temple, who lived in free quarters in the four streets
+round it, and were allowed tax-free land out of its endowments.
+Other Temples had similar arrangements.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. At the
+present day they form a regular Caste, having its own laws
+of inheritance, its own customs and rules of etiquette, and
+its own councils to see that all these are followed, and they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span>
+hold a position which is perhaps without a parallel in any
+other country.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.</div>
+
+<p>"The daughters of the Caste who are brought up to follow
+the Caste profession are carefully taught dancing and singing,
+the art of dressing well, ;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. and their success in keeping
+up their clientele is largely due to the contrast which they
+thus present to the ordinary Hindu housewife, whose ideas
+are bounded by the day's dinners and babies."</p>
+
+<p>Closely allied to this Caste is that formed by the Temple
+musicians, who with the Temple woman are "now practically
+the sole repository of Indian music, the system of which is
+probably one of the oldest in the world." In certain districts
+the Report states that a custom obtains among certain castes,
+under which a family which has no sons must dedicate one
+of its daughters to Temple service. The daughter selected is
+taken to a Temple and married there to a god, the marriage
+symbol being put on her as in a real marriage. Henceforth
+she belongs to the god.</p>
+
+<p>Writing in 1904, a member of the Indian Civil Service
+says: "I heard of a case of dedication (three girls) at A.
+at the beginning of this year, but I could not get any evidence.
+The cases very rarely indeed come up officially, as nearly every
+Hindu is interested in keeping them dark." We, too, have
+had the same difficulty, and the evidence we now submit is
+doubly valuable because of its source. It is very rarely that
+we have found it possible to get behind the scenes sufficiently
+to obtain reliable information from those most concerned in
+this traffic.</p>
+
+<p>The head priest of one of our Temples admitted to a
+friend who was watching for <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'opportunties'">opportunities</ins> to get information
+for us that the "marriage to the god is effected privately by
+the Temple priest at the Temple woman's house, with the
+usual marriage-symbol ceremony. To <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'aviod'">avoid</ins> the Penal Code
+(which forbids the marriage of children to gods) a nominal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span>
+bridegroom is sometimes brought for the wedding day to
+become the nominal husband. This Caste is recruited by
+secret adoption."</p>
+
+<p>A Temple woman's son, now living the ordinary life apart
+from his clan, explains the very early marriage thus: "If
+not married, they will not be considered worthy of honour.
+Before the children reach the age of ten they must be married.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.
+They become the property of the Temple priests and
+worshippers who go to the Temple to chant the sacred
+songs."</p>
+<div class="sidenote">"The Child should be about Eight"</div>
+
+<p>A Temple woman herself told a friend of ours: "The child
+is dressed like a bride, and taken with another girl of the
+same community, dressed like a boy in the garb of a bridegroom.
+They both go to the Temple and worship the idol.
+This ceremony is common, and performed openly in the
+streets." In a later letter from the same friend further
+details are given: "The child, who should be about eight
+or nine years old, goes as if to worship the idol in the
+Temple. There the marriage symbol is hidden in a garland,
+and the garland is put over the idol, after which it is taken
+to the child's home and put round her neck." After this she
+is considered married to the god.</p>
+
+<p>A young Temple woman in a town near Dohnavur told
+us she had been given to the Temple when she was five years
+old. Her home was in the north country, but she did not
+remember it. She had, of course, understood nothing of the
+meaning of the ceremony of marriage. She only remembered
+the pretty flowers and general rejoicing and pleasure. Afterwards,
+when she began to understand, she was not happy, but
+she gradually got accustomed to it. Her adopted relations
+were all the friends she had. She was fond of them and
+they of her. Her "husband" was one of the Temple priests.</p>
+
+<p>A Hindu woman known to us left home with her little
+daughter and wandered about as an ascetic. She went to a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span>
+famous Temple, where it is the custom for such as desire to
+become ascetics to enter the life by conforming to certain
+ceremonies ordained by the priests. She shaved her head,
+took off her jewels, wore a Saivite necklet of berries, and
+was known as a devotee. She had little knowledge of the
+life before she entered it, and only gradually became aware
+of the character borne by most of her fellow-devotees.
+When she knew, she fled from them and returned to her own
+village and the secular life, finding it better than the
+religious.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">How she is Trained</div>
+
+<p>In telling us about it she said: "I expected whiteness, I
+found blackness." She told us that she constantly came into
+contact with Temple women, none of whom had chosen the
+life as she and her fellow-ascetics had chosen theirs. "Always
+the one who is to dance before the gods is given to the life
+when she is very young. Otherwise she could not be properly
+trained. Many babies are brought by their parents and given
+to Temple women for the sake of merit. It is very meritorious
+to give a child to the gods. Often the parents are
+poor but of good Caste. Always suitable compensation and
+a 'joy gift' is given by the Temple women to the parents.
+It is an understood custom, and ensures that the child is a
+gift, not a loan. The amount depends upon the age and
+beauty of the child. If the child is old enough to miss her
+mother, she is very carefully watched until she has forgotten
+her. Sometimes she is shut up in the back part of the house,
+and punished if she runs out into the street. The punishment
+is severe enough to frighten the child. Sometimes it is branding
+with a hot iron upon a place which does not show, as
+under the arm; sometimes nipping with the nail till the
+skin breaks; sometimes a whipping. After the child is
+reconciled to her new life, occasionally her people are allowed
+to come if they wish; and in special circumstances she pays
+a visit to her old home. But this is rare. If she has been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span>
+adopted as an infant, she knows nothing of her own relations,
+but thinks of her adopted mother as her own mother. As
+soon as she can understand she is taught all evil and trained
+to think it is good."</p>
+
+<p>As to her education, the movements of the dance are taught
+very early, and the flexible little limbs are rendered more
+flexible by a system of massage. In all ways the natural
+grace of the child is cultivated and developed, but always
+along lines which lead far away from the freedom and innocence
+of childhood. As it is important she should learn a
+great deal of poetry, she is taught to read (and with this
+object in view she is sometimes sent to the mission school,
+if there is one near her home). The poetry is almost entirely
+of a debased character; and so most insidiously, by story and
+allusion, the child's mind is familiarised with sin; and before
+she knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the
+instinct which would have been her guide is tampered with
+and perverted, till the poor little mind, thus bewildered and
+deceived, is incapable of choice.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIX</h2>
+
+<h3>"Very Common in those Parts"</h3>
+
+<div class='center'>
+"The dark enigma of permitted wrong."&mdash;F. R. H.<br /><br />
+</div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>THE mixture of secrecy and openness described by the
+Temple woman is confirmed by Hindus well acquainted
+with Temple affairs. "All the Temple women are married
+to the gods. In former times the marriages were conducted
+upon a grand scale, but now they are clandestinely performed
+in the Temple, with the connivance of the priest, and with
+freedom to deny it if questioned. Some ceremonies are performed
+in the Temple, the rest at home. Sometimes the
+marriage symbol is blessed by the priest, and taken home to
+the child to be worn by her. In all these cases the priest
+himself has to tie it round her neck. The previous arrangements
+for the marriage are made by the priests with the
+guardians of the child who is to be initiated into the order
+of Temple women.</div>
+
+<p>"The ceremony of tying on the marriage symbol is never
+in our district performed in public. None but intimate friends
+know about it. There is a secret understanding between the
+priests and the Temple women concerned. When the time
+arrives for the marriage symbol to be tied on, after the usual
+ceremonies the priest hands over the symbol hidden in a
+garland of flowers.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, there is music on the occasion. When outsiders<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span>
+ask what all the noise is about, the people who know do not
+say the real thing. They say it is a birthday or other festival
+day. The symbol is tied on when the child is between five and
+eleven, after which it is considered unholy to perform the
+marriage ceremony. The symbol is at first hidden from the
+gaze of the public. Later it is shown publicly, but not while
+the girl is still young."</p>
+
+<p>This tallies exactly with our own experience. More than
+once an eager child in her simplicity has shown me the
+marriage symbol, a small gold ornament tied round her neck,
+or hanging on a fine gold chain; but the Temple woman in
+whose charge she was has always reproved her sharply, and
+made her cover it up under her other jewels, or under the
+folds of her dress.</p>
+
+<p>The reason for this secrecy, which, however, is not universal,
+is, as is inferred in the evidence of the head priest, because it is
+known to the Temple authorities that what they are doing is
+illegal; though, as a matter of fact, as will be seen later,
+prosecutions are rare, and convictions rarer still.</p>
+
+<p>The Caste is recruited, as the Blue Book states, by "admissions
+and even purchases from other classes." On this point
+a Brahman says: "When the Temple woman has no child, she
+adopts a girl or girls, and the children become servants of the
+gods. Sometimes children are found who, on account of a vow
+made by their parents, become devotees of the gods." Another
+Brahman, an orthodox Hindu, writes: "In some districts people
+vow that they will dedicate one of their children to the Temple
+if they are blessed with a family. Temple women often adopt
+orphans, to whom they bequeath their possessions. In most
+cases the orphans are bought."</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Convictions are Rare</div>
+
+<p>The position of the Temple woman has been a perplexity to
+many. The Census Report touches the question: "It is one
+of the many inconsistencies of the Hindu religion, that though
+their profession is repeatedly vehemently condemned in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span>
+Shastras (sacred books), it has always received the countenance
+of the Church." Their duties are all religious. A well-informed
+Hindu correspondent thus enumerates them: "First
+they are to be one of the twenty-one persons who are in
+charge of the key of the outer door of the Temple; second, to
+open the outer door daily; third, to burn camphor, and go
+round the idol when worship is being performed; fourth, to
+honour public meetings with their presence; fifth, to mount
+the car and stand near the god during car-festivals." The
+orthodox Hindu quoted before remarks on the "high honour,"
+as the Temple child is taught to consider it, the marriage to the
+god confers upon her.</p>
+
+<p>We have purposely confined ourselves almost entirely to
+official and Hindu evidence so far, but cannot forbear to add to
+this last word the confirmatory experience of our own Temple
+children worker: "When I try to persuade the Hindus to let us
+have their little ones instead of giving them to the Temples
+they say: 'But to give them to Temples is honour and glory
+and merit to us for ever; to give them to you is dishonour
+and shame and demerit. So why should we give them to
+you?'"</p>
+
+<p>We have said that convictions are rare. This is because of
+the great difficulty in obtaining such evidence as is required by
+the law as it stands at present. One case may be quoted as
+typical. A few years ago, in one of our country towns, a
+father gave his child in marriage to the idol "with some
+pomp," as the report before us says. He was prosecuted, but
+the prosecution failed, for the priest and the parents united in
+denying the fact of the marriage; and the evidence for the
+defence was so skilfully cooked that it was found impossible
+to prove an offence against the Penal Code.</p>
+
+<p>Once, deeply stirred over the case of a little girl of six who
+was about to be married to a god as her elder sisters had been
+a few months previously, we wrote to a magistrate of wide<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span>
+experience and proved sympathy with the work. His letter
+speaks for itself:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I have been waiting some little time before answering
+your letter, because I wanted time to think over your problem.
+As far as I can make out, there is no way in the world of preventing
+a woman marrying her own daughter to the gods at
+any age; but you can prosecute her if she does. If you could
+get her into prison for marrying the elder girls, the younger
+might be safe; but I don't think you can do anything directly
+for her. She is not being 'unlawfully detained'; and even if
+she were, all you could do would be to get her returned to her
+parents and guardians, which would be worse than useless.</p>
+
+<p>"The question is whether you can hope to get a conviction
+in the other case.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see how you can. You can say in court that
+you saw the little girls with their marriage symbol on, and
+that they said they had been married to the god. The
+little girls will deny it all, and say they never set eyes on
+you before. Moreover, I don't think the ordinary Court
+would be satisfied without some other evidence of the fact
+of dedication; and considering how everyone would work
+against you, I think you would find it extraordinarily hard.
+The local police would be worse than useless."</p>
+
+<p>To every man his work: it appears to us that expert
+knowledge is required, and ample means and leisure, if the
+expenditure involved is to result in anything worth while;
+and a careful study of all available information regarding
+prosecutions, convictions, and, I may add, sentences, has
+convinced us, at least, of the futility of such attempts from
+a missionary point of view: for even if convictions were
+certain, <i>as long as the law hands the child back to its
+guardians after their unfitness to guard it from the worst
+that can befall it has been proved</i>, so long do we feel
+unable to rejoice exceedingly over even the six months'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span>
+rigorous imprisonment, which in more than one case has
+been the legal interpretation of the phrase "up to a term
+of ten years," which is the penalty attached to this offence
+in the Indian Penal Code.</p>
+
+<p>In this connection it may be well to quote a paragraph
+from the <i>Indian Social Reformer:</i>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"The Public Prosecutor at Madras applied for admission
+of a revision petition against the order of the Sessions
+Judge, made in the following circumstances:&mdash;</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Ten years&mdash;Six Months</div>
+
+<p>"One, S., a priest, was convicted by the first-class subdivisional
+magistrate of having performed the ceremony of
+dedicating a young girl in the Temple of N., and thereby
+committing an offence punishable under Section 372 of the
+Penal Code. He accordingly sentenced him to six months'
+rigorous imprisonment. On appeal, the Sessions Judge reduced
+the sentence to two months, on the ground that the
+rite complained against was a very common one in those
+parts. The Public Prosecutor based his petition on the
+ground that it had been held in a previous case 'that
+such a dedication was an offence, and that it was highly
+desirable that the interests of minors should be properly
+protected.' This protection, it was submitted, could only be
+vouchsafed by making offending people understand that they
+would render themselves liable to heavy punishment. The
+present sentence would not have a deterrent effect, and he
+accordingly applied for an enhancement of the same. His
+lordship admitted the petition, and directed notice to the
+accused."</p>
+
+<p>It is something to know the six months' sentence was
+confirmed. But is not the fact that a Sessions Judge
+should commute such a sentence, on the ground that the
+offence was "very common," enough to suggest a doubt as
+to the deterrent effect of even this punishment?</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span></p>
+<h3>NOTE</h3>
+
+<div class='blockquot'>
+<p><b>During the last few months the Secretary of State for India
+has addressed official inquiries to the Government of India
+regarding the dedication of children to Hindu gods, and the
+measures necessary for the protection of such children.</b></p>
+
+<p><b>If the anticipated change in the law is to result in more
+than a Bill on paper&mdash;a blind, behind which things will go
+on as before only more out of sight&mdash;it is, we believe, needful
+to ensure:</b></p>
+
+<div class="hang1"><b>1st. Protection for all children found to be in moral
+danger, whether or not they are or may be dedicated
+to gods.</b><br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class="hang1"><b>2nd. That, irrespective of nationality or religion, whoever
+has worked for and won the deliverance of the
+child should be allowed to act as guardian to it.</b><br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class="hang1"><b>3rd. That such a Bill shall be most thoroughly enforced.</b><br /><br /><br /></div>
+
+<p><b><i>February, 1912.</i></b></p>
+
+<div class='right'>
+To face p. 268.<br />
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXX</h2>
+
+<h3>On the Side of the Oppressors there was Power</h3>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>I &nbsp;HAVE been looking over my note-book, in which there
+are some hundreds of letters, clippings from newspapers,
+and records of conversations bearing upon the
+Temple children. It is difficult to know which to choose
+to complete the picture already outlined in the preceding
+chapters. A mere case record would be wearisome; and
+indeed the very word "case" sounds curiously inappropriate
+when one thinks of the nurseries and their little inhabitants;
+or looks up to see mischievous eyes watching a
+chance to stop the uninteresting writing; or feels, suddenly,
+soft arms round one's neck, as a baby, strayed from her
+own domain, climbs unexpectedly up from behind and
+makes dashes at the typewriter keyboard. Such little
+living interruptions are too frequent to allow of these
+chapters being anything but human.</div>
+
+<p>The newspaper clippings are usually concerned with
+public movements, resolutions, petitions, and the like.
+There is one startling little paragraph from a London
+paper, dated July 7, 1906; the ignorance of the subject
+so flippantly dealt with is its only apology. No one could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span>
+have written so had he understood. The occasion was the
+memorial addressed to the Governor in Council by workers
+for the children in the Bombay Presidency:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Society must be very select in Poona. There has been
+a custom there for young ladies to be married to selected
+gods. You would have thought that to be the bride of a
+god was a good enough marriage for anyone. But it is
+not good enough for Poona." It is time that such writing
+became impossible for any Englishman.</p>
+
+<p>In India the feeling of the best men, whether Hindu or
+Christian, is strongly against the dedication of little
+children to Temples, and some of the newspapers of the
+land speak out and say so in unmistakable language. The
+<i>Indian Times</i> speaks of the little ones being "steeped deep
+from their childhood" in all that is most wrong. A Hindu,
+writing in the <i>Epiphany</i>, puts the matter clearly when
+he says: "Finally, one can hardly conceive of anything
+more debasing than to dedicate innocent little girls to gods
+in the name of religion, and then leave them with the
+Temple priests"; and another writer in the same paper
+asks a question which those who say that Hinduism is
+good enough for India might do well to ponder: "If this
+is not a Hindu practice, how can it take place in a Temple
+and no priest stop it, though all know?&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. In London
+religion makes wickedness go away; but in Bombay religion
+brings wickedness, and Government has to try to
+make it go away." This immense contrast of fact and of
+ideal contains our answer to all who would put sin in
+India on a level with sin in England.</p>
+
+<p>Christian writers naturally, whether in the <i>Christian
+Patriot</i> of the South or the <i>Bombay Guardian</i> of the West,
+have no doubt about the existence of the evil or the need for
+its removal. They, too, connect it distinctly with religion, and
+recognise its tremendous influence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But we turn from the printed page, and go straight to the
+houses where the little children live. The witnesses now are
+missionaries or trusted Indian workers.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">"She Belongs to the god"</div>
+
+<p>"There were thirteen little children in the houses connected
+with the Temple last time I visited them. I saw the little baby&mdash;such
+a dear, fat, laughing little thing. It was impossible
+to get it, and I see no hope of getting any of the other
+children."</p>
+
+<p>"When I was visiting in S. a woman came to talk to me with
+her three little children. Two of them were girls, very pretty,
+'fair' little children. 'What work does your husband do?'
+I asked; and she answered, 'I am married to the god.' Then
+I knew who she was, and that her children were in danger. I
+have tried since to get them, but in vain. Everyone says that
+Temple women never give up their little girls. These two
+were dedicated at their birth. This is only one instance. We
+have many Temple women reading with us, and many of the
+little children attend our schools."</p>
+
+<p>"There are not scores but hundreds of these children in the
+villages of this district. Here certain families, living ordinary
+lives in their own villages, dedicate one of their children as
+a matter of course to the gods. They always choose the
+prettiest. It is a recognised custom, and no one thinks anything
+of it. The child so dedicated lives with her parents
+afterwards as if nothing had happened, only she may not be
+married in the real way. She belongs to the god and his
+priests and worshippers."</p>
+
+<p>"The house was very orderly and nice. I sat on the
+verandah and talked to the women, who were all well educated
+and so attractive with their pretty dress and jewels. They
+seemed bright, but, of course, would not show me their real
+feelings, and I could only hold surface conversation with
+them."</p>
+
+<p>We are often asked if the Temple houses are inside the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span>
+walls which surround all the great Temples in this part of
+the country. They are usually in the streets outside. Most
+of the Brahman Temples are surrounded by a square of streets,
+and the houses are in the square or near it. There is nothing
+to distinguish them from other houses in the street. It is only
+when you go inside that you feel the difference. An hour on
+the shady verandah of one of these houses is very revealing.
+You see the children run up to welcome a tall, fine-looking
+man, who pats their heads in the kindest way, and as he passes
+you recognise him. Next time you see him in the glory of his
+office, you wish you could forget where you saw him last.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes we are asked who the children are. How do
+the Temple women get them in the first instance?</p>
+
+<p>We have already answered this question by quotations
+from the Census Report, and by statements of Hindus well
+acquainted with the subject. It should be added that often
+the Temple woman having daughters of her own dedicates
+them, and as a rule it is only when she has none that she
+adopts other little ones. A few extracts from letters and
+notes from conversations are subjoined, as they show how
+the system of adoption works:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"We are in trouble over a little girl, the daughter of
+wealthy parents, who have dedicated her to the gods and
+refuse to change their mind. The child was ill some time
+ago, and they vowed then that if she recovered they would
+dedicate her."</p>
+
+<p>"The poor woman's husband was very ill, and the mother
+vowed her little girl as an offering if he recovered. He did
+recover, and so the child has been given."</p>
+
+<p>"It is the custom of the Caste to dedicate the eldest girl
+of a certain chosen family, and nothing will turn them from
+it. One child must be given in each generation."</p>
+
+<p>"She is of good caste, but very poor. Her husband died
+two months before the baby was born, and as it was a girl<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span>
+she was much troubled as to its future, for she knew she
+would never have enough money to marry it suitably. A
+Temple woman heard of the baby, and at once offered to adopt
+it. She persuaded the mother by saying: 'You see, if it is
+married to the gods, it will never be a widow like you. It
+will always be well cared for and have honour, and be a sign
+of good fortune to our people&mdash;unlike you!' (It is considered
+a sign of good omen to see a Temple woman the first thing
+in the morning; but the sight of a widow at any time is a
+thing to be avoided.) The poor mother could not resist this,
+and she has been persuaded."</p>
+<div class="sidenote">"Not Wrong because Religious"</div>
+
+<p>"The mother is a poor, delicate widow, with several boys
+as well as this baby girl. She cannot support them all
+properly, and her relatives do not seem inclined to help her.
+The Temple women have heard of her, and they sent a woman
+to negotiate. The mother knew that we would take the little
+one rather than that she should be forced to give it up to
+Temple women; but she said when we talked with her: 'It
+cannot be wrong to give it to the holy gods! This is our
+religion; and it may be wrong to you, but it is not wrong
+to us.' So she refused to give us the baby, and seems inclined
+to go away with it. It is like that constantly. The thing
+cannot be wrong because it is religious!"</p>
+
+<p>"I heard of two little orphan girls whose guardian, an uncle,
+had married again, and did not want to have the marriage
+expenses of his two little nieces to see to. So at the last
+great festival he brought the children and dedicated them
+to the Saivite Temple, and the Temple women heard about
+it before I did, and at once secured them. I went as soon
+as I could to see if we could not get them, but she would
+not listen to us. She said they were her sister's children,
+and that she had adopted them out of love for her dead
+sister."</p>
+
+<p>A lawyer was consulted as to this case, but it was impossible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span>
+to trace the uncle or to prove that the children were
+not related to the Temple woman. Above all, it was impossible
+to prove that she meant to do anything illegal. So nothing
+could be done.</p>
+
+<p>As a rule the Temple woman receives little beyond bare
+sustenance from the Temple itself. In some Temples when
+the little child is formally dedicated, she (or her guardian)
+receives two pounds, and her funeral expenses are promised.
+But though there is little stated remuneration, the Temple
+woman is not poor. Poverty may come. If she breaks the
+law of her caste, or offends against the etiquette of that
+caste, she is immediately excommunicated, and then she
+may become very poor. Or if she has spent her money
+freely, or not invested it wisely, her old age may be cheerless
+enough. But we have not found any lack of money among
+the Sisterhood. No offer of compensation for all expenses
+connected with a child has ever drawn them to part with
+her. They offer large sums for little ones who will be useful
+to them. We have several times known as much as an offer
+of one hundred rupees made and accepted in cases where
+the little child (in each case a mere infant) was one of
+special promise. A letter, which incidentally mentions the
+easy circumstances in which many are, may be of interest:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"K. is a little girl in our mission school. Her mother is
+a favourite Temple woman high up in the profession. She
+dances while the other women sing, and sometimes she gets
+as much as three or four hundred rupees for her dancing. She
+is well educated, can recite the 'Ramayana' (Indian epic), and
+knows a little English. She spends some time in her own
+house, but is often away visiting other Temples. Just now
+she is away, and little K. is with her.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. Humanly speaking,
+she will never let her go."</p>
+<div class="sidenote">The Pressure Tells</div>
+
+<p>The education of the mission school is appreciated because
+it makes the bright little child still brighter; and we, who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span>
+know the home life of these children, are glad when they
+are given one brief opportunity to learn what may help
+them in the difficult days to come. We have known of
+some little ones who, influenced by outside teaching, tried
+to escape the life they began to feel was wrong, but in
+each case they were overborne, for on the side of the
+oppressors there was power. I was in a Temple house
+lately, and noticed the doors&mdash;the massive iron-bossed doors
+are a feature of all well-built Hindu houses of the South.
+How could a little child shut up in such a room, with its
+door shut, if need be, to the outside inquisitive world&mdash;how
+could she resist the strength that would force the garland
+round her neck? She might tear it off if she dared, but the
+little golden symbol had been hidden under the flowers, and
+the priest had blessed it; the deed was done&mdash;she was married
+to the god. And only those who have seen the effect of a
+few weeks of such a life upon a child, who has struggled in
+vain against it, can understand how cowed she may become,
+how completely every particle of courage and independence
+of spirit may be caused to disappear; and how what we had
+known as a bright, sparkling child, full of the fearless, confiding
+ways of a child, may become distrustful and constrained,
+quite incapable of taking a stand on her own account, or of
+responding to any effort we might be able to make from
+outside. It is as if the child's spirit were broken, and those
+who know what she has gone through cannot wonder if
+it is.</p>
+
+<p>And then comes something we dread more: the life begins
+to attract. The sense of revolt passes as the will weakens;
+the persistent, steady pressure tells. And when we see her
+next, perhaps only three months later, the child has passed
+the boundary, and belongs to us no more.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXI</h2>
+
+<h3>And there was None to Save</h3>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+Thou canst conceive our highest and our lowest<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pulses of nobleness and aches of shame.</span><br />
+<div class='sig'>
+<span class="smcap">Frederic W. H. Myers.</span><br />
+</div><br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>IN speaking of these matters I have tried to keep far
+from that which is only sentiment, and have resolutely
+banished all imagination. I would that the writing could
+be as cold in tone as the criticism of those who consider
+everything other than polished ice almost amusing&mdash;to judge
+by the way they handle it, dismissing it with an airy grace
+and a hurting adjective. Would they be quite so cool, we
+wonder, if the little wronged girl were their own? But we
+do not write for such as these. The thought of the cold eyes
+would freeze the thoughts before they formed. We write for
+the earnest-hearted, who are not ashamed to confess they care.
+And yet we write with reserve even though we write for them,
+because nothing else is possible. And this crushing back of
+the full tide makes its fulness almost oppressive. It is as
+though a flame leaped from the page and scorched the brain
+that searched for words quite commonplace and quiet.</div>
+
+<p>The finished product of the Temple system of education
+is something so distorted that it cannot be described. But it
+should never be forgotten that the thing from which we recoil
+did not choose to be fashioned so. It was as wax&mdash;a little,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span>
+tender, innocent child&mdash;in the hands of a wicked power when
+the fashioning process began. Let us deal gently with those
+who least deserve our blame, and reserve our condemnation
+for those responsible for the creation of the Temple woman.
+Is it fair that a helpless child, who has never once been given
+the choice of any other life, should be held responsible afterwards
+for living the life to which alone she has been trained?
+Is it fair to call her by a name which belongs by right to one
+who is different, in that her life is self-chosen? No word can
+cut too keenly at the root of this iniquity; but let us deal
+gently with the mishandled flower. Let hard words be
+restrained where the woman is concerned. Let it be remembered
+she is not responsible for being what she is.</p>
+
+<p>In a Canadian book of songs there is a powerful little poem
+about an artist who painted one who was beautiful but not
+good. He hid all trace of what was; he painted a babe at her
+breast.</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+I painted her as she might have been<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If the Worst had been the Best.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='unindent'>And a connoisseur came and looked at the picture. To him it
+spoke of holiest things; he thought it a Madonna:&mdash;</div>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+So I painted a halo round her hair,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And I sold her and took my fee;</span><br />
+And she hangs in the church of St. Hilaire,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where you and all may see.</span><br />
+</div>
+<div class="sidenote">"It Crowns with the Golden Crown"</div>
+
+<div class='unindent'>Sometimes as we have looked at the face of one whose training
+was not complete we have seen as the artist saw: we have
+seen her "as she might have been if the worst had been the
+best." There was no halo round her hair, only its travesty&mdash;something
+that told of crowned and glorified sin; and yet we
+could catch more than a glimpse of the perfect "might have
+been." So we say, let blame fall lightly on the one who least<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span>
+deserves it. Perhaps if our ears were not so full of the sounds
+of the world, we should hear a tenderer judgment pronounced
+than man's is likely to be: "Unto the damsel thou shalt do
+nothing.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. For there was none to save her."</div>
+
+<p>Our work at Dohnavur is entirely among the little children
+who are innocent of wrong. We rarely touch these lives which
+have been stained and spoiled; but we could not forbear to
+write a word of clear explanation about them, lest any should
+mistake the matter and confuse things that differ.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>We leave the subject with relief. Few who have followed
+us so far know how much it has cost to lead the way into these
+polluted places. Not that we would make much of any personal
+cost; but that we would have it known that nothing save a
+pressure which could not be resisted could force us to touch
+pitch. And yet why should we shrink from it when the purpose
+which compels is the saving of the children? Brave words
+written by a brave woman come and help us to do it:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"This I say emphatically, that the evil which we have
+grappled with to save one of our own dear ones does not sully.
+It is the evil that we read about in novels and newspapers for
+our own amusement; it is the evil we weakly give way to in
+our lives; above all, it is the destroying evil that we have
+refused so much as to know about in our absorbing care for
+our own alabaster skin; it is that evil which defiles a woman.
+But the evil that we have grappled with in a life and death
+struggle to save a soul for whom Christ died does not sully; it
+clothes from head to foot with the white robe, it crowns with
+the golden crown."</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>There remains only one thing more to show. It was
+evening in an Indian town at a time of festival. The great
+pillared courts of the Temple were filled with worshippers and
+pilgrims from all over the Tamil country and from as far north<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span>
+as Benares. Men who eagerly grasped at anything printed in
+Sanscrit and knew nothing of our vernacular were scattered in
+little groups among the crowd, and we had freedom to go to them
+and give them what we could, and talk to the many others who
+would listen. Outside the moonlight was shining on the dark
+pile of the Temple tower, and upon the palms planted along the
+wall, which rises in its solid strength 30 feet high and encloses
+the whole Temple precincts. There were very few people out in
+the moonlight. It was too quiet there for them, too pure in its
+silvery whiteness. Inside the hall, with its great-doored rooms
+and recesses, there were earth-lights in abundance, flaring
+torches, smoking lamps and lanterns. And there was noise&mdash;the
+noise of words and of wailing Indian music. For up near
+the closed doors which open on the shrine within which the idol
+sat surrounded by a thousand lights, there was a band of
+musicians playing upon stringed instruments; sometimes they
+broke out excitedly and banged their drums and made their
+conch-shells blare.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly there was a tumultuous rush of every produceable
+sound; tom-tom, conch-shell, cymbal, flute, stringed instruments
+and bells burst into chorus together. The idol was going to
+be carried out from his innermost shrine behind the lights; and
+as the great doors moved slowly, the excitement became intense,
+the thrill of it quivered through all the hall and sent a tremor
+through the crowd out to the street. But we passed out and
+away, and turned into a quiet courtyard known to us and
+talked to the women there.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">The Harebell Child</div>
+
+<p>There were three, one the grandmother of the house, one
+her daughter, and another a friend. The grandmother and her
+daughter were Temple women, the eldest grandchild had been
+dedicated only a few months before. There were three more
+children, one Mungie, a lovable child of six, one a pretty three-year-old
+with a mop of beautiful curls, the youngest a baby
+just then asleep in its hammock; a little foot dangled out of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span>
+the hammock, which was hung from a rafter in the verandah
+roof. We had come to talk to the grandmother and mother
+about the dear little six-year-old child, and hoped to find their
+heart.</p>
+
+<p>But we seemed to talk to stone, hard as the stone of the
+Temple tower that rose above the roofs, black against the purity
+of the moonlit sky. It was a bitter half-hour. Some hours are
+like stabs to remember, or like the pitiless pressing down of an
+iron on living flesh. At last we could bear it no longer, and
+rose to go. As we left we heard the grandmother turn to her
+daughter's friend and say: "Though she heap gold on the floor
+as high as Mungie's neck, I would never let her go to those
+degraded Christians!"</p>
+
+<p>Once again it was festival in the white light of the full
+moon, and once again we went to the same old Hindu town; for
+moonlight nights are times of opportunity, and the cool of
+evening brings strength for more than can be attempted in the
+heat of the day. And this time an adopted mother spoke
+words that ate like acid into steel as we listened.</p>
+
+<p>Her adopted child is a slip of a girl, slim and light, with the
+ways of a shy thing of the woods. She made me think of
+a harebell growing all by itself in a rocky place, with stubbly
+grass about and a wide sky overhead. She was small and very
+sweet, and she slid on to my knee and whispered her lessons
+in my ear in the softest of little voices. She had gone to
+school for nearly a year, and liked to tell me all she knew.
+"Do you go to school now?" I asked her. She hung her
+head and did not answer. "Don't you go?" I repeated.
+She just breathed "No," and the little head dropped lower.
+"Why not?" I whispered as softly. The child hesitated.
+Some dim apprehension that the reason would not seem
+good to me troubled her, perhaps, for she would not answer.
+"Tell the Ammal, silly child!" said her foster-mother, who
+was standing near. "Tell her you are learning to dance and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span>
+sing and get ready for the gods!" "I am learning to dance
+and sing and get ready for the gods," repeated the child
+obediently, lifting large, clear eyes to my face for a moment
+as if to read what was written there. A group of men stood
+near us. I turned to them. "Is it right to give this little
+child to a life like that?" I asked them then. They smiled
+a tolerant, kindly smile. "Certainly no one would call it
+right, but it is our custom," and they passed on. There was
+no sense of the pity of it:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+Poor little life that toddles half an hour,<br />
+Crowned with a flower or two, and then an end!<br />
+</div>
+
+<p>We had come to the town an hour or two earlier, and had
+seen, walking through the throng round the Temple, two bright
+young girls in white. No girls of their age, except Temple
+girls, would have been out at that hour of the evening, and
+we followed them home. They stopped when they reached
+the house where little Mungie lived, and then, turning, saw
+us and salaamed. One of the two was Mungie's elder sister.
+Little Mungie ran out to meet her sister, and, seeing us,
+eagerly asked for a book. So we stood in the open moonlight,
+and the little one tried to spell out the words of a
+text to show us she had not forgotten all she had learned,
+even though she, too, had been taken from school, and had
+to learn pages of poetry and the Temple dances and songs.</p>
+
+<p>The girls were jewelled and crowned with flowers, and they
+looked like flowers themselves; flowers in moonlight have a
+mystery about them not perceived in common day, but the
+mystery here was something wholly sorrowful. Everything
+about the children&mdash;they were hardly more than children&mdash;showed
+care and refinement of taste. There was no
+violent clash of colour; the only vivid colour note was the
+rich red of a silk underskirt that showed where the clinging<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span>
+folds of the white gold-embroidered <i>sari</i> were draped a little
+at the side. The effect was very dainty, and the girls' manners
+were modest and gentle. No one who did not know what the
+pretty dress meant that night would have dreamed it was but
+the mesh of a net made of white and gold.</p>
+
+<p>But with all their pleasant manners it was evident the
+two girls looked upon us with a distinct aloofness. They
+glanced at us much as a brilliant bird of the air might be
+supposed to regard poultry, fowls of the cooped-up yard.
+Then they melted into the shadow of an archway behind the
+moonlit space, and we went on to another street and came
+upon little Sellamal, the harebell child; and, sitting down on
+the verandah which opens off the street, we heard her lessons
+as we have told, and got into conversation with her adopted
+mother.</p>
+
+<p>We found her interested in listening to what we had
+to say about dedicating children to the service of the gods.
+She was extremely intelligent, and spoke Tamil such as one
+reads in books set for examination. It was easy to talk
+with her, for she saw the point of everything at once, and
+did not need to have truth broken up small and crumbled
+down and illustrated in half a dozen different ways before it
+could be understood. But the half-amused smile on the clever
+face told us how she regarded all we were saying. What was
+life and death earnestness to us was a game of words to her;
+a play the more to be enjoyed because, drawn by the sight
+of two Missie Ammals sitting together on the verandah,
+quite a little crowd had gathered, and were listening appreciatively.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">"Now Listen to my Way"</div>
+
+<p>"That is your way of looking at it; now listen to my way.
+Each land in all the world has its own customs and religion.
+Each has that which is best for it. Change, and you invite
+confusion and much unpleasantness. Also by changing you
+express your ignorance and pride. Why should the child<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span>
+presume to greater wisdom than its father? And now listen
+to me! I will show you the matter from our side!" ("Yes,
+venerable mother, continue!" interposed the crowd encouragingly.)
+"You seem to feel it a sad thing that little
+Sellamal should be trained as we are training her. You
+seem to feel it wrong, and almost, perhaps, disgrace. But
+if you could see my eldest daughter the centre of a thousand
+Brahmans and high-caste Hindus! If you could see every
+eye in that ring fixed upon her, upon her alone! If you
+could see the absorption&mdash;hardly do they dare to breathe
+lest they should miss a point of her beauty! Ah, you would
+know, could you see it all, upon whose side the glory lies
+and upon whose the shame! Compare that moment of
+exaltation with the grovelling life of your Christians! Low-minded,
+flesh-devouring, Christians, discerning not the
+difference between clean and unclean! Bah! And you
+would have my little Sellamal leave all this for that!"</p>
+
+<p>"But afterwards? What comes afterwards?"</p>
+
+<p>"What know I? What care I? That is a matter for the
+gods."</p>
+
+<p>The child Sellamal listened to this, glancing from face to
+face with wistful, wondering eyes; and as I looked down
+upon her she looked up at me, and I looked deep into those
+eyes&mdash;such innocent eyes. Then something seemed to move
+the child, and she held up her face for a kiss.</p>
+
+<p>This is only one Temple town. There are many such in
+the South. These things are not easy to look at for long.
+We turn away with burning eyes, and only for the children's
+sake could we ever look again. For their sake look again.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">The World turned Black</div>
+
+<p>It was early evening in a home of rest on the hills. A
+medical missionary, a woman of wide experience, was talking
+to a younger woman about the Temple children. She had
+lived for some time, unknowingly, next door to a Temple
+house in an Indian city. Night after night she said she was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span>
+wakened by the cries of children&mdash;frightened cries, indignant
+cries, sometimes sharp cries as of pain. She inquired in the
+morning, but was always told the children had been punished
+for some naughtiness. "They were only being beaten." She
+was not satisfied, and tried to find out more through the
+police. But she feared the police were bribed to tell nothing,
+for she found out nothing through them. Later, by means
+of her medical work, she came full upon the truth.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.
+"Why leave spaces with dotted lines? Why not write the
+whole fact?" wrote one who did not know what she asked.
+Once more we repeat it, to write the whole fact is impossible.</p>
+
+<p>It is true this is not universal; in our part of the country
+it is not general, for the Temple child is considered of too
+much value to be lightly injured. But it is true beyond a
+doubt that inhumanity which may not be described is possible
+at any time in any Temple house.</p>
+
+<p>Out in the garden little groups of missionaries walked
+together and talked. From a room near came the sound
+of a hymn. It was peaceful and beautiful everywhere, and
+the gold of sunset filled the air, and made the garden a
+glory land of radiant wonderful colour. But for one woman
+at least the world turned black. Only the thought of the
+children nerved her to go on.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXII</h2>
+
+<h3>The Power behind the Work</h3>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"To Him difficulties are as nothing, and improbabilities of less than
+no account."&mdash;<i>Story of the China Inland Mission.</i></p></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>THE Power behind the work is the interposition of God
+in answer to prayer.</div>
+
+<p>Recently&mdash;so recently that it would be unwise to
+go into detail&mdash;we were in trouble about a little girl of ten
+or eleven, who, though not a Temple child, was exposed to
+imminent danger, and sorely needed deliverance. I happened
+to be alone at Dohnavur at the time, and did not know what
+to answer to the child's urgent message: "If I can escape
+to you" (this meant if she braved capture and its consequences,
+and fled across the fields alone at night), "can you
+protect me from my people?" To say "Yes" might have had
+fatal results. To say "No" seemed too impossible. The
+circumstances were such that great care was needed to avoid
+being entangled in legal complications; and as the Collector
+(Chief Magistrate) for our part of the district happened just
+then to be in our neighbourhood, I wrote asking for an
+appointment. Early next morning we met by the roadside.
+I had been up most of the night, and was tired and anxious;
+and I shall never forget the comfort that came through the
+quiet sympathy with which one who was quite a stranger to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span>
+us all listened to the story, not as if it were a mere missionary
+trifle, but something worthy his attention. But nothing could
+be done. It was not a case where we had any ground for
+appeal to the law; and any attempt upon our part to help
+the child could only have resulted in more trouble afterwards,
+for we should certainly have had to give her up if she came
+to us.</p>
+
+<p>As the inevitableness of this conclusion became more and
+more evident to me, it seemed as if a great strong wall were
+rising foot by foot between me and that little girl&mdash;a wall
+like the walls that enclose the Temples here, very high, very
+massive. But even Temple walls have doors, and I could not
+see any door in this wall. Nothing could bring that child to
+us but a Power enthroned above the wall, which could stoop
+and lift her over it. I do not remember what led to the
+question about what we expected would happen; but I
+remember that with that wall full in view I could only
+answer, "The interposition of God." Nothing else, nothing
+less, could do anything for that child.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Voices Blown on the Winds</div>
+
+<p>Her case was complicated, if I may express it so, by the
+fact that though she knew very little&mdash;she had only had a
+few weeks' teaching and could not read&mdash;she had believed
+all we told her most simply and literally, and witnessed to
+her own people, whose reply to her had been: "You will see
+who is stronger, your God or ours! Do you think your Lord
+Jesus can deliver you from our hand, or prevent us from doing
+as we choose with you? We shall see!" And the case of an
+older girl who had been, as those who knew her best believed,
+drugged and then bent to her people's will, was quoted: "Did
+your Lord Jesus deliver her? Where is she to-day? And you
+think He will deliver you!" "But He will not let you hurt
+me," the child had answered fearlessly, though her strength
+was weakened even then by thirty hours without food; and,
+remembering one of the Bible stories she had heard during<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span>
+those weeks, she added, "I am Daniel, and you are the lions"&mdash;and
+she told them how the angel was sent to shut the lions'
+mouths. But she knew so little after all, and the bravest can
+be overborne, and she was only a little girl; so our hearts
+ached for her as we sent her the message: "You must not try
+to come to us. We cannot protect you. But Jesus is with
+you. He will not fail you. He says, 'Fear thou not, for I
+am with thee.'" That night they shut her up with a demon-possessed
+woman, that the terror of it might shake her faith
+in Christ. Next day they hinted that worse would happen
+soon. Our fear was lest her faith should fail before deliverance
+came.</p>
+
+<p>Three and a half months of such tension as we have rarely
+known passed over us. Often during that time, when one
+thing after another happened contrariwise, as it appeared, and
+each event as it occurred seemed to add another foot to the
+wall that still grew higher, help to faith came to us through
+unexpected sources like voices blown on the winds.</p>
+
+<p>Once it was something Lieut. Shackleton is reported to have
+said to Reuter's correspondent concerning his expedition to the
+South Pole: "Over and over again there were times when no
+mortal leadership could have availed us. It was during those
+times that we learned that some Power beyond our own
+guided our footsteps." And the illustrations which followed
+of Divine interposition were such that one at least who
+read, took courage; for the God of the great Ice-fields is
+the God of the Tropics.</p>
+
+<p>Once it was a passage opened by chance in a friend's book&mdash;Pastor
+Agnorum. The subject of the paragraph is the
+schoolboy's attitude towards games: "Glimpses of his mind
+are sometimes given us, as on that day at Risingham when
+you refused to play in your boys' house-match, unless the other
+house excluded from their team a half-back who was under
+attainder through a recent row. They declined, and you stood<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span>
+out of it. The hush in the field when your orphaned team, in
+defiance of the odds, scored and again scored! Their supporters,
+in chaste awe at the marvel, could hardly shout: it
+was more like a sob: a judgment had so manifestly defended
+the right. The cricket professional, a man naturally devout,
+looked at me with eyes that confessed an interposition, and all
+came away quiet as a crowd from a cemetery. It was not a
+game of football we had looked at, it was a Mystery Play: we
+had been edified, and we hid it in our hearts."</p>
+
+<p>And once, on the darkest day of all, it was the brave old
+family motto, on a letter which came by post: "Dieu d&eacute;fend
+le droit." It was something to be reminded that, in spite of
+appearances to the contrary, the kingdom is the Lord's, and
+He is Governor among the people.</p>
+
+<p>"Eyes that confessed an interposition." The phrase was
+illuminated for us when God in very truth interposed in such
+fashion that every one saw it was His Hand, for no other
+hand could have done it. Then we, too, looked at each other
+with eyes that confessed an interposition. We had seen that
+which we should never forget; and until the time comes when
+it may be more fully told to the glory of our God, we have hid
+it in our hearts.</p>
+
+<p>The reason we have outlined the story is to lead to a
+word we want to write very earnestly; it is this: Friends
+who care for the children, and believe this work on their
+behalf is something God intends should be done, "pray as
+if on that alone hung the issue of the day." More than we
+know depends upon our holding on in prayer.</p>
+
+<p>All through those months there was prayer for that child
+in India and in England. The matter was so urgent that
+we made it widely known, and some at least of those who
+heard gave themselves up to prayer; not to the mere easy
+prayer which costs little and does less, but to that waiting
+upon God which does not rest till it knows it has obtained<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span>
+access, knows that it has the petition that it desires of Him.
+This sort of prayer costs.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">"I Should utterly have fainted but&mdash;"</div>
+
+<p>But to us down in the thick of the battle, it was strength
+to think of that prayer. We were very weary with hope
+deferred; for it was as if all the human hope in us were
+torn out of us, and tossed and buffeted every way till there
+was nothing left of it but an aching place where it had
+been. God works by means, as we all admit; and so every
+fresh development in a Court case in which the child was
+involved, every turn of affairs, where her relatives were
+concerned (and these turns were frequent), every little
+movement which seemed to promise something, was eagerly
+watched in the expectation that in it lay the interposition
+for which we waited. But it seemed as if our hopes were
+raised only to be dashed lower than ever, till we were cast
+upon the bare word of our God. It was given to us then
+as perhaps never before to penetrate to the innermost
+spring of consolation contained in those very old words: "I
+should utterly have fainted, but that I believe verily to see
+the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Oh,
+tarry thou the Lord's leisure: be strong, and He shall comfort
+thine heart; and put thou thy trust in the Lord."</p>
+
+<p>This Divine Interposition has been very inspiring. We
+feel afresh the force of the question: "Is anything too
+hard for the Lord?" And we ask those whose hearts are
+with us to pray for more such manifestations of the Power
+that has not passed with the ages. Lord, teach us to pray!</p>
+
+<p>For it has never been with us, "Come, see, and conquer,"
+as if victory were an easy thing and a common. We have
+known what it is to toil for the salvation of some little life,
+and we have known the bitterness of defeat. We have had
+to stand on the shore of a dark and boundless sea, and
+watch that little white life swept off as by a great black
+wave. We have watched it drift further and further out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span>
+on those desolate waters, till suddenly something from
+underneath caught it and sucked it down. And our very
+soul has gone out in the cry, "Would God I had died for
+thee!" and we too have gone "to the chamber over the
+gate" where we could be alone with our grief and our
+God&mdash;O little child, loved and lost, would God I had died
+for thee!</p>
+
+<p>Should we forget these things? Should we bury them
+away lest they hurt some sensitive soul? Rather, could we
+forget them if we would, and dare we hide away the knowledge
+lest somewhere someone should be hurt? For it is
+not as if that black wave's work were a thing of the past:
+it has gone on for centuries unchecked: it is going on
+to-day.</p>
+
+<p>Several months have passed since the chapters which
+precede this were written. We are now, with some of our
+converts who needed rest and change, in a place under the
+mountains a day's journey from Dohnavur. It is one of
+the holy places of the South; for the northern tributary of
+the chief river of this district falls over the cliffs at this
+point in a double leap of one hundred and eighty feet, and
+the waters are so disposed over a great rounded shoulder
+of rock that many people can bathe below in a long single
+file. To this fall thousands of pilgrims come from all parts
+of India, believing that such bathing is meritorious and
+cleanses away all sin. And as they are far from <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'own their'">their own</ins>
+homes, and in measure out on holiday, we find them more
+than usually accessible and friendly. This morning I was
+on my way home after talk with the women, and was turning
+for a moment to look back upon the beautiful sorrowful
+scene&mdash;the flashing waterfall, the passing crowd of pilgrims,
+the radiance of sunshine on water, wood, and rock, when a
+Brahman, fresh from bathing, followed my look, and glancing
+at the New Testament and bag of Gospels in my hand,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span>
+smiled indulgently and asked if we seriously thought these
+books and their teaching would ever materially influence
+India. "Look at that crowd," and he pointed to the people,
+his own caste people chiefly. "Have we been influenced?"</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Deep Calleth unto Deep</div>
+
+<p>Then he told me the story of the Falls, how ages ago a
+god, pitying the sins and the sufferings of the people, bathed
+on the ledge where the waters leap, and thereafter those
+waters were efficacious to the cleansing of sin from the one
+who believingly bathes. To the one who believes not, nothing
+happens beyond the cleansing of his body and its invigoration.
+"Even to you," he added, in his friendliness, "virtue of a sort
+is allowed; for do you not experience a certain exhilaration
+and a buoyancy of spirit and a pleasure beyond anything
+obtainable elsewhere [which is perfectly true]? This is due
+to the benevolence of our god, whose merits extend even
+to you."</p>
+
+<p>He was an educated man; he had studied in a mission
+school, and afterwards in a Government college. He had read
+English books, and parts of our Bible were familiar to him.
+He assured me he found no more difficulty in accepting this
+legend than we did in accepting the story of our Saviour's
+incarnation. And then, standing in the Temple porch with its
+carved stone pillars, almost within touch of the great door
+that opens behind into the shrine, he led the way into the
+Higher Hinduism&mdash;that mysterious land which lies all around
+us in India, but is so seldom shown to us. And I listened till
+in turn he was persuaded to listen, and we read together from
+the Gospel which transcends in its simplicity the profoundest
+reach of Hindu thought: "In the beginning was the Word,
+and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." We did
+not pause till we came to the end of the paragraph. I could
+see how it appealed, for deep calleth unto deep; but he rose
+again up and up, and that unknown part of one's being which
+is more akin to the East than to the West, followed him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span>
+and understood&mdash;when the door behind us creaked, and a
+sudden blast of turbulent music sprang out upon us, deafening
+us for a moment, and he said, "It is the morning worship.
+The priests and the Servants of the gods are worshipping
+within." It was like a fall from far-away heights to the very
+floor of things.</p>
+
+<p>Then he told me how in the town three miles distant, the
+Benares of the South, the service of the gods was conducted
+with more elaborate ceremonial. "I could arrange for you to
+see it if you wished." I explained why I could not wish to see
+it, and asked him about the Servants of the gods, and about
+the little children. "Certainly there are little children. The
+Servants of the gods adopt them to continue the succession.
+How else could it be continued?"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXIII</h2>
+
+<h3>If this were All</h3>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>AN hour earlier three of us had stood together by
+the pool at the foot of the Falls, and watched the
+people bathe. At the edge of the rock an old grandmother
+had dealt valiantly with an indignant baby of two,
+whom, despite its struggles, she bathed after prolonged
+preparation of divers anointings, by holding it grimly,
+kicking and slippery though it was, under what must have
+seemed to it a terrible hurrying horror. When at last that
+baby emerged, it was too crushed in spirit to cry.</div>
+
+<p>Beyond this little domestic scene was a group of half-reluctant
+women, longing and yet fearing to venture under
+the plunging waters; and beyond them again were the
+bathers, crowding but never jostling each other, on the
+narrow ledge upon and over which the Falls descend. Some
+were standing upright, with bowed heads, under the strong
+chastisement of the nearer heavier fall; some bent under it,
+as if overwhelmed with the thundering thud of its waters.
+Some were further on, where the white furies lash like living
+whips, and scourge and sting and scurry; and there the
+pilgrims were hardly visible, for the waters swept over them
+like a veil, and they looked in their weirdness and muteness
+like martyr ghosts. Further still some were carefully<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span>
+climbing the steps cut into the cliff, or standing as high as
+they could go upon an unguarded projection of rock, with
+eyes shut and folded hands, entirely oblivious apparently to
+the fact that showers of spray enveloped them, and the
+deep pool lay below.</p>
+
+<p>I had never seen anything quite like this: it was such a
+strange commingling of the beautiful and sorrowful. The
+women&mdash;"fair"-skinned Brahman women they chanced to
+be&mdash;were in their usual graceful raiment of silk or cotton,
+all shades of soft reds, crimson, purple, blue, lightened with
+yellow and orange, which in the water looked like dull fire.
+Their golden and silver jewels gleamed in the sunlight, and
+their long black hair hung round faces like the faces one
+sees in pictures. The men wore their ordinary white, and
+the ascetics the salmon-tinted saffron of their profession.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Under the Waterfall</div>
+
+<p>Then, as if to add an ethereal touch to it all, a rainbow
+spanned the Falls at that moment, and we saw the pilgrims
+through it or arched by it as they stood, some at either end
+of the bow where the colours painted the rock and the spray,
+and some in the space between. The sun struck the forest
+hanging on the steeps above, and it became a vivid thing in
+quick delight of greenness. It was something which, once
+seen, could hardly be forgotten. The triumphant stream of
+white set deep in the heart of a great horseshoe of rock
+and woods; the delicate, exquisite pleasure of colour; and the
+people in their un-self-consciousness, bathing and worshipping
+just as they wished, with for background rock and spray, and
+for a halo rainbow. To one who looked with sympathy the
+picture was a parable. You could not but see visions: you
+could not but dream dreams.</p>
+
+<p>Then from the quiet heights crept a colony of monkeys,
+their chatter drowned in the roar of the Falls. On they
+came, wise and quaint, like the half-heard whispers of old-time
+jokes. And they bathed in the mimic pools above, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span>
+it seemed in imitation of the pilgrims, holding comical little
+heads under the light trickles.</p>
+
+<p>And below the scene changed as a company of widows
+came and entered the Falls. They were all Brahmans and
+all old, and they shivered in their poor scanty garments of
+coarse white. Most of them were frail with long fasting and
+penance, and they prayed as they stood in the water or
+crouched under its weight. Such a one had sat on the stone
+under the special fall which, as the friend who had taken me
+observed with more forcefulness than sentiment, "comes down
+like a sack of potatoes." I had tried to stand it for a minute,
+but it pelted and pounded me so that less than a minute was
+enough, and I moved to make room for a Brahman widow
+who was bathing with me. And then she sat down on the
+stone, and the waters beat very heavily on the old grey head;
+but she sat on in her patience, her hands covering her face,
+and she prayed without one moment's intermission. How
+little she knew of the other prayer that rose beside hers
+through the rushing water&mdash;it was the first time I at least
+had ever prayed in a waterfall&mdash;"Oh, send forth Thy light
+and Thy truth; let them lead her!" She struggled up at
+last and caught my hand; then, steadying herself with an
+effort, she felt for the iron rod that protects the ledge, and
+blinded by the driving spray and benumbed by the beat of
+the water, she stumbled slowly out. But the wistful face
+had a look of content upon it, and her only concern was to
+finish the ceremonial out in the sunshine&mdash;she had brought
+her little offerings of a few flowers with her&mdash;and so, much
+as I longed to follow her and tell her of the cleansing of which
+this was only a type, it could not have been then. Oh, the
+rest it is at such a time to remember that the Lord is good
+to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works.</p>
+
+<p>Below the pool, in the broad bed of the stream and on
+its banks, all was animation and happy simple life. Here<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span>
+the women were drying their garments, without taking them
+off, in a clever fashion of their own. There some were washing
+them in the stream. Children played about as they willed.
+But in and among the throng, anywhere, everywhere, we
+saw worshippers, standing or sitting facing the east, alone
+or in company, chanting names for the deity, or adoring
+and meditating in silence. Doubtless some were formal
+enough, but some were certainly sincere; and we felt if
+this were all there is to know in Hinduism, the time must
+soon come when a people so prepared would recognise in
+the Saviour and Lover of their souls, Him for whom they
+had been seeking so long, "if haply they might feel after
+Him and find Him."</p>
+
+<p>But this is not all there is to know. Back out of sight
+behind the simple joyousness of life, to which the wholesome
+waters and the sparkling air and the beauty everywhere so
+graciously ministered, behind that wonderful wealth of
+thought as revealed in the Higher Hinduism which is born
+surely of nothing less than a longing after God&mdash;behind all
+this what do we find? Glory of mountain and waterfall,
+charm and delight of rainbow in spray; but what lies behind
+the coloured veil? What symbols are carved into the cliff?
+Whose name and power do they represent?</p>
+
+<p>This book touches one of the hidden things; would that
+we could forget it! Sometimes, through these days as we
+sat on the rocks by the waterside, in the unobtrusive fashion
+of the Indian religious teacher, who makes no noise but waits
+for those who care to come, we have almost forgotten in
+the happiness of human touch with the people, the lovable
+women and children more especially, that anything dark and
+wicked and sad lay so very near. And then, suddenly as we
+have told, we have been reminded of it. We may not forgot
+it if we would. It is true that the thing we mean is disowned
+by the spiritual few, but to the multitude it is part of their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span>
+religion. "Of course, Temple women must adopt young children;
+and they must be carefully trained, or they will not
+be meet for the service of the gods." So said the Brahman
+who only a moment before had led me into the mystic land,
+deep within which he loves to dwell: what does the training
+mean?</p>
+<div class="sidenote">To-morrow, How will it Be?</div>
+
+<p>A fortnight ago the friend to whom the child is dear took
+me to see the little girl described in a letter from an Indian
+sister as "a little dove in a cage." I did not find that she
+minded her cage. The bars have been gilded, the golden
+glitter has dazzled the child. She thinks her cage a pretty
+place, and she does not beat against its bars as she did in
+the earlier days of her captivity. As we talked with her
+we understood the change. When first she was taken from
+school the woman to whose training her mother has committed
+her gave her polluting poetry to read and learn, and
+she shrank from it, and would slip her Bible over the open
+page and read it instead. But gradually the poetry seemed
+less impossible; the atmosphere in which those vile stories
+grew and flourished was all about her; as she breathed it
+day by day she became accustomed to it; the sense of being
+stifled passed. The process of mental acclimatisation is not
+yet completed, the lovely little face is still pure and strangely
+innocent in its expression; but there is a change, and it
+breaks the heart of the friend who loves her to see it.
+"I must learn my poetry. They will be angry if I do not
+learn it. What can I do?" And again, "Oh, the stories
+do not mean anything," said with a downward glance,
+as if the child-conscience still protested. But this was
+a fortnight ago. It is worse with that little girl to-day;
+there is less inward revolt; and to-morrow how will it
+be with her?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXIV</h2>
+
+<h3>"To Continue the Succession"</h3>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>FOR to-morrow holds no hope for these children so far
+as our power to save them to-day is concerned. It
+will be remembered that we felt we could do more
+for them by working quietly on our own lines than by
+appealing to the law; but lately, fearing lest we were
+possibly doing the law an injustice by taking it for granted
+that it was powerless to help us, we carefully gathered all the
+evidence we could about three typical children: one a child
+in moral danger, though not in actual Temple danger;
+another the adopted child of a Temple woman; the third
+a Temple woman's own child: and we submitted this
+evidence to a keen Indian Christian barrister, and asked
+for his advice.</div>
+
+<p>L., the first child he deals with, the little "dove in the
+cage," is in charge of a woman of bad character, by the
+consent and arrangement of her mother. The mother
+speaks English as well as an Englishwoman, and her eldest
+son is studying for his degree in a Government college.
+Although Temple service is not intended, the proposed life
+is such that a similar course of training as that to which
+the Temple child is subjected, is now being carried on. This
+is the barrister's reply to my letter:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I have carefully perused the statements of the probable
+witnesses. L.'s mother is not a Temple woman, and the
+foster-mother also is not a Temple woman. The law of
+adoption relating to Temple women does not apply to
+them. The foster-mother, therefore, can have no legal claim
+to the child. But the mother has absolute control over
+the bringing-up of the child, and it would not be possible
+in the present state of the law to do anything for the child
+now."</p>
+
+<p>S. This is the little one who whispered her texts to me
+in the moonlight, and whose foster-mother told her to tell
+me she was being trained for the Service of the gods. She
+is evidently destined to be a Temple woman. "The first
+question for consideration is how the old woman is related
+to her. If she is the adopted mother, or if she could successfully
+plead adoption of the child, the Civil Courts will be
+powerless to help. If we can get some reliable evidence that
+the child has not been adopted" (this is impossible) "we
+may be able to induce the British Courts to interfere on
+her behalf and say she shall not be devoted to Temple
+service until she attains her majority; but it would not be
+possible to induce the Courts to hand the child over to the
+Mission."</p>
+
+<p>K., the little girl whose own mother is a Temple woman.
+She has been taught dancing, which to our mind was conclusive
+proof of her mother's intentions. To make sure we
+asked the question, to which the following is the reply: "No
+children of [good] Hindu parents are taught dancing. Even
+the lowest caste woman thinks it beneath her dignity to
+dance, excepting professional devil-dancers, who are generally
+old women, mostly widows, of an hysterical temperament.
+When young children of women of doubtful character are
+taught dancing, it means they are going to be married to
+the idol. When children of Temple women are taught<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span>
+dancing the presumption is all the greater. But the difficulty
+in the case of K. is to get one who has higher claims to
+guardianship than the mother. In the case of a Temple
+woman's child there is no one.</p>
+
+<p>"It is this which makes it impossible for the well-wishers
+of the children to interfere.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. The law punishes only
+the offence committed and not the intent to commit, or even
+the preparation, unless it amounts to an attempt under the
+Penal Code."</p>
+
+<div class='center'><b>.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.</b></div>
+<div class="sidenote">"We have no Right to Interfere"</div>
+
+<p>Bluebeards are not an institution in England; but if they
+were, and if one of the order were known to possess a cupboardful
+of pendent heads, would Englishmen sit quiet while
+he whetted his butcher's knife quite calmly on his doorstep?
+Would they say as he sat there in untroubled assurance of
+safety, feeling the edge of the blade with his thumb,
+and muttering almost audibly the name of his intended
+victim, "We have no right to interfere, he is only sharpening
+his knife; an intent to commit, or even the preparation
+for crime, is not punishable by law, unless it amounts to an
+attempt, and he has not 'attempted' yet." Surely, if such
+intent were not punishable it very soon would be. It would
+be found possible&mdash;who can doubt it?&mdash;to frame a new law,
+or amend the old one, so as to deal with Bluebeards. And
+a Committee of Vigilance would be appointed to ensure its
+effectual working.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, the simile is absurdly inadequate, and breaks
+down at several important points, and the circumstances
+are vastly more difficult in India than they ever could be
+in England, just because India is India; but will it not at
+least be admitted that the law meant in kindness to the
+innocent is fatal to our purpose?&mdash;which is to save the children
+while they are still innocent.</p>
+<div class='center'><b>.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.</b></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We do not want to ask for anything unreasonable, but
+it seems to us that the law concerning adoption requires
+revision. In Mayne's <i>Hindu Law and Usage</i> it is stated
+that among Temple women it is customary in Madras and
+Pondicherry and in Western India to adopt girls to follow
+their adopted mother's profession: and the girls so adopted
+succeed to their property; no particular ceremonies are
+necessary, recognition alone being sufficient. In Calcutta
+and Bombay such adoptions have been held illegal, but in
+the Madras Presidency they are held to be legal. In a case
+where the validity of such adoption was questioned, the
+Madras High Court affirmed it, and it has now, "by a series
+of decisions, adopted the rule ;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. which limits the illegality
+of adoption to cases where they involve the commission of
+an offence under the Criminal Code." This, as we have said,
+makes it entirely impossible to save the child through the
+law before her training is complete; and after it is complete
+it is too late to save her. Train a child from infancy to
+look upon a certain line of life as the one and only line for
+her, make the prospect attractive, and surround her with
+every possible unholy influence; in short, bend the twig and
+keep it bent for the greater part of sixteen years, or even
+only six&mdash;is there much room for doubt as to how it will
+grow? An heir to the property may be required; but with
+the facts of life before us, can we be content to allow the
+adoption of a child by a Temple woman to be so legalised
+that even if it can be proved to a moral certainty that
+her intention is to "continue the succession," nothing can
+be done?</p>
+<div class="sidenote">What we Want</div>
+
+<p>Then as to the guardianship: again we do not want to
+ask too much, but surely if it can be shown that no one
+else has moved to save the child (which argues that no one
+else has cared much about her salvation) we should not be
+disqualified for guardianship on the sole ground that we are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span>
+not related? In such a case the relatives are the last people
+with whom she would be safe. An order may go forth
+from that nebulous and distant Impersonality, the British
+Government, to the effect that a certain child is not to
+be dedicated to gods during her minority. But far away
+in their villages the people smile at a simplicity which can
+imagine that commands can eventually affect purposes. They
+may delay the fulfilment of such purpose; but India can
+afford to wait.</p>
+
+<p><i>We would have the law so amended, that whoever has
+been in earnest enough about the matter to try to save the
+child from destruction, should be given the right to protect
+her, if in spite of the odds against him he has honestly
+fought through a case and won.</i></p>
+
+<p>"Is it not a sad thing," writes the Indian barrister&mdash;we
+quote his words because they seem to us worthy of notice
+at home&mdash;"that a Christian Government is unable to legislate
+to save the children of Temple women? I am sorry my
+opinion has made you sad. Giving my opinion as a lawyer,
+I could not take an optimistic view of the matter. <i>The law
+as it stands at present is against reform in matters of this
+kind.</i> Even should a good judge take a strong view of the
+matter, the High Court will stick to the very letter of
+the law."</p>
+
+<p>So that, as things are, it comes to this: We must stand
+aside and watch the cup of poison being prepared&mdash;so openly
+prepared that everyone knows for which child it is being
+mixed. We must stand and wait and do nothing. We must
+see the little girl led up to the cup and persuaded to taste
+it. We must watch her gradually growing to like it, for
+it is flavoured and sweet. We must not beckon to her before
+she has drunk of it and say, "Come to us and we will tell
+you what is in that cup, and keep you safely from those
+who would make you drink it"; for "any attempt to induce<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span>
+the child to come to you, or any assistance given to help
+her to escape to you, would render you liable to prosecution
+for kidnapping&mdash;a criminal offence under the Penal Code."
+Any one of us would gladly go to prison if it would save
+the child; but the trouble is, it would not: for the law
+could only return her to her lawful guardians from whose
+hold we unlawfully detached her. We, not they, would be
+in the wrong; they did nothing unlawful in only preparing
+the cup. Does someone say that we put the case unfairly&mdash;that
+the law does not forbid us to warn the child, it only
+forbids us to snatch her away when the cup is merely being
+offered her? But remember, in our part of India at least,
+these cups are not given in public. The preparation is public
+enough, the bare tasting is public too; but the cup in its
+fulness is given in private, and once given, the poison works
+with stealthy but startling rapidity. Warn the child before
+she has drunk of it, and she does not understand you.
+Warn her after she has drunk, and the poison holds her
+from heeding.</p>
+
+<p>Besides, to be very practical, what is the use of warning
+if we may only warn? Suppose our one isolated word weighs
+with the child against the word of mother or adopted mother,
+and all who stand for home to her; suppose she says (she
+would very rarely have the courage for any such proposal,
+but suppose she does say it): "May I come to you? and will
+you show me the way, for it is such a long way and I do not
+know how to find it? I should be so frightened, alone in the
+night" (the only time escape would be possible), "for I know
+they would run after me, and they can run faster than I!"
+What may we say to her? What may I say to the Harebell
+supposing she asks me this question? She is only six, and
+there are six long miles over broken country between her
+home and ours. We could not find it ourselves in the dark.
+But supposing she dared it all, and an angel were sent to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span>
+guide her, have we any right to protect her? None whatever.
+If there are parents, or a parent, they or she have the right
+of parentage; if an adopted mother, the right of adoption.<a name="FNanchor_F_6" id="FNanchor_F_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_F_6" class="fnanchor">[F]</a></p>
+
+<p>We know that the law is framed to protect the good,
+and the rights of parentage cannot be too carefully guarded;
+but to one who has not a legal mind, but only sees a little
+girl in danger of her life, and has to stand with hands tied
+by a law intended to deal with totally different matters, it
+seems strange that things should be so. This is not the
+moment (if ever there is such a moment) to choose, for deliberate
+lawlessness; but there are times when the temptation
+is strong to break the law in the hope that, once broken, it
+may be amended. Only those who have had to go through
+it know what it is to stand and see that cup of poison being
+prepared for an unsuspicious child.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Then unto Thee we Turn</div>
+
+<p>The last sentence in the barrister's letter begins with "I
+despair." The sentence is too pungent in its outspoken
+candour to copy into a book which may come back to India:
+"I despair": then unto Thee we turn, O Lord our God; for
+now, Lord, what is our hope? truly our hope is even in Thee:
+oh, help us against the enemy; for vain is the help of man.
+Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Will the Lord absent
+Himself for ever? O God, wherefore art Thou absent from
+us for so long? Look upon the Covenant, for all the earth
+is full of darkness and cruel habitations. Surely Thou hast
+seen it, for Thou beholdest ungodliness and wrong. The
+wicked boasteth of his heart's desire. He sitteth in the
+lurking-places of the villages: in the secret places doth he
+murder the innocent. He saith in his heart, "God hath
+forgotten: He hideth His face; He will never see it." Arise,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span>
+O Lord God, lift up Thine hand! Up, Lord, disappoint him,
+and cast him down; deliver the children! Show Thy marvellous
+lovingkindness, Thou that art the Saviour of them
+which put their trust in Thee, from such as resist Thy right
+hand. Thy voice is mighty in operation: the voice of the
+Lord is a glorious voice. We wait for Thy lovingkindness,
+O God: be merciful unto the children: O God, be merciful
+unto the children, for our soul trusteth in Thee, and we call
+unto the Most High God, even unto the God that shall perform
+the cause which we have in hand. For Thou hast looked
+down from Thy sanctuary; out of heaven did the Lord behold
+the earth, that He might hear the mournings of such as are
+in captivity, and deliver the children appointed to death.
+Arise, O God, maintain Thine own cause! Our hope is in
+Thee, Who helpeth them to right that suffer wrong. The
+Lord looseth the prisoners. God is unto us a God of deliverances.
+Power belongeth unto Thee. Our soul hangeth upon
+Thee: Thou shalt show us wonderful things in Thy righteousness,
+O God of our salvation, Thou that art the hope of all
+the ends of the earth. And all men that see it shall say,
+This hath God done; for they shall perceive that it is His
+work. He shall deliver the children's souls from falsehood
+and wrong; for God is our King of old; the help that is
+done upon earth He doeth it Himself. Sure I am, the Lord
+will avenge the poor, and maintain the cause of the helpless.
+Why art thou so heavy, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted
+within me? Oh, put thy trust in God; for I will
+yet praise Him which is the help of my countenance and
+my God!</p>
+
+<p>Are there any prayers like the old psalms in their intense
+sincerity? In the times when our heart is wounded within us
+we turn to these ancient human cries, and we find what we
+want in them.</p>
+
+<p>Let us pray for the children of this generation being trained<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span>
+now "to continue the succession," whom nothing less than a
+Divine interposition can save. The hunters on these mountains
+dig pits to ensnare the poor wild beasts, and they cover them
+warily with leaves and grass: this sentence about the succession
+is just such a pit, with words for leaves and grass. Let
+us pray for miracles to happen where individual children are
+concerned, that the little feet in their ignorance may be
+hindered from running across those pits, for the fall is into
+miry clay, and the sides of the pit are slippery and very
+steep.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Let us Pray</div>
+
+<p>More and more as we go on, and learn our utter inability
+to move a single pebble by ourselves, and the mighty power
+of God to upturn mountains with a touch, we realise how
+infinitely important it is to know how to pray. There is the
+restful prayer of committal to which the immediate answer
+is peace. We could not live without this sort of prayer; we
+should be crushed and overborne, and give up broken-hearted
+if it were not for that peace. But the Apostle speaks of
+another prayer that is wrestle, conflict, "agony." And if
+these little children are to be delivered and protected after
+their deliverance, and trained that if the Lord tarry and
+life's fierce battle has to be fought&mdash;and for them it may be
+very fierce&mdash;all that will be attempted against them shall
+fall harmless at their feet like arrows turned to feather-down;
+then some of us must be strong to meet the powers
+that will combat every inch of the field with us, and some
+of us must learn deeper things than we know yet about the
+solemn secret of prevailing prayer.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_F_6" id="Footnote_F_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_F_6"><span class="label">[F]</span></a> To-day (February 16, 1912) as I go through proofs of the second edition,
+I hear by post of a young girl in a distant city who lately escaped to a missionary,
+and asked for what he could not give her&mdash;protection. She had to return to her
+own home. In her despair, she drowned herself.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXV</h2>
+
+<h3>What if she misses her Chance?</h3>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"Who would be planted chooseth not the soil<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Or here or there, ;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Lord even so</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">I ask one prayer,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">The which if it be granted</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">It skills not where</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Thou plantest me, only I would be planted."</span><br />
+
+
+<div class='sig'>
+<span class="smcap">T. E. Brown.</span><br /><br />
+</div></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>TWO pictures of two evenings rise as I write. One is of
+an English fireside in a country house. The lamps have
+been lighted, and the curtains drawn. The air is full
+of the undefined scent of chrysanthemums, and the stronger
+sweetness of hyacinths comes from a stand in the window.
+Curled up in a roomy arm-chair by the fire sits a girl with a
+kitten asleep on her lap. She is reading a missionary book.</div>
+
+<p>The other this: a white carved cupola in the centre of a
+piece of water enclosed by white walls. People are sitting on
+the walls and pressing close about them in their thousands.
+A gorgeous barge is floating slowly round the shrine. There
+is very little moon, but the whole place is alight; sometimes
+the water is ablaze with ruby and amber; this fades, and a
+weird blue-green shimmers across the barge, and electric
+lamps at the corners of the square lend brilliancy to the
+scene. The barge is covered with crimson trappings, and
+hundreds of wreaths of white oleander hang curtain-wise
+round what is within&mdash;the god and goddess decked with
+jewels and smothered in flowers. Round and round the
+barge is poled, and in the coloured light all that is gaudy and
+tawdry is toned, and becomes only oriental and impressive;
+and the white shrine in the centre reflected in the calm<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[324]</a></span>
+coloured water appears in its alternating dimness, and shining
+more like a fairy creation than common handiwork.</p>
+
+<p>We who were at the festival, three of us laden with
+packets of marked Gospels, met sometimes as we wandered
+about unobserved, losing ourselves in the crowd, that we
+might the more quietly continue that for which we were
+there; and in one such chance meeting we spoke of the
+English girl by the fireside, and longed to show her what we
+saw; and to show it with such earnestness that she would be
+drawn to inquire where her Master had most need of her.
+But no earnestness of writing can do much after all. It is
+true the eye affects the heart, and we would show what we
+have seen in the hope that even the second-hand sight might
+do something; but words are clumsy, and cannot discover to
+another that poignant thing the eye has power to transmit to
+the heart. And it is well that it is so, for something stronger
+and more consuming than human emotion can ever be must
+operate upon the heart if the life is to be moved to purpose.
+"A moving story" is worth little if it only moves the feelings.
+How far out of its selfish track does it move the life into
+ways of sacrifice? That is the question that matters. What
+if it cost? Did not Calvary cost? Away with the cold,
+calculating love that talks to itself about cost! God give
+us a pure passion of love that knows nothing of hesitation
+and grudging, and measuring, nothing of compromise! What
+if it seem impossible to face all that surrender may mean?
+Is there not provision for the impossible? "In the Old Testament
+we find that in almost every case of people being
+clothed with the Spirit it was for things which were impossible
+to them. To be filled with the Spirit means readiness for
+Him to take us out of our present sphere and put us anywhere
+away from our own choice into His choice for us." These
+words hold a message alike for us as we meet and pass in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span>
+that Indian crowd, and for the girl by the fireside at home
+who wants to know her Lord's will that she may do it,
+and whose heart's prayer is: "May Thy grace, O Lord, make
+that possible to me which is impossible by nature."</p>
+<div class="sidenote">"All the Way"</div>
+
+<p>Let us have done with limitations, let us be simply
+sincere. How ashamed we shall be by and by of our
+insincerities:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+Thy vows are on me, oh to serve Thee truly,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pants, pants my soul to perfectly obey!</span><br />
+Burn, burn, O Fire, O Wind, now winnow throughly!<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Constrain, inspire to follow all the way!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Oh that in me</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Thou, my Lord, may see</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Of the travail of Thy soul,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And be satisfied.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>We had only a few hours to spend in the town of the
+Floating Festival; and being anxious to discover how things
+were among the Temple community, I spent the first hour
+in their quarter, a block of substantial buildings each in its
+own compound, near the Temple. I saw the house from
+which two of our dearest children came, delivered by a
+miracle; it looked like a fortress with its wall all round, and
+upstairs balcony barred by a trellis. The street door was
+locked as the women were at the Festival. In another of
+less dignified appearance I saw a pretty woman of about
+twenty, dressed in pale blue and gold, evidently just ready
+to go out. One of those abandoned beings whose function
+it is to secure little children "to continue the succession"
+was in the house, and so nothing could be attempted but
+the most casual conversation. All the other houses in the
+block were locked as the women were out; but I saw a
+new house outside, built in best Indian style, and finely
+finished. It had been built for, and given as a free gift, to
+a noted Temple woman.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>These houses would open, in the missionary sense of the
+word, but not in an afternoon. It would take time and
+careful endeavour to win an entrance. Such a worker would
+need to be one whom no disappointment could discourage,
+a woman to whom the word had been spoken, "Go, love, ;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.
+according to the love of the Lord." When will such a worker
+come?</p>
+
+<p>As I left the Temple quarter, I met my two companions
+who had been at work elsewhere, and we walked together
+to the place of festival. Tripping gaily along in front was
+a little maid with flowers in her hair. It was easy to
+know who she was, there was something in the very step
+that marked the light-footed Temple child. Poor little all-unconscious
+illustration of India's need of God!</p>
+
+<p>Later on we saw the same illustration again, lighted up
+like a great transparency, the focus for a thousand eyes.
+For on the da&iuml;s of the barge, in the place of honour
+nearest the idols, stood three women and a child. The
+women were swathed in fold upon fold of rich violet silk,
+sprinkled all over with tinsel and gold; they were crowned
+with white flowers, wreathed round a golden ornament like
+a full moon set in their dark hair; and the effect of the
+whole, seen in the luminous flush of colour thrown upon
+them from the shore, was as if the night sky sparkling
+with stars had come down and robed them where they
+stood. Then when it paled, and sheet-lightning played, as
+it seemed, across water and barge and shrine, the effect was
+wholly mysterious. The three swaying forms&mdash;for they
+swayed keeping time to the music that never ceased&mdash;resembled
+one's idea of goddesses rather than familiar
+womenkind. To the Indian mind it was beautiful, bewilderingly
+beautiful; and the simple country-folk around drew
+deep breaths of admiration as they passed.</p>
+
+<p>The little girl looked more human. She too was in violet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span>
+silk and spangles and gold, and her little head was wreathed
+with flowers. It may have been her first Floating Festival,
+for she gazed about her with eyes full of guileless wonder,
+and the woman beside whom she stood laid a light, protecting
+hand upon her shoulder.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">That Little Child!</div>
+
+<p>That little child! How the sight of her held us in pity as
+the barge sailed slowly round. She was so near to us at times
+that we could almost have touched her when the barge came
+near the wall; and yet she was utterly remote, miles of space
+might have lain between; it was as if we and she belonged to
+different planets. And yet our little ones who might have
+been as she, were so close&mdash;we could almost feel their loving
+little arms round our necks at that moment&mdash;this child, how
+far away she was! Had one of us set foot on the place where
+she stood, the friendly thousands about us would have changed
+in a second into indignant furies, and so long as the memory
+of such impiety remained no white face would have been
+welcome at the Floating Festival.</p>
+
+<p>We stood by the wall awhile and watched; the sorrow of it
+all sank into us. There in the holiest place of all, according to
+their thinking, close to the emblems of deity, they had set
+this grievous perversion of the holy and the pure. Right on
+the topmost pinnacle of everything known as religious there
+they had enthroned it, and robed it in starlight and crowned
+it as queens are crowned. "Oh, worship the Lord in the
+beauty of holiness!" "One thing have I desired of the
+Lord ;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. to behold the fair beauty of the Lord"&mdash;such
+words open chasms of contrast. God pity them; like those
+of old, they know not what they do.</p>
+
+<p>We came away, our books all sold and our strength of
+voice spent out, for everywhere people had listened; and as
+we came home, strong thanksgiving filled our hearts, thanks
+and praise unspeakable for the little lives safe in our nursery,
+for the two especially who but for God's interposition might<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></span>
+have been on that barge&mdash;and oh, from the ground of our
+heart we were grateful that He had not let us miss His will
+concerning these little children. We thought of those special
+two with their dear little innocent ways. We could not think
+of them on the barge. We could not bear to think of it&mdash;again
+and again we thanked God, with humble adoring thanksgiving,
+that He kept us from missing our chance.</p>
+
+<p>But the mere thinking of that intolerable thought brought
+us back upon another thought. What of that girl by the fireside?
+What if she misses her chance? We know, for letters
+confess it, that many a life has missed its chance. What of
+the woman, strong and keen, with pent-up energies waiting for
+she knows not what? What of the girl by the fireside crushing
+down the sense of an Under-call that will not let her rest?
+The work to which that Call would lead her will not be anything
+great: it will only mean little humble everyday doings
+wherever she is sent. But if the Call is a true Call from heaven,
+it will change to a song as she obeys; and through all the
+afterward of life, through all the loneliness that may come,
+through all the disillusions when her "dreams of fair romance
+which no day brings" slip away from her&mdash;and the usual and
+commonplace are all about her&mdash;then and for ever that song of
+the Lord will sing itself through the quiet places of her soul,
+and she will be sure&mdash;with the sureness that is just pure
+peace&mdash;that she is where her Master meant her to be.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">"This I wish to do, this I Desire"</div>
+
+<p>Not that we would write as if obedience must always mean
+service in the foreign field. We know it is not so: we know it
+may be quite the opposite; but shall we not be forgiven if we
+sometimes wonder how it is that with so much earnest Church
+life at home, with so many evangelistic campaigns, and conventions,
+there is so poor an output so far as these lands
+abroad are concerned? Can it be that so many are meant to
+stay at home? We would never urge any individual friend to
+come, far less would we plead for numbers, however great the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span>
+need; we would only say this: Will the girl by the fireside, if
+such a one reads this book, lay the book aside, and spend an
+hour alone with her Lord? Will she, if she is in doubt about
+His will, wait upon Him to show it to her? Will she ask Him
+to fit her to obey? "And this I wish to do, this I desire; whatsoever
+is wanting in me, do Thou, I beseech Thee, vouchsafe
+to supply."</p>
+
+<p>Forgive if we seem to intrude upon holy ground, but sometimes
+we see in imagination some great gathering of God's
+people, and we hear them singing hymns; and sometimes the
+beautiful words change into others not beautiful, but only
+insistent:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+The Lord our God arouse us! We are sleeping,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dreaming we wake, while through the heavy night</span><br />
+Hardly perceived, the foe moves on unchallenged,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Glad of the dream that doth delay the fight.</span><br />
+O Christ our Captain, lead us out to battle!<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Shame on the sloth of soldiers of the light!</span><br />
+</div><div class='center'>
+<b>.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.</b>
+</div><div class='poem'>
+Good Shepherd, Jesus, pitiful and tender,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To whom the least of straying lambs is known,</span><br />
+Grant us Thy love that wearieth not, nor faileth;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Grant us to seek Thy wayward sheep that roam</span><br />
+Far on the fell, until we find and fold them<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Safe in the love of Thee, their own true home.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXVI</h2>
+
+<h3>"Thy Sweet Original Joy"</h3>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+Beacons of hope, ye appear!<br />
+Languor is not in your heart,<br />
+Weakness is not in your word,<br />
+Weariness not on your brow.<br /><br />
+</div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>WITHIN the last few months a friend, a lover of books,
+sent me <i>The Trial and Death of Socrates</i>, translated
+into English by F. J. Church. Opening it for
+the first time, I came upon this passage:&mdash;</div>
+
+<p><i>Socrates:</i> "Does a man who is in training, and who is in
+earnest about it, attend to the praise and blame of all men,
+or of the one man who is doctor or trainer?"</p>
+
+<p><i>Crito:</i> "He attends only to the opinion of the one man."</p>
+
+<p><i>Socrates:</i> "Then he ought to fear the blame and welcome
+the praise of the one man, not the many?"</p>
+
+<p><i>Crito:</i> "Clearly."</p>
+
+<p>And Socrates sums the argument thus: "To be brief; is
+it not the same in everything?"</p>
+
+<p>Surely the wise man spoke the truth: it is the same in
+everything. The one thing that matters is the opinion of
+the One. If He is satisfied, all is well. If He is dissatisfied,
+the commendation of the many is as froth. "Blessed are the
+single-hearted, for they shall have much peace."</p>
+
+<p>But Nature is full of pictures of bright companionship in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span>
+service; the very stars shine in constellations. This book of
+the skies has been opening up to us of late. Who, to whom
+the experience is new, will forget the first evenings spent with
+even a small telescope, but powerful enough to distinguish
+double stars and unveil nebul&aelig;? You look and see a single
+point of light, and you look again and twin suns float like
+globes of fire on a midnight sea; and sometimes one flashes
+golden yellow and the other blue, each the complement of the
+other, like two perfectly responsive friends. You look and see
+a little lonely cloud, a breath of transparent mist; you look
+and see spaces sprinkled with diamond dust, or something even
+more awesome, reaches of radiance that seem to lie on the
+borderland of Eternity.</p>
+
+<p>And the shining glory lingers and lights up the common
+day, for the story of the sky is the story of life.</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+Far was the Call, and farther as I followed<br />
+Grew there a silence round my Lord and me&mdash;<br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='unindent'>is for ever the inner story, as for ever the stars must move
+alone, however close they are set in constellations or strewn
+in clusters; but in another sense is it not true that there is the
+joy of companionship and the pure inspiration of comradeship?
+God fits twin souls together like twin suns; and sometimes,
+with delicate thought for even the sensitive pleasure of
+colour, it is as if He arranged them so that the gold and the
+blue coalesce.</div>
+
+<p>And we think of the places which were once blank, mere
+misty nothings to us. They sparkle now with friends. Some
+of them are familiar friends known through the wear and tear
+of life; some we shall never see till we meet above the stars.
+And there the nebula speaks its word of mystery beyond
+mystery, but all illuminated by the light from the other side.</p>
+<div class="sidenote">Another Compelling Influence</div>
+
+<p>In the work of which these chapters have told there has
+been the wonderful comfort of sympathy and help from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span>
+fellow-missionaries of our own and sister missions; and, as
+all who have read, understand, nothing could have been done
+without the loyal co-operation of our Indian fellow-workers
+whose tenderness and patience can never be described. We
+think of the friends in the mission houses along the route of
+our long journeyings; we remember how no hour was too
+inconvenient to receive us and our tired baby travellers; we
+think of those who in weariness and painfulness have sought
+for the little children; and we think of those who have made
+the work possible by being God's good Ravens to us. We think
+of them all, and we wish their names could be written on the
+cover of this book instead of the name least worthy to be
+there. And now latest and nearest comfort and blessing,
+there are the two new "Sitties," whose first day with us made
+them one of us. What shall I render unto the Lord for all
+His benefits towards me?</p>
+
+<p>The future is full of problems. Even now in these Nursery
+days questions are asked that are more easily asked than
+answered. We should be afraid if we looked too far ahead,
+so we do not look. We spend our strength on the day's work,
+the nearest "next thing" to our hands. But we would be
+blind and heedless if we made no provision for the future.
+We want to gather and lay up in store against that difficult
+time (should it ever come) a band of friends for the children,
+who will stand by them in prayer.</p>
+
+<p>There has been another compelling influence. We recognise
+something in the Temple-children question which touches
+a wider issue than the personal or missionary. Those who
+have read <i>Queen Victoria's Letters</i> must have become conscious
+of a certain enlargement. Questions become great or
+dwindle into nothingness according as they affect the honour
+and the good of the Empire. We find ourselves instinctively
+"thinking Imperially," regarding things from the Throne
+side&mdash;from above instead of from below.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></span></p>
+<div class="sidenote"><i>But</i></div>
+
+<p>We fear exaggerated language. We would not exaggerate
+the importance of these little children or their cause. We
+have said that we realise, as we did not when first this
+work began, how very delicate and difficult a matter it
+would be for Government to take any really effective action,
+and less than effective action is useless. We recognise the
+value of our pledge of neutrality in religious matters, and
+we know what might happen if Government moved in a
+line which to India might appear to be contrary to the
+spirit of that pledge. It would be far better if India
+herself led the way and declared, as England declared when
+she passed the Industrial Schools Amendment Act of 1880, that
+she will not have her little children demoralised in either
+Temple houses recognised as such, or in any similar houses,
+such as those which abound in areas where the Temple child
+nominally is non-existent. But must we wait till India leads
+the way? Scattered all over the land there are men who are
+against this iniquity, and would surely be in favour of such
+legislation as would make for its destruction. But few would
+assert that the people as a whole are even nearly ready. A
+great wave of the Power of God, a great national turning
+towards Him, would, we know, sweep the iniquity out of the
+land as the waters of the Alpheus swept the stable-valley
+clean, in the old classic story. Oh for such a sudden flow
+of the River of God, which is full of water! But must we
+wait until it comes? Did we wait until India herself asked
+for the abolition of suttee? Surely what is needed is such
+legislation as has been found necessary at home, which
+empowers the magistrate to remove a child from a dangerous
+house, and deprives parents of all parental rights
+who are found responsible for its being forced into wrong.
+Surely such action would be Imperially right; and can a
+thing right in itself and carried out with a wise earnestness,
+ever eventually do harm? Must it not do good in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[337]</a></span>
+end, however agitating the immediate result may appear?
+Surely the one calm answer, "<i>It is Right</i>," will eventually
+silence all protest and still all turbulence!</p>
+
+<p>Such a law, it is well to understand at the outset, will
+always be infinitely more difficult to enforce in India than
+in England, because of the immensely greater difficulty here
+in getting true evidence; and because&mdash;unless that River of
+God flow through the land&mdash;there will be for many a year
+the force of public opinion as a whole against us, or if not
+actively against, then inert and valueless. Caste feeling will
+come in and shield and circumvent and get behind the law.
+The Indian sensitiveness concerning Custom will be all
+awake and tingling with a hidden but intense vitality; and
+this, which is inevitable because natural, will have to be
+taken into account in every attempt made to enforce the
+law. The whole situation bristles with difficulties; but are
+difficulties an argument for doing nothing?</p>
+
+<p>"Whoever buys hires or otherwise obtains possession of,
+whoever sells lets to hire or otherwise disposes of any minor
+under sixteen with the intent that such minor shall be
+employed or used for ;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. any unlawful purpose or knowing
+it likely that such minor will be employed or used for any
+such purpose shall be liable to imprisonment up to a term
+of ten years and is also liable to a fine."</p>
+
+<p><i>But</i> where it appeared that certain minor girls were
+being taught singing and dancing and were being made to
+accompany their grandmother and Temple woman to the
+Temple with a view to qualify them as Temple women, it
+was held that this did not amount to a disposal of the
+minors within the meaning of the section.</p>
+
+<p>Ought this interpretation of the Indian Penal Code to
+be possible? The proof the law requires at present, proof
+of the sale of the child or its definite dedication to the idol,
+is rarely obtainable. The fact that it is being taught singing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[338]</a></span>
+and dancing (although it is well known, as the barrister's
+letter proves, that among orthodox Hindus such arts are
+never taught to little children except when the intention is
+bad) is not considered sufficient evidence upon which to base
+a conviction. To us it seems that the presence of the child
+in such a house, or in any house of known bad character,
+is sufficient proof that it is in danger of the worst wrong
+that can be inflicted upon a defenceless child&mdash;the demoralisation
+of its soul, the spoiling of its whole future life, before it
+has ever had a chance to know and choose the good.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/illus-48.jpg" width="550" height="387" alt="From the Rock, Dohnavur." title="" />
+<span class="caption">From the Rock, Dohnavur.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>And so we write it finally as our solemn conviction that
+there is need for a law like our own English law, and we
+add&mdash;and those who know India know how true this sentence
+is&mdash;<i>such legislation, however carefully framed, will be a
+delusion, a blind, a dead letter, unless men of no ordinary
+insight and courage and character are appointed to see that
+it is carried out</i>.</p>
+
+<p>God grant that these chapters, written in weakness, may
+yet do something towards moving the Church to such prayer
+that the answer will be, as once before, that an angel will
+be sent to open the doors of the prison-house!</p>
+
+<p>The frontispiece shows the rock to which we go sometimes
+when we feel the need of a climb and a blow. It is
+associated in our minds with a story:&mdash;"Between the passages
+by which Jonathan sought to go over unto the Philistines'
+garrison there was a sharp rock on the one side and a
+sharp rock on the other side.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. And Jonathan said to the
+young man that bare his armour: 'Come and let us go
+over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised: it may be
+that the Lord will work for us: for there is no restraint
+to the Lord to save by many or by few.' And his armour-bearer
+said unto him: 'Do all that is in thine heart: turn
+thee, behold I am with thee according to thy heart.'"</p>
+
+<p>We have a rock to climb, and there is nothing the least<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[339]</a></span>
+romantic about it. We shall have to climb it "upon our hands
+and upon our feet." It is all grim earnest. "We make our way
+wrapped in glamour to the Supreme Good, the summit," writes
+Guido Rey, the mountaineer, in the joy of his heart. But later
+it is: "One precipice fell away at my feet, and another rose
+above me.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. It was no place for singing." Friends, we shall
+come to such places on the Matterhorn of life. As we follow the
+Gleam wherever it leads, may we count upon the upholding of
+those for whom we have written&mdash;the lovers of little children?</p>
+<div class="sidenote">"So God maketh His Precious Opal"</div>
+
+<p>And now, in conclusion, all I would say has already
+been so perfectly said, that I cannot do better than copy
+from the writings of two who fought a good fight and have
+been crowned&mdash;Miss Ellice Hopkins, brave, sensitive, soldier-soul
+on the hardest of life's battlefields; and George Herbert,
+courtier, poet, and saint. "Often in that nameless discouragement,"
+wrote Miss Hopkins, as she lay slowly dying, "before
+unfinished tasks, unfulfilled aims and broken efforts, I have
+thought of how the creative Word has fashioned the opal,
+made it of the same stuff as desert sands, mere silica&mdash;not a
+crystallised stone like the diamond, but rather a stone with a
+broken heart, traversed by hundreds of small fissures which let
+in the air, the breath, as the Spirit is called in the Greek of our
+Testament; and through those two transparent mediums of
+such different density it is enabled to refract the light, and
+reflect every lovely hue of heaven, while at its heart burns a
+mysterious spot of fire. When we feel, therefore, as I have
+often done, nothing but cracks and desert dust, we can say: So
+God maketh His precious opal!"</p>
+
+<p>We would never willingly disguise one fraction of the truth
+in our desire to win sympathy and true co-operation. There
+will be hours of nameless discouragement for all who climb the
+rock. For some there will be the "broken heart."</p>
+
+<p>And yet there is a joy that is worth it all a thousand times&mdash;well
+worth it all. Who that has known it will doubt it?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[340]</a></span>
+This reach of water recalls it. The palms, as we look at them,
+seem to lift their heads in solemn consciousness of it. For the
+water-side&mdash;where we stand with those for whom we have
+travailed in soul, when for the first time they publicly confess
+their faith in Christ&mdash;is a sacred place to us.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/illus-49.jpg" width="550" height="388" alt="THE PLACE OF BAPTISM." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE PLACE OF BAPTISM.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Has our story wandered sometimes into sorrowful ways?
+To be true it has to be sorrowful sometimes. We look back to
+the day of its beginning, the day that our first little Temple
+child came and opened a new door to us.</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+Since that time many a bitter storm<br />
+My soul hath felt, e'en able to destroy,<br />
+Had the malicious and ill-meaning harm<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">His swing and sway;</span><br />
+But still Thy sweet original joy<br />
+Sprung from Thine eye did work within my soul,<br />
+And surging griefs when they grew bold control,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">And got the day.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='unindent'>It is true. Many a bitter storm has come; there have been the
+shock and the darkness of new knowledge of evil, and grief
+beside which all other pain pales, the grief of helplessness in the
+face of unspeakable wrong. But still, above and within, and
+around, like an atmosphere, like a fountain, there has been
+something bright, even that "sweet original joy" which
+nothing can darken or quench.</div>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+If Thy first glance so powerful be<br />
+A mirth but opened and sealed up again,<br />
+What wonders shall we feel when we shall see<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Thy full-orbed love!</span><br />
+When Thou shalt look us out of pain,<br />
+And one aspect of Thine spend in delight,<br />
+More than a thousand worlds' disburse in light<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">In heaven above!</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='unindent'>And not alone, oh, not alone, shall we see Him as He is!
+There will be the little children too.</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[342]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[341]</a></span></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><i>Those who care to know how the Temple Children's work began
+will find the story in</i> "<span class="smcap">Things As They Are</span>." <i>Preface by
+Eugene Stock; 320 pp. and Thirty-two Illustrations from Photographs
+taken specially for this work. Cloth, 2s. 6d. net (post free
+2s. 10d.) Also,</i> "<span class="smcap">Overweights of Joy</span>." <i>Preface by Rev. T.
+Walker, C.M.S. With Thirty-four Illustrations chiefly from Photographs
+taken specially for this work. Cloth, 2s. 6d. net (post free
+2s. 10d.), Morgan &amp; Scott Ld., 12, Paternoster Buildings, London.</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[343]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h3>ONLY A LIMITED NUMBER OF COPIES REMAIN</h3>
+
+<h4>OF THE<br /></h4>
+
+<div class='bbox'>
+<h2>ORIGINAL EDITION OF</h2>
+
+<h1>LOTUS BUDS</h1>
+</div>
+
+<div class='center'><br /><small>CONTAINING</small><br />
+
+FIFTY PHOTOGRAVURE ILLUSTRATIONS.<br />
+
+&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;<br />
+
+Cloth Boards, <b>14s. 6d.</b> <i>net</i> (<i>post free</i>, 15s.).<br />
+
+&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;<br />
+
+"THE MOST STRIKING MISSIONARY BOOK EVER PUBLISHED."<br />
+
+<i>Her Majesty Queen Alexandra graciously accepted a copy.</i></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"The feature of the book is fifty photogravure illustrations from photographs specially
+taken of the children. Many of these&mdash;indeed, all of them&mdash;are very charming. Some
+of them are mere babies, others of larger growth, but in each case the photographer has
+succeeded in presenting pictures which will elicit high admiration. The laughing faces,
+curly hair, and fine physical development of the little Indians, make photographs
+exceedingly attractive. Indeed, we have never seen a more 'taking' series of children
+of the Orient.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. The book will interest not only supporters of missions but all lovers
+of children."&mdash;<i>The Westminster Gazette.</i></p>
+
+<p>"The photogravure illustrations&mdash;fifty in number&mdash;are perfect as works of art.
+Some are pictures of scenery; most are characteristic representations of the children.
+All are full-page."&mdash;<i>British Weekly.</i></p>
+
+<p>";.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. the beautiful little faces depicted in the photogravures which adorn the
+volume. There are fifty of these photogravures in the book, the major portion being of
+children, and we regard it as extremely improbable that more splendid pictures are to be
+found in any other work."&mdash;<i>Baby.</i></p>
+
+<p>"The most wonderful photographs."&mdash;<i>Contemporary Review.</i></p>
+
+<p>"We have seldom seen more attractive illustrations than those of the Indian children
+which are here reproduced."&mdash;<i>East and West.</i></p>
+
+<p>"They are the finest photographs of children we have ever seen, and beautifully
+produced."&mdash;<i>The Record.</i></p>
+
+<p>"We must, in conclusion, compliment all concerned in the manner in which this
+appeal for the children has been issued&mdash;the author, the artist, and the publishers
+(Messrs. Morgan &amp; Scott Ld.), having combined to produce in 'Lotus Buds' a fine piece
+of work."&mdash;<i>The Publishers' Circular.</i></p></div>
+<div class='center'>
+&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;<br />
+
+
+MORGAN &amp; SCOTT LD., 12, Paternoster Buildings, London, E.C.<br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[344]</a></span></p>
+<div class='center'>ALSO BY AMY WILSON-CARMICHAEL</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class='unindent'><b><big>THINGS AS THEY ARE:</big></b><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;">MISSION WORK IN SOUTHERN INDIA</span></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>With Preface by <span class="smcap">Eugene Stock</span>. 320 pages, and Thirty-two beautiful Illustrations from
+Photographs taken specially for this work. Ninth Edition. Paper, <b>1s. 6d.</b> <i>net</i> (<i>post
+free</i>, <b>1s. 9d.</b>); Cloth Boards, <b>2s. 6d.</b> <i>net</i> (<i>post free</i>, <b>2s. 10d.</b>).</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dr. A. Rudisill</span>, M.E. Press, Madras:&mdash;"In 'Things as They Are' are pictured by
+pen and camera some things as they are. It is all the more needful now when so many
+are deceived, and are being deceived, as to the true nature of idolatry, that people at
+home who give and pray should be told plainly that what Paul wrote about idolaters in
+Rome and Corinth is still true of idolaters in India."</p>
+
+<p>"The account of native life, of the customs of the people, of the few pleasures they
+enjoy, and the many sorrows that oppress them, is as accurate as it is lucid and entertaining.
+It will be well to give this book studious attention; it is so completely sincere
+and so free from prejudice; and there are many excellent illustrations after photographs."&mdash;<i>Literary
+World.</i><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<div class='unindent'><b><big>OVERWEIGHTS OF JOY:</big></b><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;">MISSION WORK IN SOUTHERN INDIA</span></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>Preface by Rev. <span class="smcap">T. Walker</span>, C.M.S. 320 pages, and Thirty-four beautiful Illustrations
+from Photographs taken specially for this work. Paper <b>1s. 6d.</b> <i>net</i> (<i>post free</i>, <b>1s. 9d.</b>).;
+Cloth Boards, <b>2s. 6d.</b> <i>net</i> (<i>post free</i>, <b>2s. 10d.</b>). (Companion Volume to "Things as
+They Are.")</div>
+
+<p>"There is a life and enthusiasm and devotion, combined with literary ability and winsomeness
+of style, which make the book very captivating, as well as very touching. It is
+quite wonderfully illustrated with sunsets on the Ghauts and all kinds of wonders, and
+withal it is a song of spiritual triumph from a soul that feels intensely the cost of the
+Cross. A book, indeed, for every Christian home."&mdash;<i>The Churchman.</i></p>
+
+<p>"One of the most striking and inspiring missionary books of recent years."&mdash;<i>The
+Christian World.</i><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<div class='unindent'><big><b>THE BEGINNING OF A STORY</b></big></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>Being the story of the beginning of the work among Temple children, related for the
+friends of the Temple children. Bound in Art Covers, tied with silk cord. Artistic
+design embossed in gold, <b>6d.</b> <i>net</i> (<i>post free</i>, <b>8d.</b>).</div>
+
+<p>"This little book tells a touching story. It is hoped that many who are interested in
+the work on behalf of Indian children exposed to terrible peril will circulate this booklet
+to further a cause which has aroused widespread and prayerful interest."&mdash;<i>Irish Baptist
+Magazine.</i></p>
+
+<p>"This is a delightful booklet in its attractive blue and gold covers, and with the
+picture of the smiling Indian maiden looking out upon us."&mdash;<i>Bible Standard.</i></p>
+
+<div class='center'>
+&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;<br />
+
+MORGAN &amp; SCOTT LD., 12, Paternoster Buildings, London, E.C.</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class='tnote'><h3>Transcriber's Notes:</h3>
+
+<p>Obvious punctuation errors were corrected.</p>
+
+<p>The original contained each chapter number and title on a page
+preceding the actual start of the chapter. These repeated Chapter Titles were removed to avoid redundancy.</p>
+
+<p>Varied hyphenation, such as "armchair" and "arm-chair", was retained.
+The Bear Garden is not hyphenated when used in titles but is hyphenated within the text.</p>
+
+<p>The remaining corrections made are indicated by dotted lines under the corrections. Scroll the mouse over the word and the original text will <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'apprear'">appear</ins>.</p></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOTUS BUDS***</p>
+<p>******* This file should be named 29427-h.txt or 29427-h.zip *******</p>
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+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/9/4/2/29427">http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/4/2/29427</a></p>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Lotus Buds, by Amy Carmichael
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Lotus Buds
+
+
+Author: Amy Carmichael
+
+
+
+Release Date: July 16, 2009  [eBook #29427]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOTUS BUDS***
+
+
+E-text prepared by the Bookworm, Emmy, and the Project Gutenberg Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from digital material
+generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries
+(http://www.archive.org/details/americana)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
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+      See 29427-h.htm or 29427-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29427/29427-h/29427-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29427/29427-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive/American Libraries. See
+      http://www.archive.org/details/lotusbuds00carmiala
+
+
+
+
+
+LOTUS BUDS
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration: The Great Rock. (_Page 338._)]
+
+
+LOTUS BUDS
+
+by
+
+AMY WILSON-CARMICHAEL
+
+Keswick Missionary C.E.Z.M.S.
+
+Author of
+"Things As They Are"; "Overweights of Joy";
+"The Beginning of a Story," Etc.
+
+With Fifty Half-Tone Illustrations
+from Photos Specially Taken for This Work
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Morgan and Scott Ld.
+12 Paternoster Buildings
+London MCMXII
+
+Copyright, Morgan & Scott Ld., 1909
+
+First Edition, _Quarto_ (_Fifty Photogravure
+   Illustrations_)                              2,000 _Nov., 1909_
+Edition De Luxe (_Fifty Photogravures on Japon
+   Vellum_)                                       250 _Nov., 1909_
+Octavo Edition (_Fifty Half-tone Engravings_)   5,250 _July, 1912_
+
+
+
+
+_TO THOSE WHO CARE_
+
+
+          DOHNAVUR, TINNEVELLY DISTRICT,
+          SOUTH INDIA
+
+          _Christmas, 1909._
+
+          Each for himself, we live our lives apart,
+            Heirs of an age that turns us all to stone;
+          Yet ever Nature, thrust from out the heart,
+            Comes back to claim her own.
+
+          Still we have something left of that fair seed
+            God gave for birthright; still the sound of tears
+          Hurts us, and children in their helpless need
+            Still call to listening ears.
+
+                                            OWEN SEAMAN.
+                                   _From_ "In a Good Cause."
+
+
+
+
+_FOREWORD TO THE PRESENT EDITION_
+
+
+_WHEN first "Things as they are" trod the untrodden way, it walked as a
+small child walks when for the first time it ventures forth upon young,
+uncertain feet. It has to walk; it does not know why: it only knows
+there is no choice about it. But there is an eager looking for an
+outstretched hand, and an instant gratefulness always, for even a
+finger. A whole hand given without reserve is something never
+forgotten._
+
+_It was only a child after all, and it had not anticipated having to
+find its way alone among strangers. It had thought of nothing further
+than a very short walk among familiar faces. If it had understood
+beforehand how far it would have to walk, I doubt if it would have had
+the courage to start; for it was not naturally brave. But once on its
+way it could not turn back; and thanks to those kindly outstretched
+hands, it grew a little less afraid, and it went on._
+
+_Then another small wayfarer followed. It also was very easily
+discouraged; an unfriendly push would have knocked it over at once. But
+nobody seemed to want to push so unpretentious a thing, so it gained
+courage and went on._
+
+_And now a more grown-up looking traveller (though indeed its looks
+belie it) has started on its way; more diffident, if the truth must be
+told, than even its predecessors. For it thought within itself--Perhaps
+there will be no welcoming hands held out this time; hands may grow
+tired of such kind offices. But it has not been so. And now the sense of
+gratefulness cannot longer be repressed._
+
+_All of which means that I want to thank sincerely those kings of the
+Book World--Reviewers--and those dwellers in that world who are my
+Readers, for their insight and the sympathy to which I owe so much._
+
+_Once I read of a soldier who wrote a letter home from the midst of a
+battle, on a crumpled piece of paper laid upon a cannon ball. His home
+people he knew would overlook the appearance of the paper and the lack
+of various things expected in a letter written in a quiet room upon a
+study table. And he knew he could trust them not to bring too fine a
+criticism to bear upon the unstudied words hot from the battle's heart._
+
+_I have thought sometimes that these books were not unlike that
+soldier's letter; and those who read them seem to me very like his home
+people, for they have been so generous in the kindness of their
+welcome._
+
+                                               _Amy Wilson-Carmichael._
+      _Dohnavur,_
+        _Tinnevelly District_
+                _S. India._
+
+   _Feb. 19, 1912._
+
+
+
+
+THE WRITER TO THE READER
+
+
+THE photographs (except two) were taken by Mr. Penn, of Ootacamund,
+whose work is known to all who care to possess good photographs of the
+South Indian hills. The babies were a new experience to him, and
+something of a trial, I fear, after the mountains, which can be trusted
+to sit still.
+
+The book has been written for lovers of children. Those who find such
+young life tiresome will find the story dull, and the kindest thing it
+can ask of them is not to read it at all.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER                                                  PAGE
+      I. LOTUS BUDS                                           1
+     II. OPPOSITES                                            5
+    III. THE SCAMP                                           15
+     IV. THE PHOTOGRAPHS                                     23
+      V. TARA AND EVU                                        31
+     VI. PRINCIPALITIES, POWERS, RULERS                      41
+    VII. HOW THE CHILDREN COME                               51
+   VIII. OTHERS                                              61
+     IX. OLD DEVAI                                           67
+      X. FAILURES?                                           75
+     XI. GOD HEARD: GOD ANSWERED                             85
+    XII. TO WHAT PURPOSE?                                    95
+   XIII. A STORY OF COMFORT                                 103
+    XIV. PICKLES AND PUCK                                   113
+     XV. THE HOWLER                                         121
+    XVI. THE NEYOOR NURSERY                                 129
+   XVII. IN THE COMPOUND AND NEAR IT                        141
+  XVIII. FROM THE TEMPLE OF THE ROCK                        153
+    XIX. YOSEPU                                             159
+     XX. THE MENAGERIE                                      169
+     XXI. MORE ANIMALS                                      183
+    XXII. THE PARROT HOUSE                                  191
+   XXIII. THE BEAR GARDEN                                   201
+    XXIV. THE ACCALS                                        213
+     XXV. THE LITTLE ACCALS                                 227
+    XXVI. THE GLORY OF THE USUAL                            235
+   XXVII. THE SECRET TRAFFIC                                245
+  XXVIII. BLUE BOOK EVIDENCE                                253
+    XXIX. "VERY COMMON IN THOSE PARTS"                      261
+     XXX. ON THE SIDE OF THE OPPRESSORS THERE WAS POWER     269
+    XXXI. AND THERE WAS NONE TO SAVE                        279
+   XXXII. THE POWER BEHIND THE WORK                         291
+  XXXIII. IF THIS WERE ALL                                  301
+   XXXIV. "TO CONTINUE THE SUCCESSION"                      309
+    XXXV. WHAT IF SHE MISSES HER CHANCE?                    321
+   XXXVI. "THY SWEET ORIGINAL JOY"                          331
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+                                                           PAGE
+  THE GREAT ROCK                                  _Frontispiece_
+  LOTUS FLOWERS                                               3
+  "GOD'S FIRE"                                                8
+  "AIYO! DID YOU THINK I WOULD HAVE DONE IT?"                12
+  CHELLALU WATCHING THE PICTURE-CATCHER                      18
+  "OH, IT'S A JOKE!"                                         20
+  "THAT THING AGAIN!"                                        25
+  PYARIE AND VINEETHA                                        26
+  "DISGUSTING!"                                              28
+  "LOOK AT THE POSE!"                                        30
+  TARA                                                       33
+  STURDY AND STOLID, AND LITTLE VEERA                        63
+  PEBBLES                                                    66
+  LATHA (FIREFLY) BLOWING BUBBLES                            72
+  SEELA, MALA, AND NULLINIE                                 105
+  THE COTTAGE NURSERY                                       108
+  "PICKLES" AND HER FRIENDS                                 115
+  THE DOHNAVUR COUNTRY IN FLOOD                             124
+  PAKIUM AND NAVEENA                                        126
+  ON THE ROAD TO NEYOOR                                     131
+  ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF NAGERCOIL                             132
+  THE NEYOOR NURSERY                                        136
+  THE OLD NURSERY (THE "ROOM OF JOY")                       143
+  THE COURTYARD                                             144
+  A COMING-DAY FEAST                                        146
+  THE RED LAKE                                              148
+  AT THE DOOR OF THE TEMPLE                                 150
+  THE WATER CARRIERS                                        161
+  THE BELOVED TINGALU                                       164
+  TWO VIEWS OF LIFE                                         171
+  MORE ANIMALS: DEPRESSED                                   185
+  TUBBING                                                   188
+  RED LAKE, AND HILL AS SEEN FROM THE TARAHA NURSERY        193
+  CHILDREN WADING                                           196
+  CHILDREN WADING                                           197
+  ESLI, AND LITTLE KOHILA                                   198
+  PREETHA AWARE OF A FOE                                    200
+  JULLANIE AMONG THE GRASSES                                203
+  ARULAI AND RUKMA, WITH NAVEENA                            210
+  PONNAMAL, PREETHA, AND TARA                               215
+  SELLAMUTTU AND SUSEELA                                    216
+  SUHINIE, AND HER BABY, SUNUNDA                            218
+  THREE CONVERT WORKERS: SUNDOSHIE, SUHINIE, AND JEYANIE    220
+  SEWING-CLASS IN THE COURTYARD                             222
+  THREE LITTLE ACCALS                                       229
+  PREENA AND PREEYA                                         230
+  AFTER HER BOTTLE                                          237
+  NORTH LAKE AND HILLS                                      238
+  FROM THE ROCK, DOHNAVUR                                   338
+  THE PLACE OF BAPTISM                                      340
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+Lotus Buds
+
+[Illustration: LOTUS FLOWERS.
+
+From that same pool, afterwards gathered by permission and given to
+us.]
+
+
+
+
+LOTUS BUDS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+Lotus Buds
+
+
+NEAR an ancient temple in Southern India is a large calm, beautiful
+pool, enclosed by stone walls, broken here and there by wide spaces
+fitted with steps leading down to the water's edge; and almost within
+reach of the hand of one standing on the lowest step are pink Lotus
+lilies floating serenely on the quiet water or standing up from it in a
+certain proud loveliness all their own.
+
+We were travelling to the neighbouring town when we came upon this pool.
+We could not pass it with only a glance, so we stopped our bullock-carts
+and unpacked ourselves--we were four or five to a cart--and we climbed
+down the broken, time-worn steps and gazed and gazed till the beauty
+entered into us.
+
+Who can describe that harmony of colour, a Lotus-pool in blossom in
+clear shining after rain! The grey old walls, the brown water, the dark
+green of the Lotus leaves, the delicate pink of the flowers; overhead,
+infinite crystalline blue; and beyond the old walls, palms.
+
+With us was a young Indian friend. "I will gather some of the lilies for
+you," he said, with the quick Indian desire to give pleasure; but some
+one interposed: "They must not be gathered by us. The pool belongs to
+the Temple."
+
+It was as if a stone had been flung straight at a mirror. There was a
+sense of crash and the shattering of some bright image. The Lotus-pool
+was a Temple pool; its flowers are Temple flowers. The little buds that
+float and open on the water, lifting young innocent faces up to the
+light as it smiles down upon them and fills them through with almost a
+tremor of joyousness, these Lotus buds are sacred things--sacred to
+whom?
+
+For a single moment that thought had its way, but only for a moment. It
+flashed and was gone, for the thought was a false thought: it could not
+stand against this--"All souls are Mine."
+
+All souls are His, all flowers. An alien power has possessed them,
+counted them his for so many generations, that we have almost acquiesced
+in the shameful confiscation. But neither souls nor flowers are his who
+did not make them. They were never truly his. They belong to the Lord of
+all the earth, the Creator, the Redeemer. The little Lotus buds are
+His--His and not another's. The children of the temples of South India
+are His--His and not another's.
+
+So now we go forth with the Owner Himself to claim His own possession.
+There is hope in the thought, and confidence and the purest inspiration.
+And, stirred to the very depths, as we are and must be many a time when
+we see the tender Lotus buds gathered by a hand that has no right to
+them, and crushed underfoot; bewildered and sore troubled, as the heart
+cannot help being sometimes, when the mystery of the apparent victory of
+evil over good is overwhelming: even so there will be always a hush, a
+rest, a repose of spirit, as we stand by the Lotus-pools of life and
+seek in His Name to gather His flowers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+Opposites
+
+
+BALA is nearly four. There are so many much younger things in the
+nursery, that Bala feels almost grown up: four will be quite grown up;
+it will be nice to be four. Bala takes life seriously, she has always
+done so; she thinks it would be monotonous to have too many frivolous
+babies. But Bala's eyes can sparkle as no other eyes ever do; and her
+mirth is something by itself, like a little hidden fountain in the heart
+of a wood, with the sweetness of surprise in it and very pure delight.
+
+When Bala came to us first she was between one and two, an age when most
+babies have a good deal to say. Bala said nothing. She was like a book
+with all its leaves uncut; and some who saw her, forgetting that uncut
+books are sometimes interesting, concluded she was dull. "Quite a
+prosaic child," they said; but Bala did not care. There are some babies,
+like some grown-up people, who show all they have to show upon first
+acquaintance and to all. Others cover the depths within, and open only
+to their own. Bala is one of these; and even with her own she has
+seasons of reserve.
+
+Her first remark, however, shown rather than said, was not romantic. She
+was too old for a bottle, and she seemed to feel sore over this. But
+she noted the time the infants were fed, and followed the nurses about
+while they were preparing the meal; and when they sat down to give it,
+each to her respective baby, Bala would choose the one of most uncertain
+appetite, and sit down beside it and wait. There was an expression on
+her face at such times which suggested a hymn, set it humming in one's
+head in fact, in spite of all efforts to escape it. More than once we
+have caught ourselves singing it, and pulled up sharply: "Even me! Even
+me! Let some droppings fall on me."
+
+[Illustration: "God's Fire."
+
+Taken on the bank of the Red Lake, near Dohnavur.]
+
+Most of our family remind us very early that they trace their descent to
+the mother of us all. Bala, on the contrary, was good: so we almost
+forgot she was human, and began to expect too much of her; but she got
+tired of this after a while, and one day suddenly sinned. The surprise
+acted like "hypo," and fixed the photograph.
+
+The place was the old nursery, which has one uncomfortably dark corner
+in it. Something had offended Bala; she marched straight into that
+corner and stamped. We can see her--poor little girl--as she rumpled her
+curls with both her hands, and flashed on the world a withering glance.
+"Scorn to be scorned by those I scorn" was written large all over the
+indignant little face.
+
+After this shock we were prepared for anything, but nothing special
+happened; only when the demands made upon her are unreasonable, then
+Bala retires into herself and turns upon all foolish insistence a face
+that is a blank. If this point is passed, the dark eyes can flash. But
+such revealings are rare.
+
+When Bala was something under three, she was very tender-hearted. One
+evening, after the first rains had flooded the pools and revived the
+mosquitoes, the nursery wall was the scene of many executions; and Bala
+could not bear it. "Sittie, don't kill the poor puchies!" she said
+pitifully; and Sittie, much touched, stopped to comfort and
+explain. The other babies were delighting in the slaughter, pointing out
+with glee each detested "puchie"; but Bala is not like the other babies.
+Later, the ferocious instinct common to most young animals asserted
+itself in a relish for the horrible, which rather contradicted the
+mosquito incident. Bala visibly gloats over the gory head of Goliath,
+and intensely admires David as he operates upon it. Her favourite part
+of the story about his encounter with the lion is the suggestive
+sentence, "I caught him by the beard"; and Bala loves to show you
+exactly how he did it. But then that is different from seeing it done;
+and after all it is only a story, and it happened long ago.
+
+I have told how the ignorant once called Bala prosaic. Bala knows
+nothing of poetry, but is full of the little seeds of that strange and
+wonderful plant; and the time to get to know her is when the evening sky
+is a golden blaze, or glows with that mystic glory which wakens
+something within us and makes it stir and speak.
+
+"God has not lighted His fire to-night," she said wistfully one evening
+when the West was colourless; but when that fire is lighted she stands
+and gazes satisfied. "What does God do when His fire goes out?" was a
+question on one such evening, as the mountains darkened in the passing
+of the after-glow; and then: "Why does He not light it every night?"
+
+"Amma! I have looked into Heaven!" she said suddenly to me after a long
+silence. "I have seen quite in, and I know what it is like." "What is it
+like? Can you tell me?" and the child's voice answered dreamily: "It was
+shining, very shining." Then with animation, in broken but vivid Tamil:
+"Oh, it was beautiful! all a garden like our garden, only bigger, and
+there were flowers and flowers and flowers!"--here words failed to
+describe the number, and a comprehensive sweep of the hand served
+instead. "And our dolls can walk there. They never can down here, poor
+things! And Jesus plays with our babies there" (the dear little sisters
+who have gone to the nursery out of sight, but are unforgotten by the
+children). "He plays with Indraneela--lovely games."
+
+"What games, Bala?" I asked, wondering greatly what she would say. There
+was a long, thoughtful pause, and Bala looked at me with grave,
+contented eyes:--
+
+"New games," she said simply.
+
+Bala's opposite is Chellalu. We never made any mistake about her. We
+never thought her good. Not that she is impossibly bad. She was created
+for play and for laughter, and very happy babies are not often very
+wicked; but she is so irrepressible, so hopelessly given up to fun, that
+her kindergarten teacher, Rukma, smiles a rueful smile at the mention of
+her name. For to Chellalu the most unreasonable thing you can ask is
+implicit obedience, which unfortunately is preferred by us to any amount
+of fun. She will learn to obey, we are not afraid about that; but more
+than any of our children, her attitude towards this demand has been one
+of protest and surprise. She thinks it unfair of grown-up people to take
+advantage of their size in the arbitrary way they do. And when,
+disgusted with life's dispensations, she condescends to expostulate, her
+"Ba-a-a-a" is a thing to affright. But this is the wrong side of
+Chellalu, and not for ever in evidence. The right side is not so
+depressing.
+
+It is a brilliant morning in late November. The world, all washed and
+cooled by the rains, has not had time to get hot and tired, and the air
+has that crystal quality which is the charm of this season in South
+India. Every wrinkle on the brown trunks of the trees in the compound,
+every twig and leaf, stands out with a special distinctness of its own,
+and the mountains in the distance glisten as if made of precious
+stones.
+
+Suddenly, all unconscious of affinity or contrast, a little person in
+scarlet comes dancing into the picture, which opens to receive her, for
+she belongs to it. Her hands are full of Gloriosa lilies, fiery red,
+terra-cotta, yellow, delicate old-rose and green--such a mingling of
+colour, but nothing discordant--and the child, waving her spoils above
+her head, sings at the top of her voice something intended to be the
+chorus of a kindergarten song:--
+
+          Oh, the delight of the glorious light!
+            The joy of the shining blue!
+          Beautiful flowers! wonderful flowers!
+            Oh, I should like to be you!
+
+"But, Chellalu, where did you get them?" for the lilies in the garden
+are supposed to be safe from attack. Chellalu looks up with frank, brown
+eyes. "For you!" she says briefly in Tamil; but there is a wealth of
+forgiveness in the tone as she offers her armful of flowers. Chellalu
+wonders at grown-up hearts which can harbour unworthy suspicions about
+blameless little children. As if she would have picked them!
+
+"But, Chellalu, where did you get them?" and still looking grieved and
+surprised and forgiving, Chellalu explains that yesterday evening the
+elder sisters went for a walk in the fields, and brought home so many
+lilies, that after all just claims were met there were still some
+over--an expressive gesture shows the heap--so Chellalu thought of her
+Ammal (mother) and went and picked out the best for her. Then by way of
+emphasis the story is attempted in English: "Very good? Yesh. Naughty?
+No. Kindergarten room want flowers? No. I" (patting herself approvingly)
+"very good; yesh." With Chellalu, speech is a mere adjunct to
+conversation, a sort of footnote to a page of illustration. The
+illustration is the thing that speaks. So now both Tamil and English are
+illuminated by vivid gesture of hands, feet, the whole body indeed;
+curls and even eyelashes play their part, and the final impression
+produced upon her questioner is one of complete contrition for ever
+having so misjudged a thing so virtuous.
+
+[Illustration: "AIYO!"
+
+(Fingers and toes curled in grieved surprise.)
+
+"Did you think I would have done it?"]
+
+But Chellalu wastes no sympathy upon herself. She is accustomed to be
+believed; and perfectly happy in her mind, casts a keen glance round,
+for who knows what new delights may be somewhere within reach!
+"Ah!"--the deep-breathed sigh of content--is always a danger signal
+where this innocent child is concerned. I turn in time to avert
+disaster, and Chellalu, finding life dull with me, departs.
+
+Then the little scarlet figure with its crown of careless curls scampers
+across the sunny space, and dives into the shadow of a tree. There it
+stays. Something arresting has happened--some skurry of squirrel up the
+trunk, or dart of lizard, or hurried scramble of insect, under cover out
+of reach of those terrible eyes. Or better still, something is "playing
+dead," and the child, fascinated, is waiting for it to resurrect. And
+then the song about the lilies begins again, only it is all a jumble
+this time; for Chellalu sings just as it comes, untrammelled by thoughts
+about sequence or sense, and when she forgets the words she calmly makes
+them up. And I cannot help thinking that Chellalu is very like her song;
+here is an intelligible bit, a line or two in order, then a cheerful
+tumble up, and an irresponsible conclusion. The tune too seems in
+character--"Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing"; the swinging
+old Jacobite air had fitted itself to a nursery song about the brave
+fire-lilies, and something in its abandon to the happy mood of the
+moment seems to express the child.
+
+It is not easy to express her. "If you had to describe Chellalu, how
+would you do it?" I asked my colleague this morning, hoping for
+illumination. "I would not attempt it! Who would?" she answered
+helpfully.
+
+"Chellalu! Oh, you need ten pairs of eyes and ten pairs of hands, and
+even then you could never be sure you had her"--this was her nurse's
+earliest description. She was six months old then, she is three and
+three-quarters now; but she is what she was, "only more so."
+
+Before Chellalu had a single tooth she had developed mother-ways, and
+would comfort distressed babies by thrusting into their open mouths
+whatever was most convenient. At first this was her own small thumb,
+which she had once found good herself; but she soon discovered that
+infants can bite, and after that she offered rattle-handles. Later, she
+used to stagger from one hammock to another and swing them. And often,
+before she understood the perfect art of balance, she would find
+herself, to her surprise, on the floor, as the hammock in its rebound
+knocked her over. She felt this ungrateful of the baby inside; but she
+seemed to reflect that it was young and knew no better, for she never
+retaliated, but picked herself up and began again. These hammocks, which
+are our South Indian cradles, are long strips of white cotton hung from
+the roof, and they make delightful swings. Chellalu learned this early,
+and her nurse's life was a burden to her because of the discovery.
+
+"She could walk before she could stand"--this is another nursery
+description, and truer than it sounds. Certainly no one ever saw
+Chellalu learning to walk. She was a baby one day, rapid in unexpected
+motion, but only on all fours; the next day--or so it seems, looking
+back--she was everywhere on her two feet. "Now there will be no place
+where she won't be!" groaned the family, the first time she was seen
+walking about with an air of having done it all her life. And appalling
+visions rose of Chellalu standing on the wall of the well looking down,
+or sitting in the bucket left by some careless water-drawer just on the
+edge of the wall, or trying to descend by the rope.
+
+Before this date such diversions as the classic Pattycake had been much
+in favour. Chellalu's Attai (the word here and hereafter signifies Mrs.
+Walker, "Mother's elder sister") had taught it to her; and whenever and
+wherever Chellalu saw her Attai, she immediately began to perform "Prick
+it and nick it" with great enthusiasm. But after she could walk,
+Chellalu would have nothing more to do with such childish things. "Show
+us Edward Rajah!" the older children would say; and instead of standing
+up with a regal dignity and crowning her curls with the appropriate
+gesture, Chellalu would merely look surprised. They had forgotten. She
+was not a baby now. Such trifles are for babies.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+The Scamp
+
+
+"PAT-A-CAKE is a thing of the past, but the stage from the highest point
+of view is still distinctly attractive"; so decided Chellalu, and
+resolved to devote herself thenceforth to this new and engrossing
+pursuit. She chose the scene of her first public performance without
+consulting us. It was the open floor of the church, on a Sunday morning,
+in the midst of a large congregation. This was how it happened.
+
+Chellalu's Attai, who in those days was unaware of all the painful
+surprises in store, had taken her to morning service, and allowed her to
+sit beside her on the mat at the back of the church. All through the
+first part of the service Chellalu was good; and as the sermon began,
+she was forgotten. In our church we sit on the floor, men on one side,
+women and children on the other. A broad aisle is left between, and the
+Iyer (Mr. Walker), refusing to be boxed up in the usual manner, walks up
+and down as he preaches. This interested Chellalu.
+
+That morning the sermon was to children, and the subject was "Girdles."
+The East of this ancient India is the East to which the prophet spoke by
+parable and picture; and, following that time-worn path, the preacher
+pictured the parable of Jeremiah's linen girdle: the attention of the
+people was riveted upon him, and no one noticed what was happening on
+the mat at the end of the church. Only we, up at the front with all the
+other children, saw, without being able to stop it, the dreadful
+pantomime. For Chellalu, wholly absorbed and pleased with this
+unexpected delight, first stood on the mat and acted the girdle picture;
+then, growing bolder, advanced out into the open aisle, and, following
+the preacher's gestures, reproduced them all exactly. It was a moment of
+tension; but if ever a child had a good angel in attendance, Chellalu
+has, for something always stops her before the bitter end. I forget what
+stopped her then; something invisible, and so, doubtless, the angel. But
+we did not breathe freely till we had her safe at home.
+
+[Illustration: CHELLALU, WATCHING THE PICTURE-CATCHER WITH SOME
+SUSPICION.
+
+"Whatever is he doing with that black box?"]
+
+Chellalu's visible angel is the gentle Esli, a young convert-helper, of
+a meek and lowly disposition. At first sight nothing seems more
+unsuitable, for Chellalu needs a firm hand. But firmness without wisdom
+would have been disastrous; so as we had not the perfect combination, we
+chose the less dangerous virtue, and gave the nursery scamp to the
+gentlest of us all. Sometimes, to tell the whole unromantic truth, we
+have been afraid less Esli was spilling emotion in vain upon this
+graceless soul; and we have suggested an exchange of angels--but somehow
+it has never come to pass. Once we almost did it. For a noise past all
+bounds called us down to the nursery, and we found the cause of it in a
+huddled heap in the corner. "Chellalu! what is the matter?" Only the
+softest of soft sobs, heard in the silence that followed our advent, and
+one round shoulder heaved, and the curly head went down on the arm in an
+attitude of woe. Now this is not Chellalu's way at all. Soft sobbing is
+not in her line; and I turned to the twenty-nine children now prancing
+about in unholy glee, and they shouted the explanation: "Oh, she is Esli
+Accal! She was very exceedingly naughty. She would not come when Accal
+called; she raced round the room so fast that Accal could not catch
+her, and then she jumped out of her cumasu" (the single small garment
+worn), "and ran out into the garden! And Esli Accal sat down in a corner
+and cried. And Chellalu is Esli Accal!"
+
+But the pet opportunity in those glad days was when some freak of manner
+in friend or visitor suggested a new game. We used to wish, sometimes,
+that these kind people understood how much pleasure they were giving to
+the artless babe who was studying them with such interest, while they,
+all unconscious of their real use, imagined probably she was thinking of
+nothing more serious than sweets. After an hour in the bungalow,
+Chellalu would wander off, apparently because she was tired of us, but
+really because she was full of a new and original idea, and wanted an
+audience. Once she puzzled the nursery community who had not been
+visiting the bungalow, by mincing about on pointed toes, with shoulders
+shrugged like a dancing master in caricature. The babies thought this a
+very nice game, and for weeks they played it industriously.
+
+Chellalu talked late--she has long ago made up for lost time--but she
+was never at a loss for an answer to a question which could be answered
+by action. "Who is in the nursery now?" we asked her one afternoon when
+she had escaped before the tea-bell, that trumpet of jubilee to the
+nursery, had rung. She smiled and sat down slowly, and then sighed.
+Another sigh, and she proceeded to perform her toilet. When the small
+hands went up to the head with an action of decorously swinging the back
+hair up and coiling it into a loose knot, and when a spasmodic shake
+suggested it must be done over again, there was no doubt as to who was
+in charge. No one but the excellent Pakium, one of our earlier workers,
+ever did things quite like this. No one else was so ponderous. No one
+sighed in that middle-aged manner, no one but Pakium. We never could
+blame Pakium for Chellalu's escape. As well blame a mature cat for the
+escapades of her kitten. Chellalu, watching for a clue as to her fate,
+would sigh again profoundly. It was never easy to return her.
+
+[Illustration: "OH, IT'S A JOKE!"]
+
+We were not sorry when this phase passed into something safer for
+herself, though perhaps not so charming to the public. Chellalu at two
+and three-quarters had surgical ambitions. Medical work she considered
+slow. She liked operations. Her first, so far as we know, was performed
+upon the unwilling eye of a smaller and weaker sister. "Lie down!" she
+had commanded, and the patient had lain down. "Open your eyes!" At this
+point the victim realised what she was in for, and her howls brought
+deliverance; but not before Chellalu had the agitated baby's head in a
+firm grip between her knees, and holding the screwed-up eye wide open
+with one hand, was proceeding to drop in "medicine" with the other.
+Mercifully the medicine was water.
+
+Thwarted in this direction, Chellalu applied herself to bandaging. She
+would persuade someone to lend her a finger or a toe; the owner was
+assured it was sore--very sore. She would then proceed to bandage it to
+the best of her ability. But all this was mere play. What Chellalu's
+soul yearned for was a real knife, or even only a needle, provided it
+would prick and cause red blood to flow. Oh to be allowed to operate
+properly, as grown-up people do! Chellalu had seen them do it--had seen
+thorns extracted from little bare feet, and small sores dressed; and it
+had deeply interested her. The difficulty was, no one would offer a
+limb. She walked up and down the nursery one morning with a bit of an
+old milk tin, very jagged and sharp and inviting, and secreted in her
+curls was a long, bright darning needle; but though she took so much
+trouble to prepare, no one would give her a chance to perform, and
+Chellalu was disgusted. Someone who did not know her suggested she
+should perform on herself. This disgusted her still more. Do doctors
+perform on themselves!
+
+Chellalu's latest phase introduces the kindergarten. For an educational
+comrade, perceiving our defects in this direction, furnished a
+kindergarten for us, and gave us a kind push-off into these pleasant
+waters; so the little boat sails gaily, and the children at least are
+content.
+
+Chellalu has never been so keen about this institution as the other
+babies are. "Do you like the kindergarten?" some one asked her the other
+day; and she answered with her usual decision: "Yesh. No." We thought
+she was talking at random, and tested her by questions about things
+which we knew she liked or disliked. But she was never caught. "Well,
+then, don't you like the kindergarten?" "Yesh. No." It was evident she
+knew what she meant, and said it exactly. Bits of it she likes, other
+bits she thinks might be improved. The trouble is that she has an
+objection to sitting in the same place for more than a minute at
+longest. Other babies, steady, mature things of five, are already
+evolving quite orderly sentences in English--the language in which the
+kindergarten is partly taught--and we feel they are getting on. Chellalu
+never stops long enough to evolve anything, and yet she seems to be
+doing a little. From the first week she has talked all she knew in
+unabashed fashion. "Good morning very much" was an early production; and
+it was followed by many oddments forgotten now, but comical in effect at
+the time, which perhaps may explain the otherwise inexplicable fact that
+she sometimes learns something.
+
+One only of those early dashes into the unexplored land is remembered,
+because it enriched us with a new synonym. It was at afternoon tea that
+a sympathetic Sittie (the word means "Mother's younger sister"), knowing
+that Chellalu had received something thoroughly well earned, asked her
+in English: "What did Ammal give you this morning?" Chellalu caught at
+the one familiar word in this sentence (for the babies learn the names
+of the flowers in the garden before they are troubled with lesser
+matters), and she answered brightly: "Morning-glory!" So Morning-glory
+has become to us an _alias_ for smacks.
+
+This same Morning-glory is the subject of one of the kindergarten songs.
+For after searching through two or three hundred pages of nursery
+rhymes, and interviewing many proper kindergarten songs, we found few
+that belonged to the Indian babies' world; and so we had to make them
+for ourselves. These songs are about the flowers and the birds and other
+simple things, and are twittered by the tiniest with at least some
+intelligence, which at present is as much as we can wish. All the babies
+sing to the flowers, but it is Chellalu who gives them surprises. One
+day we saw her standing under a bamboo arch, covered with her favourite
+Morning-glory. She had two smaller babies with her, one on either side.
+"Amma! _Look!_" she called; but italics are inadequate to express the
+emphasis. "LOOK, Morning--glory--kissing--'chother," and she pointed
+with eagerness to the nestling little clusters of lilac, growing, as
+their pretty manner is, close to each other. Then, seizing each of the
+babies in a fervent and somewhat embarrassing embrace, she hugged and
+kissed them both; and finally wheeling round on the flowers, addressed
+them impressively: "For--all--loving--little--Indian--children--want--
+to--be--like--you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+The Photographs
+
+
+[Illustration: "THAT THING AGAIN!" (_Page 28._)]
+
+I DO not know how they will strike the critical public, but the photos
+are so much better than we dared to expect, that we are grateful and
+almost satisfied. Of course, they are insipid as compared with the
+lively originals; but the difficulty was to get them of any truthful
+sort whatsoever, for the babies regarded the photographer--the kindest
+and mildest of men--with the gravest suspicion: and the moment he
+appeared, little faces, all animation before, would stiffen into
+shyness, and the light would slip out of them, and the naturalness, so
+that all the camera saw, and therefore all it could show, was a
+succession of blanks.
+
+Then, too, when our artist friend was with us we were in the grasp of an
+epidemic of cholera. Morning and evening, and sometimes into the night,
+we were tending the sick and dying in the village; and in the interval
+between we had little heart for photographs. But the visit of a real
+photographer is a rare event in Dohnavur, and we forced ourselves to try
+to take advantage of it. Remembering our difficulties, we wonder we got
+anything at all; and we hope that stranger eyes will be kind.
+
+[Illustration: PYARIE AND VINEETHA.
+
+"Do smile, you little Turk!"]
+
+Often when we looked at the pretty little reversed picture in the camera,
+with its delicate colouring and the grace of movement, we have wished
+that we could send it as we saw it, all living and true. The photos were
+taken in the open air; underfoot was soft terra-cotta-coloured sand;
+overhead, the cloudless blue. In such a setting the baby pictures look
+their brightest, something very different from these dull copies in
+sepia. An Oriental scene in print always looks sorry for itself, and
+quite apologetic. It knows it is almost a farce, and very flat and poor.
+
+Then there were difficulties connected with character. Our photographer
+was more accustomed to the dignified ways of mountains than to the
+extremely restless habit of children; and he never could understand why
+they would not sit for him as the mountains sat, and let him focus them
+comfortably. The babies looked at things from an opposite point of view,
+and strongly objected to delays and leisureliness of every description.
+Sometimes when the focussing process promised to be much prolonged, we
+put a child we did not wish to photograph in the place of one upon whom
+we had designs, and then at the last moment exchanged her. But the baby
+thus beguiled seemed to divine our purpose; and, resenting such
+ensnarements, would promptly wriggle out of focus. It was like trying to
+observe some active animalculae under a high power. The microscope is
+perfect, the creatures are entrapped in a drop of water on the slide;
+but the game is not won by any means. Sometimes, after spoiling more
+plates than was convenient, our artist almost gave up in despair; but he
+never quite gave up, and we owe what we have to his infinite patience.
+
+Pyarie was the most troublesome of these small sitters, though she was
+old enough to know better. My mother was with us when she came to us, a
+tiny babe and very delicate. She had loved her and helped to nurse
+her, and so we wanted a happy photograph for her sake; but nothing was
+further from Pyarie's intentions, and instead of smiling, she scowled.
+Our first attempt was in the compound, where a bullock-bandy stood.
+Pyarie and Vineetha, a little girl of about the same age, were very
+pleased to climb over the pole and untwist the rope and play see-saw;
+but when the objectionable camera appeared, they stared at it with
+aversion, and no amount of coaxing would persuade Pyarie to smile.
+"Can't you do something to improve her expression?" inquired the
+photographer, emerging from his black hood; then someone said in
+desperation: "_Do_ smile, you little Turk!" Vineetha, about whose
+expression we were not concerned, obediently smiled; but Pyarie looked
+thunderclouds, and turned her head away. She was caught before she
+turned, poor dear, so that photograph was a failure.
+
+Once again our kind friend tried. This time he gave her a doll. Pyarie
+is most motherly. She is usually tender and loving with dolls, and we
+hoped for a sweet expression. But in this we were disappointed. She
+accepted the doll--a beautiful thing, with a good constitution and
+imperturbable temper; and she looked it straight in the face--a rag face
+painted--smiling as we wanted her to smile. Then she smote it, and she
+scolded it, and called for a stick and whacked it, and called for a
+bigger stick and repeated the performance. Finally she stopped, laid the
+doll upon the step, sat down on it, and smiled. But she was hopelessly
+out of focus by this time, and it was weary work getting her in. She
+smiled during the process in a perfectly exasperating manner, but the
+moment all was ready she suddenly wriggled out; and when invited to go
+in again, she shook her head decidedly, and pointing to the camera with
+its glaring glass eye, covered at that moment with its cloth, she
+remarked, "Naughty! Naughty!" and we had to give her up.
+
+[Illustration: "DISGUSTING!" SHE REMARKED IN EXPLICIT YOUNG TAMIL, AND
+LOOKED DISGUSTED.]
+
+"Perhaps she would be happier in someone's arms," next suggested the
+long-suffering artist; and so one morning, just after her bath, she was
+caught up, sweet and smiling, and played with till the peals of merry
+laughter assured us of an easy victory. But the camera was no sooner
+seen stalking round to the nursery, than suspicions filled Pyarie's
+breast. That thing again! And the photograph taken under such
+circumstances is left to speak for itself. Why did it follow her
+everywhere? Life, haunted by a camera, was not worth living--in which
+sentiment some of us heartily concur.
+
+Once an attempt was made when Pyarie and two other little girls were
+busily playing on the doorstep. Pyarie soon perceived and expressed her
+opinion about the fraud--for the camera's stealthy approach could not be
+kept from the children. "Disgusting!" she remarked in explicit young
+Tamil, and looked disgusted. The photograph which resulted was perfect
+in detail of little rounded limb and curly head, but it was lamentable
+as regards expression; so once more our persevering friend tried to
+catch her unawares. He showed us the result at breakfast in the shape of
+a negative which we recognised as Pyarie. He seemed very pleased. "Look
+at the pose!" he said. There was pose certainly, but where was the
+smile? Pyarie's one idea had evidently been to ward off something or
+someone; and our artist explained it by saying that in despair of
+getting her quiet for one second, he had directed his servant to climb
+an almost overhanging tree, and the child apparently thought he was
+going to tumble on the top of her, and objected. "I got another of her
+smiling beautifully, but the plate is cracked," we were told, after the
+table had admired the pose. That is a way plates have. The one you most
+want cracks.
+
+Poor little Pyarie; we sometimes fear lest her "pose" should be too
+true of her. She takes life hardly, and often protests. "_I_ want a
+birthday!"--this was only yesterday, when everyone was rejoicing over a
+birthday jubilation. Pyarie alone was sorrowful. She stood by her poor
+little lonely self, with her head thrown back and her mouth wide open,
+and her tears ran into her open mouth as she wailed: "Aiyo! Aiyo! (Alas!
+Alas!) _I_ want a birthday!"
+
+[Illustration: "'LOOK AT THE POSE!'
+
+He said. There was pose, certainly, but where was the smile?" (_Page
+28._)]
+
+But she is such a loving child, so loyal to her own and so unselfish to
+all younger things, that we hope for her more than we fear. And yet
+underneath there is a fear; and we ask those who can understand to
+remember this little one sometimes, for the world is not always kind to
+its poor little foolish Pyaries.
+
+I am writing in the afternoon, and two little people are playing on the
+floor. One has a picture-book, and the other is looking eagerly as she
+turns the pages and questions: "What is it? What is it?" I notice it is
+always Pyarie who asks the question, and Vineetha who answers it: "It is
+a cow. It is a cat." "Why don't you let Vineetha ask you what it is?" I
+suggest; but Pyarie continues as before: "What is it? What is it?"
+varied by "What colour is it? What shape is it? Who made it?" and the
+mischief in her eyes (would that our artist could have caught it!)
+explains the game. It is decidedly better to be teacher than scholar,
+because suitable questions can cover all ignorance. Pyarie has not been
+to the kindergarten of late, and has reason to fear Vineetha is somewhat
+ahead of her; so she ignores my proposals, and continues her safe
+questions. We sometimes think we shall one night be heard talking in our
+sleep, and the burden of our conversation will be always--"What is it?
+What colour is it? What shape is it? Who made it?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+Tara and Evu
+
+
+[Illustration: TARA.]
+
+OUR nurseries are full of contrasts, but perhaps the two who are most
+unlike are the little Tara and Evu, aged, at the hour of writing, three
+years and two and a half. I am hammering at my typewriter, when clear
+through its metallic monotony comes in distinct double treble, "Amma!
+Tala!" "Amma! Evu!" They always announce each other in this order, and
+with much emphasis. If it is impossible to stop, I give them a few toys,
+and they sit down on the mat exactly opposite my table and play
+contentedly. This lasts for a short five minutes; then a whimper from
+Tara makes me look up, and I see Evu, with a face of more mischief than
+malice, holding all the toys--Tara's share and her own--in a tight
+armful, while Tara points at her with a grieved expression which does
+not touch Evu in the least. A word, however, sets things right. Evu
+beams upon Tara, and pours the whole armful into her lap. Tara smiles
+forgivingly, and returns Evu's share. Evu repentantly thrusts them back.
+Tara's heart overflows, and she hugs Evu. Evu wriggles out of this
+embrace, and they play for another five minutes or so without further
+misadventure.
+
+Only once I remember Evu sinned beyond forgiveness. The occasion was
+Pyarie's rag-doll of smiling countenance, which had been badly
+neglected by the family. But Tara felt for it and loved it. She was
+small at the time, and the doll was large, and Tara must have got tired
+of carrying it; but she would not tell it so, and for one whole morning
+she staggered about with the cumbersome beauty tilted over her shoulder,
+which gave her the appearance of an unbalanced but very affectionate
+parent.
+
+This was too much for Evu, to whom the comic appeals much more than the
+sentimental. She watched her opportunity, and pounced upon the doll.
+Tara gave chase; but Evu's fat legs can carry her faster than one would
+suppose, and Tara's wails rose to a shriek when across half the garden's
+width she saw that ruthless sinner swing her treasure round by one arm
+and then deliberately jump on it. It was hours before Tara recovered.
+
+Such a breach of the peace is happily rare; for the two are a pretty
+illustration of the mutual attraction of opposites. At this moment they
+are playing ball. This is the manner of the game: Tara sits in a high
+chair and throws the ball as far as she can. Evu dashes after it like an
+excited kitten, and kitten-wise badly wants to tumble over and worry it;
+for it is made of bits of wool, which, as every sensible baby knows,
+were only put in to be pulled out. She resists the temptation, however,
+and presents the ball to Tara with a somewhat inconsequent "Tankou!"
+"Tankou!" returns Tara politely, and tosses the ball again. This time
+Evu sits down with her back to Tara, and proceeds to investigate the
+ball. It is perfectly fascinating. The ends are all loose and quite
+easily pulled out. Evu forgets all about Tara in her keen desire to see
+to the far end of this delight. "Evu!" comes from the chair in accents
+of dignified surprise. "Tala!" exclaims Evu abashed, and hurries up with
+the ball. "Tankou!" she says as before, and Tara responds "Tankou!" This
+is an integral part of the game. If either forgets it, the other
+corrects her by remarking inquiringly, "Tankou?" whereupon the echo
+replies in a tone of apology, "Tankou!"
+
+Both these babies are devout, as most things Indian are. But Evu cannot
+sit still long enough to be promoted to go to church; and perhaps this
+is the reason why in religious matters Tara takes the lead, for she does
+go to church. In secularities it is always Evu who initiates, and Tara
+admiringly follows. The ball game was exceptional only because Evu
+prefers the _role_ of kitten to that of queen.
+
+This little characteristic is shown in common ways. The two are sitting
+on your knee entirely comfortable and content. The prayer-bell rings.
+Down struggles Tara. "To prayers I must go!" she says with decision in
+Tamil. "Evu too," urges Evu, also in Tamil. "Tum!" says Tara in superior
+English, and waits. Evu "tums," and they hastily depart.
+
+Or it is the time for evening hymns and good-night kisses. We have sung
+through the chief favourites, ending always with, "Jesus, tender
+Shepherd." "Now sing, 'Oh, luvvly lily g'oing in our garden!'" This from
+Tara. Echo from Evu: "Yes; 'Oh, luvvly lily g'oing in our garden!'" You
+point out to the garden: "It is dark, there are no lovely lilies to be
+seen; besides, that is not exactly a hymn; shall we have 'Jesus, tender
+Shepherd,' again, and say good-night?" But this is not at all
+satisfactory. Tara looks a little hurt. "Tender Shepperd, _no_! Oh,
+luvvly lily!" Evu wonders if we are making excuses. Perhaps we have
+forgotten the tune, and she starts it:--
+
+          Oh, lovely lily,
+          Growing in our garden,
+          Who made a dress so fair
+          For you to wear?
+          Who made you straight and tall
+          To give pleasure to us all?
+          Oh, lovely lily,
+          Who did it all?
+
+          Oh, little children,
+          Playing in our garden,
+          God made this dress so fair
+          For us to wear.
+          God made us straight and tall
+          To give pleasure to you all.
+          Oh, little children,
+          God did it all.
+
+Then Tara smiles all round, and you are given to understand you have
+earned your good-night kisses. Evidently to Tara at least there is a
+sense of incompleteness somewhere if the lovely lilies are excluded from
+the family devotions.
+
+To Tara and to Evu, as to most babies, the garden is a pleasant place.
+But when they grow up and make gardens, they will not fill them with
+forbidden joys as we do. One of the temptations of life is furnished by
+inconsiderate ferns, which hold their curly infant fronds just within
+reach. Then there are crotons, with bright leaves aggressively yellow
+and delightful, and there are "tunflowers"; and the babies think us
+greedy in our attitude towards all these things. The croton was
+especially alluring; and one day Tara was found tiptoe on a low wall,
+reaching up with both hands, eagerly pulling bits of leaf off. She was
+brought to me to be judged; and I said: "Poor leaves! Shall we try to
+put them on again?" And hand in hand we went to the garden, and Tara
+tried. But the pulled-off bits would not fit on again; and Tara's face
+was full of serious thought, though she said nothing. Next day she was
+found on the same low wall, reaching up tiptoe in the same sinful way to
+the shining yellow leaves overhead. Quite suddenly she stopped, put her
+hands behind her back, and never again was she known to pick croton
+leaves to pieces.
+
+The same plan prevailed with the ferns. The poor little crumples of
+silver and green moved her to pity, and she left them to uncurl in peace
+when once she had tried and sadly failed to help them. But the
+sunflowers' feelings did not affect her in quite the same way. The kind
+we have in abundance is that little dwarf variety with a thin stalk, and
+a cheerful face which smiles up at you even after you behead it, and
+does not seem to mind. Tara was convinced such treatment did not hurt
+them. They would stop smiling if it did. But one day she suddenly
+seemed to feel a pang of compunction, for she looked at the little
+useless heads and sighed. I had suggested their being fitted on again,
+as with the croton leaves and ferns. But this idea had failed; and what
+worked the change I know not, for Tara never told. But "tunflowers" now
+are left in peace so far as she is concerned; and she is learning to
+pick the free grasses and wild-flowers, which happily grow for
+everybody, and to make sure their stalks are long enough to go into
+water, which is the last thing untutored babies seem to think important.
+
+There is much to be done for all our children, but perhaps for Tara
+especially, if she is to grow up strong in soul to fight the battles of
+life. We felt this more than ever on the day of our last return from the
+hills, after nearly seven weeks' absence. On the evening when we left
+them, we had gone round the nurseries after the little ones had fallen
+asleep, and said goodbye to each of them without their knowing it; but
+when we came to Tara's mat, and kissed the little sleeping face, she
+stirred and said, "Amma!" in her sleep; and we stole away fearing she
+should wake and understand. Now in the early morning we were home again,
+and all the children who were up were on the verandah to welcome us,
+each in her own way. It was Tara's way which troubled us.
+
+At first most of the babies were shy, for six weeks are like six years
+to the very young; but soon there was a general rush and a thoroughly
+cheerful chatter. Tara did not join in it. She stood outside the little
+dancing dazzle of delight--the confusion of little animated coloured
+dots is rather like the shake of a kaleidoscope--and she just looked and
+looked. Then, as we drew her close, the little hands felt and stroked
+one's face as if the evidence of eye and ear were not enough to make her
+sure beyond a doubt that her own had come back to her; and then, as the
+assurance broke, she clung with a little cry of joy, and suddenly burst
+into tears.
+
+If only we could hold her safe and sheltered in our arms for ever! How
+the longing swept through one at that moment: for the winds of the world
+are cold. But it cannot be, it should not be, for such love would be
+weak indeed. Rather do we long to brace the gentle nature so that its
+very sensitiveness may change to a tender power, and the fountain of
+sweet waters refresh many a desert place. But who is sufficient for even
+this? Handle the little soul carelessly, harden rather than brace,
+misinterpret the broken expression, misunderstand the signs--and the
+sweet waters turn to bitterness. God save us from such mistake!
+
+We covet prayer for our children. We want to know that around them all
+is thrown that mysterious veil of protection which is woven out of
+prayer. We need prayer, too, for ourselves, that our love may be brave
+and wise.
+
+Evu's disposition is different. It would not be easy to imagine Evu
+overcome by her feelings as Tara was at that hour of our return. One
+cannot imagine a kitten shedding tears of joy; and Evu is a kitten, a
+dear little Persian kitten, with nothing worse than mischief at present
+to account for. Of that there is no lack. "Oh, it is Evu!" we say, and
+everyone knows what to expect when "it is Evu." Evu's chief sentiment
+that morning, so far as she expressed it, was rather one of wonder at
+our ignorant audacity. "You vanished in the night when we were all
+asleep, and now you suddenly drop from the skies before we are properly
+awake, and expect us all to begin again exactly where we left off. How
+little you know of babies!" Doubtless this sentence was somewhat beyond
+her in language; but Evu is not dependent on language, and she conveyed
+the sense of it to us. She backed out of reach of kisses, and stood with
+a small finger upraised; much as a kitten might raise its paw in mock
+protest to its mother. She soon made friends, however, and proved
+herself an affectionate kitten, though wholly unemotional.
+
+When Tara is naughty, as she is at times, like most people of only
+three, a reproachful look brings her spirits down to the lowest depths
+of distress. Evu is more inclined to hold up that funny little warning
+first finger, and shake it straight in your face. This, at two and a
+half, is terrible presumption; but the brown eyes are so innocent, you
+cannot be too shocked. Sometimes, however, the case is worse, and Evu
+tries to sulk. She sits down solemnly on the ground, and throws her four
+fat limbs about in a dreadful recklessness, supposed to strike the
+grown-up offender dumb with awe and penitence. Sometimes she even tries
+to put out her lower lip, but it was not made a suitable shape, for it
+smiles in spite of itself; and then there is a sudden spring; and two
+little arms are round your neck, and you are being told, if you know how
+to listen, what a very tiresome thing it is to feel obliged to sin.
+Then, with the comforting sense of irresponsible kittenhood fully
+restored, Evu discovers some new diversion, and you find yourself weakly
+wishing kittens need not grow into cats.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+Principalities, Powers, Rulers
+
+
+IT may seem a quick transition from nursery to battle-field; but rightly
+to understand this story, it must be remembered that our nursery is set
+in the midst of the battle-field. It is a little sheltered place, where
+no sound of war disturbs the babies at their play, and the flowers bloom
+like the babies in happy unconsciousness of battles, and make a garden
+for us and fill it full of peace; but underlying the babies' caresses
+and the sweetness of the flowers there is always a sense of conflict
+just over, or soon coming on. We "let the elastic go" in the nursery. We
+are happy, light-hearted children with our children; sometimes we even
+wonder at ourselves; and then remember that the happiness of the moment
+is a pure, bright gift, not meant to be examined, but just enjoyed, and
+we enjoy it as if there were no battles in the world or any sadness any
+more.
+
+And yet this book comes hot from the fight. It is not a retrospect
+written in the calm after-years, when the outline of things has grown
+indistinct and the sharpness of life is blurred. There is nothing
+mellowed about a battle-field. Even as I write these words, the post
+comes in and brings two letters. One tells of a child of twelve in whom
+the first faint desires have awakened to lead a different life. "She is
+a Temple girl. Pray that she may have grace to hold on; and that if she
+does, we may be guided through the difficult legal complications. Poor
+little girl! It makes one sick to think of her spoiled young life!" The
+other is a Tamil letter, about another child who is in earnest, so far
+as the writer can ascertain, to escape from the life planned out for
+her. She learned about Jesus at school, and responded in her simple way;
+but was suddenly taken from school, and shut up in the back part of the
+house and not allowed to learn any more. "Like a little dove fluttering
+in a cage, so she seemed to me. But she is a timid dove, and the house
+is full of wickedness. How will she hold out against it? By God's grace
+I was allowed to see her for one moment alone. I gave her a little
+Gospel. She kissed it with her eyes" (touched her eyes with it), "and
+hid it in her dress."
+
+Only a little while ago we traced a bright young Brahman girl to a
+certain Temple house, and by means of one of our workers we made friends
+with her. The child, a little widow, was ill, and was sent to the
+municipal hospital for medicine. It was there our worker met her, and
+the child whispered her story in a few hurried words. She had been
+kidnapped (she had not time to tell how), and shut up in the Temple
+house, and told she must obey the rules of the house and it was useless
+to protest. "If we could help you," she was asked, "would you like to
+come to us?" The child hesitated--the very name "Christian" was
+abhorrent to her--but after a moment's doubt she nodded, and then
+slipped away. Our worker never saw her again. The conversation must have
+been noticed by the child's escort, and reported. She was sent off to
+another town, and all attempts to trace her failed.
+
+And the god to whom these young child-lives are dedicated? In South
+India all the greater symbols of deity are secluded in the innermost
+shrine, the heart of the Temple. In our part of the country the
+approach to the shrine is always frequented by Brahman priests, who
+would never allow the foreigner near, even if he wished to go near.
+"Far, far! remove thyself far!" would be the immediate command, did any
+polluting presence presume to draw near the shrine. There are idols by
+the roadside, and these are open to all; but they are lesser creations.
+The Great, as the people call that which the Temple contains, is
+something apart. It is to these--The Great--that little children are
+dedicated; the whole Temple system is worked in their name.
+
+"Have you ever seen the god to whom your little ones would have been
+given?" is a question we are often asked; and until a few days ago we
+always answered, "Never." But now we have seen it, seen it unexpectedly
+and unintentionally, as we waited for an opportunity to talk to the
+crowds of people who had assembled to see it being ceremonially bathed.
+We cannot account for our being allowed to see it, except by the fact
+that the Brahmans had withdrawn for the moment, and we being, as our
+custom is, in Indian dress, were not noticed in the crowd.
+
+Near the place where the idol was being bathed, with much pomp by the
+priests, was a little rest-house, where we had waited till some child
+told us all was over. Then we came out and mingled with the throng, not
+fearing they would misunderstand our motive. While we talked with them,
+the Brahmans, who had been bathing in the river after the water had been
+sanctified by the god, began to stream up the steps and pass through the
+crowd, which opened respectfully and made a wide avenue within itself:
+for well the smallest child in that crowd understood that no touch might
+defile those Brahmans as they walked, wringing out their dripping
+garments and their long black hair.
+
+How we searched the faces as they passed!--sensual, cynical, cold faces,
+faces of utter carelessness, faces full of pride and aloofness. But
+there were some so different--earnest faces, keen faces, faces sensitive
+and spiritual. Oh, the pathos of it all! How our hearts went out to
+these, whose eager wistfulness marked them out as truly religious and
+sincere! How we longed that they should hear the word, "Come unto Me,
+and I will give you rest"! They passed, men young and old, women and
+children, and very many widows; and then suddenly two palanquins which
+had been standing near were carried down to the awning where the idol
+had been bathed; and before we realised what was happening, they passed
+us. In the first was the disk, the symbol of the god; in the second, the
+god itself.
+
+"We wrestle not against flesh and blood; but against principalities,
+against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
+against spiritual wickedness in high places"--this was the word that
+flashed through us then. That small, insignificant, painted, and
+bejewelled image, in its gaudy little palanquin, was not only that. It
+was the visible representative of Powers.
+
+We thought of a merry child in our nursery who was dedicated at birth to
+this particular Power. By some glad chance that little girl was the
+first to run up to us in welcome upon our return home in the evening. We
+thought of her with thankfulness which cannot be expressed; but the
+sorrow of other children bound to this same god swept over us as we
+stood gazing after the palanquins, till they became a coloured blur in
+the shimmering sunshine. There was one such, a bright little child of
+eight, who was in attendance upon an old blind woman belonging to that
+Temple. "Yes," she had answered to our distressed questions, "she is my
+adopted daughter. Should I not have a daughter to wait upon me and
+succeed me? How can I serve the god, being blind?" We thought of
+another, only six, who was to be given to the service "when she was a
+suitable age." Her parents were half-proud and half-ashamed of their
+intention; and when they knew we were aware of it, they denied it, and
+we found it impossible to do anything.
+
+We turned to the people about us. They were laughing and chatting, and
+the women were showing each other the pretty glass bangles and necklets
+they had bought at the fair. Glorious sunshine filled the world, the
+whole bright scene sparkled with life and colour, and all about us was a
+"lucid paradise of air." But "only as souls we saw the folk thereunder,"
+and our spirit was stirred within us. There is something very solemn in
+such a scene--something that must be experienced to be understood. The
+pitiful triviality, the sense of tremendous forces at work among these
+trivialities; the people, these crowds of people, absorbed in the
+interests of the moment--and Eternity so near; all this and much more
+presses hard upon the spirit till one understands the old Hebrew word:
+"The burden which the prophet did see."
+
+Does this sound intolerant and narrow, as if no good existed outside our
+own little pale? Surely it is not so. We are not ignorant of the lofty
+and the noble contained in the ancient Hindu books; we are not of those
+who cannot recognise any truth or any beauty unless it is labelled with
+our label. We know God has not left Himself without witnesses anywhere.
+But we know--for the Spirit of Truth Himself has inspired the
+description--how desolate is the condition of those who are without
+Christ. We dare not water down the force of such a description till the
+words mean practically nothing. We form no hard, presumptuous creed as
+to how the God of all the earth will deal with these masses of mankind
+who have missed the knowledge of Him here; we know He will do right.
+But we know, with a knowledge which is burnt into us, how very many of
+the units live who compose these masses. We know what they are missing
+to-day, through not knowing our blessed Saviour as a personal, living
+Friend; and we know what it means to the thoughtful mind to face an
+unknown to-morrow.
+
+A Hindu in a town in the northern part of our district lay dying. He
+knew that death was near, and he was in great distress. His friends
+tried to comfort him by reminding him of the gods, and by quoting
+stanzas from the sacred books; but all in vain. Nothing brought him any
+comfort, and he cried aloud in his anguish of soul.
+
+Then to one of the watchers came the remembrance of how, as a little
+lad, he had seen a Christian die. In his desperation at the failure of
+all attempts to comfort the dying man, he thought of this one little,
+far-back memory; and though he could hardly dare to hope there would be
+much help in it, he told it to his friend. The Christian was Ragland,
+the missionary. He was living in a little house outside the town, when a
+sudden haemorrhage surprised him, and he had no time to prepare for
+death. He just threw himself upon his bed, and looking up, exclaimed,
+"Jesus!" and passed in perfect peace. Outside the window was a little
+Hindu boy, unobserved by any in the house. He had climbed up to the
+window, and, leaning in, watched all that happened, heard the one word
+"Jesus," saw the quick and peaceful passing; and then slipped away
+unnoticed.
+
+The dying Hindu listened as his friend described it to him. And this
+little faint ray was the only ray of comfort that lightened the dark way
+for him.
+
+Compare that experience with this:--
+
+The missionary to whom this tale was told by the Hindu who had tried to
+console his dying friend, was himself smitten with dangerous illness,
+and lay in the dim borderland, unable to think or frame a prayer. Then
+like the melody of long familiar music, without effort, without strain,
+came the calming words of the old prayer: "Lighten our darkness, we
+beseech Thee, O Lord; and by Thy great mercy defend us from all perils
+and dangers of this night; for the love of Thine only Son, our Saviour,
+Jesus Christ."
+
+Could any two scenes present a more moving contrast? Could any contrast
+contain a more persuasive call?
+
+As we went in and out among the crowd, there were many who turned away
+uninterested; but some listened, and some sat down by the wayside to
+read aloud, in the sing-song chant of the East, the little booklets or
+Gospels we gave them. We, who are constantly among these people, feel
+our need of a fresh touch, as we speak with them and see them day by
+day. We need renewed compassions, renewed earnestness. It is easy to
+grow accustomed to things, easy to get cool. We pray not only for those
+at home, who as yet are not awake to feel the eloquence and the
+piteousness of the great "voiceless silence" of these lands, but we pray
+for ourselves with ever deepening intensity:--
+
+   Oh for a love, for a burning love, like the fervent flame of fire!
+   Oh for a love, for a yearning love, that will never, never tire!
+               Lord, in my need I appeal unto Thee;
+               Oh, give me my heart's desire!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+How the Children Come
+
+
+THEY come in many ways through the help of many friends. We have told
+before[A] how our first two babies came to us through two pastors, one
+in the north, the other in the south of our district. Since then many
+Indian pastors and workers, and several warm-hearted Christian
+apothecaries and nurses in Government service, have become interested;
+with the result that little children who must otherwise have perished
+have been saved.
+
+One little babe, who has since become one of our very dearest, was
+redeemed from Temple life by the wife of a leading pastor, who was
+wonderfully brought to the very place where the little child was waiting
+for the arrival of the Temple people. We have seldom known a more
+definite leading. "I being in the way, the Lord led me," was surely true
+of that friend that day, and of other Indian sisters who helped her.
+Later, when she came to stay with us, she told us about it. "When first
+I heard of this new work, I was not in sympathy with it. I even talked
+against it to others. But when I saw that little babe, so innocent and
+helpless, and so beautiful too, then all my heart went out to it. And
+now----" Tears filled her eyes. She could not finish her sentence. Nor
+was there any need; the loving Indian heart had been won.
+
+My mother was with us when this baby came; and she adopted her as her
+own from the first, and always had the little basket in which the baby
+slept put by her bedside. When the mosquitoes began to be troublesome,
+the basket was slipped under her own mosquito net, lest the little pink
+blossom should be disturbed. But the baby did not thrive at first; and
+the pink, instead of passing into buff, began to fade into something too
+near ivory for our peace of mind. It was then the friend who had saved
+the little one came to stay with us; and she proposed taking her and her
+nurse out to her country village, in hopes of getting a foster-mother
+for her there. So my mother, the pastor's wife, the baby, and her nurse,
+went out to the Good News Village, and stayed in the pastor's hospitable
+home. The hope which had drawn them there was not fulfilled; but the
+memory of that visit is fresh and fragrant. We read of alienation
+between Indian Christians and missionaries. We are told there cannot be
+much mutual affection and contact. We often wonder why it should be so,
+and are glad we know by experience so little of the difficulty, that we
+cannot understand it. We have found India friendly, and her Christians
+are our friends. In these matters each can only speak from personal
+experience. Ours has been happy. There may be unkindness and
+misunderstanding in India, as in England; but nowhere could there be
+warmer love, more tender affection.
+
+All sorts of people help us in this work of saving the children. Once it
+was a convert-schoolboy who saw a widow with a baby in her arms.
+Noticing the bright large eyes, and what he described as the "blossoming
+countenance of the child," he got into conversation with the mother, and
+learned that she had been greatly tempted by Temple women in the town,
+who had admired the baby and wanted to get it. "If I give her to them,
+she will never be a widow," was the allurement there. The bitterness of
+widowhood had entered into her soul, and poisoned the very mother-love
+within her; and yet there was something of it left, for she did not want
+her babe to be a widow. The boy, with the leisureliness of the East,
+dropped the matter there; and only in a casual fashion, a week or so
+later, mentioned in a letter that he had seen this pretty child, and
+that probably, the mother would end in yielding to the temptation to
+give her to the Temple--"but it may be by the grace of God that you will
+be able to save her." We sent at once to try to find the mother; but she
+had wandered off, and no one knew her home. However, the boy was stirred
+to prayer, and we prayed here; and a search through towns and villages
+resulted at last in the mother being traced and the child being saved.
+
+Christian women have helped us. One such, sitting on her verandah after
+her morning's work, heard two women in the adjoining verandah discuss
+the case of a widow who had come from Travancore with a bright little
+baby-girl, whom she had vowed she would give to one of our largest
+temples. The Christian woman had heard of the Dohnavur nurseries, and at
+once she longed to save this little child, but hardly knew how to do it.
+She feared to tell the two women she had overheard their conversation,
+so in the simplicity of her heart she prayed that the widow might be
+detained and kept from offering her gift till our worker, old Devai,
+could come; and she wrote to old Devai.
+
+Happily Devai was at home when the letter reached her; otherwise days
+would have been lost, for her wanderings are many. She went at once, and
+found the mother most reasonable. Her idea had been to acquire merit for
+herself, and an assured future for her child, by giving it to the gods;
+but when the matter was opened to her, she was willing to give it to us
+instead. In her case, as in the other, our natural instinct would have
+been to try to make some provision by which the mothers could keep their
+babies; but it would not have been possible. The cruel law of widowhood
+had begun to do its work in them. The Temple people's inducements would
+have proved too much for them. The children would not have been safe.
+
+Once it was a man-servant who saved a lovely child. He heard an aside in
+the market which put him on the track. The case was very usual. The
+parents were dead, and the grandmother was in difficulties. For the
+parents' sake she wanted to keep the dear little babe; but she was old,
+and had no relatives to whose care she could commit it. Mercifully we
+were the first to hear about this little one; for even as a baby she was
+so winning that Temple people would have done much to get her, and the
+old grandmother would almost certainly have been beguiled into giving
+her to them. How often it has been so! "She will be brought up carefully
+according to her caste. All that is beautiful will be hers, jewels and
+silk raiment." The hook concealed within the shining bait is forgotten.
+The old grandmother feels she is doing her best for the child, and the
+little life passes out of her world.
+
+"It is a dear little thing, and the man (its grandfather) seemed really
+fond of it. He said he would not part with it; but its parents are both
+dead, and he did not know what might happen to it if he died." This from
+the letter of a fellow-missionary, who saved the little one and sent her
+out to us, is descriptive of many. "Not the measure of a rape-seed of
+sleep does she give me. I have done my best for her since her mother
+died, but her noise is most vexatious." This was a father's account of
+the matter only a week or two ago. "Have you no women relations?" we
+asked him. "Numerous are my womenfolk, but they are all cumbered with
+children: how can they help me?"
+
+Given these circumstances of difficulty, and the strong under-pull of
+Temple influence--is it wonderful that many an orphaned babe finds her
+way to the Temple house? For in the South the child of the kind we are
+seeking to save is never offered to us because there is no other place
+where she is wanted. Everywhere there are those who are searching for
+such children; and each little one saved represents a counter-search,
+and somewhere, earnest prayer. The mystery of our work, as we have said
+before, is the oftentimes apparent victory of wrong over right. We are
+silent before it. God reigns; God knows. But sometimes the
+interpositions are such that our hearts are cheered, and we go on in
+fresh courage and hope.
+
+Among our earliest friends were some of the London Missionary Society
+workers of South Travancore. One of these friends interested her
+Biblewomen; and when, one morning, one of these Biblewomen passed a
+woman with a child in her arms on the road leading to a well-known
+Temple, she was ready to understand the leading, and made friends with
+the mother. She found that even then she was on her way to a Temple
+house. A few minutes later and she would not have passed her on the
+road.
+
+There was something to account for this directness of leading. At that
+time we had our branch nursery at Neyoor, in South Travancore, ten miles
+from the place where the Biblewoman met the mother. On that same
+morning, Ponnamal, who was in charge there, felt impelled to go to the
+upper room to pray for a little child in danger. She remained in prayer
+till the assurance of the answer was given, and then returned to her
+work. That evening a bandy drove up to the nursery, and she saw the
+explanation of the pressure and the answer to the prayer. A little
+child was lifted out of the bandy, and laid in her arms. She stood with
+her nurses about her, and together they worshipped God.
+
+This prayer-pressure has been often our experience when special help is
+needed to effect the salvation of some little unknown child. It was our
+Prayer-day, July 6, 1907. Three of us were burdened with a burden that
+could not be lightened till we met and prayed for a child in peril. We
+had no knowledge of any special child, though, of course, we knew of
+many in danger. When we prayed for the many, the impression came the
+more strongly that we were meant to concentrate upon one. Who, or where,
+we did not know.
+
+Five days later, a letter reached us from a friend in the Wesleyan
+Mission, working in a city five hundred miles distant. The letter was
+written on the 8th:--
+
+"On the morning of the 6th, a woman who knows our Biblewomen well, told
+them of a little Brahman baby in great danger; so J. and two others went
+at once and spent the greater part of the morning trying to save the
+child. It was in the house of a so-called Temple woman, who had adopted
+it, and she had taken every care of it. For some reason she wanted to go
+away, and could not take it with her. Two or three women of her own kind
+were there and wanted it. One had money in her hand for it. But J. had
+already got the baby into her arms, and reasoned and persuaded until the
+woman at last consented. They at once brought it here. Had the friendly
+woman not told J., the baby would now be in the hands of the second
+Temple woman. I visited the woman afterwards. She had two grown girls in
+the room with her, the elder such a sweet girl. She told me openly it
+was all according to custom, and that God had arranged their lives on
+those lines, and they could not do otherwise. It is terribly sad, and
+such houses abound."
+
+Happenings of this sort--if the word "happen" is not irreverent in such
+a connection--have a curiously quieting effect upon us. We are very
+happy; but there is a feeling of awe which finds expression in words
+which, at first reading, may not sound appropriate; but we write for
+those who will understand:--
+
+          Oh, fix Thy chair of grace, that all my powers
+            May also fix their reverence . . .
+          Scatter, or bind, or bend them all to Thee!
+            Though elements change and Heaven move,
+            Let not Thy higher court remove,
+          But keep a standing Majesty in me.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[A] "Overweights of Joy."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+Others
+
+
+
+[Illustration: STURDY AND STOLID, AND LITTLE VEERA
+
+--whose story, however, is different.]
+
+WE have some children who were not in Temple danger, but who could not
+have grown up good if we had not taken them. "If peril to the soul is of
+importance," wrote the pastor who sent us two little girls, "then it is
+important you should take them": so we took them. These little ones were
+in "peril to the soul," because their nominal Christian mother had,
+after her husband's death, married a Hindu, against the rules of her
+religion and his. The children were under the worst influence; and both
+were winning little things, who might have drifted anywhere. We have
+found it impossible to refuse such little ones, even though danger of
+the Temple kind may not be probable.
+
+Such a child, for example, is the little girl the Moslem is ready to
+adopt and convert to the faith. Our first redeemed from this captivity
+(literally slavery under the name of adoption) was a cheerful little
+person of six, with the sturdy air the camera caught, and a manner all
+her own. An American missionary in an adjoining district heard of her
+and her little sister, and wrote to know if we would take them if he
+could save them. We could not say No; so he tried, and succeeded in
+getting the elder child; the little one had been already "adopted," and
+he could not get her. "The whole affair was the most astonishing thing I
+have ever seen in India," he wrote when he sent the little girl. The
+child upon arrival made friends with another, and confided to her in a
+burst of confidence: "Ah, she was a jewel, my own little sister--not
+like me, not dark of skin, but 'fair' and tender; and the great man in
+the turban saw her and desired her, and he took her away; and she cried
+and cried and cried, because she was only such a very little girl."
+
+"The business was being discussed out in the open street"--the writer
+was another missionary--"the pastor heard of it from a Christian who was
+passing, and saw the cluster of Muhammadans round the mother and her
+children. It was touch-and-go with the child." These two, Sturdy and
+Stolid, side by side in the photograph, are in all ways quite unlike the
+typical Temple child; but the danger from which they were delivered is
+as real, and perhaps in its way as grave.
+
+One of the sweetest of our little girls, a child with a spiritual
+expression which strikes all who see her, came to us through a young
+catechist who heard of her and persuaded her people to let her come to
+Dohnavur. She is an orphan; and being "fair" and very gentle, needed a
+mother's care. Her nearest relatives had families of their own, and were
+not anxious for this addition to their already numerous daughters; and
+the little girl, feeling herself unwanted, was fretting sadly. Then an
+offer came to the relations--not made expressly in words, but
+implied--by which they would be relieved of the responsibility of the
+little niece's future. All would not have been straight for the child,
+however, and they hesitated. The temptation was great; and in the end it
+is probable they would have yielded, had not the catechist heard of it,
+and influenced them to turn from temptation. It was the evening of our
+Prayer-day when the little Pearl came; and when we saw the sweet little
+face, with the wistful, questioning eyes like the eyes of a little
+frightened dog taken away alone among strangers, and when we heard the
+story, and knew what the child's fate might have been, then we welcomed
+her as another Prayer-day gift. We do not look for gratitude in this
+work; who does? But sometimes it comes of itself; and the grateful love
+of a child, like the grateful love of a little affectionate animal
+lifted out of its terror and comforted, is something sweet and tender
+and very good to know. The Pearl says little; but her soft brown eyes
+look up into ours with a trustful expression of peaceful happiness; and
+as she slips her little hand into ours and gives it a tight squeeze, we
+know what her heart is saying, and we are content.
+
+Two more of these "others" are the two in the photograph who are playing
+a pebble game. Their parents died leaving them in the care of an aunt, a
+perfectly heartless woman whose record was not of the best. She starved
+the children, though she was not poor; and then punished them severely
+when, faint with hunger, they took food from a kindly woman of another
+caste. Finally she gave them to a neighbour, telling her to dispose of
+them as she liked.
+
+About this time our head worker, Ponnamal, was travelling in search of a
+child of whom we had heard in a town near Palamcottah. She could not
+find the child, and, tired and discouraged, turned into the large Church
+Missionary Society hall, where a meeting was being held to welcome our
+new Bishop. As Ponnamal was late, she sat at the back, and could not
+hear what was going on; so she gave herself up to prayer for the little
+child whom she had not found, and asked that her three days' journey
+might not be all in vain.
+
+[Illustration: PEBBLES.]
+
+As she prayed in silence thus, another woman came in and sat down at the
+back near Ponnamal. When Ponnamal looked up, she saw it was a friend she
+had not met for years. She began to tell her about her search for the
+child; and this led on to telling about the children in general, and the
+work we were trying to do. The other had known nothing of it all before;
+but as she listened, a light broke on her face, and she eagerly told
+Ponnamal how that same morning she had come across a Hindu woman in
+charge of two little girls. The Tamils when they meet, however casually,
+have a useful habit of exchanging confidences. The woman had told
+Ponnamal's friend what her errand was. Ponnamal's talk about children in
+danger recalled the conversation of the morning. In a few hours more
+Ponnamal was upon the track of the Hindu woman and her two little
+charges. It ended in the two little girls being saved.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+Old Devai
+
+
+SHE has been called "Old Devai" ever since we knew her, twelve years
+ago; and she is still active in mind and body. "As I was then, even so
+is my strength now for war, both to go out and to come in," she would
+tell you with a courageous toss of the old grey head. Her spirit at
+least is untired.
+
+We knew her first as a woman of character. One Sunday, in our Tamil
+church, a sermon was preached upon the love of the Father as compared
+with the love of the world. That Sunday Devai went home and acted upon
+the teaching in such fashion that she had to suffer from the scourge of
+the tongue in her own particular world. But she went on her way, unmoved
+by adverse criticism. Some years later, when we were in perplexity as to
+how to set about our search for children in danger of being given to
+temples, old Devai offered to help. She was peculiarly suitable, both in
+age and in position, for this most delicate work; and we accepted her
+offer with thanksgiving. Since then she has travelled far, and followed
+many a clue discovered in strange ways and in strange company. Perhaps
+no one in South India knows as much as Devai knows about the secret
+system by which the Temple altars are supplied with little living
+victims; but she has no idea of how to put her knowledge into shape and
+express it in paragraph form. We learn most from her when she least
+knows she is saying anything interesting.
+
+When first we began the work, our great difficulty was, as it is still,
+to get upon the track of the children before the Temple women heard of
+them. Once they were known to be available, Temple scouts appeared
+mysteriously alert; and it is doubly difficult to get a little child
+after negotiations have been opened with the subtle Temple scout. How
+often old Devai has come to us sick at heart after a long, fruitless
+search and effort to save some little child who, perhaps, only an hour
+before her arrival was carried off in triumph by the Temple people! "I
+pursued after the bandy, and I saw it in the distance; but swiftly went
+their bullocks, and I could not overtake it. At last they stopped to
+rest, and I came to where they were. But they smiled at me and said:
+'Did you ever hear of such a thing as you ask in foolishness? Is it the
+custom to give up a child, once it is ours?'" Sometimes a new story is
+invented on the spot. "Did you not know it was my sister's child; and I,
+her only sister, having no child of my own, have adopted this one as my
+own? Would you ask me to give up my own child, the apple of my eye?"
+Oftener, however, the clue fails, and all Devai knows is that the little
+one is nowhere to be found. Once she traced it straight to a Temple
+house, won her way in, and pleaded with tears, offering all compensation
+for expenses incurred (travelling and other) if only the Temple woman
+would let her take the child. But no: "If it dies, that matters little;
+but disgrace is not to be contemplated." When all else fails, we
+earnestly ask that the little one in danger may be taken quickly out of
+that polluted atmosphere up into purer air; and it is startling to note
+how solemnly the answer to that prayer has come in very many instances.
+
+The clue for which we are always on the watch is often like a fine silk
+thread leading down into dark places where we cannot see it, can hardly
+feel it; it is so thin a thread. Sometimes, when we thought we held it
+securely, we have lost it in the dark.
+
+Sometimes it seems as if the Evil One, whose interest in these little
+ones may be greater than we know, lays a false clue across our path, and
+bewilders us by causing us to spend time and strength in what appears to
+be a wholly useless fashion. Once old Devai was lured far out of our own
+district in search of two children who did not even exist. She had taken
+all precautions to verify the information given, but a false address had
+baffled her; and we can only conclude that, for some reason unknown to
+us, but well known to those whom we oppose, they were permitted on that
+occasion to gain an advantage over us. We made it a rule, after that
+will-of-the-wisp experience, that any address out of our own district
+must be verified; and that the nearest missionary thereto, or
+responsible Indian Christian, must be approached, before further steps
+are taken. This rule has saved many a fruitless journey; but also we
+cannot help knowing it has sometimes occasioned delays which have had
+sad results. For distances are great in India. Devai herself lives two
+days' journey from us, and her address is uncertain, as she sets off at
+a moment's notice for any place where she has reason to think a child in
+danger may be saved. Then, too, missionaries and responsible Indian
+Christians are not everywhere. So that sometimes it is a case of
+choosing the lesser of two evils, and choosing immediately.
+
+[Illustration: LATHA (FIREFLY) BLOWING BUBBLES.]
+
+Once in the night a knock came to Devai's door. A man stood outside, a
+Hindu known to her. "A little girl has just been taken to the Temple of
+A., where the great festival is being held. If you go at once you may
+perhaps get her." The place named was out of our jurisdiction; but in
+such cases Devai knows rules are only made to be broken. Off she went on
+foot, got a bandy _en route_, reached the town before the festival was
+over, found the house to which she had been directed--a little shut-up
+house, doors and windows all closed--managed, how we never knew, to get
+in, found a young woman, a Temple woman from Travancore, with a little
+child asleep on the mat beside her, persuaded her to slip out of the
+house with the child without wakening anyone, crept out of the town and
+fled away into the night, thankful for the blessed covering darkness.
+The child was being kept in that house till the Temple woman to whom she
+was to be given produced the stipulated "Joy-gift," after which she
+would become Temple property. Some delay in its being given had caused
+that night's retention in the little shut-up house. The child, a most
+lovable little girl, had been kidnapped and disguised; and the matter
+was so skilfully managed, that we have never been able to discover even
+the name of her own town. We only know she must have been well brought
+up, for she was from the first a refined little thing with very dainty
+ways. She and her little special friend are sitting on the steps looking
+at Latha (Firefly), who is blowing bubbles. The other little one has a
+similar but different history. Her father brought her to us himself,
+fearing lest she should be kidnapped by one related to her who much
+wanted to have her. "I, being a man, cannot be always with the child,"
+he said, "and I fear for her."
+
+On another occasion the clue was found through Devai's happening to
+overhear the conversation of two men in a wood in the early morning. One
+said to the other something about someone having taken "It" somewhere;
+and Devai, whose scent is keen where little "Its" are concerned, made
+friends with the men, and got the information she wanted from them.
+Careful work resulted in a little child's salvation; but Devai hardly
+dared believe it safe until she reached Dohnavur. When that occurred we
+were all at church; for special services were being held in week-day
+evenings, and old Devai had to possess her soul in patience till we came
+out of church. Then there was a rush round to the nursery, and an eager
+showing of the "It." I shall never forget the pang of disappointment and
+apprehension. Several little ones had been sent to us who could not
+possibly live; and the nurses had got overborne, and we dreaded another
+strain for them. It was a tiny thing, three pounds and three-quarters of
+pale brown skin and bone. Its face was a criss-cross of wrinkles, and it
+looked any age. But "Man looketh upon the outward appearance" would have
+been assuredly quoted to us, regardless of context, had we ventured upon
+a remark to old Devai, who poured forth the story of its salvation in
+vivid sentences. Next evening the old grannie of the compound told us
+the baby could not live till morning. She laid it on a mat and regarded
+it critically, felt its pulses (both wrists), examined minutely its eyes
+and the bridge of its nose: "No, not till morning. Better have the grave
+prepared, for early morning will be an inconvenient hour for digging."
+Others confirmed her diagnosis, and sorrowfully the order was given and
+the grave was dug.
+
+But the baby lived till morning; and though for two years it needed a
+nurse to itself, and over and over again all but left us, this baby has
+grown one of our healthiest; and now when old Devai comes to see us she
+looks at it, and then to Heaven, and sighs with gratitude.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+Failures?
+
+
+BUT sometimes old Devai brings us little ones who do not come to stay.
+Failures, the world would call them. Twice lately this has happened, and
+each time unexpectedly; for the babies had stories which seemed to imply
+a promise of future usefulness. Surely such a deliverance must have been
+wrought for something special, we say to ourselves, and refuse to fear.
+
+One dear little fat "fair" baby was brought to us as a surprise, for we
+had not heard of her. It had seemed so improbable that Devai could get
+her, that she had not written to us to ask us to pray her through the
+battle, as she usually does. The sound of the bullock-bells' jingle one
+moonlight night woke us to welcome the baby. She had travelled fifty
+miles in the shaky bullock-cart, and she was only a few days old; but
+she seemed healthy, and we had no fears. "Ah, the Lord our God gave her
+to me, or never could I have got her! Her mother had determined to give
+her to the Temple; and when I went to persuade her, she hid the baby in
+an earthen vessel lest my eyes should see her. But earthen pots cannot
+hide from the eyes of the Lord. And here she is!" The details, fished
+out of Devai by dint of many questions, made it clear that in very
+truth the Lord, to whom all souls belong, had worked on behalf of this
+little one; moving even Hindu hearts, as His brave old servant pleaded,
+making it possible to break through caste and custom, those prison walls
+of most cruel convention, till even the Hindus said: "Let the Christian
+have the babe!" We do not know why she was taken. She never seemed to
+sicken, but just left us; perhaps she was needed somewhere else, and
+Dohnavur was the way there.
+
+The other meant even more to us, for she was our first from Benares, the
+heart of this great Hinduism; and her very presence seemed such a
+splendid pledge of ultimate victory.
+
+This little one was saved through a friend, a Wesleyan missionary, who
+had interested her Indian workers in the children. The baby's mother was
+a pilgrim from Benares, and her baby had been born in the South. A
+Temple woman had seen it and was eager to get it, for it was a child of
+promise. Our friend's worker heard of this, and interposed. The mother
+consented to give her baby to us. It was not a case in which we dare
+have persuaded her to keep it; for such babies are greatly coveted, and
+the mother was already predisposed to give her child to the gods.
+
+When we heard of this little one, old Devai was with us. She had only
+just arrived after a journey of two days with a little girl, but she
+knew the perils of delay too well to risk them now. "Let me go! I will
+have some coffee, and immediately start!" So off she went for five more
+days of wearisome bullock-cart and train. But her face beamed when she
+returned and laid a six-weeks-old baby in our arms--a baby fair to look
+upon. We gathered round her at once, and she lay and smiled at us all.
+Hardly ever have we had so sweet a babe. But the smiling little mouth
+was too pale a pink, and the beautiful eyes were too bright. She had
+only been with us a month when we were startled by the other-world look
+on the baby's face. We had seen it before; we recognised it, and our
+hearts sank within us. That evening, as she lay in her white cradle, the
+waxy hands folded in an unchildlike calm, she looked as if the angel of
+Death had passed her as she slept, and touched her as he passed.
+
+She stayed with us for another month, and was nursed day and night till
+more and more she became endeared to us; and then once more we heard the
+word that cannot be refused, and we let her go. We laid passion-flowers
+about her as she lay asleep. The smile that had left her little face had
+come back now. "She came with a smile, and she went with a smile," said
+one who loved her dearly; and the flowers of mystery and glory spoke to
+us, as we stood and looked. "Who for the joy that was set before Him
+. . . endured." The scent of the violet passion-flower will always carry
+its message to us. "Let us be worthy of the grief God sends."
+
+And oh that such experiences may make us more earnest, more self-less in
+our service for these little ones! Someone has expressed this thought
+very tenderly and simply:--
+
+          Because of one small low-laid head, all crowned
+                With golden hair,
+          For evermore all fair young brows to me
+                A halo wear.
+          I kiss them reverently. Alas, I know
+                The pain I bear!
+
+          Because of dear but close-shut holy eyes
+                Of heaven's own blue,
+          All little eyes do fill my own with tears,
+                Whate'er their hue.
+          And, motherly, I gaze their innocent,
+                Clear depths into.
+
+          Because of little pallid lips, which once
+                My name did call,
+          No childish voice in vain appeal upon
+                My ears doth fall.
+          I count it all my joy their joys to share,
+                And sorrows small.
+
+          Because of little dimpled hands
+                Which folded lie,
+          All little hands henceforth to me do have
+                A pleading cry.
+          I clasp them, as they were small wandering birds,
+                Lured home to fly.
+
+          Because of little death-cold feet, for earth's
+                Rough roads unmeet,
+          I'd journey leagues to save from sin and harm
+                Such little feet.
+          And count the lowliest service done for them
+                So sacred--sweet.
+
+But grief is almost too poignant a word for what is so stingless as this.
+And yet God the Father, who gives the love, understands and knows how
+much may lie behind two words and two dates. "Given . . . Taken . . ."
+Only indeed we do bless Him when the cup holds no bitterness of fear or
+of regret. There is nothing ever to fear for the little folded lambs. If
+only the veil of blinding sense might drop from our eyes when the door
+opens to our cherished little children, should we have the heart to toil
+so hard to keep that bright door shut? Would it not seem almost selfish
+to try? But the case is different when the child is not lifted lovingly
+to fair lands out of sight, but snatched back, dragged back down into
+the darkness from which we had hoped it had escaped. This work for the
+children, which seems so strangely full of trial of its own (as it is
+surely still more full of its own particular joy), has held this
+bitterness for us, and yet the bitter has changed to sweet; and even now
+in our "twilight of short knowledge" we can understand a little, and
+where we cannot we are content to wait.
+
+Four years ago, after much correspondence and effort, a little girl was
+saved from Temple service in connection with a famous Temple of the
+South from which few have ever been saved. She had been dedicated by her
+father, and her mother had consented. Devai got a paper signed by them
+giving her up to us instead. But shortly after she left the town, the
+father regretted the step he had taken, and followed Devai, unknown to
+her. Alas, the child had not been with us an hour before she was carried
+off.
+
+For two years we heard nothing of her. Old Devai, who was broken-hearted
+about the matter, tried to find what had been done with her, but it was
+kept secret. She almost gave up in despair.
+
+At last information reached her that the child was in the same town; and
+that her father having died of cholera, the mother and another little
+daughter were in a certain house well known to her. She went immediately
+and found the older child had not been given to the gods. Something of
+her pleadings had lingered in the father's memory, and he had refused to
+give her up. But the mother was otherwise minded, and intended to give
+both children to the Temple. Devai had been guided to go at the critical
+time of decision. The mother was persuaded, and Devai returned with two
+sheaves instead of one--and even that one she had hardly dared to
+expect. Once more we were called to hold our gifts with light hands. The
+younger of the welcome little two was one of ten who died during an
+epidemic at Neyoor. The elder one is with us still--a bright,
+intelligent child.
+
+The only other one whom we have been compelled to give up in this most
+hurting way was saved through friends on the hills, who, before they
+sent the little child to us, believed all safe as to claims upon her
+afterwards. She was a pretty child of five, and we grew to love her very
+much; for her ways were sweet and gentle and very affectionate. Lala,
+Lola, and Leela were a dear little trio, all about the same age, and all
+rather specially interesting children.
+
+But the father gave trouble. He was not a good man, and we knew it was
+not love for his little daughter which prompted his action. He demanded
+her back, and our friends had to telegraph to us to send her home. It
+was not an easy thing to do; and we packed her little belongings feeling
+as if we were moving blindly in a grievous dream, out of which we must
+surely awaken.
+
+There was some delay about a bandy, but at last it was ready and
+standing at the door. We lifted the little girl into it, put a doll and
+a packet of sweets in her hands, and gave our last charges to those who
+were taking her up to the hills, workers upon whom we could depend to do
+anything that could yet be done to win her back again. Then the bandy
+drove away.
+
+But we went back to our room and asked for a great and good thing to be
+done. We thought of little Lala, with her gentle nature which had so
+soon responded to loving influence, and we knew her very gentleness
+would be her danger now; for how could such a little child, naturally so
+yielding in disposition, withstand the call that would come, and the
+pressure that had broken far stronger wills? So we asked that she might
+either be returned to us soon or taken away from the evil to come. A
+week passed and our workers returned without her; they evidently felt
+the case quite hopeless. But the next letter we had from our friends
+told us the child was safe.
+
+She had left us in perfect health, but pneumonia set in upon her return
+to the colder air of the hills. She had been only a few days ill, and
+died very suddenly--died without anyone near her to comfort her with
+soothing words about the One to whom she was going. Even in the gladness
+that she was safe now, there was the pitiful thought of her loneliness
+through the dark valley; and we seemed to see the little wistful face,
+and felt she would be so frightened and shy and bewildered; and we
+longed to know something about those last hours. But one of the heathen
+women who had been about her at the last told what she knew, and our
+friends wrote what they heard. "She said she was Jesus' child, and did
+not seem afraid. And she said that she saw three Shining Ones come into
+the room where she was lying, and she was comforted." Oh, need we ever
+fear? Little Lala had been with us for so short a time that we had not
+been able to teach her much; and so far as any of us know, she had heard
+nothing of the ministry of angels. We had hardly dared to hope she
+understood enough about our Lord Himself to rest her little heart upon
+Him. But we do not know everything. Little innocent child that she was,
+she was carried by the angels from the evil to come.
+
+Old Devai keeps a brave heart. When she comes to see us, she cheers
+herself by nursing the cheerful little people she brought to us, small
+and wailing and not very hopeful. She is full of reminiscences on these
+occasions. "Ah," she will say, addressing an astonished two-year-old,
+"the devil and all his imps fought for you, my child!" This is
+unfamiliar language to the baby; but Devai knows nothing of our modern
+ideas of education, and considers crude fact advisable at any age. "Yes,
+he fought for you, my child. I was sitting on the verandah of the house
+wherein you lay, and I was preaching the Gospel of the grace of God to
+the women, when five devils appeared. Yea, five were they, one older and
+four younger. Men were they in outward shape, but within them were the
+devils. I had nearly persuaded the women to let me have you, my child;
+and till they fully consented, I was filling up the interval with
+speech, for no man shall shut my mouth. And the women listened well, and
+my heart burned within me--for it was life to me to see them
+listening--when lo! those devils came--yea, five, one older and four
+younger--sent by their master to confound me. And they rose up against
+me and turned me out, and told the women folk not to listen; and you--I
+should never get you, said they; and so it appeared, for with such is
+might, and their master waxes furious when he knows his time is short.
+But the Lord on high is mightier than a million million devils, and what
+are five to Him? He rose up for me against them and discomfited
+them"--Devai does not go into secular particulars--"and so you were
+delivered from the mouth of the lion, my child!"
+
+We are not anxious that our babies should know too much ancient history.
+Enough for them that they are in the fold--
+
+          I am Jesus' little lamb,
+            Happy all day long I am;
+          He will keep me safe from harm,
+            For I'm His lamb--
+
+is enough theology for two-year-olds; but Devai's visits are not so
+frequent as to make a deep impression, and the baby thus addressed,
+after a long and unsympathetic stare, usually scrambles off her knee and
+returns unscathed to her own world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+God Heard: God Answered
+
+
+OLD Devai, with her vivid conversation about the one old devil and four
+younger, does not suggest a conciliatory attitude towards the people of
+her land. And it may be possible so to misinterpret the spirit of this
+book as to see in it only something unappreciative and therefore unkind.
+So it shall now be written down in sincerity and earnestness that
+nothing of the sort is intended. The thing we fight is not India or
+Indian, in essence or development. It is something alien to the old life
+of the people. It is not allowed in the Vedas (ancient sacred books). It
+is like a parasite which has settled upon the bough of some noble
+forest-tree--on it, but not of it. The parasite has gripped the bough
+with strong and interlacing roots; but it is not the bough.
+
+We think of the real India as we see it in the thinker--the seeker after
+the unknown God, with his wistful eyes. "The Lord beholding him loved
+him," and we cannot help loving as we look. And there is the Indian
+woman hidden away from the noise of crowds, patient in her motherhood,
+loyal to the light she has. We see the spirit of the old land there;
+and it wins us and holds us, and makes it a joy to be here to live for
+India.
+
+The true India is sensitive and very gentle. There is a wisdom in its
+ways, none the less wise because it is not the wisdom of the West. This
+spirit which traffics in children is callous and fierce as a ravening
+beast; and its wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly,
+sensual, devilish. . . . And this spirit, alien to the land, has settled
+upon it, and made itself at home in it, and so become a part of it that
+nothing but the touch of God will ever get it out. We want that touch of
+God: "Touch the mountains, and they shall smoke." That is why we write.
+
+For we write for those who believe in prayer--not in the emasculated
+modern sense, but in the old Hebrew sense, deep as the other is shallow.
+We believe there is some connection between knowing and caring and
+praying, and what happens afterwards. Otherwise we should leave the
+darkness to cover the things that belong to the dark. We should be for
+ever dumb about them, if it were not that we know an evil covered up is
+not an evil conquered. So we do the thing from which we shrink with
+strong recoil; we stand on the edge of the pit, and look down and tell
+what we have seen, urged by the longing within us that the Christians of
+England should pray.
+
+"Only pray?" does someone ask? Prayer of the sort we mean never stops
+with praying. "Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it," is the prayer's
+solemn afterword; but the prayer we ask is no trifle. Lines from an
+American poet upon what it costs to make true poetry, come with
+suggestion here:--
+
+          Deem not the framing of a deathless lay
+          The pastime of a drowsy summer day.
+          But gather all thy powers, and wreck them on the verse
+          That thou dost weave. . . .
+            The secret wouldst thou know
+          To touch the heart or fire the blood at will?
+            Let thine eyes overflow,
+          Let thy lips quiver with the passionate thrill.
+
+"Arise, cry out in the night; in the beginning of the night watches pour
+out thine heart like water before the Lord; lift up thine hands towards
+Him for the life of thy young children!"
+
+The story of the children is the story of answered prayer. If any of us
+were tempted to doubt whether, after all, prayer is a genuine
+transaction, and answers to prayer no figment of the imagination--but
+something as real as the tangible things about us--we have only to look
+at some of our children. It would require more faith to believe that
+what we call the Answer came by chance or by the action of some
+unintelligible combination of controlling influences, than to accept the
+statement in its simplicity--God heard: God answered.
+
+In October, 1908, we were told of two children whose mother had recently
+died. They were with their father in a town some distance from Dohnavur;
+but the source from which our information came was so unreliable that we
+hardly knew whether to believe it, and we prayed rather a tentative
+prayer: "If the children exist, save them." For three months we heard
+nothing; then a rumour drifted across to us that the elder of the two
+had died in a Temple house. The younger, six months old, was still with
+her father. On Christmas Eve our informant arrived in the compound with
+his usual unexpectedness. The father was near, but would not come nearer
+because the following day being Friday (a day of ill-omen), he did not
+wish to discuss matters concerning the child; he would come on Saturday.
+On Saturday he came, carrying a dear little babe with brilliant eyes.
+She almost sprang from him into our arms, and we saw she was mad with
+thirst. She was fed and put to sleep, and hardly daring yet to rejoice
+(for the matter was not settled with the father), we took him aside and
+discussed the case with him. There were difficulties. A Temple woman had
+offered a large sum for the child, and had also promised to bequeath
+her property to her. He had heard, however, that we had little children
+who had all but been given to Temples, and he had come to reconnoitre
+rather than to decide.
+
+The position was explained to him. But the Temple meant to him
+everything that was worshipful. How could anything that was wrong be
+sanctioned by the gods? The child's mother had been a devout Hindu; and
+as we went deeper and deeper into things with him, it was evident he
+became more and more reluctant to leave the little one with us. "Her
+mother would have felt it shame and eternal dishonour." We were in the
+little prayer-room, a flowery little summer-house in the garden, when
+this talk took place. On either side are the nurseries, and playing on
+the wide verandahs were happy, healthy babes; their merry shouts filled
+the spaces in the conversation. Sometimes a little toddling thing would
+find her way across to the prayer-room, and break in upon the talk with
+affectionate caresses. To our eyes everything looked so happy, so
+incomparably better than anything the Temple house could offer, that it
+was difficult to adjust one's mental vision so as to understand that of
+the Hindu beside us, to whose thought all the happiness was as nothing,
+because these babes would be brought up without caste. In the Temple
+house caste is kept most carefully. If a Temple woman breaks the rules
+of her community she is out-casted, excommunicated. "You do not keep
+caste! you do not keep caste!" the father repeated over and over again
+in utter dismay. It was nothing to him that the babes were well and
+strong, and as happy as the day was long; nothing to him that
+cleanliness reigned, so far as constant supervision could ensure it,
+through every corner of the compound. We did not profess to keep caste;
+we welcomed every little child in danger of being given to Temples,
+irrespective altogether of her caste. All castes were welcome to us, for
+all were dear to our Lord. This was beyond him; and he declared he would
+never have brought his child to us, had he understood it before. "Let
+her die rather! There is no disgrace in death." As he talked and
+expounded his views, he argued himself further and further away from us
+in spirit, until he became disgusted with himself for ever having
+considered giving the baby to us. All this time the baby lay asleep; and
+as we looked at the little face and noted the "mother-want," the
+appealing expression of pitiful weariness even in sleep, it was all we
+could do to turn away and face the almost inevitable result of the
+conversation. Once the father, a splendid looking man, tall and
+dignified, rose and stood erect in sudden indignation. "Where is the
+babe? I will take her away and do as I will with her. She is my child!"
+We persuaded him to wait awhile as she was asleep, and we went away to
+pray. Together we waited upon God, whose touch turns hard rocks into
+standing water, and flint-stone into a springing well, beseeching Him to
+deal with that father's heart, and make it melt and yield. And as we
+waited it seemed as if an answer of peace were distinctly given to us,
+and we rose from our knees at rest. But just at that moment the father
+went to where his baby slept in her cradle, and he took her up and
+walked away in a white heat of wrath.
+
+The little one was in an exhausted condition, for she had not had
+suitable food for at least three days. It was the time of our
+land-winds, which are raw and cold to South Indian people; and it seemed
+that the answer of peace must mean peace after death of cold and
+starvation. It would soon be over, we knew; twenty-four hours, more or
+less, and those great wistful eyes would close, and the last cry would
+be cried. But even twenty-four hours seemed long to think of a child in
+distress, and her being so little did not make it easier to think of her
+dying like that. So on Sunday morning I shut myself up in my room asking
+for quick relief for her, or--but this seemed almost asking too
+much--that she might be given back to us. And as I prayed, a knock came
+at the door, and a voice called joyously, "Oh, Amma! Amma! Come! The
+father stands outside the church; he has brought the baby back!"
+
+But the child was almost in collapse. Without a word he dropped the
+cold, limp little body into our arms, and prostrated himself till his
+forehead touched the dust. We had not time to think of him, we hardly
+noted his extraordinary submission, for all our thought was for the
+babe. There was no pulse to be felt, only those far too brilliant eyes
+looked alive. We worked with restoratives for hours, and at last the
+little limbs warmed and the pulse came back. But it was a bounding,
+unnatural pulse, and the restlessness which supervened confirmed the
+tale of the brilliant eyes--the little babe had been drugged.
+
+From that day on till our Prayer-day, January 6th, it was one long,
+unremitting fight with death. We wrote to our medical comrade in Neyoor,
+and described the symptoms, which were all bad. He could give us little
+hope. Gradually the brilliance passed from the eyes, and they became
+what the Tamils call "dead." The film formed after which none of us had
+ever seen recovery. Then we gathered round the little cot in the room we
+call Tranquillity, and we gave the babe her Christian name Vimala, the
+Spotless One; for we thought that very soon she would be without spot
+and blameless, another little innocent in that happy band of innocents
+who see His Face.
+
+On the evening of the 5th, friends of our own Mission who were with us
+seemed to lay hold for the life of the child with such fresh earnestness
+and faith, that we ourselves were strengthened. Next morning we believed
+we saw a change in the little deathlike face, and that evening we were
+sure the child's life was coming back to her.
+
+It was not till then we thought of the father, who, after signing a
+paper made out for him by our pastor, who is always ready to help us,
+had returned to his own town. When we heard all that had occurred we saw
+how our God had worked for us. It was not fear of his baby's death that
+had moved the man to return to us. "What is the death of a babe? Let her
+die across my shoulders!" He was not afraid of the law. After all
+persuasions had failed, we had tried threats: the thing he purposed to
+do was illegal. The Collector (chief magistrate) would do justice. "What
+care I for your Collector? How can he find me if I choose to lose
+myself? How can you prove anything against me?" And in that he spoke the
+truth. There are ways by which the intention of the law concerning
+little children can be most easily and successfully circumvented. Our
+pleadings had not touched him. "Is she not my child? Was her mother not
+my wife? Who has the right to come between this child of mine and me her
+father?" And so saying he had departed without the slightest intention
+of coming back again. But a Power with which he did not reckon had him
+in sight; and a Hand was laid upon him, and it bent him like a reed. We
+hope some ray of a purer light than he had ever experienced found its
+way into his darkened soul, and revealed to him the sin of his
+intention. But we only know that he left his child and went back to his
+own town. God had heard: God had answered.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+To what Purpose?
+
+
+AMONG the closest of our little children's friends is one whose name I
+may not give, lest her work should be hindered; for in this work of
+saving the little ones, though we have the sympathy of many, we
+naturally have to meet the covert opposition of very many more, and it
+is not well to give too explicit information as to the centres of
+supply. This dear friend's help has been invaluable. From the first she
+has stood by us, interesting her friends, Indian and English, in the
+children, and stirring them into practical co-operation. Then, when the
+babies have been saved and had to be cared for and sent off, she made
+nothing of the trouble, and above all she has never been discouraged.
+Sometimes things have been difficult. Some have doubted, and many have
+criticised, and even the kindest have lost heart. This friend has never
+lost heart.
+
+For not all the chapters of the Temple children's story can be written
+down and printed for everyone to read. We think of the unwritten
+chapters, and remember how often when the pressure was greatest the
+thought of that undiscouraged comrade has been strength and inspiration.
+No one except those who, in weakness and inexperience, have tried to do
+something not attempted before can understand how the heart prizes
+sympathy just at the difficult times, and how such brave and steadfast
+comradeship is a thing that can never be forgotten.
+
+Among the babies saved through this friend's influence was one with a
+short but typical story.
+
+The little mite was seen first in her mother's arms, and the mother was
+standing by the wayside, as if waiting. Something in her attitude and
+appearance drew the attention of an Indian Christian, whom our friend
+had interested in the work, and she got into conversation with the
+mother, who told her that her husband had died a fortnight before the
+baby's birth, and she, being poor though of good caste, was much
+exercised about the little one's future. How could she marry her
+properly? She had come to the conclusion that her best plan would be to
+give her to the Temple. So she was even then waiting till someone from a
+Temple house would come and take her little girl.
+
+The news that such a child is to be had soon becomes known to those who
+are on the watch, and it is improbable that the mother would have had
+long to wait. The Christian persuaded her to give up the idea, and the
+little babe was saved and sent to us. On the journey to Dohnavur a
+Temple woman chanced to get into the carriage where the little baby
+slept in its basket. There was nothing to tell who she was; and like the
+other women in the carriage, she was greatly interested in its story.
+But presently it became evident that her interest was more than
+superficial. She looked well at the baby and was quiet for a time; then
+she said to the Christian who was bringing it to us: "I see it is going
+to be an intelligent child. Let me have it; I will pay you." The
+Christian of course refused, and asked her how she knew it was going to
+be intelligent. "Look at its nose," said the Temple woman. "See, here is
+money!" and she offered it. "Let me have the baby! You can tell your
+Missie Ammal it died in the train!"
+
+Sometimes our babies have to run greater risks than this in their
+journeys south to us. The distances which have to be covered by train
+and bullock-cart are great, and the travelling tedious. And there are
+many delays and opportunities for difficulties to arise; so that when we
+know a baby is on its way to us we feel we want to wrap it round in
+prayer, so that, thus invisibly enveloped, it will be protected and
+carried safely all the way. Once a little child, travelling to us from a
+place as distant, counting by time, as Rome is from London, was observed
+by some Brahman men, who happened to be at the far end of the long
+third-class carriage. Our worker, who was alone with the child, noticed
+the whispering and glances toward her little charge, and wrapped it
+closer in its shawl, and, as she said, "looked out of the window as if
+she were not at all afraid, and prayed much in her heart." Presently a
+station was reached. The language spoken there was not her vernacular,
+but she understood enough to know something was being said about the
+baby. Then an official appeared, and there was a cry quite
+understandable to her: "A Brahman baby! That Christian there is
+kidnapping a Brahman baby!" The official stopped at the carriage door.
+She was pushed towards him amidst a confused chatter, a crowd gathered
+at the door in a moment, and someone shouted in Tamil, above the excited
+clamour on the platform: "Pull her out! A Christian with a Brahman
+baby!"
+
+"Then did my heart tremble! I held the baby tight in my arms. The man in
+clothes said, 'Show it to me!' And he looked at its hands and he looked
+at its feet, and he said: 'This is no child of yours!' But as I began to
+explain to him, the train moved, and he banged the door; and I praised
+God!"
+
+India is a land where strange things can be accomplished with the
+greatest ease. As all went well it is idle to imagine what might have
+been; but we knew enough to be thankful.
+
+Among the unwritten chapters is one which touches a problem. There are
+some little children--often the most valuable to the Temple women--who
+cannot live with us, but can live with them, because the baby in the
+Temple house is nursed by a foster-mother for the sake of merit, and
+thus it is given its best chance of life; whereas with us it is
+impossible to get foster-mothers. Indian children of the castes approved
+for the service are not, as a class, as robust as others; the secluded
+lives of their mothers, and the rigid rules pertaining to widows
+(girl-children born after the mother becomes a widow are, as has been
+seen, in special danger), partly account for this; and in other cases
+there are other reasons. Whatever the cause, however, the effect is
+manifest. The baby is seldom the little bundle of content of our English
+nurseries. It may become so later on, if all goes well. Often it lives
+upon its birth-strength for four months, or less, and then slips away.
+We have often hesitated about taking such babies; and then we have found
+that by refusing one who is likely to die we have discouraged those who
+were willing to help us, and the next baby in danger has been taken
+straight to the house where its welcome was assured. So we have hardly
+ever dared to refuse, and we have taken little fragile things whose days
+we knew were numbered unless a foster-mother could be found, for it
+seemed to us that death with us was better than life with the Temple
+people; and also we have not dared to risk losing the next, who might be
+healthy. "One dies, one lives," say the Temple women in their wisdom,
+and take all who are suitable in caste and in appearance. "She will be
+'fair,'" or, "She will be intelligent," settles the matter for them.
+They give the baby a chance: should we do less?
+
+One night I woke suddenly with the feeling of someone near, and saw,
+standing beside my bed out on the verandah, the friend who has sent us
+so many little ones. She had something wrapped in a shawl in her arms,
+and as she moved the shawl a thin cry smote me with a fear, for a baby
+who has come to stay does not cry like that.
+
+It was a dear little baby, one of the type the Temple women prize, and
+will take so much trouble to rear. The little head was finely formed,
+and the tiny face, in its minute perfection of feature, looked as if
+some fairy had shaped it out of a cream rose-petal. Alas, there was that
+look we know so well and fear so much--that look of not belonging to us,
+the elsewhere, other-world look. But we could not do this work at all,
+we would not have the heart to do it, if we did not hope. So we go on
+hoping.
+
+The baby filled the next half-hour, for a thing so small can be hungry
+and say so; and together we heated the water and made the food, till,
+satisfied at length that her little charge was comfortable, our friend
+lay down to rest. "Jesus therefore being weary with His journey, sat
+thus on the well." There is something in the utter weariness after a
+long, hot journey, ending with seven hours in a bullock-cart over rough
+tracks by night, which always recalls that word of human tiredness. How
+I wished that the morning were not so near as I saw my friend asleep at
+last! A few hours later she was on her homeward way, and we were left
+with our hopes and our fears, and the baby.
+
+For three weeks we hoped against fear, till there was no room left for
+any more hope, or for anything but prayer that the child might cease to
+suffer. And after a month of struggle for life, the tiny, tossing thing
+lay still.
+
+"To what purpose is this waste?" Was it strange that the question came
+again to ourselves, and to others too? Our dear friend's toilsome
+travelling--a journey equal in expenditure of time to one from London
+to Vienna and back again, and very much more exhausting, the faithful
+nurse's patience, the little baby's pain! And all the love that had
+grown through the weeks, and all the efforts that had failed, the very
+train ticket and bandy fare--was it all as water spilt on the ground?
+Was it waste?
+
+We knew in our hearts it was not. The dear little babe was safe; and it
+might be that our having taken her, though she was so very delicate,
+would result in another, a healthy child, being saved, who, if she had
+been refused, would never have been brought. This hope comforted us; and
+we prayed definitely for its fulfilment, and it was fulfilled. For
+shortly after that little seed had been sown in death, information came
+from the same source through which she had been saved, that another
+child was in danger of being adopted by Temple women; and this
+information would not have been given to our friend had the first child
+been refused. Nundinie we called this little gift: the name means
+Happiness.
+
+Sometimes in moments of depression and disappointment we go for change
+of air and scene to the Premalia nursery; and the baby Nundinie,
+otherwise Dimples, of whom more afterwards, comes running up to us with
+her welcoming smile and outstretched arms; while others, with stories as
+full of comfort, tumble about us, and cuddle, and nestle, and pat us
+into shape. Then we take courage again, and ask forgiveness for our
+fears. It is true our problems are not always solved, and perhaps more
+difficult days are before; but we will not be afraid. Sometimes a sudden
+light falls on the way, and we look up and still it shines: and what can
+we do but "follow the Gleam"?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+A Story of Comfort
+
+
+[Illustration: SEELA IS THE BABY IN THE MIDDLE.
+
+She slipped into the picture at the last moment, and so was caught
+unawares. Mala is to the right; Nullinie to the left. (This little one's
+left hand and foot are partially paralyzed through drugging in
+infancy.)]
+
+AMONG the stories of comfort is one that belongs to our merry little
+Seela. She is bigger now than when the despairing photographer broke
+thirteen plates in the vain attempt to catch her; but she is still most
+elusive and alluring, a veritable baby, though over two years old. Some
+months ago, the Iyer measured her, and told her she was thirty-two
+inches of mischief. For weeks afterwards, when asked her name, she
+always replied with gravity, "Terty-two inses of mistef."
+
+All who have to do with babies know how different they can be in
+disposition and habits. There is the shop-window baby, who shows all her
+innocent wares at once to everyone kind enough to look. She is a
+charming baby. And there is the little wild bird of the wood, who will
+answer your whistle politely, if you know how to whistle her note; but
+she will not trust herself near you till she is sure of you. Seela is
+that sort of baby. We have watched her when she has been approached by
+some unfamiliar presence, and seen her summon all her baby dignity to
+keep her from breaking into tears of overwhelming shyness. Give her time
+to observe you from under long, drooping lashes; give her time to make
+sure--then the mischief will sparkle out, and something of the real
+child. But only something, never all, till you become a relation; with
+those who are only acquaintances Seela, like Bala, has many reserves.
+
+Seela's joy is to be considered old and allowed to go to the
+kindergarten. She takes her place with the bigger babies, and tries to
+do all she sees them do. Sometimes a visitor looks in, and then Seela,
+naturally, will do nothing; but if the visitor is wise and takes no
+notice, she will presently be rewarded by seeing the eager little face
+light up again, and the fat hands busily at work. Seela is not supposed
+to be learning very seriously; but she seems to know nearly as much as
+some of the older children, and her quaint attempts at English are much
+appreciated. Seela has her faults. She likes to have her own way, and
+once was observed to slap severely an offender almost twice her own
+size; but on the whole she is a peaceful little person, beloved by all
+the other babies, both senior and junior. Her great ambition is to
+follow Chellalu into all possible places of mischief. Anything Chellalu
+can do Seela will attempt; and as she is more brave than steady on her
+little feet, she has many a narrow escape. Her latest escapade was to
+follow her reckless leader in an attempt to walk round the top of the
+back of a large armchair, the cane rim of which is a slippery slant, two
+inches wide.
+
+On the morning of her arrival, not liking to leave her even for a few
+minutes, I carried her to the early tea-table, when she saw the Iyer and
+smiled her first smile to him. From that day on she has been his loyal
+little friend. At first his various absences from home perplexed her.
+She would toddle off to his room and hunt everywhere for him, even under
+his desk and behind his waste-paper basket, and then she returned to the
+dining-room with a puzzled little face. "Iyer is not!" "Where is he,
+Seela?" "Gone to Heaven!" was her invariable reply. When he returned
+from that distant sphere she never displayed the least surprise. That is
+not our babies' way. She calmly accepted him as a returned possession;
+stood by his chair waiting for the invitation, "Climb up"; climbed up as
+if he had never been away--and settled down to bliss.
+
+Part of this bliss consists in being supplied with morsels of toast and
+biscuit and occasional sips of tea. Sometimes there is that delicious
+luxury, a spoonful of the unmelted sugar at the bottom of the cup. For
+Seela is a baby after all, and does not profess to be like grown-up
+people who do not appreciate nice things to eat, being, of course,
+entirely superior to food; but, excitable little damsel as she is in all
+other matters, her table manners are most correct, and she shows her
+appreciation of kind attentions in characteristic fashion. A smile, so
+quick under the black lashes that only one on the look-out for it would
+see it, a sudden confiding little nestle closer to the giver--these are
+her only signs of pleasure; and if no notice is taken of her, she sits
+in silent patience. Sometimes, if politeness be mistaken for
+indifference, a shadow creeps into her eyes, a sort of pained surprise
+at the obtuseness of the great; but she rarely makes any remark, and
+never points or asks, as the irrepressible Chellalu does in spite of all
+our admonitions. If, however, Seela is being attended to and fed at
+judicious intervals, and she knows the intention is to feed her
+comfortably, then her attitude is different. She feels a reminder will
+be acceptable; and as soon as she has disposed of a piece of biscuit,
+she quietly holds up an empty little hand, and glances fearlessly up to
+the face that looks down with a smile upon her. This little silent,
+empty hand, held up so quietly, has often spoken to us of things
+unknown to our little girl; and as if to enforce the lesson, the other
+babies, to our amusement, apparently noticing the gratifying result of
+Seela's upturned hand, began to hold up their little hands with the same
+silent expectancy, till all round the table small hands were raised in
+perfect silence, by hopeful infants of observant habits and strong
+faith.
+
+[Illustration: THE COTTAGE NURSERY.]
+
+Mala, the rather stolid-looking little girl to the right of the
+photograph, is Seela's elder sister. She is not so square-faced as the
+photograph shows her, and she is much more interesting. This little one
+seems to us to have in some special sense the grace of God upon her; for
+her nursery life is so happy and blameless and unselfish, that we rarely
+have to wish her different in anything. Her coming, with little Seela's,
+is one of the very gladdest of our Overweights of Joy.
+
+We heard of the little sisters through a mission schoolmaster,
+who--knowing that they had been left motherless, and that a Hindu of
+good position had obtained something equivalent to powers of
+guardianship, and thus empowered had placed them with a Temple
+woman--was most anxious to save them, and wrote to us; and, as he
+expressed it, "also earnestly and importunately prayed the benign
+British Government to intervene."
+
+The Collector to whom the petition was sent was a friend of ours. He
+knew about the nursery work, and was ready to do all he could; but he
+did not want a disturbance with the Caste and Temple people, and so
+advised us to try to get the children privately. We sent our wisest
+woman-worker, Ponnamal, to the town, and she saw the principal people
+concerned; but they entirely refused to give up the children. The man
+who had adopted them had got his authority from the local Indian
+sub-magistrate; and contended that as the Government had given them to
+him, no one had any right to take them from him; "and even if the
+Government itself ordered me to give them up, I never will. I will never
+let them go." This in Tamil is even more explicit: "The hold by which I
+hold them I will never let go." Ponnamal returned, weary in mind and in
+body, after three days of travelling and effort; she had caught a
+glimpse of the baby, and the little face haunted her. The elder child
+was reported very miserable, and she had seen nothing of her. The
+guardian, of course, had not dealt with her direct; but she heard he had
+taken legal advice, and was sure of his position. There was nothing
+hopeful to report. Once again we tried, but in vain. By this time a new
+bond had been formed, for the guardian had become attached to little
+Seela, and spent his time, so we heard, in playing with her. He let it
+be known that nothing would ever make him give her up. "She is in my
+hand, and my hand will never let go."
+
+Then suddenly news came that he was dead. The baby had sickened with
+cholera. He had nursed her and contracted the disease. In two days he
+had died. He had been compelled to let go.
+
+Then the feeling of all concerned changed completely. It hardly needed
+the Collector's order, given with the utmost promptitude, to cause the
+Temple woman to give the children up. To the Indian mind, quick to see
+the finger of God in such an event, the thing was self-evident. An
+unseen Power was at work here. Who were they that they should withstand
+it? A telegram told us the children were safe, and next day we had them
+here.
+
+The baby was happy at once; but the elder little one, then a child of
+about three and a half, was very sorrowful. She was so pitifully
+frightened, too, that at first we could do nothing with her; and there
+was a look in her eyes that alarmed us, it was so distraught and
+unchildlike. "My mother did her best for them," wrote the kind
+schoolmaster to whose house the children had been taken when the Temple
+woman gave them up; "but the elder one has fever. She is always
+muttering to herself, and can neither stand nor sit." She could stand
+and sit now, only there was the "muttering," and the terrible look of
+bewilderment worse than pain. For days it was a question with us as to
+whether she would ever recover perfectly. That first night we had to
+give her bromide, and she woke very miserable. Next day she stood by the
+door waiting for her mother, as it seemed; for under her breath she was
+constantly whispering, "Amma! Amma!" ("Mother! Mother!") She never cried
+aloud, only sobbed quietly every now and then. She would not let us
+touch her, but shrank away terrified if we tried to pet her. All through
+the third day she sat by the door. This was better than the weary
+standing, but pitiful enough. On the morning of the fourth day she sat
+down again for a long watch; but once when her little hand went up to
+brush away a tear, we saw there was a toy in it, and that gave us hope.
+That night she went to bed with a doll, an empty tin, and a ball in her
+arms; and the next day she let us play with her in a quiet, reserved
+fashion. Next morning she woke happy.
+
+The babies teach us much, and sometimes their unconscious lessons
+illuminate the deeper experiences of life. One such illumination is
+connected in my mind with the little trellised verandah, shown in the
+photograph, of the cottage used as a nursery when Mala and Seela came to
+us.
+
+It was the hour between lights, and five babies under two years old were
+waiting for their supper--Seela, Tara, and Evu (always a hungry baby),
+Ruhinie, usually irrepressible, but now in very low spirits, and a tiny
+thing with a face like a pansy--all five thinking longingly of supper.
+These five had to wait till the fresh milk came in, as their food was
+special; that evening the cows had wandered home with more than their
+usual leisureliness from their pasture out in the jungle, and so the
+milk was late.
+
+The babies, who do not understand the weary ways of cows, disapproved of
+having to wait, and were fractious. To add to their depression, the boy
+whose duty it was to light the lamps and lanterns had been detained, and
+the trellised verandah was dark. So the five fretful babies made remarks
+to each other, and threw their toys about in that exasperated fashion
+which tells you the limits of patience have been passed; and the most
+distressed began to whimper.
+
+At this point a lantern was brought and set behind me, so that its light
+fell upon the discarded toys, miscellaneous but beloved--a china head
+long parted from its body, one whole new doll, a tin with little stones
+in it, a matchbox, and other sundries. If anything will comfort them,
+their toys will, I thought, as I directed their attention to the tin
+with its pleasant rattling pebbles, and the other scattered treasures on
+the mat. But the babies looked disgusted. Toys were a mockery at that
+moment. Evu seized the china head and flung it as far as ever she could.
+Tara sat stolid, with two fingers in her mouth. Seela turned away,
+evidently deeply hurt in her feelings, and the other two cried. Not one
+of them would find consolation in toys.
+
+Then the pansy-faced baby, Prasie, pointed out to the bushes, where
+something dangerous, she was quite sure, was moving; and she wailed a
+wail of such infectious misery that all the babies howled. And one
+rolled over near the lantern which was on the floor behind me, and for
+safety's sake I moved it, and its light fell on my face. In a moment all
+five babies were tumbling over me with little exclamations of delight,
+and they nestled on my lap, caressing and content.
+
+Are there not evenings when our toys have no power to please or soothe?
+There is not any rest in them or any comfort. Then the One whom we love
+better than all His dearest gifts comes and moves the lantern for us, so
+that our toys are in the shadow but His face is in the light. And He
+makes His face to shine upon us and gives us peace.
+
+"For Thou, O Lord my God, art above all things best; . . . Thou alone
+most sufficient and most full; Thou alone most sweet and most
+comfortable.
+
+"Thou alone most fair and most loving; Thou alone most noble and most
+glorious above all things; in whom all things are at once and perfectly
+good, and ever have been and shall be.
+
+"And therefore whatever Thou bestowest upon me beside Thyself, or
+whatever Thou revealest or promisest concerning Thyself, so long as I do
+not see or fully enjoy Thee, is too little, and fails to satisfy me.
+
+"Because, indeed, my heart cannot truly rest nor be entirely contented
+unless it rest in Thee, and rise above all Thy gifts and all things
+created.
+
+"When shall I fully recollect myself in Thee, that through the love of
+Thee I may not feel myself but Thee alone, above all feeling and measure
+in a manner not known to all?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+Pickles and Puck
+
+
+[Illustration: "PICKLES" AND HER FRIENDS.
+
+"Pickles" sits with her thumb in her mouth, distrustful of
+photographers.]
+
+"AMMA! Amma!" then in baby Tamil, "Salala has come!" And one of the most
+enticing of the little interruptions to a steady hour's work scrambles
+over the raised doorstep, tripping and tumbling in her eagerness to get
+in. Now she is staggering happily about the room on fat, uncertain feet.
+Upsets are nothing to Sarala. She shakes herself, rubs a bumped head,
+smiles if you smile down at her, and picks herself up with a sturdy
+independence that promises something for her future. She has travelled
+to-day, stopping only to visit her Prema Sittie, a long way across the
+field all by herself. She has braved tumbles and captures, for her nurse
+may any minute discover her flight; and even now, safe in port, she
+keeps a wary eye on the door which opens on the nursery side of the
+compound. If she thinks I am about to suggest her departure, she
+immediately engages me in some interest of her own. She has ways and
+wiles unknown to any baby but herself; and if all seems likely to fail,
+she sits down on the floor, and first puts out her lower lip as far as
+it will go, and then springs up, climbs over you, clings with all four
+limbs at once, and buries her curly tangle deep into your neck. But if
+the case is hopeless, she sits down on the floor again and digs her
+small fists into her eyes, in silent indignation and despair. Then
+comes a howl impossible to smother, and at last such bitter bursts of
+woe as nothing short of dire necessity can force you to provoke. This is
+Sarala, one of the most affectionate, most wilful, most winsome of all
+the babies. She is truthful. She has just this moment pulled a
+drawing-pin out of its place, which happened to be within reach, and her
+solemn "Aiyo!" (Alas!) "Look, Amma!" shows she feels she has sinned, but
+wants to confess. Life will have many a battle for this baby; but surely
+if she is truthful and loving, and we are loving and wise, the Lord who
+has redeemed her will carry her through.
+
+Her first great battle royal was with the new Sittie,[B] who immediately
+upon arrival loved the babies. The battle was about Sarala's evening
+meal, which she refused to take from the new Sittie because she had
+offended her small majesty a few minutes before by allowing another baby
+to share the lap of which Sarala wished to have complete possession; and
+the baby had crawled off disgusted with the ways of such a Sittie.
+
+As a rule we avoid collisions at bedtime. The day should end peacefully
+for babies; but the contest once begun had to be carried through, for
+Sarala is not a baby to whom it is wise to give in where a conflict of
+wills is concerned. Next morning it was evident she remembered all about
+it. When the new Sittie (now called Prema Sittie by the children)[C]
+came to the nursery, Sarala hurried off and would have nothing to do
+with her. From the distance of the garden she would catch sight of her
+advancing form, and retreat round a corner. Sometimes if Prema Sittie
+sat down on the floor and fondled another baby, Sarala would crawl up
+from behind, put her arms round her neck, and even begin to sit down on
+her knee; but if her Sittie made the first advance, she was instantly
+repelled. This continued for a fortnight; and as Sarala was only a year
+and eight months old at the time, a fortnight's memory rather astonished
+us. In the end she forgot, and now there are no more devoted friends
+than Prema Sittie and Sarala.
+
+But it was the other Sittie, Piria Sittie by name,[D] who first made
+Sarala's acquaintance. She and I went to Neyoor together when the branch
+nursery was there; and as the new nursery was almost ready for the
+babies, we lightened the immense undertaking of removal by carting off
+whatever we could of furniture and infants. Sarala has eyes which can
+smile bewitchingly, and a voice which can coo with delicious affection;
+but those sweet eyes can look stormy, and cooing is a sound remote from
+Sarala's powers in opposite directions; so we wondered, as we packed her
+into the bandy, what would happen that night. If we had known Sarala
+better we should not have wondered. All this child wants to make her
+good is someone to hold on to. She woke frequently during the night, for
+we were not entirely comfortable, wedged sideways and close as herrings
+in a barrel. But all she did when she awoke was to push a soft little
+arm round either one or other of us, and cuddle as close as she possibly
+could; the least movement on our part, however, she deeply resented and
+feared. A limpet on a rock is nothing to this baby. Her very toes can
+cling.
+
+Sarala's private name is Pickles. Her twin in mischief is Puck, and she,
+too, is fond of paying visits to the bungalow. But she always comes as a
+surprise; she never announces herself. You are busy with your back to
+the door when that curious feeling, a sense of not being quite alone,
+comes over you, and you turn and see an elfish thing, very still and
+small and shy, but with eyes so comical that Puck is the only possible
+name by which she could be called. Seen unexpectedly, playing among the
+flowers in a fragment of green garment washed to the softness of a
+tulip leaf, you feel she only needs a pair of small wings and a wand to
+be entirely in character.
+
+Puck has none of Pickles' faults, and a good many of her virtues. She is
+a most good-tempered little person, loving to be loved, but equally
+delighted that others should share the petting. She gives up to
+everybody, and smiles her way through life; such a comical little mouth
+it is, to match the comical eyes. All she ever asks with insistence is
+somewhere to play. Bereft of room to play, Puck might become
+disagreeable, though a disagreeable Puck is something unimaginable.
+Yesterday it was needful to keep her in the shade; and as a special
+policeman-nurse could not be told off to keep watch over her, she was
+tied by a long string to the nursery door. At first she was sorely
+distressed; but presently the comic side struck her, and she sat down
+and began to tie herself up more securely. If they do such things at all
+they should do them better, she seemed to think. And this is Puck all
+through. She will find the laugh hidden in things, if she can. Sometimes
+in her eagerness to make everybody as happy as she is herself she gets
+into serious trouble. She was hardly able to walk when she was
+discovered comforting a crying infant by taking a bottle of milk from an
+older babe (who, according to her thinking, had had enough) and giving
+it to the younger one who seemed to need it more. What the older baby
+said is not recorded.
+
+Puck in trouble is a pitiful sight. She tries not to give in to feelings
+of depression. She screws her smiling lips tight, twists her face into a
+pucker, and shuts her eyes till you only see two slits marked by the
+curly eyelashes. But if her emotions are too much for her she gives
+herself up to them thoroughly. There is no whining or whimpering or
+sulking; she wails with a wail that rivals Pickles' howl. "What an awful
+child!" remarked a visitor one morning, in a very shocked tone, as she
+went the round of the nurseries and came upon Puck on the floor
+abandoned to grief. We wondered if our friend knew how much more awful
+most babies are, and we wished the usually charming Puck had chosen some
+other moment to disgrace herself and us. But no, there she sat, her two
+small fists crushed over her mouth--for we insist that when the babes
+feel obliged to cry, they shall smother the sound thereof as much as may
+be--and the visitor retired, feeling, doubtless, thankful the awful
+child was not hers. But Puck's griefs are of short duration. Ten minutes
+later she was climbing the chain from which the swing hangs, trying to
+fit her little toes into the links, and laughing, with the tears still
+wet on her cheeks, because the chain shook so that she could not climb
+it properly, though she tried it valiantly, hand over head, like a
+dancing bear on a pole. Puck's Guardian Angel, like Chellalu's, must be
+ever in attendance.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[B] Miss Lucy Ross.
+
+[C] "Prema" means _Beloved_.
+
+[D] Miss Mabel Wade, who joined us November 15, 1907. "Piria," like
+"Prema," means _Beloved_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+The Howler
+
+
+PICKLES and Puck at their worst and both together are nothing to the
+Howler in her separate capacity. We called her the Howler because she
+howled.
+
+We heard of her first through our good Pakium, who, during a pilgrimage
+round the district, paid a visit to the family of which she was the
+youngest member. "She lay in her cradle asleep"--Pakium kindled over
+it--"like an innocent little flower, and she once opened her eyes--such
+eyes!--and smiled up in my face. Oh, like a flower is the babe!" And
+much speech followed, till we pictured a tender, flower-like baby, all
+sweetness and smiles.
+
+Her story was such as to suggest fears, though on the surface things
+looked safe. Her grandfather, a fine old man, head of the house, was
+sheltering the baby and her mother and three other children; for the
+son-in-law had "gone to Colombo," which in this case meant he desired to
+be free from the responsibilities of wife and family. He had left no
+address, and had not written after his departure. So the old man had the
+five on his hands. A Temple woman belonging to a famous South-country
+Temple, knowing the circumstances, had made a flattering offer for the
+baby, then just three months old. The grandfather had refused; but the
+grandmother was religious, and she felt the pinch of the extra five, and
+secretly influenced her daughter, so that it was probable the Temple
+woman would win if she waited long enough. And Temple women know how to
+wait.
+
+[Illustration: THE DOHNAVUR COUNTRY IN FLOOD.]
+
+A year passed quietly. We had friends on the watch, and they kept us
+informed of what was going on. The idea of dedication was becoming
+gradually familiar to the grandfather, and he was ill and times were
+hard. But still we could do nothing, for to himself and his whole clan
+adoption by Christians was a far more unpleasant alternative than
+Temple-dedication. After all, the Temple people never break caste.
+
+Once a message reached us: "Send at once, for the Temple women are about
+to get the baby"; and we sent, but in vain. A few weeks later a similar
+message reached us; and again the long journey was made, and again there
+was the disappointing return empty-handed. It seemed useless to try any
+more.
+
+About that time a comrade in North Africa, Miss Lilias Trotter, sent us
+her new little booklet, "The Glory of the Impossible." As we read the
+first few paragraphs and roughly translated them for our Tamil
+fellow-workers, such a hope was created within us that we laid hold with
+fresh faith and a sort of quiet, confident joy. And yet, when we wrote
+to our friends who were watching, their answer was most discouraging.
+The only bright word in the letter was the word "Impossible."
+
+"Far up in the Alpine hollows, year by year, God works one of His
+marvels. The snow-patches lie there, frozen into ice at their edges from
+the strife of sunny days and frosty nights; and through that ice-crust
+come, unscathed, flowers in full bloom.
+
+"Back in the days of the bygone summer the little soldanella plant
+spread its leaves wide and flat on the ground to drink in the
+sun-rays; and it kept them stored in the root through the winter. Then
+spring came and stirred its pulses even below the snow-shroud. And as it
+sprouted, warmth was given out in such strange measure that it thawed a
+little dome of the snow above its head. Higher and higher it grew, and
+always above it rose the bell of air till the flower-bud formed safely
+within it; and at last the icy covering of the air-bell gave way and let
+the blossom through into the sunshine, the crystalline texture of its
+mauve petals sparkling like the snow itself, as if it bore the traces of
+the fight through which it had come.
+
+"And the fragile things ring an echo in our hearts that none of the
+jewel-like flowers nestled in the warm turf on the slopes below could
+waken. We love to see the impossible done, and so does God."
+
+These were the sentences which we read together. To the South Indian
+imagination Alpine snow is something quite inconceivable; but the
+picture on the cover and snow-scene photographs helped, and the Indian
+mind is ever quick to apprehend the spiritual, so the booklet did its
+work.
+
+We have two seasons here, the wet and the dry. The dry is subdivided
+into hot, hotter, and hottest; but the wet stands alone. It is a time
+when the country round Dohnavur is swamp or lake according to the level
+of the ground; and we do not expect visitors--the heavy bullock-carts
+sink in the mud and make the way too difficult. If a letter had come
+just then asking us to send for the baby, we should certainly have tried
+to go; but no letter came, and it was then, when everything said,
+"Impossible," that suddenly all resistance gave way and the grandfather
+said: "Let her go to the Christians."
+
+[Illustration: PAKIUM AND NAVEENA.]
+
+We were sitting round the dinner-table one wet evening, thinking of
+nothing more exciting than the flying and creeping creatures which
+insisted upon drowning themselves in our soup, when the jingle of
+bullock-bells made us look at each other incredulously; and then,
+without waiting to wonder who it was, we all ran out and met Rukma
+running in from the wet darkness. "It's it! it's it!" she cried, and
+danced into the dining-room, decorum thrown to the pools in the
+compound. "Look at it!" and we saw a bundle in her arms. And it howled.
+
+From that day on for nearly a week it continued consistently to howl. We
+called the little thing Naveena, for the name means "new"; and it was
+our nearest approach to Soldanella, which we should have called her if
+we did not keep to Indian names for our babies. New and fresh as that
+little flower of joy, so was our new little gift to us, a new token for
+good. But flowers and howlers--the words draw their little skirts aside
+and refuse to touch each other. From certain points of view, in this
+case as so often, the sublime and the ridiculous were much too close
+together. The very crows made remarks about the baby when she wakened
+the morning with her howls. Mercifully for the family's nerves she fell
+asleep at noon; but as soon as she woke she began again, and went on
+till both she and we were exhausted. There were no tears, the big dark
+eyes were only entirely defiant; and the baby stood straight up with her
+hands behind her back and her mouth open--that was all. But we knew it
+meant pure misery, though expressed so very aggressively; and we coaxed
+and petted when she would allow us, and won her confidence at last, and
+then she stopped.
+
+It took months to tame the little thing. She had been allowed to do
+exactly as she liked; for she was her grandfather's pet, and no one
+might cross her will. We had to go very gently; but eventually she
+understood and became a dear little girl, reserved but very
+affectionate, and scampish to such a degree that Chellalu, discerning a
+congenial spirit, decided to adopt her as "her friend."
+
+This fact was announced to us at the babies' Bible-class, when the word
+"friend," which was new to the babies, was being explained. It has four
+syllables in Tamil, and the babies love four-syllabled words. They were
+rolling this juicy morsel under their tongues with sounds of
+appreciation, when Chellalu pointed across to Naveena, and with an air
+of possession remarked, "_She_ is my friend." The other babies nodded
+their heads, "Yes, Naveena is Chellalu's friend!" Naveena looked
+flattered and very pleased.
+
+These friends in a kindergarten class are rather terrible. They are
+always separated--as the Tamil would say, if one sits north the other
+sits south--but even so there are means of communication. This morning,
+passing the door of the kindergarten room, I looked in and saw something
+not included in the time-table. We have a little yellow bellflower here
+which grows in great profusion; and some vandal taught the babies to
+blow it up like a little balloon, and then snap it on the forehead. The
+crack it makes is delightful. We do not like this game, and try to teach
+the babies to respect the pretty flowers; but there are so many sins in
+the world, that we do not make another by actually forbidding it; we
+trust to time and sense and good feeling to help us. So it comes to pass
+that the worst scamps indulge in this game without feeling too guilty;
+and now I saw Chellalu with a handful of the flowers, cracking them at
+intervals, to the distraction of the teacher and the delight of all the
+class. One other was cracking flowers too. It was Naveena, and there was
+a method in her cracks. When Rukma turned to Chellalu, Naveena cracked
+her flower. When she turned to Naveena, then Chellalu cracked hers. How
+they had eluded the search which precedes admission to the kindergarten
+nobody knew; but there they were, each with a goodly handful of bells.
+At a word from Rukma, however, they handed them over to her with an
+indulgent smile, and even offered to search the other babies in case
+they had secreted any; and as I left the room the lesson continued as
+before, but the friends' intention was evident: they had hoped to be
+turned out together.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+The Neyoor Nursery
+
+          "The roads are rugged, the precipices steep; there
+          may be feelings of dizziness on the heights, gusts
+          of wind, peals of thunder, nights of awful gloom.
+          Fear them not!
+
+          "There are also the joys of sunlight, flowers such
+          as are not in the plain, the purest of air,
+          restful nooks, and the stars smile thence like the
+          eyes of God."--PERE DIDON (_translated by Rev.
+          Arthur G. Nash_).
+
+
+[Illustration: ON THE ROAD TO NEYOOR.]
+
+AND now for a chapter of history. We had not been long at the new work
+before we discovered difficulties unimagined before, and impossible to
+describe in detail. Some of these concerned the health of the younger
+children; and eventually it seemed best to move the infants' nursery to
+within reach of medical help, and keep the bigger babies and elder
+children, whose protection was another grave anxiety, with us at
+Dohnavur.
+
+Shortly before that time we had been brought into touch with the medical
+missionaries at Neyoor, in South Travancore. The senior missionary, Dr.
+Fells, was about to retire; but his successor, Dr. Bentall, cordially
+agreed to let us rent a little house in the village and fill it with
+babies, though he knew such a houseful might materially add to the
+fulness of his already overflowing day. He, and afterwards Dr. Davidson
+(now the only survivor at Neyoor of that kind trio of doctors), seemed
+to think nothing a trouble if only it helped a friend. So the little
+house was taken and the babies installed.
+
+[Illustration: ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF NAGERCOIL, WHERE WE STOPPED TO REST.]
+
+The first day, September 25, 1905, is a day to be remembered. I had gone
+on before to prepare the house, and for a day and a half waited in
+uncertainty as to what had happened to the little party which was to
+have followed close behind. I had left one baby ill. She was the first
+child sent to us from the Canarese country; and I thought of the friends
+who had sent her, newly interested and stirred to seek these little
+ones, and of what it would mean of discouragement to them if she were
+taken, and my heart held on for her.
+
+At last the carts appeared in sight. It was the windy season, and six
+carts had been overturned on the road, so they had travelled slowly.
+Then a wheel came off one of their carts and an accident was narrowly
+averted. This had caused the delay. The baby about whom I had feared had
+recovered in time to be sent on. She was soon quite well, and has
+continued well from that day to this.
+
+How familiar the road between Dohnavur and Neyoor became to us, as the
+months passed and frequent journeys were made with little new babies!
+Sometimes those journeys were very wearisome. There was great heat, or a
+dust-laden wind filled the bandy to suffocation and blew out the
+spirit-lamp when we stopped to prepare the babies' food. How glad we
+used to be when, in the early evening, the white gleam of the stretch of
+water outside Nagercoil appeared in sight! We used to stop and bathe the
+babies, and feed them under some convenient trees, and then go on to our
+friends with whom we were to spend the night, trusting that the soothing
+effect of the bathe and food would not pass off until after our arrival.
+Those friends, our comrades of the L.M.S., like the Medicals at
+Neyoor, seemed made of kindness. How often their welcome has rested us
+after the long day!
+
+Next morning we tried to start early, so as to arrive at Neyoor before
+the sun shone in fever-threatening strength straight in through the open
+end of the cart. This plan, however, proved too difficult, so we found
+it better to travel slowly straight on from Dohnavur to Neyoor. In this
+way we missed the blazing sun; but we also missed the refreshment of our
+friends at Nagercoil, and arrived more or less tired out, after a
+journey which, because of slow progress and frequent stops, was equal in
+time to one from London to Marseilles. But the welcome at the nursery
+made up for everything.
+
+How vividly the photograph recalls it! The house opened upon the main
+street of the village, and there was nearly always a watcher on the
+look-out for us. Sometimes it was Isaac, our good man-of-all-work, who
+never failed Ponnamal through the two years he was with us. Then we
+would hear a call, and Ponnamal (we used to call her the Princess, but
+dignity gives place to something more human at such moments) would come
+flying down the path with a face which made words superfluous. Then
+there was the scramble out of the bandy, and the handing down of babies
+and exclamations about them; and all the nurses seemed to be kissing us
+at once and making their amazed babies kiss us, and everything was for
+one happy moment bewilderingly delightful.
+
+Then there was the run round the cradles in which smaller babies were
+sleeping, and an eager comparing of notes as to the improvement of each.
+And if there were no improvement, how well one remembers the smothered
+sense of disappointment--smothered in public at least, lest the nurses
+should be discouraged. Then came a cup of tea on the mat in the little
+front room, where four white hammock-cradles hung, one in each corner;
+while Ponnamal sat beside me with three babies on her knee and two or
+three more somewhere near her. The babies used to study me in their wise
+and serious fashion, and then make careful advances. And so we would
+make friends.
+
+Ponnamal had always much to tell about the exhaustless kindness of the
+doctors and their wives and the lady superintendent of the hospital. And
+the chief Tamil medical Evangelist had been true to his name, which
+means Blessedness. Once, in much distress of mind, we sent a little babe
+to the nursery, hardly daring to hope for her. When she arrived, the
+doctors were both away on tour, and the medical Evangelist was in
+charge. He attended to her at once, and by God's grace upon his work was
+able to relieve the little child, who has prospered ever since.
+
+But I must leave unrecorded many acts of helpfulness. In those early
+days of doubt and difficulty, almost forgotten by us now, we beckoned to
+our "partners which were in the other ship," and their Master and ours
+will not forget how they held out willing hands and helped us.
+
+It was not always plain sailing, even at Neyoor. "You are fighting Satan
+at a point upon which he is very sensitive; he will not leave you long
+in peace," wrote an experienced friend. On Palm Sunday, 1907, our first
+little band of young girls, fruit of this special work, confessed Christ
+in baptism, and we stood by the shining reach of water, and tasted of a
+joy so pure and thrilling that nothing of earth may be likened to it. A
+fortnight later we were ordered to the hills, and then the trouble came.
+
+The immediate cause was overcrowding. Why did we overcrowd?
+
+Friends at home to whom the facts about Temple service were new, were
+stirred to earnest prayer. Out here fellow-missionaries helped us to
+save the children. God heard the prayer and blessed the work, and
+children began to come. Soon our one little room became too full. We had
+babies in the bungalow and on our verandah, babies everywhere. Then
+money came to build two more rooms, but they were soon too full. At
+Neyoor the pressure was worse, for we could only rent two small houses;
+and though we put up mat shelters, and the children lived as much as
+possible in the open air, it was difficult to manage. But how could we
+refuse the little children? The Temple women were ready to take them if
+we had refused. Their houses are never too full. There was no other
+nursery to which they could be sent. Little children who had passed the
+troublesome infant stage could sometimes find a home elsewhere; but only
+the Temple houses were open at all times to babies. Could we have
+written to the friend who had saved a little child: "Hand her back to
+the Temple. It is the will of our Father that this little one should
+perish"? Should we have done it? We dare not do it. We prayed that help
+would be sent to build new nurseries, and we went on and did our best;
+but it was difficult.
+
+We had just reached the hills in early April, and were forbidden to
+return, when news reached us of a fatal epidemic of dysentery which had
+broken out in the Neyoor nursery. Unseasonable rains had fallen and
+driven the babies indoors; this increased the overcrowding. The doctors
+were away. Letters telling us about the disaster had been lost--how, we
+never knew--so that the second which reached us, taking it for granted
+we had the first, gave no details, only the names of the smitten
+babes--nineteen of them, and five dead. Then trouble followed trouble.
+"While he was yet speaking, there came also another." Some evil men who
+had sought to injure us before, caused us infinite anxiety. And for a
+time that cannot be counted in days or in weeks it was like living
+through a nightmare, when everything happens in painful confusion and
+the sense of oppression is complete.
+
+[Illustration: THE NEYOOR NURSERY.]
+
+Out of the maelstrom came a letter from Ponnamal. "We are being
+comforted," she wrote. "You will be longing to come to us, but oh, do
+not come! If you were here all your strength would be given to fighting
+this battle with death, and you would have no strength left for prayer.
+God wanted to have one of us free to pray; and so He has taken you up to
+the mountain, as He took Moses when the people were fighting down in the
+plain." This was the true inward meaning of it all, and I knew it. But
+Ponnamal is far from strong, and I feared for her; and to stay away with
+the babies ill--it was the very hardest thing I had ever been asked to
+do.
+
+When the trouble passed there were ten in heaven. One, a little child of
+two, had been saved so wonderfully from Temple dedication that we had
+looked forward to a future of special blessing for her; and another was
+a very lovely babe, dear to the missionary who, after much toil and many
+disappointments, had been comforted by saving her. Each of the ten had
+cost someone much. But this is an earthly point of view. They had cost
+Him most who had taken them, and he is only an owner in name who has no
+right to do as he will with his own.
+
+The other side, the purely human side, pressed heavily just then. The
+doctors had most kindly at once ordered a mission room, vacated at that
+season, to be lent to the nursery, and another little house was taken
+for the month. How Ponnamal kept all four houses going in an orderly
+fashion, how she kept her nurses together through that time of almost
+panic, and how she herself, frail and delicate as she is, kept up till
+all was over, we cannot understand from any point of view but the
+Divine. She only broke down once. It was when her dearest child, our
+merry, beautiful little Heart's Joy, who, having more strength than
+most, had battled longer and almost recovered, suddenly sank. The
+visible cause was that a special nutrient, which, being costly, we
+stocked in small quantities, ran short, and the fresh supply reached the
+nursery just too late. "If only it had come yesterday!" moaned Ponnamal,
+and we with her when we heard of the series of contretemps which had
+delayed its arrival. The torture of second causes is as the blackness of
+darkness, but the Lord gave deliverance from it; for just as she had to
+part with all that was left her of our little Heart's Joy, a letter came
+from Dr. Davidson which was God's own blessed comfort to a heart almost
+broken. She never refers to that letter without the quick tears
+starting. "I could let my little treasure go after I read that letter.
+It strengthened me."
+
+While all this was going on in Neyoor, Chellalu, then just two years
+old, was very ill in Dohnavur. Mr. and Mrs. Walker were still there, and
+they nursed her night and day; but at last a letter came, evidently
+meant to prepare me for fresh sorrow. "Every little lamb belongs to the
+Good Shepherd, not to us," the letter said, and told of a temperature
+106 deg. and rising. The child, all spirit and frolic, had little reserve
+strength, and there was not much cause for hope. But we were spared this
+parting. Chellalu is with us still.
+
+The sky was clearing again and we were beginning to breathe freely, when
+the worst that had ever touched us in all our years of work came
+suddenly upon us. How small things that affect the body appear when the
+point of attack wheels round to the soul! The death of all the babies
+seemed as nothing compared with the falling away of one soul. But God is
+the God of the waves and the billows, and they are still His when they
+come over us; and again and again we have proved that the overwhelming
+thing does not overwhelm. Once more by His interposition deliverance
+came. We were cast down, but not destroyed.
+
+A time of calm succeeded this storm. Money came to build nurseries at
+Dohnavur, and buy more of the special nutrients we so much required. The
+Neyoor remnant picked up, and the nurses took heart again. I went out to
+them as soon as I could after our return from the hills, and found those
+who were left well and strong. "They shall see His face" had been the
+text in _Daily Light_, the evening the news reached me of the little
+procession heavenwards. I looked at the ten names written in the margin
+of my book; and, recalling the story of each, could be glad they have
+seen the face of the One who loves them best. Lower down on the page
+come the words, "We shall be satisfied." We thought of our babies
+satisfied so soon; and then we knelt together and said, "Even so,
+Father: for so it seemeth good in Thy sight."
+
+Pretty pictures all in colours and bright sunshine tempt one to linger
+over that visit. I can see the white hammocks slung from the trees in
+the nursery compound, and happy baby-faces looking out of them. And
+another shows me one who had been like a sister to Ponnamal, lightening
+her load whenever she could; sitting with two dear babies in her arms,
+and another clinging round her neck. "She comes and helps us often in
+the mornings when we are very busy," said Ponnamal about the doctor's
+wife, as I noticed the babies' affection for her and her sweet, kind
+ways with them. "Sometimes when I am feeling down and home-sick, she
+comes in like this and plays with the babies, and cheers us all up." The
+Indian woman is very home-loving. Only devotion to the children could
+have kept the nurses and Ponnamal so long in exile for their sake; and
+there were times when even Ponnamal's brave heart sank. Then these
+love-touches helped.
+
+When the time came for the nursery party to leave Neyoor and return to
+Dohnavur, after two and a half years in that hospitable mission, we were
+sorry to part. Days like the days we had passed through test the stuff
+of which souls are made, and they prove what we call friendship. After
+the fire has spent itself, the fine gold shines out purified, and there
+is something solemn in its light. We had grown close to our friends in
+Neyoor; but the cloud had moved, so far as we could read the sign, and
+it seemed right to return. The missionaries were away when the day came,
+but the Christians surrounded Ponnamal with tokens of goodwill. "The
+nursery has been like a little light in our midst," they said; and this
+word cheered her more than all other words. And so farewelled, they
+arrived home, all glad and warm with the glow that comes when hearts
+meet each other and each finds the other kind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+In the Compound and Near it
+
+
+[Illustration: THE OLD NURSERY. THE "ROOM OF JOY."]
+
+"NOW I know why God put you in Dohnavur when He wanted this work done.
+He hid you from the eyes of the world for the little children's sake. He
+knew this work could never have been done by the road-side, so He hid
+you."
+
+The speaker was a Christian friend from Palamcottah, an Indian lawyer
+who, for the first time, had come out to see us. He had found our
+approaches appalling, and had wondered at first why we lived in such an
+out-of-the-way place, three or four miles from the nearest road, and
+twenty-four from civilisation. When he saw the children he understood.
+Later, he helped us in an attempt to save two little ones in danger, and
+insisted not only upon paying his own and our worker's expenses, but in
+sending us a gift for the nurseries. With the gift came a letter full of
+loving, Indian sympathy; and again he added as before: "The Lord hid you
+in that quiet place for the little children's sake." Sometimes when the
+inconveniences of jungle life press upon us, we remember our friend's
+words: "This work could never have been done by the road-side, so He hid
+you."
+
+We have children with us who would not have been safe for a day had we
+lived near a large town or near a railway. The stretch of open country
+between us and Palamcottah (the Church Missionary Society centre of the
+Tinnevelly district), to cover which, by bullock-cart, takes as long as
+to travel from London to Brussels, is not considered very safe for
+solitary Indian travellers, as the robber clan frequent it, and this is
+an added protection for the children. Several times, to our knowledge,
+unwelcome visitors have been deterred from making a raid upon us, by the
+rumour of the robbers on the road. We are also most mercifully quite out
+of the beat of the ordinary exploiter of missions; few except the really
+keen care for such a journey; so that we get on with our work
+uninterrupted by anything but the occasional arrival of welcome friends
+and comrades. These, when they visit us for the first time, are usually
+much astonished to find something almost civilised out in the wilds, and
+they walk round with an air of surprise, and quite inspiring
+appreciation, being kindly pleased with little, because they had looked
+for less.
+
+[Illustration: THE COURTYARD.]
+
+The compound in which the nurseries are built is a field, bounded on
+three sides by fields, and on the fourth by the bungalow compound. The
+Western Ghauts with their foothills make it a beautiful place.
+
+The buildings are not beautiful. With us, as elsewhere, doubtless, even
+the break of a gable in the straight, barn-like roof makes a difference
+in the estimate, and we have never had a margin for luxuries. But the
+walls are coloured a soft terra-cotta, the roofs are a dull red; while
+the porches (hidden by the palm trunks in the photograph) are a mass of
+greenery and bloom; and the garden at the moment of writing is rejoicing
+in over a hundred lilies, brilliant yellow and flame colour, each head
+with its many flowers rising separate and radiant in the sunshine. Then
+we have oleanders, crimson and pink and white, and little young hibiscus
+trees, crimson and rose and cream. The arches in the new nursery
+garden are covered with the lilac of morning-glory; and the Prayer-room
+in the middle of the garden is a mass of violet passion-flower, the
+pretty pink antigone, and starry jessamine. The very hedges at this
+season are out in yellow flower, and a trellis round the nursery kitchen
+is a delight of colour; so though our buildings are simple, we think the
+lines have fallen unto us in pleasant places.
+
+The first picture shows the old nursery, used now for the kindergarten.
+It opens off the courtyard shown in the second photo. This courtyard
+serves as an open-air room, a bright little place which is filled with
+merrier children than the sober photograph shows. Tamils old and young
+move when they laugh or even smile; in fact they wriggle. Being still,
+with them, meant being seriously subdued; and so, where time-exposures
+were required, we had to choose between solemn photos, or no photos at
+all.
+
+Opening off the courtyard on the opposite side to the kindergarten is a
+room used as a store-room and Bible-class room combined. It was so very
+uncomfortable that last Christmas, as a surprise for the children, we
+divided the room into two halves with a curtain between. Their half is
+made pretty with pictures and texts, painted in blue on pale brown wood.
+The children call this part of the room the Tabernacle. The part beyond
+the curtain is the court of the Gentiles.
+
+The Coming-Day Feasts are a feature of Dohnavur life. Now that there are
+so many feasts to celebrate, we find it more convenient to combine; and
+the photograph overleaf shows as much as it can of one such happy feast.
+The children who are being feted are distinguished from the others by
+having flowers in their hair. No Indian feast is complete without
+flowers. Jessamine is the favourite, but the prettiest wreaths are made
+of pink oleander; and sometimes a girl will surprise us with a new and
+lovely combination, as of brown flowering grasses and yellow Tecoma
+bells.
+
+[Illustration: A COMING-DAY FEAST.]
+
+Opposite the kindergarten room is the first of the two new
+nurseries--the lively Parrot-house. This nursery, really the Taraha
+(Star, called after its English giver, whose name means "star") is the
+abode of the middle-aged babies, aged between two years and four. Most
+of these attend the kindergarten, and are very proud of the fact.
+
+The Premalia nursery (Abode of Love), given by two friends in memory of
+a mother translated, lies beyond the Taraha. Here the tiny infants live,
+and we call it the Menagerie. This nursery, like the other, looks out on
+the glorious mountains. If beautiful things can make babies good, ours
+should be very good.
+
+On the eastern side of the field we have lately built two small
+sick-rooms, used oftener as overflow nurseries. These little rooms have
+names meaning "peace" and "tranquillity"; and those of us who have lived
+in them with our babies, sick or well, find the names appropriate. In
+the foreground there is a garden, in the background the mountain; and to
+give purpose to it all, the foreground is full of life. A new nursery
+now being built is a welcome gift from Australia; and a new field with a
+noble tree, in whose shade a hundred children could play, is the gift of
+a friend who stayed with us for one bright week last year.
+
+All this is a later development, unthought of when our artist friend was
+with us. We have often wished for him since the nurseries filled. When
+he was with us our choice of subject was very limited: now, wherever we
+look we see pictures, which to be properly caught ask for colour
+photography.
+
+The story of these buildings is the story of the Ravens, so old and yet
+so new. When first the work began, we had only one mud-floored room for
+nursery, kitchen, bedroom, and everything else that was needed. We
+hardly knew ourselves whereunto things would grow, and feared to run
+before the Lord by even a prayer for buildings. And yet we could not go
+on as we were. The birds were soon too many for the nest, and we needed
+more nests. No one knew of our need; for visitors at that time were few
+at Dohnavur, and we told no one. But money began to come. We ventured on
+a single room without a verandah or even foundations--built of sun-dried
+bricks as inexpensively as possible. But it was a palace to us. While we
+were building it, more little children came. We felt we should need more
+room, but had not more money; so we told the builders to wait for a day
+while we gave ourselves to prayer about the matter. Was the work going
+to grow much more? We were fearful of making mistakes. Were we right to
+incur fresh responsibility?--for buildings need to be kept in condition,
+and the cheaper they are the more care they need. No one at home was
+responsible for us. No one had authorised this new work. It would not be
+fair to saddle those on whom the burden might eventually fall with
+responsibilities for which they were not responsible. And yet surely the
+work of saving these little children had been given to us to do? Someone
+was responsible. Surely, unless we were utterly wrong and had mistaken
+the Shepherd's Voice, surely He was responsible! He could not mean us to
+search for the lambs for whom only the wolves had been searching, and
+then leave them out in the open, found but unfolded, or packed so close
+in the little fold that they could not grow as little lambs should?
+
+We rolled the burden off that day as to the ultimate responsibility, and
+we asked definitely for all that was needed to build another room.
+
+Three days later a registered letter came from a bank in Madras. It
+contained an anonymous gift of one hundred rupees, and was marked, "For
+a new nursery." The date showed that it had been posted in Madras on the
+day of our waiting upon God for guidance as to His wishes. A few days
+later, the same amount, with the same direction as to its use, was sent
+to us from the same bank. The giver, as we knew long afterwards, was a
+fellow-missionary in Tinnevelly, whose order to send these sums to us
+was given before even we ourselves had fully understood the meaning of
+the leading. The second room was built on to the first, and the children
+called it the Room of Joy.
+
+[Illustration: THE RED LAKE.
+
+Water Palms, with Mountains in the background.]
+
+There are no secrets in India. The Hindu masons were amazed at what they
+at once recognised as the hand of the Lord upon the work, and they
+spread the story everywhere. Later, when they built the nursery where
+poor little Mala stood and mourned, they understood why they had to stop
+before the verandah was built. Only enough was in hand to build the bare
+room; but to their eyes, as to ours, a verandah was much needed, and
+they were content to wait till what was required for one came. In this
+land of blazing sunshine and drenching monsoon a house without a
+verandah is hardly habitable, and a small square room without one has a
+Manx-cat appearance.
+
+The story of the rooms has been repeated in the story of the work ever
+since. "Do not thank us. It is only a belated tenth," wrote a
+fellow-missionary not long ago, as she sent a gift for the nurseries.
+Belated tenths have reached us sometimes when they have been like
+visible ravens flying straight from the blue above. All the long
+journeys in search of the children, all the expenses connected with
+their salvation, all that has been required to provide nurses and food
+(including the special nourishment without which the more delicate could
+not live at all), all that is now being needed for their education--all
+has come and is coming as the ravens came to Elijah. The work has
+been a revelation of how many hearts are sensitive and obedient to
+the touch of the Spirit; for sometimes help has reached us in such a way
+and in such form that we could not but stand and worship, awestruck by
+the token of the nearness of our God. There is many a spot marked in
+garden or in field or in the busy nursery or our own quiet room, where,
+with the open letter in our hand--the letter of relief from a pressure
+unknown even to the nearest fellow-worker--we have knelt in spirit with
+Jacob and said: "Surely the Lord is in this place!" and almost added, so
+dense are we in unilluminated moments, "and I knew it not."
+
+Framed between red roofs and foliage, there are far blue glimpses of
+mountains shown in this lakeside photograph. We do not see the water
+from the compound. It lies on the other side of the boundary fields and
+hedges; but we see the mountains with perfect distinctness of outline,
+scarped with bare crags, which in the early morning are sometimes pink,
+and in the evening, purple. But the time to see the mountains in their
+glory is when the south-west monsoon is flinging its masses of cloud
+across to us. Then the mountains, waking from the lazy sleep of the
+long, hot months, catch the clouds on their pointed fangs, toss them
+back and harry them, wrap themselves up in robes of them, and go to
+sleep again.
+
+The road that skirts the Red Lake leads through two ancient Hindu towns,
+from both of which we have children saved, in each case as by a miracle.
+In the first of these old towns there is a Temple surrounded by a mighty
+wall.
+
+There are two large gates and one small side door in the wall; and,
+passing in through the small side door, one sees another wall almost as
+strong as the first, and realises something of the power that built it.
+The Temple is in the centre of the large enclosure. It is a single tower
+opening off the inner court. In the outer court a pillared hall is used
+as stable for the Temple elephant, and two camels lounge in the roughly
+kept garden in front. This Temple, with its double walls, its massive,
+splendidly-carved doors and expensive animal life, is somewhat of a
+surprise to the visitor, who hardly expects to see so much in a little
+old country town on the borders of the wilds. But Hinduism has not lost
+hold of this old remote India yet. There are some who think that the
+country town is the place to see it in strength.
+
+[Illustration: AT THE DOOR OF THE TEMPLE.]
+
+It was early in August, three years ago, that we heard of a baby girl in
+that town, devoted from birth to the god. We set wheels in motion, and
+waited. A month passed and nothing was done. We could not go ourselves
+and attempt to persuade the mother to change the vow she had made, as
+any movement on our part would only have riveted the links that fettered
+the child to the god. We had to be quiet and wait. At last, one evening
+in September, a Hindu arrived in the town with whom our friends who were
+on the watch had intimate connection. He, too, knew about the child; and
+he knew a way unknown to our friends by which the mother might be
+influenced, and he consented to try. His arrival just at that juncture
+appeared to us, who were waiting in daily expectation of an answer of
+deliverance, as the evident beginning of that answer; thus our faith was
+quickened and we waited in keen hope. Two days later, after dark, there
+was a rush from the nursery to the bungalow. "The baby has come!"
+Another moment, and we were in the nursery. A woman--one of our
+friends--was standing with what looked like a parcel wrapped in a cloth
+hidden under her arm. Even then, though all was safe, she was trembling;
+and outside, two men, her relations, stood on guard. She opened the
+white cloth, and inside was the baby.
+
+The men assured us that all was right. The mother had been convinced
+of the wrongness of dedicating the little babe, and would give us no
+trouble. But a day or two later, she came and demanded it back. She
+could not stand the derision of her friends, who told her she had sinned
+far more in giving her child to those who would break its caste than she
+ever could have done had she given it to the Temple. We pacified her
+with difficulty, and were thankful when the little thing was safe in the
+Neyoor nursery. For in those days, before we learned how best to protect
+our children, we were often glad to have some place even more out of
+reach than Dohnavur.
+
+The second of these old towns is famous for its rock, and its Temple
+built into the rock. Looking down from above one can see inside the
+courtyard as into an open well. Connected with this Temple, some years
+ago, there was a beautiful young Temple woman, who had been given as a
+child--as all Temple women must be--to the service of the gods. She had
+no choice as regarded herself--probably the idea of choice never entered
+her mind--but for her babe she determined to choose; and yet she knew of
+no way of deliverance.
+
+But there was a way of deliverance, and if it had only been for this one
+child's sake, and for the sake of the relief it must have been to that
+fear-haunted mother, we are glad with a gladness too deep for words that
+the nursery was here. For the mother heard of it. There were lions in
+the path. She quietly avoided them, and through others who were willing
+to help she sent her child to us. She herself would not come. She waited
+a mile or so from the bungalow till the matter was concluded, then
+returned to her home alone.
+
+A week later she appeared suddenly at the bungalow. It was only to make
+sure the little one was safe and well, and in order to sign a paper
+saying she was wholly given to us. This done she disappeared again,
+refusing speech with anyone, and for months we heard nothing of her.
+Then cholera swept our countryside, and we heard she had taken it and
+died. We leave her to God her Creator, who alone knows all the story of
+her life: we only know enough to make us very silent. And through the
+quiet we hear as it were a voice that chants a fragment from an old
+hymn: "We believe that THOU shalt come to be our Judge."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+From the Temple of the Rock
+
+
+ANOTHER little girl who came from that same Temple of the Rock has a
+story very different from the other, and far more typical.
+
+It was on a blazing day in June, when the very air, tired of being hot,
+leaned heavily upon us, and we felt unequal to contest, that a cough
+outside my open door announced a visitor. "Come in!" Another cough, and
+I looked out and saw a shuffling form disappear round the corner of the
+house. I called again, and the figure turned. It was a man who had
+helped us before, but about whose _bona-fides_ we had doubts; so we
+asked without much hopefulness what he had to tell us. He said he had
+reason to believe a certain Temple woman known to him had a child she
+meant to dedicate to the god of a Temple a day's journey distant. Then
+he paused. "Do you know where she is now?" "She is on her way to the
+Temple." "It would be well if she came here instead." "If that is the
+Animal's desire it may be possible to bring her." "Has she gone far?
+Could you overtake her?" "She is waiting outside your gate."
+
+At such a moment it is wise to show no surprise and no anxiety. All the
+burning eagerness must be covered up with coolness. But in the hour that
+intervened before the woman "at the gate" could be persuaded to come
+further, we quieted ourselves in the Lord our God and held on for the
+little child.
+
+At last the shuffling step and the sound of voices told us they had
+come--two women, the man, and a child. The child was a baby of something
+under two, a sad-looking little thing, with great, dark, pathetic eyes
+looking out from under limp brown curls. She was very pale and fragile;
+and when the woman who carried her set her down upon the floor and
+propped her against the wall, she leaned against it listlessly, with her
+little chin in her tiny hand, in a sorrowful, grown-up fashion. I longed
+to take her and nestle her comfortably; but, of course, took no notice
+of her. Any sign of pity or sympathy would have been misunderstood by
+the women. All through the interminable talk upon which her fate
+depended, that child sat wearily patient, making no demands upon anyone;
+only the little head drooped, and the mouth grew pitiful in its complete
+despondency.
+
+The ways of the East are devious. The fact that the child had been
+brought to us did not indicate a decision to give her to us instead of
+to the Temple. The woman and the man who had persuaded them to come had
+much to say to one another, and there was much we had to explain. A
+child given to Temple service is not in all cases entirely cut off from
+her people. If the Temple woman's hold on her is sure, her relations are
+sometimes allowed to visit her; so far as friendly intercourse goes she
+is not lost to them. But with us things are different. For the child's
+own sake we have to refuse all intercourse whatever. Once given to us,
+she is lost to them as if they had never had her. We adopt the little
+one altogether or not at all.
+
+It is a delicate thing to explain all this so clearly that there can be
+no misunderstanding about it, without so infuriating the relations that
+they will have nothing more to do with us. Naturally their view-point is
+entirely different from ours, and they cannot appreciate our reasons.
+At such a time we lean upon the Invisible, and count upon that
+supernatural help which alone is sufficient for us; we count also upon
+the prayers of those who know what it is to pray through all opposing
+forces, till the battle is won by faith which is the victory.
+
+It was strange to watch the women as the talk went on. The _woman_
+within them had died, there was nothing of it left to which we could
+appeal; everything about them was perverted, unnatural. I looked at the
+insensitive faces and then at the sensitive face of the child, and
+entered deeper than ever into the mercifulness of God's denunciations of
+sin.
+
+Once towards the close of what had been a time of some tension, the
+leader of the two women suddenly sprang up, snatched at the tired baby,
+and flung out of the room with her. She had been gradually hardening;
+and I had felt rather than seen the shutting down of the prison-house
+gates upon that little soul, and had, as a last resource, appealed to
+the sense, not wholly atrophied, the sense that recognises the
+supernatural. God is, I told them briefly; God takes cognisance of what
+we are and do: God will repay: some time, somewhere, God will punish
+sin. The arrow struck through to the mark. Startled, indignant,
+overwhelmed by the sweep of an awful conviction, with a passionate cry
+she rushed away; and we lived through one breathless moment, but the
+next saw the child dropped into our arms, safe at last.
+
+Facts about any matter of importance are usually other than at first
+stated; but we have reason to believe that in this instance our
+shuffling friend spoke the truth. The women were really on their way to
+the Temple when he waylaid them. The wonder was that they allowed
+themselves to be persuaded by him to come to us. But if nothing happened
+except what we might naturally expect would happen in this work, we
+might as well give it up at once. If we did not expect our Jericho
+walls to fall down flat, it would be foolish indeed to continue marching
+round them.
+
+It was a relief when the women left the compound, after signing a paper
+committing the child to us. There is defilement in the mere thought of
+evil, but such close contact with it is a thing by itself. The sense of
+contamination lasted for days; and yet would that we could go through it
+every day if the result might be the same! For the child woke up to a
+new life, and became what a child should be. At first it was very
+pitiful. She would sit hour after hour as she had sat through that first
+hour, with her chin in hand, her eyes cast down, and the little mouth
+pathetic. We found that, in accordance with a custom prevailing in the
+coterie of Temple women belonging to the Temple of the Rock, she had
+been lent by her mother to another woman when she was an infant, the
+other lending her baby in exchange. This exchange had worked sadly; for
+the little one had asked for something which had not been given her, and
+her two years had left her starved of love and experienced in
+loneliness. But when she came to us everything changed; for love and
+happiness took her hands and led her back to baby ways, and taught her
+how to laugh and play: and now there is nothing left to remind us of
+those two first years but a certain droop of the little mouth when she
+feels for the moment desolate, or wants some extra petting.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+Yosepu
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE WATER CARRIERS.]
+
+NO description of the compound would be complete without mention of
+Yosepu, friend of the babies.
+
+This photograph shows the Indian equivalent of pumps and water-pipes. We
+have neither; so all the water required for a family of about a hundred
+has to be drawn from the well and carried to the kitchens and nurseries.
+The elder girls, who would otherwise help with the work, according to
+South Indian custom, are already fully employed with the babies. So at
+present the men do it all. They also buy the grain and other
+food-stuffs, look after the cows and vegetable garden--a necessity for
+those who dwell far from markets--and in all other possible masculine
+ways are of service to the family.
+
+Chief of these men is Yosepu, whose seamed and wrinkled and most
+expressive face I wish we had photographed, instead of this not very
+interesting string of solemnities.
+
+Yosepu is not like a man, he is more like a dear dog. He has the ways of
+our dog-friends, their patience and fidelity, their gratefulness for
+pats.
+
+He came to us in a wrecked condition, thin and weak and rather queer. He
+had been beaten by his Hindu brother for becoming a Christian, and it
+had been too much for him. The first time we saw him, a few minutes
+after his arrival, he was standing leaning against a post with folded
+hands and upturned eyes and a general expression of resignation which
+went to our hearts. We found afterwards he was not feeling resigned so
+much as hungry, and he was better after food.
+
+For a week he slept, ate, and meditated. Sometimes he would hover round
+us, if such a verb is admissible for his seriousness of gait. He would
+wait till we noticed him, then sigh and extend his hand. He wanted us to
+feel his pulse--both pulses. This ceremony always refreshed him, and he
+would return to his corner of the verandah and meditate till his next
+meal came.
+
+Sometimes, however, more attention was required. He would linger after
+his pulses were felt, and we knew he was not satisfied. One day a happy
+thought struck us. The Tamil loves scent. The very babies sniff our
+hands if we happen to be using scented soap, and tell each other
+rapturously what they think about that "chope." Scent is the one thing
+they cannot resist. A tin of sweets on our table may be untouched for
+days, few babies being wicked enough to venture upon it in our absence;
+but a bottle of scent is irresistible, and scented "chope" on our
+washing-stands has a way of growing thin. The baby will emerge from our
+bathrooms rubbing suspiciously clean hands, and in her innocence will
+invite us to smell them. Then we know why our "chope" disappears. So now
+that Yosepu needed something to lift him over the trials of life, we
+remembered the gift of a good Scottish friend, and tried the effect of
+eau-de-Cologne. It worked most wonderfully. Yosepu held out his two
+hands joined close lest a single drop should spill, and then he stood
+and sniffed. It would have made a perfect advertisement--the big brown
+man with his hands folded over his nose, and an expression of absolute
+bliss upon every visible feature. Now, when Yosepu is down-hearted, we
+always try eau-de-Cologne.
+
+His first move towards being of use was when some of our children had
+small-pox and were put up in a half-finished room which was being built.
+"It has walls and it has a roof, therefore it is suitable," was Yosepu's
+opinion; and he offered to nurse the children. One evening we heard a
+terrible noise; it was like three cracked violins gone mad, all playing
+different tunes at the same time. It was only Yosepu singing hymns to
+the children. "For spiritual instruction is a thing to be desired, and
+there is nothing so edifying as music."
+
+After this he announced his intention of becoming a water-carrier.
+"Water is a pure thing and a necessity. The young children demand much
+water if their bodies are to be"--here followed Scriptural quotations
+meant in deepest reverence. "I will be responsible for the baths of all
+the babes." And from that time Yosepu has been responsible. Solemnly
+from dawn to dusk, with breathing spaces for meals and meditation, he
+stalks across from nurseries to well and from well to nurseries. He is a
+man of few smiles; but he is the cause of many, and we all feel grateful
+to Yosepu for his goodness to us. Often on melancholy days he comes and
+comforts us.
+
+It was so one anxious day before we went to the hills, when we were
+trying to plan for the safety of our family. We can only take a limited
+number of converts with us, and no babies; the difficulty is then which
+to take, which to hide, and which to leave in the nurseries. We were in
+the midst of this perplexity when Yosepu arrived. He stood in silence,
+and then sighed, as his cheerful custom is. We made the usual inquiries
+as to his health, physical and spiritual. Both soul and body (his
+invariable order, never body and soul) were well, he said; his pulse did
+not need to be felt to-day: no, there was something weightier upon his
+mind. There are times when it is like extracting a tooth to get a
+straight answer from Yosepu, for he resents directness in speech; he
+thinks it barbarous. At last it came. "Aiyo! Aiyo!" (Alas! Alas!) "My
+sun has set; but who am I, that I should complain or assault the decrees
+of Providence? But Amma! remember the word of truth: 'Then shall ye
+bring down my grey hairs with sorrow to the grave.'" And he slowly
+unwound his wisp of a turban, held it in his folded hands, and shook
+down his lanky, jet-black locks with a pathos that was almost sublime.
+
+[Illustration: THE BELOVED TINGALU.]
+
+It took time to pierce to the meaning of it: the children were being
+scattered--the reason must be that we felt the bath-water carrying too
+much for his powers through the hot weeks. It was not so! He was strong
+to draw and to bear. The babies should never be deprived of their baths!
+But to-day as he went to the well he had heard what broke his heart; and
+he laid his hand upon the injured organ, and sighed with a sigh that
+assured us his lungs at least were sound. "_Tingalu_ is to go away! The
+apple of my eye! that golden child who smiles upon me, and says, 'Oh,
+elder brother, good morning!' You are not going to leave her with me!
+Therefore spake I the word of truth concerning my grey hairs." Then
+quoting the text again, he turned and walked away.
+
+Once the beloved Tingalu was slightly indisposed. She has not often the
+privilege of being ill, and so, when the opportunity offers, she does
+the invalid thoroughly; it would be a pity, Tingalu thinks, to be
+anything but correct. But Yosepu was much concerned. He appeared in the
+early morning with his usual cough and sigh. "Amma! Tingalu is ill!"
+"She will soon be better, Yosepu; she is having medicine." "What sort of
+medicine, Amma?" and Yosepu mentioned the kind he thought suitable.
+"That is exactly what she has had; you will see her playing about
+to-morrow." "But no smile is on her face to-day; I fear for the
+babe." (Tingalu never smiles when ill. Invalids should not smile.)
+Yosepu suggested another medicine to supplement the first, and departed.
+
+Next morning he came again, anxious and cast down in countenance. I had
+to keep him waiting; and when I came out, he was standing beside my
+verandah steps, head on one side, eyes shut, hands folded as if in
+prayer. "Well, Yosepu, what is it?" "Amma! the light of your eyes
+revives me!" "Well, tell me the trouble." "All yesterday I saw you not;
+it was a starless night to me!" This is merely the preface. "But,
+Yosepu, what is wrong?" "Tingalu, that golden child with a voice like a
+bird, she lies on her mat. I am concerned about the babe," (Tingalu,
+turned four, is as hardy as a gipsy), "I fear for her delicate interior.
+Those ignorant children" (the convert nurses would have been pleased if
+they had heard him) "know nothing at all. It may be they will feed her
+with curry and rice this morning. That would be dangerous. Amma! Let her
+have bread and milk, _and I will pay for it_!"
+
+Yosepu came a few days ago with a request for a doll. "Who for?" "For
+myself." "But are you going to play with it?" Yosepu acknowledged he
+was, and he wished it to have genuine hair, a pink silk frock, and eyes
+that would open and shut. We had not anything so elaborate to give him,
+and he had to be contented with a black china head and painted eyes; but
+he was pleased, and took it away carefully rolled up in his turban, which
+serves conveniently for head-gear, towel, scarf, and duster. When and
+where he plays with the doll no one knows, but he assures us he does;
+and we have mentally reserved the first pink silk, with eyes that will
+open and shut, that a benevolent public sends to us, for Yosepu. . . .
+The words were hardly written when a shadow fell across the paper, and
+the unconscious subject of this chapter remarked as I looked up: "1
+Corinthians vii. 31." "Do you want anything, Yosepu?" "Amma! 1
+Corinthians vii. 31." "Well, Yosepu?" "As it is written in that chapter,
+and that verse: 'The fashion of this world passeth away.' Amma, if
+within the next two months a visitor comes to Dohnavur carrying a
+picture-catching box, I desire that you arrange for the catching of my
+picture. This, Amma, is my desire."
+
+The Western mind is very dense; and for a moment I could not see the
+connection between the text and the photograph. Yosepu is never
+impatient. He squatted down beside me, dropped his turban round his
+neck, held his left foot with his left hand, and emphasised his
+explanation with his right.
+
+"Amma, the wise know that life is uncertain. I am a frail mortal. You,
+who are as mother and as father to this unworthy worm, would feel an
+emptiness within you if I were to depart." "But, Yosepu, I hope you are
+not going to depart." This was exactly what Yosepu had anticipated. He
+smiled, then he sighed. "Amma! did I not say it before? 1 Corinthians
+vii. 31: 'The fashion of this world passeth away.' Therefore I said, Let
+me have my picture caught, so that when I depart you may hang it on your
+wall and still remember me."
+
+Yosepu's latest freak has been to take a holiday. "My internal
+arrangements are disturbed; composure of mind will only be obtained by a
+month's respite from secularities." Yosepu had once announced his
+intention of offering himself to the National Missionary Society, and we
+thought he now referred to becoming an ascetic for a month and wandering
+round the country, begging-bowl in hand; for he solemnly declared as he
+stroked his bony frame: "The Lord will provide." But his intention was a
+real holiday. He would go and see the brother who had beaten him, and
+forgive him. We suggested the brother might beat him again. He smiled at
+our want of faith, and went for his holiday. A month was the time agreed
+upon, but within three days he was back. He could not stay away, he
+explained, with a shame-faced air of affection. "Within me pulled the
+strings of love; pulled, yea, pulled till I returned." Faithful, quaint,
+and wholly original Yosepu! He calls himself our servant, but we think
+of him as our friend.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+The Menagerie
+
+          Fate which foresaw
+          How frivolous a baby man would be--
+
+
+[Illustration: TWO VIEWS OF LIFE.]
+
+THE event of the week, from a Tamil point of view, is the midday Sunday
+service; so we take care of the nurseries during that hour, and send all
+grown-up life to church. In the Premalia nursery the babies range from a
+few days old to eighteen months, and sometimes two years. There is a
+baby for every mood, as one beloved of the babies says; and the babies
+seem to know it. We have a lively time there on Sundays; for by noon the
+morning sleep is over, and nineteen or twenty babies are waking up one
+after the other or all together. And most of them want something, and
+want it at once.
+
+These babies are of various dispositions and colour--nut-brown, biscuit,
+and buff; and there are two who, taken together, suggest
+chocolate-cream. Chocolate is a dear child, very good-tempered and easy
+to manage. Cream is a scamp. We see in her another Chellalu, and watch
+with mingled feelings her vigorous development.
+
+Chocolate has another name. It is Beetle. This does not sound
+appreciative, but Beetle is beloved. The name was discovered by her
+affectionate Piria Sittie, who came upon her one morning lying on her
+back in the swinging cot, kicking her four limbs in the air in the
+agitated manner of that insect unexpectedly upset. But no beetle ever
+smiled as ours does.
+
+Cream, whose real name is Nundinie, oftener called Dimples, because she
+dimples so when she laughs, is a baby of character. She early discovered
+her way to the bungalow, and scorning assistance or superintendence
+found her way over as soon as she could walk. Afternoon tea is never a
+sombre meal, for the middle-aged babies attend it in relays of four or
+five; and Dimples and her special chum, Lulla, like to arrive in good
+time for the full enjoyment of the function. Dimples sits down properly
+in a high chair close beside her Attai, who, according to her view of
+matters, was created to help her to sugar. Lulla, so as to be even
+nearer that exhaustless delight, insists upon her Attai's knee; and
+tapping her face with her very small fingers, immediately points to the
+sugar bowl.
+
+These preliminaries over, Dimples sets herself to pay for her seat. She
+smiles upon her Attai first, then upon all the company. If the Iyer is
+present, she notices him kindly: there is nothing in all nature so
+patronising as a baby. If in the mood, she will imitate her friends like
+her predecessor Scamp No. 1; or folding her fat arms will regard us all
+with a quizzical expression more comical than play. Her latest invention
+is drill. She stands straight up in her chair, and goes through certain
+actions intended to represent as much as she knows of that interesting
+exercise. We are kept anxious lest she should overbalance; but she is a
+wary babe, and always suddenly sits down when she gets to the edge of a
+tumble. Sometimes, however, when these diversions are in progress, we
+have wished that the family could see how very much more entertaining
+she is in her own nursery. There, from the beginning of the day till
+the sad moment when it ends, she seems to be engaged in entertaining
+somebody. Sometimes it is one of the Accals, those good elder sisters to
+whom the babies owe so much. Dimples thinks she looks tired. Tired
+people must be cheered, so Dimples devotes herself to her. Sometimes it
+is another baby who is dull. Dull babies are anomalies. Dimples feels
+responsible till the dull baby revives. Or it is just her own happy
+little self who is being entertained. If ever a baby enjoyed a game for
+its own sweet sake, it is Dimples.
+
+But one thing she does not enjoy, and that is being put to bed at night.
+Our babies are anointed with oil, according to the custom of the East,
+before being put to sleep; but the moment Dimples sees the oil-bottle in
+her nurse's hand, she knows her fate is sealed and protests with all her
+might. Once she contrived to seize the bottle, pull out the cork, and
+spill the oil before she was discovered. She seemed to argue that as she
+was invariably oiled before being put to bed, the best way to avoid ever
+being put to bed would be to get rid of the oil. Another evening she
+succeeded in diverting her nurse into a long search for the cork,
+thereby delaying the fatal last moment; it was finally found in her
+mouth. When, in spite of all efforts to wriggle out of reach, she is
+captured, anointed, and put in her hammock, Dimples knows she must not
+get out; but her wails are so lamentable that it is difficult to
+restrain ourselves from throwing discipline to the winds, and if by any
+chance we do, her smiles are simply ravishing. But we hear about it
+afterwards.
+
+If Dimples is asleep when we take charge of the nursery, we find things
+fairly quiet and almost flat. But she usually wakens early, and always
+in a good temper. It is instructive to see the way she scrambles out of
+her hammock before she is quite awake, and her sleepy stagger across
+the room is often interrupted by a tumble. Dimples does not mind
+tumbles. If her curly head has been rather badly knocked, she looks
+reproachfully at the floor, rubs her head, and gets up again. By the
+time she reaches us she is wide awake and most engaging.
+
+In C. F. Holder's _Life of Agassiz_ we are told that the great scientist
+"could not bear with superficial study: a man should give his whole life
+to the object he had undertaken to investigate. He felt that desultory,
+isolated, spasmodic working avails nothing, but curses with narrowness
+and mediocrity." This is exactly the view of one of our babies, already
+introduced, the little wise Lulla, who always knows her own mind and
+sticks to her intentions, unbeguiled by any blandishments.
+
+This baby is a tiny thing, with a round, small head, covered with soft,
+small curls; and this head is very full of thoughts. Her face, which she
+rarely shows to a stranger, is like a doll in its delicate daintiness;
+but the mouth is very resolute, and the eyes very grave. Her hands and
+feet are sea-shell things of a pretty pinky brown, and her ways are the
+ways of a sea-anemone in a pool among the rocks.
+
+Lulla, because of her anemone ways, is sometimes unkindly called
+"Huffs." She does not understand that there are days when those who love
+her most have little time to give to her. Lulla naturally argues that
+where there is a will there is a way, and desultory, isolated, spasmodic
+affection is worth little; so next time her friend appears, she explains
+all this to her by means of a single gesture: she draws her tentacles
+in.
+
+But it is when Lulla has undertaken to investigate a tin of sweets that
+she most suggests Agassiz. The tin has a lid which fits tightly, and
+Lulla's fingers are very small and not very strong. The tin, moreover,
+is on the window-sill just out of reach, though she stands on tip-toe
+and stretches a little eager hand as far as it will go. Then it is you
+see persistence. Lulla finds another baby, leads her to the window and
+points up to the tin. The other baby tries. They both try together; if
+this fails, Lulla finds a taller one, and at last successful, sits down
+with the tin held tightly in both hands, and turns it over and shakes
+it. This process seems to inspire fresh hope and energy; for she sets to
+work round the lid, which is one of the fitting-in sort, and carefully
+presses and pulls. Naturally this does nothing, and she shakes the tin
+again. The joyful sound of rattling sweets stimulates to fresh attempts
+upon the lid. She tugs and pulls, and thumps the refractory thing on the
+floor. By this time the other babies, attracted by the hopeful rattle,
+have gathered round and are watching operations; some offer to help, but
+all such offers are declined. This oyster is Lulla's. She has undertaken
+to force it. Agassiz and his fishes are on her side. She will not give
+it up. But she is not getting on; and she sits still for a moment,
+knitting her brow, and frowning a little puzzled frown at the refractory
+tin.
+
+Suddenly her forehead smooths, the anxious brown eyes smile, Lulla has
+thought a new good thought. The babies struggle up and offer to help
+Lulla up, but she shakes her head. She seems to feel if she herself
+unaided, of her own free will, hands her problem over to her Ammal or
+her Sittie, only so she may achieve her purpose without loss of
+self-respect.
+
+Lulla's beloved nurse is a motherly woman, older than most of our
+workers. Her name is Annamai. When the nurses return from church, each
+makes straight for her baby; and the babies always respond with a
+cordial and pretty affection. But Lulla welcoming Annamai is something
+more than pretty. The big white-robed figure no sooner appears in the
+garden than the tiny Lulla is all a-quiver with excitement. But it is a
+quiet excitement; and if you take any notice, the tentacles suddenly
+draw in, and the little face is as wax. If no one seems to notice, then
+Lulla lets herself go. She all but dances in her eagerness, while
+Annamai is slowly sailing up the walk; and when she reaches the
+verandah, Lulla can wait no longer; one spring and she is in her arms,
+nestling, cuddling, burying her curls in her neck; then looking up
+confidentially, little Lulla begins to talk; everything we have done and
+said is being whispered into Annamai's ear. It does not matter that
+Lulla cannot yet speak any language known to men; she can make Annamai
+understand, and that is all she cares. Once we remember watching her, as
+she took the remnant of a sweet we had given her, out of her mouth and
+poked it into Annamai's. Could love do more?
+
+Dimples and Lulla are quite inseparable. Lulla is to Dimples what Tara
+is to Evu. She immensely admires her vigorous little junior, and tries
+to copy her whenever possible. One delicious game seems to have been
+suggested by the arches in the garden. Dimples and Lulla stand on all
+fours close together. Then they lean over till their heads touch the
+ground, and look through the arch. If you are on the babies' level (that
+is on the floor), you will enjoy this game.
+
+Another Sunday morning entertainment is kissing. Dimples advances upon
+Lulla. Lulla falls upon Dimples. Then Dimples hugs Lulla, nearly chokes
+her, almost certainly overturns her. The two roll over and over like
+kittens. Dimples seizes Lulla by her curls and vehemently kisses face,
+neck, and anything else she can get at; and then backs off, propelling
+herself on two feet and one hand, in which position she looks like a
+puppy on three paws. Lulla smooths her ruffled curls and person
+generally, regards Dimples with gravity, and, if in an affectionate
+humour herself, leads the attack upon Dimples, and the programme is
+repeated.
+
+But the joy of the hour is to spin in the hammocks. These contrivances
+being hung from the roof swing freely, and the special excitement is to
+hold on with both hands, and run round so that the hammock twists into a
+knot and spins when released, with the baby inside it, in a giddy waltz
+till the coil untwists itself. This looks dangerous, and when the game
+was first invented we rather demurred. But we are wiser now, and we let
+them spin. Lulla especially enjoys this madness. It is startling to see
+the tiny thing whirl like a reckless young teetotum. But if you weakly
+interfere, Lulla thinks you want to learn the art, and goes at it with
+even madder zest, till her very curls are dizzy.
+
+Dimples and Lulla in disgrace are a piteous spectacle. Dimples opens her
+mouth till it is almost square, and the most plaintive wail proceeds
+from it for about a minute and a half. Then she stops, looks sadly on
+the world, surprised and hurt at its unkindness to her, and then
+suddenly she discovers something interesting to do; and hastily rubbing
+her knuckles into her eyes to clear them as quickly as maybe of tears,
+she scrambles on to her feet, and forgets her injuries. Once she had
+been very naughty, and had to be smacked. It is never easy to smack
+Dimples, and fortunately she seldom requires it; but hard things have to
+be done, so that morning the fat little hands, to their surprise, knew
+the feel of chastening pats. "She daren't laugh, and she wouldn't cry";
+this description, her Piria Sittie's, is the best I can offer of that
+baby's attitude. The thing could not possibly be a joke, but if meant
+otherwise, it was an indignity far past tears.
+
+Lulla is quite different. She drops on the floor, if admonished, as if
+her limbs had suddenly become paralysed, and takes absolutely no notice
+of the offending disciplinarian. She simply ignores her, and gazes
+mutely beyond her. The offence is not one for explanation, and if
+invited to repent, her aloofness of demeanour is perfectly withering.
+But take her up in your arms, and she buries her curls in your neck, and
+coos her apologies (or is it forgiveness?) in your ear, and loves you
+all the better for the momentary breach.
+
+Our babies are often parables. Lulla stands for the Single Eye. How
+often we have watched her and learned the lesson from her! She sees
+someone to whom she wants to go at what must seem to her an immense
+distance. And the distance is filled with obstacles, some of them quite
+enormous. But Lulla never stops to consider possibilities. Difficulties
+are simply things to be climbed over. She looks at the goal and makes
+straight for it. Her only care is to reach it. Sometimes at afternoon
+tea, when she is sitting on someone's lap, facing an empty,
+uninteresting plate, she sees another plate three chairs distant, and
+upon that plate there is a biscuit or some other sweet attraction. Upon
+such occasions Lulla all but plunges into space between the chairs, in
+her singleness of purpose. Having reached the lap nearest that plate,
+she turns and smiles at her late entertainer just to make sure she is
+not offended. But even if she knew she would be, Lulla would not
+hesitate. Curly head foremost, eyes on the goal: that is Lulla.
+
+We have a custom at Dohnavur which perplexes the sober-minded. We call
+most of our possessions by names other than their own. These names are
+entirely private. We have to keep to this rule of privacy, otherwise we
+get shocks. "O Lord, look upon our beloved Puppy, and make her tooth
+come through; and bless Alice (in Wonderland), whose inside has gone
+wrong," was the petition offered in all seriousness, which finally moved
+us to prudence. We do not feel responsible for these names, for they
+come of themselves, and we see them when they come. That is all we have
+to do with them. Besides the Beetle and the Sea-anemone we have a dear
+Cockatoo, who screws her nose and her whole face up into a delightful
+pucker when she either laughs or cries, and then suddenly unscrews it in
+the middle of either emotion and looks entirely demure. This is the
+little Vimala, who, under God, owes her life to her Piria Sittie's
+splendid nursing. This baby has always got a private little secret of
+joy hidden away somewhere inside. We surprise her sometimes, sitting
+alone on the floor talking to herself about it; and then she tells us
+bits of it--as much as she thinks we can understand. But most of it is
+still hidden away, her own private little secret. And there is an Owlet,
+a Coney, a Froglet, and a Cheshire Cat, a Teddy-bear, a Spider, a
+Ratlet, and a Rosebud. We are aware that this list is rather mixed; but
+to be too critical would end in being nothing, so we are a Menagerie.
+
+The Rosebud is like her name, small and sweet. When she wants to kiss
+her friends, which is whenever she sees them, her mouth is like the pink
+point of a moss-rose bud just coming through the moss. George Macdonald,
+perfect interpreter of babies, must have had our Preethie's double in
+his mind when he wrote:--
+
+          Whence that three-cornered smile of bliss?
+          Three angels gave me at once a kiss.
+          How did you come to us, you dear?
+          God thought of you, and so I am here.
+
+The Owlet is twin to that quaint little bird, so its name flew to her
+and stayed. This babe has round eyes with long curling lashes. When she
+is good, these round eyes beam, and every one forgets that anything so
+fascinating can ever be other than good. When she is naughty the case is
+exactly reversed. This baby's proper name is Lullitha, which means
+Playfulness, and illustrates a side of her character undiscovered by the
+visitor who only sees the Owlet sitting on her perch with serious,
+watchful, unblinking eyes, regarding the intruder. But most babies are
+complex characters, and are not known in an hour.
+
+The Teddy-bear is a fine child with perfect lungs, a benevolent smile,
+and an appetite. Her ruling passion at present is devotion to her food.
+She feels unjustly treated because we do not see our way to feed her
+lavishly at her own five meal-times and also at the meal-times of all
+the other babies in the nursery.
+
+On Sunday morning, when we are in charge, we hear her views upon this
+subject expressed in a manner wholly her own. She has just drained her
+own bottle, and is indignantly explaining that it is not nearly enough,
+when another bottle arrives for another baby, and this is too much for
+Teddy's equanimity. We all know how hard it is to keep up under the
+shock of adversity. Teddy does not attempt to keep up; she invariably
+topples over. But the way she does this is instructive. She sits stiff
+and straight for one brief moment, her milky mouth wide open, her hands
+outstretched in despairing appeal; then she clasps her head with her
+hands in a tragic fashion, absurd in a very fat infant, sways backwards
+and forwards two or three times till the desperate rock ends suddenly,
+as the poor Teddy-bear overbalances and bursts with a mighty burst. But
+the storm is too furious to last, and she soon subsides with a gusty sob
+and a short snort.
+
+Poor little injured Teddy-bear! If it were not for her splendid health
+we might believe her oft-repeated tale of private starvation. "They only
+feed me when you are here to see! Other times they give me nothing at
+all!" She tells us this frequently in her own particular language, but
+the sturdy limbs belie it. This babe in matters of affection and
+mischief is as strenuous and original as she is about the one supreme
+affair pertaining to her elastic receptacle--to quote a Tamil friend's
+polite reference to the cavity within us--and many more edifying scenes
+might have been shown from her eventful life. But undoubtedly the
+predominating note at the present hour is her insatiable hunger, and
+when her name is mentioned in the nursery there is a smile and a new
+tale about her amazing appetite.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+More Animals
+
+
+[Illustration: MORE ANIMALS: DEPRESSED.
+
+Nurses: Karuna to left (the Duckling of "Things as They Are"); and
+Annamai, to right, Lulla's beloved.]
+
+IN full contrast to Teddy-bear is that floppy child, the Coney. In
+Hart's _Animals of the Bible_, there is a picture of this baby, only the
+fore-paws should be raised in piteous appeal to be taken up. The Coney
+is really a pretty child with pathetic eyes and a grateful smile; but
+she was long in learning to walk, and felt aggrieved when we
+remonstrated. Her feet, she considered, were created to be ornamental
+rather than useful, and no amount of coaxing backed up with massage
+could persuade her otherwise. So she was left behind in the march; and
+when her contemporaries departed for the middle-aged babies' nursery,
+she stayed behind with the infants. And the infants had no pity. They
+regarded her as a sort of hassock, large and soft and good to jump on.
+More than once we have come into the nursery and found the big, meek
+child of three kneeling resignedly under a window upon which an
+adventurous eighteen-months wished to climb; and often we have found her
+prostrate and patient under the dancing feet of Dimples.
+
+However, the Coney can walk now. This triumph was effected with the help
+of an Indianised go-cart, which did what all our persuasions had
+entirely failed to do. But the process was not pleasant. The poor Coney
+would stand mournfully holding the handle of her instrument of torture,
+longing with a yearning unspeakable to sit down and give it up for ever.
+Someone would pass, and hope would rise in her heart. She would be
+carried now, carried out of sight of that detested go-cart. But no, the
+callous-hearted only urged her to proceed. She would howl then with a
+howl that told of bitter disappointment. Sometimes she would sit down
+flat and regard the thing with a blighting glance, the hatred of a
+gentle nature roused to unwonted vehemence. Always her wails accompanied
+the rumbling of its wheels.
+
+"The Conies are but a feeble folk, yet they make their houses in the
+rocks." One day in deep depression of spirits the Coney arrived at the
+kindergarten. She sat down before the threshold, which is three inches
+high, and climbed carefully over it. She found herself in a new world,
+where babies were doing wonderful things and enjoying all they did. The
+Coney decided to join a class, and was offered beads to thread. Life
+with beautiful beads to thread became worth living, and it may be in the
+course of time that the tortoise will overtake the hare. In any case we
+find much cheer in the conclusion of the verse, for if our Coney builds
+in the Rock her being rather feeble will not matter very much.
+
+Those who possess that friend of our youth, _Alice_, as illustrated by
+Sir John Tenniel, may find the photograph twice reproduced of our fat
+Cheshire Cat. This baby is remarkable for two things: she smiles and she
+vanishes. The time to see the vanishing conducted with more celerity
+than Alice ever saw it, is when the babies' warning call is sounded
+across the verandah and a visitor appears in the too near horizon. This
+baby then vanishes round the nearest corner. There is nothing left of
+her, not even a smile. In fact, the chief contrast between her and the
+cat among the foliage is that with our Cat the smile goes first.
+
+Sunday morning, to return to the beginning, is full of possible
+misadventure. Sometimes the babies seem to agree among themselves that
+it would be well to be good. Then their admiring Sittie and Ammal have
+nothing to do but enjoy them. But sometimes it is otherwise. First one
+baby pulls her sister's hair, and the other retaliates, till the two get
+entangled in each other's curls. Piria Sittie flies to the rescue,
+disentangles the combatants and persuades them to make friends.
+Meanwhile three restless spirits in bodies to match have crept out
+through the open door (it is too hot if we shut the doors), and we find
+them comfortably ensconced in forbidden places. The Beetle is a quiet
+child. She retires to a corner and looks devout. Presently a sound as of
+scraping draws our attention to her. "Beetle! Open your mouth!" Beetle
+opens her mouth. It is packed with whitewash off the wall. Then a scared
+cry rings through the nursery, and all the babies, imagining awful
+things imminent, tumble one on top of the other in a wild rush into
+refuge. It is only a large grasshopper which has startled the Cheshire
+Cat, whose great eyes are always on the look-out for possible causes of
+panic. The grasshopper is banished to the garden and the Cheshire Cat
+smiles all over her face. Peace restored, Dimples and the Owlet remember
+a dead lizard they found in a corner of the verandah, and set off to
+recover it. These two walk exactly like mechanical toys; and as they
+strut along hand in hand, or one after the other, they look like
+something wound up and going, in a Christmas shop window. Presently they
+return with the lizard. Its tail is loose, and they sit down to pull it
+off. This is not a nice game, and something else is suggested. Dimple's
+mouth grows suddenly square; she wants that lizard's tail.
+
+Then a dear little child called Muff (because she ought to be called
+Huff if the name had not been already appropriated), who has been
+solemnly munching a watch, decides it is time to demand more individual
+attention. She objects to the presence of another baby on her Sittie's
+lap. Why should two babies share one lap? The thing is self-evidently
+wrong. One lap, one baby, should be the rule in all properly conducted
+nurseries. Muff broods over this in silence, then slides off the crowded
+lap and sits down disconsolate, alone. Tears come, big sad tears, as
+Muff meditates; and it takes time to explain matters and comfort,
+without giving in to the one-lap-one-baby theory.
+
+[Illustration: TUBBING.]
+
+We have several helpful babies. Dimples has been discovered paying
+required attentions to things smaller than herself; and the Wax Doll
+pats the Rosebud if she thinks it will reassure her, when (as rarely
+happens) that pet of the family is left stranded on a mat. But Puck is
+the most inventive. It was one happy Sunday morning that we came upon
+her feeding the Ratlet on her own account. The Ratlet was making
+ungrateful remarks; and we hurried across to her and saw that Puck,
+under the impression doubtless that any hole would do, was pouring the
+milk in a steady stream down the poor infant's nose. Puck smiled up
+peacefully. She was sure we would be pleased with her. But the Ratlet
+continued eloquent for very many minutes.
+
+Sometimes (but this is an old story now) our difficulties were increased
+by the Spider's habit of whimpering, which had a depressing effect upon
+the family. This poor baby was a weak little bag of bones when first she
+came to us. The bag was made of shrivelled skin of a dusty brown colour.
+Her hair was the colour of her skin, and hung about her head like
+tattered shreds of a spider's web. She sat in a bunch and never smiled.
+Something about her suggested a spider. Her Tamil name is Chrysanthemum,
+which by the change of one letter becomes Spider. So we called her
+Spider.
+
+At first we were not anxious about her; for such little children pick
+up quickly if they are healthy to begin with, as we believed she was.
+But she did not respond to the good food and care, and only grew thinner
+and more miserable as the weeks passed, till she looked like the first
+picture in a series of advertisements of some marvellous patent food,
+and we wondered if she would ever grow like the fat and flourishing last
+baby of the series. For two months this state of things continued; she
+grew more wizened every day; and the uncanny spider-limbs and attitude
+gave her the air of not being a human baby at all, but a terrible little
+specimen which ought not to be on view but should be hidden safely away
+in some private medical place--on a shelf in a bottle of spirits of
+wine.
+
+We are asked sometimes if such tiny things can suffer other than
+physically. We have reason to think they can. As all else failed, we
+took a little girl from school for whom the Spider had an affection, and
+let her love her all day long; and almost at once there was a change in
+the sad little face of the Spider. She had been cared for by an old
+grandfather after her mother's death, and it seemed as if she had
+fretted for him and needed someone all to herself to make up for what
+she was missing.
+
+This little girl, the Cod-fish by name, was devoted to the Spider. She
+nestled her and played with her--or attempted to, I should say, for at
+first the Spider almost resented any attempts to play. "She doesn't know
+how to smile!" said the Cod-fish disconsolately after a week's petting
+and loving had resulted only in fewer whimpers, but not as yet in
+smiles. A few days later she came to us, and announced with much
+emotion: "She has smiled three times!" Next day the record rose to
+seven; after that we left off counting.
+
+The Spider is fat and bonnie now. Her skin is a clear and creamy brown,
+and her hair has lost its dustiness; but she still likes to sit crumpled
+up, and a small alcove in the kitchen is her favourite haven when tired
+of the world. Seen unexpectedly in there, bunched in a tight knot, her
+dark, keen little eyes peering out of the light-coloured little face,
+she still suggests a spider. But it is a cheerful Spider, which makes
+all the difference.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+The Parrot House
+
+
+[Illustration: RED LAKE AND HILL.
+
+As seen (without the water) from the Taraha Nursery.]
+
+THE time to see the Taraha nursery at its best is between late evening
+and early morning, and again about noon. It is perfectly peaceful then.
+Thirty mats are spread upon the floor. Thirty babies are strewn upon the
+mats. All the thirty are asleep. A sleeping baby is good. Thirty babies
+all good at once is something we cannot promise at any other hour.
+
+Shading your lantern, and walking carefully so as not to tread on more
+scattered limbs than may be, you wander round the nursery and meditate
+upon the beautiful ways of childhood. There is something so touching in
+sleeping innocence, and you are touched. Here two chubby babies are
+lying locked in each other's arms. You have to look twice before you see
+which limbs belong to which. There another is hugging a doll minus its
+head. Next to her a baby sleeps pillowed on another, and the other does
+not mind. In the middle of the floor, far from her mat, a sturdy
+three-year-old sprawls content. You pick her up gently and lay her on
+her mat. With an expression of determined resolution the baby rolls off
+again; and if you attempt another remove, an ominous pucker of the
+forehead warns you to desist. You wonder if the babies are quite as
+good as they seem. One of the dear, fat, devoted little pair you
+noticed at first, stirs, disentangles herself from her neighbour, and
+gives her a slight kick. There is a smothered, sleepy howl, and the kick
+is returned. "Water!" wails the first fat baby. "Water!" wails the
+second. You get water, give it, pat both fat babies till they go to
+sleep, and then cautiously retire. It would be a pity if all the babies
+were to waken thirsty and kick each other. At the door you turn and look
+back. Graceful babies, clumsy babies, babies who lie extended like young
+pokers, babies curled like kittens. All sorts of babies, good, bad, and
+middling, but all blessedly asleep.
+
+              Sleep, baby, sleep!
+              Thy father guards his sheep,
+          Thy mother shakes the dreamland-tree
+          Down fall the little dreams for thee,
+              Sleep, baby, sleep!
+
+              Sleep, baby, sleep!
+              Our Saviour loves His sheep.
+          He is the Lamb of God on high,
+          Who for our sakes came down to die.
+              Sleep, baby, sleep!
+
+The pretty German lullaby rises unbidden, and is pushed away by the
+quick, sad thoughts that will not listen to it. For under all the
+laughter and nursery frolic and happiness, we cannot but remember why
+these little ones are here. Round about the compound in a great triangle
+there are three Temple towers. They are out of sight though near us, but
+we cannot forget they are there. They stand for that which deprives
+these children of their birthright. Oh for the day when those Temple
+towers will fall and the reign of righteousness begin! There was a time
+when it seemed impossible to desire that the fire should be allowed to
+touch the stately and beautiful things of the world. Now there is
+something that satisfies as nothing else could in the vision of that
+purifying fire; and the promise that stands out like a light in the
+darkness is that which tells that the Son of Man shall send forth His
+angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom, all things that
+offend.
+
+In the tiny babies' nursery many a crooning Indian lullaby is sung
+to the babies in their swinging white cradles; but in the Taraha
+nursery we sing sweet old hymns, in Tamil and English, and then all
+sensible people are supposed to go to sleep. But one evening after
+the singing, two little tots settled down for a talk. Said one lying
+comfortably on her back with her two hands clasped behind her head:
+"Who takes care of us at night when we all go to sleep?" Said the
+other in a mixture of Tamil and English: "Jesus-tender-Shepherd takes
+care of us--Jesus-loves-me-this-I-know." The first baby rolled over upon
+her small sister with a crow of derision. "It is not! It is Accal! I
+woke one night and saw her!" The other baby insisted she was making a
+mistake. "Accal sleeps, all people sleep; they lie down like us and go
+to sleep. Only Jesus stays awake, and never, never goes to sleep."
+"Never, never?" questioned the first, and was quiet for a minute
+considering the matter; then with a sceptical little laugh, "Did you
+ever wake up and see Him?"
+
+If the babies were always in a state of calm repose, the Taraha's pet
+name, Parrot-house, would be inappropriate: but for nearly ten hours of
+the day they are awake and talkative. Talk, however, is a mild word by
+which to describe their powers of conversation. Sometimes we wonder if
+they never tire of chattering, and then we remember they have only
+lately learned to talk. They have not had time to tire.
+
+[Illustration: CHILDREN WADING]
+
+Once we listened, hoping that the trailing clouds of glory so recently
+departed had left some trace of illumination in this their first
+expression in earth's language of their feelings and emotions. But we
+found them very mundane. Most of the conversation concerned their
+"saman," a comprehensive Indian word used by people with limited
+vocabularies to express all manner of things to play with. Their "saman"
+was various. Dolls, of course, and the remnants of dolls; tins and the
+lids thereof; bits of everything which could break; corks, stones,
+seeds, half cocoa-nut shells; rags of many ages and colours; scraped
+down morsels of brick; withered flowers and leaves; sticks of all sorts
+and sizes; English Christmas cards, sometimes with much domestic
+information on the back; unauthorised sundries from the
+kindergarten--delivered up with a smile intended to assure you that they
+were only being kept for Sittie; and puchies. Puchies are insects. We
+have one baby who collects puchies. "Look!" she said, one morning before
+prayers, "Deah little five puchies!" and she opened her hand and five
+red and black beetles crawled slowly out, to the delight of the devout,
+who scrambled up from their orderly rows with shrieks of appreciation.
+
+But if the babies' conversation was unenlightening, their chosen
+avocations are not uninteresting. They are always busy about something,
+and, from their point of view, something important. There are, of
+course, some among the thirty who are unimaginative and unenterprising.
+These sit in the sand and play. Others have more to do. Life to them is
+full of the unknown. The unknown is full of possibilities. The great
+thing is to experiment. Nothing is too insignificant to explore, and all
+five senses are useful to the thoroughly competent baby.
+
+They knew, of course, all the flowers, and the discovery of anything
+fresh was always followed by a scene which suggested a colony of
+small and active ants hauling some large object to their nest; for the
+nearest grown-up person was invariably hailed, and pulled, and pushed,
+and hurried along till the "new flower" was reached. Then, if the object
+was incautious enough to stoop down to examine it, the ants, ant-wise,
+would envelope it, climbing, swarming all over it, till there was
+nothing to be seen but ants.
+
+[Illustration: CHILDREN WADING.]
+
+They knew the habits of caterpillars, and especially they had knowledge
+about the wonderful silver chrysalis which pins itself to the pointed
+leaves of the oleander. They knew what was packed up inside, and some
+with wide-open eyes had watched the miracle slowly evolving as the
+butterfly unpacked itself, and sunned its crumpled velvet wings, till
+the crumples smoothed, and the wings dried, and the butterfly fluttered
+away. They knew, too, the less approachable ways of the wild bees, and
+where they hive, and what happens if they are disturbed; and they knew
+the private feelings of calves, and which likes to be treated as a
+brother and which resents such liberties. Crows they knew intimately,
+and squirrels a little; for infants fallen from their nests have often
+been taken care of, much against their foolish wills, until old enough
+to look after themselves. Their namesakes, the parrots, they knew very
+well; and the dainty little sunbirds that flash from flower to flower
+like little living jewels in the sunlight; and the clever tailor-bird,
+which sews its own nest, knotting its thread like a grown-up human
+being; and the wise leaf-insect that can hardly be found till it moves;
+and the great, green, frisky grasshopper that seems to invite a chase.
+
+We found they knew, alas, too much about the misuse of everything
+growing in the field! The tamarind fruit makes condiment, but eaten raw
+it gives fever; and the babies think we are wrong here, and they are
+fond of forgetting our rules. Many kinds of grasses are very good to
+eat; and here again we are mistaken, for we know not the flavour of
+grasses. Seeds may be useful to plant; but those who think their use
+ends there, are short-sighted and ignorant people. Upon these and other
+matters the babies feel we have much to learn.
+
+[Illustration: ESLI AND LITTLE KOHILA.
+
+Taken a year earlier.]
+
+One weird joy has been theirs, and they never will forget it. For one
+whole blissful afternoon they followed the snake-charmer about at a
+respectful distance; and they cannot understand why we are not anxious
+they should dance as he danced, and pipe as he piped, round the hopeful
+holes they discover in the red mud walls.
+
+Other things they had learned to do, not wholly innocent. They must have
+made friends with the masons who built their new nursery, and persuaded
+them to do their work in a sympathetic spirit; for they knew the weak
+points hidden from our eyes, and how pleasant it is to scoop mortar out
+of cracks between the bricks of the floor. They had learned how most of
+their toys were made, and how a doll could be most easily dissected, and
+the particular taste of its inside. They knew, too, the lusciousness of
+divers sorts of sand--this last, however, being a mixture of crime and
+disease, and treated as such, is not a popular sin. Finally, to our
+lasting disgrace, they had learned, after a series of thoughtful
+experiments, how best to obey a command and yet elude its intention;
+thus on a wet day, when they were commanded not to go out, their Sittie
+found them lying full length in a long row on the edge of the verandah,
+their heads protruding so as to catch the lovely drip from the roof. And
+all these things they had carefully learned in spite of a certain amount
+of supervision; and, being entirely unsuspicious, they will take you
+into their confidence and let you share the forbidden fruit, if you are
+so inclined.
+
+But, after all, perfection of goodness would make us more anxious than
+even these enormities; we should fear our babies were growing too
+good--a fear not pressing at present. The Parrot-house only overwhelms
+when the birds begin to sing. Then indeed all who can, flee far away,
+for the babies once started are difficult to stop. They are sure you
+like it as much as they do, and are anxious to oblige you when you visit
+their world. So they sing with the greatest earnestness, and as they
+invariably hang on to every available part of you, and punctuate their
+melodies with kisses and embraces, escape is not always practicable.
+
+The Taraha nursery was our first substantial building. It is built upon
+foundations raised well off the ground, and has a wide verandah. When
+first it was opened and the children were invited to take possession,
+they did so most completely. One quaint little person of barely three,
+called Kohila, whose small, repressed face in the photograph gives no
+hint of character, used to stalk up and down the verandah with an air of
+proprietorship which left no doubt in any mind as to her opinion on the
+subject. Another (sharing the swinging cot with Kohila in the photo) sat
+on the top step and smiled encouragingly to visitors. It was nice to be
+smiled at, but there was something very condescending in the smile.
+Another stood guard over the plants, which grew in pots much bigger than
+herself all the way down the verandah. If any presumed to touch them,
+she would dart out upon them with an indignant chirrup. For days after
+the great event--the opening of the Taraha--small parties waited on
+visitors, formed in procession before and behind, and escorted them
+round, explaining all mysteries, and insisting upon due admiration.
+Everything had to be interviewed, from teaspoons to pots of fern. This
+concluded, the guests were politely dismissed, and departed, let us
+hope, properly penetrated with a sense of the kindness of the babies.
+
+There have always been some who object to visitors. One of these showed
+her objection, not by crying and running away, as undignified babies do,
+but by sitting exactly where she was when she first caught sight of the
+intruder, and staring straight into space with a very stony stare. A
+sensitive visitor could hardly have had the temerity to pass her, but
+normal visitors are not sensitive. Sometimes they attempted to make
+friends. This was too much. One fat arm would be slowly raised till it
+covered the baby's eyes, and in this position she would sit like a small
+petrifaction, till the horror had withdrawn.
+
+[Illustration: PREETHA AWARE OF A FOE.
+
+Tara on the left: the Coney on the right.]
+
+This baby, Preetha by name, has in most matters a way of her own. One of
+her little peculiarities is a strong preference for solo music as
+compared with concert. She listens attentively to others' performances,
+then disappears. If followed, she will be found alone in a corner, with
+her face to the wall and her back to the world; and if she thinks
+herself unobserved, you will be regaled with a solo. This experience is
+interesting to the musical. It is never twice alike. Sometimes it is a
+succession of sounds, like a tune that has lost its way; sometimes, a
+recognisable version of the chorus lately learned. At other times she
+delivers her soul in a series of short groans and grunts, beating time
+with her podgy hands. If she perceives through the back of her head that
+someone is looking or listening, she stops at once; and no persuasions
+can ever produce that special rehearsal again. Of late this baby, being
+now nearly three, has awakened to a sense of life's responsibilities,
+and she evidently wishes to prepare to meet them suitably. Yesterday
+evening she came to me with an exceedingly serious face, pointed in the
+direction of the kindergarten room, and then tapping herself, remarked:
+"Amma! I kindergarten." No more was said; but we know we shall soon see
+her solemnly waddling into the schoolroom, and we wonder what will
+happen. Will she continue to insist upon a corner to herself?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+The Bear Garden
+
+
+[Illustration: JULLANIE AMONG THE GRASSES.]
+
+"THE fruit of the lotus--a capsule--ripens below the surface of the
+water. When the seeds are ripe and leave the berry, a small bubble of
+air attached to them brings them to the surface, and the seeds are
+carried wherever the wind and waves take them until the bubble bursts;
+when the seed, being heavier than water, sinks to the bottom, and then
+begins to grow to form a new plant, which may be at some distance from
+the parent one. In this simple way the lotus plant is enabled to
+spread." So says our botany book; and the thought of the lotus seed in
+its little air-boat floating away over the water to be sown, perhaps,
+far from the parent plant, is full of suggestion, and leads us straight
+to the Bear-garden.
+
+A lotus-pool, a bear-garden--the connection is not obvious. _Alice_ in
+her wanderings never wandered into bewilderment more profound than such
+a mixture of ideas. But this is the way we get to it: We have called
+these little children Lotus-buds--for such they are in their youngness
+and innocence; and the underlying thought runs deeper, as those who have
+read the first chapter know--but the Lotus-buds must grow into flowers
+and must be sown as living seeds, perhaps far away from the happy place
+they knew when they were buds. The little air-boat will come for them.
+The breath of the Spirit that bloweth where it listeth will carry them
+where it will, and we want them to be ready to be sown wherever the
+pools of the world are barren of lotus flowers. And this brings us
+straight to the newest of our beginnings in Dohnavur--the Kindergarten.
+
+An ideal kindergarten is a place where the teachers train the scholars,
+and we hope to have that in time; at present the case is opposite, and
+that is why it has its name, the name that conflicts with the
+lotus-pool--the Bear-garden.
+
+In this peaceful room Classes B, C, and D have taken their young
+teachers in hand--Rukma, Preena, and Sanda. Of these Rukma (Radiance)
+has the clearest ideas about discipline; Preena (the Elf) knows best how
+to coax; and Sanda, excellent Mouse that she is, has the gift of
+patience. These three (who after all are only school-girls, continuing
+their own education with their Prema Sittie) are attempting to instruct
+the babies on the lines of organised play; but the babies feel they have
+much to teach their teachers, and this is how they do it:--
+
+Prema Sittie goes into the room when the kindergarten is in progress,
+and from three classes at once babies come springing towards her with
+squeals of joy, and they clasp her knees and look up with eyes full of
+affection and confidence in their welcome. "Go back to your place!" she
+says, and tries to look severe; with a chuckle the children obey, and
+she looks round and takes notes.
+
+Chellalu is lying full-length on the bench, with a look of supreme
+content on her face, and her two feet against the wall. Pyarie has
+turned her back to the picture that is being shown, and is tying a
+handkerchief round her head. Ruhinie, an India-rubber-ball sort of baby,
+has suddenly bounced up from her seat, and is starting a chorus, of
+which she is fond, at the top of her not very gentle voice; and Komala,
+a perfect sprite, is tickling the child who sits next to her. "Sittie!"
+exclaims the distracted teacher, "they won't learn anything!" Or if she
+happens to be the Mouse, she is calmly engaged with the one good child
+in her class.
+
+The next group is stringing beads on pieces of wire. "Look, look!" and
+an eager babe holds out her wire for admiration, and probably spills her
+beads in her effort to secure attention. If she does, there is a general
+scramble, beads rolling loose on the floor being quite irresistible. One
+wicked baby sits by herself and strings her beads on her curls.
+
+A few minutes later it is mat-plaiting; and the agile little fingers are
+diligently weaving pieces of blue and yellow material, bits over from
+their elder sisters' garments, beautifully unconscious that they are
+supposed to be working the colours alternately. Sometimes in the gayest
+way they exclaim: "Sittie! It's wrong! it's wrong!" Occasionally there
+is a howl from a child who has been pinched by another, or whose
+neighbour has helped herself to her beads. Sittie crosses the room
+hurriedly. "What's the matter?" With tears rolling down her cheeks the
+victim points to her oppressor. "May you do that?" is the invariable
+English question. It is answered by a shake of the head, the tiniest
+baby understanding that particular remark. The injured baby smiles. A
+reproof, or at worst a pat on the fat arm next to hers, satisfies her
+sense of justice, and she is content.
+
+When an English lesson begins, those afflicted with delicate nerves are
+happier elsewhere. One class has a toy farmyard, another a set of
+tea-things, the third a doll which every member of the class is aching
+to embrace. The teachers and children alike are inclined to talk with
+emphasis; and if you stand between the three classes you hear queer
+answers to queerer questions, and wonder if the babies at Babel were
+anything like so bewildering.
+
+But this vision of the kindergarten is hardly a fortnight old; for
+Classes B, C, and D are of recent development, and are made up of some
+heedless characters, as Chellalu and Pyarie, who could not keep up with
+class A, and a few more young things from the nursery who were wilder
+than wild rabbits from the wood when we began. Also it should be stated
+that from the babies' point of view white people are only playthings.
+"They were very good before you came!" is the unflattering remark
+frequently addressed to us; and as we discreetly retire, the babies do
+seem to become suddenly beautifully docile. But even so they might be
+better, as an unconscious comedy over-seen this morning proves. I was in
+the porch outside the door, when Rukma, pointing to a blackboard on
+which were written sundry words, told Chellalu to show her "cat," and I
+looked in interested to know if Chellalu really knew anything of
+reading. Chellalu brandished the pointer, then turned to Rukma with a
+confidential smile, "Cat? Where is it, Accal? Is it at the top or at the
+bottom?" Rukma, who has a keen sense of the comic, seemed to find it
+difficult to look as she felt she ought. Chellalu caught the twinkle in
+her eye, and throwing herself heartily into the spirit of the game,
+which was evidently intended to be a kindergarten version of Hunt the
+Mouse through the Wood, she searched the blackboard for cat. Then to
+Rukma: "Accal! dear Accal! Tell _me_, and I'll tell _you_!"
+
+There is nothing that helps us so much to be good as to be believed in
+and thought better than we are; and the converse is true, so we do not
+want to be always suspecting Chellalu of sin; but this last was entirely
+too artless, and this was apparently Rukma's view, for she sent Chellalu
+back to her seat and called up another baby, who, fairly radiating
+virtue, immediately found the cat.
+
+The next room--which Class A (the first to be formed) has to itself--is
+a haven of peace after the Bear-garden. It is a pleasant room like the
+other, pretty with pictures and with flowers. And the little bright
+faces make it a happy place, for this class, though serious-minded, is
+exceedingly cheerful. There is the demure little Tingalu, the good child
+of the kindergarten, its hope and stay in troublous hours, and the
+quaint little trio, Jeya, Jullanie, and Sella--this last is called
+Cock-robin by the family, for she has eyes and manners which remind us
+of the bird, and she hardly ever walks, she hops. Mala and Bala are in
+the class, and a lively scamp called Puvai.
+
+The kindergarten is worked in English, helped out with Tamil when
+occasion requires. This plan, adopted for reasons pertaining to the
+future of the children, is resulting in something so comical that we
+shall be sorry when the first six months are over and the babies grow
+correct. At present they talk with delightful abandon impossible to
+reproduce, but very entertaining to those who know both languages. They
+tack Tamil terminations to English verbs, and English nouns make
+subjects for Tamil predicates. They turn their sentences upside down and
+inside out, and any way in fact which occurs to them at the moment, only
+insisting upon one thing: you must be made to understand. They apply
+everything they learn as immediately as possible, and woe to the unwary
+flounderer in the realm of natural science who offers an explanation of
+any phenomena of nature other than that taught in the kindergarten. The
+learned baby regards you with a tender sort of pity. Poor thing, you are
+very ignorant; but you will know better in time--if only you will come
+to the kindergarten, the source of the fountain of knowledge.
+
+The ease and the quickness with which a new word is appropriated
+constantly surprises us. As for example: one morning two babies wandered
+round the Prayer-room, and, discovering passion-flowers within reach,
+eagerly begged for them in Tamil. One of the two pushed the other aside
+and wanted all the flowers. "Greedy! greedy!" I said reprovingly, in
+English. "Greedy _mine_!" was the immediate rejoinder, and the little
+hand was held out with more certainty than ever now that the name of the
+flower was known. "Greedy _my_ flower! _Mine!_"
+
+But some of the quaintest experiences are when the eloquent baby,
+determined to express herself in English, falls back upon scraps of
+kindergarten rhyme and delivers it in all seriousness. On the evening
+before my birthday I was banished from my room, and the children
+decorated it exactly as they pleased. When I returned I was implored not
+to look at anything, as it was not intended to be seen till next
+morning. Next morning the babies came in procession with their elders,
+and while I was occupied with them out on the verandah, Chellalu and her
+friend Naveena, discovering something unusual in my room, escaped from
+the ranks and went off to examine the mystery. I found them a moment
+later gazing in astonished joy at the glories there revealed. "Who did
+it all?" gasped Chellalu, whose intention, let us hope, was perfectly
+reverent. "God did it all!"
+
+The one kindergarten class taught entirely in Tamil is the Scripture
+lesson, illustrated whenever possible by pictures; and being always
+taught about sacred things in Tamil, the babies have no doubt about the
+language in use in Bible days. But sometimes a little mind is puzzled,
+as an instructive aside revealed a day or two ago. For their teacher had
+told them in English, not as a Scripture lesson, but just as a story,
+about Peter and John and the lame man. The picture was before them, and
+they understood and followed keenly; but one little girl whispered to
+another, who happened to be the well-informed Cock-robin: "Did Peter and
+John talk English or Tamil?" "Tamil, of course!" returned Cock-robin,
+without a moment's hesitation.
+
+The Scripture lessons are usually given by Arulai, whose delight is
+Bible teaching. "So that as much as lieth in you you will apply yourself
+wholly to this one thing, and draw all your cares and studies this way,"
+is a word that always comes to mind when one thinks of Arulai and her
+Bible. She much enjoys taking the babies, believing that the impressions
+created upon the mind of a little child are practically indelible.
+
+Sometimes these impressions are expressed in vigorous fashion. Once the
+subject of the class was the Good Samaritan. The babies were greatly
+exercised over the scandalous behaviour of the priest and the Levite.
+"Punish them! Let them have whippings!" they demanded. Arulai explained
+further. But one baby got up from her seat and walked solemnly to the
+picture. "Take care what you are doing!" she remarked impressively in
+Tamil, shaking her finger at the two retreating backs. "Naughty!
+naughty!"--this was in English--"take care!"
+
+One of the favourite pictures shows Abraham and Isaac on the way to the
+mount of sacrifice. This story was told one morning with much reverence
+and feeling, and the babies were impressed. There were tears in Bala's
+eyes as she gazed at the picture, but she brushed them away hurriedly
+and hoped no one had noticed. Only Chellalu appeared perfectly
+unconcerned. She had business of her own on hand, and the story, it
+seemed, had not touched her. The babies are searched before they come to
+school, and all toys, bits of string, old tins, and sundries are removed
+from their persons. But there are ways of evading inquisitors. Chellalu
+knows these ways. She now produced a long wisp of red tape from
+somewhere--she did not tell us where--and proceeded to tie her feet
+together. This accomplished, she curled herself up on the bench like a
+caterpillar on a leaf, and to all appearances went to sleep. Why was she
+not awakened and compelled to behave properly? asks the reader, duly
+shocked. Perhaps because on that rather special morning the teacher
+preferred her asleep.
+
+[Illustration: ARULAI AND RUKMA, WITH NAVEENA.]
+
+The story finished, the children were questioned, and they answered with
+unwonted gravity. "What did Isaac say to his father as they walked alone
+together?" An awed little voice had begun the required answer, when
+Chellalu suddenly uncurled, sat up, and said in clear, decided Tamil:
+"He said, 'Father! do not kill me!' _Yesh!_ that was what he said."
+
+When first the babies heard about Heaven, they all wanted to go at once,
+and with difficulty were restrained from praying to be taken there
+immediately. There was one naughty child who, when she was given
+medicine, invariably announced, "I will not stay in this village: I am
+going to Heaven! I am going now!" But they soon grew wiser. It was our
+excitable, merry little Jullanie who summed up all desires with most
+simplicity: "Lord Jesus, please take me there or anywhere anytime; only
+wherever I am, please stay there too!" Some of the babies are carnal:
+"When I go to that village (Heaven), I shall go for a ride on the
+cherubim's wings. I will make them take me to all sorts of places, just
+wherever I want to go."
+
+The latest pronouncement, however, was for the moment the most
+perplexing. "Come-anda-look-ata-well!" said Chellalu yesterday evening,
+the sentence in a single long word. The well is being dug in the
+Menagerie garden and is surrounded by a trellis, beyond which the babies
+may not pass, unless taken by one of ourselves. As we drew near to the
+well, Chellalu pointed to it and said: "Amma! That is the way to
+Heaven!" This speech, which was in Tamil, considerably surprised me, as
+naturally we think of Heaven above the bright blue sky. The yawning gulf
+of the unfinished well suggested something different.
+
+But Chellalu was positive. "It is the way to Heaven. _I_ may not go
+there, but _you_ may! Yesh! _you_ may go to Heaven, Amma, but _I_ may
+not!" She had nothing more to say; and we wondered how she could
+possibly have arrived at so extraordinary a conclusion, till we
+remembered that it had been explained to the babies that any baby
+falling in would probably be drowned and die, and so until it was
+finished and made safe no baby must go near it. Chellalu had evidently
+argued that as to die meant going to Heaven, the well must be the way to
+Heaven; and as only grown-up people might go near it, they, and they
+alone apparently, were allowed to go to Heaven.
+
+These babies are nothing if not practical. Arulai had been teaching the
+story of the Unmerciful Servant; and to bring it down to nursery life,
+supposed the case of a baby who snatched at other babies' toys, and was
+unfair and selfish. Such a baby, if not reformed, would grow up and be
+like the Unmerciful Servant. The babies looked upon the back of the
+offender as shown in the picture. "Bad man! Nasty man!" they said to
+each other, pointing to him with aversion. And Arulai closed the class
+with a short prayer that none of the babies might ever be like the
+Unmerciful Servant.
+
+The prayer over, the babies rushed to the table where their toys were
+put during the Scripture lesson. Pyarie got there first, and, gathering
+all she could reach, she swept them into her lap and was darting off
+with them, when a word from Arulai recalled her. For a moment there was
+a struggle. Then she ran up to Tingalu, the child she had chiefly
+defrauded, poured all her treasures into her lap, and then sprang into
+Arulai's arms with the eager question: "Acca! Acca! Am I not a
+_Merciful_ Servant?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+The Accals
+
+          "This sacred work demands not lukewarm, selfish,
+          slack souls, but hearts more finely tempered than
+          steel, wills purer and harder than the
+          diamond."--PERE DIDON.
+
+
+[Illustration: PONNAMAL, WITH PREETHA ON HER KNEE, AND TARA BESIDE HER.]
+
+THE Accals, without whom this work in all its various branches could not
+be undertaken, are a band of Indian sisters (the word Accal means older
+sister) who live for the service of the children. First among the Accals
+is Ponnamal (Golden). With the quick affection of the East the children
+find another word for Gold and call her doubly Golden Sister.
+
+Sometimes we are asked if we ever find an Indian fellow-worker whom we
+can thoroughly trust. The ungenerous question would make us as indignant
+as it would if it were asked about our own relations, were it not that
+we know it is asked in ignorance by those who have never had the
+opportunity of experiencing, or have missed the happiness of enjoying,
+true friendship with the people of this land. Those who have known that
+happiness, know the limitless loyalty and the tender, wonderful love
+that is lavished on the one who feels so unworthy of it all. If there is
+distance and want of sympathy between those who are called to be workers
+together with the great Master, is not something wrong? Simple,
+effortless intimacy, that closeness of touch which is friendship indeed,
+is surely possible. But rather we would put it otherwise, and say that
+without it service together, of the only sort we would care to know, is
+perfectly impossible.
+
+[Illustration: SELLAMUTTU AND SUSEELA.]
+
+In our work all along we have had this joy to the full. God in His
+goodness gave us from the first those who responded at once to the
+confidence we offered them. In India the ideal of a consecrated life is
+a life with no reserves--which seeks for nothing, understands nothing,
+cares for nothing but to be poured forth upon the sacrifice and service.
+Pierce through the various incrustations which have over-laid this pure
+ideal, give no heed to the effect of Western influence and example, and
+you come upon this feeling, however expressed or unexpressed, at the
+very back of all--the instinct that recognises and responds to the call
+to sacrifice, and does not understand its absence in the lives of those
+who profess to follow the Crucified. Who, to whom this ideal is indeed
+"The Gleam," that draws and ever draws the soul to passionate
+allegiance, can fail to find in the Indian nature at its truest and
+finest that kinship of spirit which knits hearts together? "And it came
+to pass when he had made an end of speaking, that the soul of Jonathan
+was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own
+soul": this tells it all. The spring of heart to heart that we call
+affinity, the knitting no hand can ever afterward unravel--these
+experiences have been granted to us all through our work together, and
+we thank God for it.
+
+Ponnamal's work lies chiefly among the convert-nurses and the babies.
+She has charge of the nurseries and of the food arrangements, so
+intricate and difficult to the mere lay mind; she trains her workers to
+thoroughness and earnestness, and by force of example seems to create an
+atmosphere of cheerful unselfishness that is very inspiring. How often
+we have sent a young convert, tempted to self-centredness and
+depression, to Ponnamal, and seen her return to her ordinary work braced
+and bright and sensible. We are all faulty and weak at times, and
+every nursery, like every life, has its occasional lapses; but on the
+whole it is not too much to say that the nurseries are happy places, and
+Ponnamal's influence goes through them all like a fresh wind. And this
+in spite of very poor health. For Ponnamal, who was the leader of our
+itinerating band, broke down hopelessly, and thought her use in life had
+passed--till the babies came and brought her back to activity again. And
+the joy of the Lord, we have often proved, is strength for body as well
+as soul.
+
+Sellamuttu, who comes next to Ponnamal, is the "Pearl" of previous
+records, and she has been a pearl to us through all our years together.
+She is special Accal to the household of children above the baby-age--a
+healthy, high-spirited crow of most diverse dispositions; and she is
+loved by one and all with a love which is tempered with great respect,
+for she is "all pure justice," as a little girl remarked feelingly not
+long ago, after being rather sharply reproved for exceeding naughtiness:
+"within my heart wrath burned like a fire; but my mouth could not open
+to reply, for inside me a voice said, 'It is true, entirely true; Accal
+is perfectly just.'"
+
+This Accal, however, is most tender in her affections, and among the
+babies she has some particular specials. One of these is the
+solemn-faced morsel of the photograph, to save whom she travelled,
+counting by time, as far as from London to Moscow and back; and the baby
+arrived as happy and well as when the friends at "Moscow" sent her off
+with prayers and blessings and kindness. But the photograph was a shock.
+"Aiyo!" she said, quite upset to see her delight so misrepresented,
+"that is not Suseela! There is no smile, no pleasure in her face!" We
+comforted her by the assurance that any one who understood babies and
+their ways would consider the camera responsible for the expression.
+And at least the baby was obedient. Had she not told her to make a
+salaam, and had not the little hand gone up in serious salute? A
+perfectly obedient baby is Sellamuttu's ideal, and she was satisfied.
+
+[Illustration: TO THE RIGHT, SUHINIE, AND HER BABY SUNUNDA]
+
+Both these sisters came to us at some loss to themselves, for both could
+have lived at home at ease if they had been so inclined. Ponnamal lost
+all her little fortune by joining us. She could, perhaps, have recovered
+it by going to law, but she did not feel it right to do so, and she
+suffered herself to be defrauded. "How could I teach others to be
+unworldly if I myself did what to them would appear worldly-minded?"
+That was all she ever said by way of explanation.
+
+Next to Ponnamal and Sellamuttu come the motherly-hearted Gnanamal and
+Annamai. They came to us when we were in circumstances of peculiar
+difficulty. The work was just beginning, and we had not enough
+trustworthy helpers; so, wearied with disturbed nights, we were almost
+at the end of our strength. "Send us help!" we prayed, and went on each
+trying to do the work of three. It was one hot, tiring afternoon, when
+we longed to forget everything and rest for half an hour, but could not,
+because there was so much to do, that a bright, capable face appeared at
+the door of our room, and Annamai, Lulla's beloved, came in and said:
+"God sent me, and my relative" (naming a mission catechist) "brought me.
+And so I have come!"
+
+And Gnanamal--we were in dire straits, for a dear little babe had
+suffered at the hands of one who thought first of herself and second of
+her charge, and the most careful tending was needed if the baby was to
+survive--it was then Gnanamal came and took charge of the delicate
+child, and became the comfort and help she has ever continued to be.
+When there is serious illness, and night-nursing is required, Gnanamal
+is always ready to volunteer; though to her, as to most of us in India,
+night work is not what the flesh would choose. Then in the morning,
+when we go to relieve her, we find her bright as ever, as if she had
+slept comfortably all the time. We think this sort of help worth
+gratitude.
+
+The convert-workers, dear as dear children, but, thank God, dependable
+as comrades, come next in age to the head Accals. Arulai Tara (known to
+some as "Star") is what her name suggests, something steadfast,
+something shining, something burning with a pure devotion which kindles
+other fires. We cannot imagine our children without their beloved
+Arulai. Then there is Sundoshie (Joy), to the left next Suhinie in the
+photo, a young wife for whom poison was prepared three times, and whose
+escape from death at the hand of husband and mother-in-law was one of
+those quiet miracles which God is ever working in this land of cruelty
+in dark places. And Suhinie (Gladness), whose story of deliverance has
+been told before;[E] and Esli, the gift of a fellow-missionary, a most
+faithful girl; and others younger, but developing in character and
+trustworthiness. All these young converts need much care, but the care
+of genuine converts is very fruitful work; and one interesting part of
+it is the fitting of each to her niche, or of fitting the niche to her.
+Discernment of spirit is needed for this, for misfits means waste energy
+and great discomfort; and energy is too good a thing to waste, and
+comfort too pleasant a thing to spoil. So those who are responsible for
+this part of the work would be grateful for the remembrance of any who
+know how much depends upon it.
+
+Among the recognised "fits" in our family is "the Accal who loves the
+unlovable babies." This is Suhinie. We tried her once with the Taraha
+children; but the terrible activity of these young people was altogether
+too much for the slowly moving machinery of poor Suhinie's brain, and
+she was perfectly overwhelmed and very miserable. For Suhinie hates
+hurry and sudden shocks of any sort, and the babies of maturer years
+discovered this immediately; and Suhinie, waddling forlornly after the
+babies, looked like a highly respectable duck in charge of a flock of
+impertinent robins.
+
+[Illustration: THREE CONVERT WORKERS.]
+
+It was quite a misfit, and Suhinie's worst came to the top, and we
+speedily moved her back again to the Premalia nursery.
+
+For there you see Suhinie in her true sphere. Give her a poor, puny
+babe, who will never, if she can help it, let her Accal have an
+undisturbed hour; give her the most impossible, most troublesome baby in
+the nursery, and then you will see Suhinie's best. We discovered this
+when Ponnamal was in charge of the Neyoor nursery. Ponnamal had one
+small infant so cross that nobody wanted her. She would cry half the
+night, a snarly, snappy cry, that would not stop unless she was rocked,
+and began again as soon as the rocking was stopped. Ponnamal gave her to
+Suhinie.
+
+"Night after night till two in the morning she would sing to that
+fractious child"--this was Ponnamal's story to me when next I went to
+Neyoor. "She never seemed to tire; hymn after hymn she would sing, on
+and on and on. I never saw her impatient with it; she just loved it from
+the first." And a curious thing began to happen: the baby grew like her
+Accal. This likeness was not caught in the photograph, but is
+nevertheless so observable that visitors have often asked if the little
+one were her own child.
+
+This baby, Sununda by name, is greatly attached to Suhinie. As she is
+over two years old now, she has been promoted to the Taraha, and being
+an extremely wilful little person, she sometimes gets into trouble. One
+day I was called to remonstrate, and a little "morning glory" was
+required, and I put her in a corner to think about it. Another sinner
+had to be dealt with, and when I returned Sununda was nowhere to be
+found. I searched all over the Taraha and in the garden, and finally
+found her in the Premalia cuddled close to Suhinie. "She has told me all
+about it," said Suhinie, who was nursing another edition of difficult
+infancy; and she looked down on the curly head with eyes of brooding
+affection, like a tender turtle-dove upon her nestling. Then the roguish
+brown eyes smiled up at me with an expression of perfect confidence that
+I would understand and sympathise with the desire to share the troubles
+of this strange, sad life with so beloved an Accal.
+
+The question of discipline is sometimes rather difficult with so many
+dispositions, each requiring different dealing. We try, of course, to
+fit the penalty to the crime, so that the child's sense of justice will
+work on our side; and in this we always find there is a wonderful
+unconscious co-operation on the part of the merest baby. But the older
+children used to be rather a problem. Some had come to us after their
+wills had become developed and their characters partly formed. Most of
+them were with us of their own free will, and could have walked off any
+day, for they knew where they would be welcome. Discipline under these
+circumstances is not entirely easy. But three years ago something of
+Revival Power swept through all our family. It was not the Great Revival
+for which we wait, but it was something most blessed in effect and
+abiding in result; and ever since then the tone has been higher and the
+life deeper, so that there is something to which we can appeal confident
+of a quick response. But children will be scampish; and once their
+earnestness of desire to be good was put to unexpected and somewhat
+drastic proof.
+
+At that time the mild Esli had charge of the sewing-class, and the class
+had got into bad ways; carelessness and chattering prevailed, so Esli
+came in despair to me, and I talked to the erring children. They were
+sorry, made no excuses, and promised to be different in future. I left
+them repentant and thoroughly ashamed of themselves, and went to other
+duties.
+
+[Illustration: SEWING-CLASS IN THE COURTYARD.]
+
+Shortly afterwards Arulai found them in a state of great depression.
+They told her they had promised to be good at the sewing-class, but were
+afraid they would forget. Arulai's ideas are usually most original, and
+she sympathised with the children, but told them there was no need for
+them ever to forget. They asked eagerly what could be done to help them
+to remember. They had prayed, but even so had doubts. Was there anything
+to be done besides praying? Arulai said there was, and she expounded
+certain verses from the Book of Proverbs. "Sometimes the best way to
+make a mark upon the mind is to make a mark upon the body," she
+suggested, and asked the children if they would like this done. The
+children hesitated. They were aware that Arulai's "marks" were likely to
+be emphatic, for Arulai never does things by halves. But their devotion
+to her and belief in her overcame all fears; and being genuinely anxious
+to reform, they one and all consented. So she sent a small girl off to
+look for a cane; and presently one was produced, "thin and nice and
+suitable," as I was afterwards informed. The younger children were
+invited to take the cane and look at it, and consider well how it would
+feel. This they did obediently, but still stuck undauntedly to their
+determination, in fact, were keen to go through with it. Then Arulai
+explained that when the King said, "Chasten thy son while there is hope,
+and let not thy soul spare for his crying," he must have been thinking
+of a very little boy who had not the sense to know what was good for
+him. They had sense. The mark on the body would be waste punishment if
+it were not received willingly and gratefully; so if any child cried or
+pulled her hand away, she would stop. Then the children all stood up and
+held out their hands--what a moment for a photograph! Arulai's "mark
+upon the body" was a genuine affair, but the class received it with
+fortitude and gratitude.
+
+When I heard this history, an hour or so after its occurrence, I rather
+demurred. The children had appeared to be sincerely sorry when I spoke
+to them, and if so, why proceed to extremities? But Arulai answered with
+wisdom and much assurance: "They have been talked to before and have
+been sorry, but they forgot and did it again. This time they will not
+forget." And neither did they. As long as that class continued, its
+behaviour was exemplary; and "the mark upon the mind," to judge by their
+demeanour, remained as fresh as it must have been on that memorable day
+when the "mark" upon the body effected its creation. The story ought to
+end here; but most stories have a sequel, and this has two.
+
+The first occurred a few weeks later. A little girl, one of the
+sewing-class, had slipped into the habit of careless disobedience,
+followed too often by sulks. If we happened to come across her just when
+the thunder-clouds were gathering, we could usually divert her attention
+and avert the threatened trouble; but if we did not happen to meet her
+just at the right moment, she would plunge straight into the most
+outrageous naughtiness with a sort of purposeful directness that was
+difficult to deal with. Knowing the child well, we often let her choose
+her own punishments; and she did this so conscientiously that at last,
+as she herself mournfully remarked, "they were all used up," and there
+was nothing left but the most ancient--and perhaps in some cases most
+efficacious, which, the circumstances being what they were, I was
+naturally reluctant to try. But the child, trained to be perfectly
+honest with herself, apparently thought the thing over, and calmly made
+up her mind to accept the inevitable; for when, anxious she should not
+misunderstand, I began to explain matters to her, I was met by this
+somewhat astonishing response: "Yes, Amma, I know. I know you have tried
+everything else" (she said this almost sympathetically, as if
+appreciating my dilemma), "and so you have to do it. I do not like it at
+all, but Arulai Accal says it is no use unless I take it willingly, so
+Amma, please give me a good caning." (The idiom is the same in Tamil as
+in English, but there is a stronger word which she now proceeded to use
+with great deliberation.) "Yes, Amma, a _hot_ caning--with my full mind
+I am willing. And I will not cry. Or if I do cry" (this was added in a
+serious, reflecting sort of way), "let not your soul spare for my
+crying!"
+
+The second is less abnormal. Esli, whose placid soul had been sadly
+stirred at the time of the infliction of the "mark," was so impressed by
+its salutary effect that she conceived a new respect for the methods of
+King Solomon. The application of "morning glory" is a privilege
+reserved, as a rule, for ourselves; but one day, being doubtless hard
+pressed, Esli produced a stick--a very feeble one--and calling up the
+leader of all rebels, addressed herself to her. Chellalu, as might have
+been expected, was taken by surprise; and for one short moment Esli was
+permitted to follow the ways of the King. But only for a moment: for,
+suddenly apprehending the gravity of the situation, and realising that
+such precedent should not pass unchallenged, Chellalu, with a quick
+wriggle, stood forth free, seized the stick with a joyous shout, snapped
+it in two, and flourished round the room: then stopping before her
+afflicted Accal, she solemnly handed her one of the pieces, and with a
+bound and a scamper like a triumphant puppy, was off to the very end of
+her world with the other half of that stick.
+
+When the Elf came to us on March 6, 1901, and we began to know some of
+the secrets of the Temple, we tried to save several little children,
+but we failed. The thought of those first children with whom we came
+into touch, but for whom all our efforts were unavailing, is
+unforgettable. We see them still, little children--lost. But we partly
+understand why we had to wait so long; we had not the workers then to
+help us to take care of them. We had only some of the older Accals, who
+could not have done it alone. These convert-girls, who now help us so
+much, were in Hindu homes; some of them had not even heard of Christ,
+whose love alone makes this work possible. For India is not England in
+its view of such work. There is absolutely nothing attractive about it.
+It is not "honourable work," like preaching and teaching. No money would
+have drawn these workers to us. Work which has no clear ending, but
+drifts on into the night if babies are young or troublesome--such work
+makes demands upon devotion and practical unselfishness which appeal to
+none but those who are prepared to love with the tireless love of the
+mother. "I do not want people who come to me under certain reservations.
+In battle you need soldiers who fear nothing." So wrote the heroic Pere
+Didon; and, though it may sound presumptuous to do so, we say the same.
+We want as comrades those who come to us without reservations. But such
+workers have to be prepared, and such preparation takes time. "Tarry ye
+the Lord's leisure," is a word that unfolds as we go on.
+
+Yet we find that the work, though so demanding, is full of
+compensations. The convert in her loneliness is welcomed into a family
+where little children need her and will soon love her dearly. The
+uncomforted places in her heart become healed, for the touch of a little
+child is very healing. If she is willing to forget herself and live for
+that little child, something new springs up within her; she does not
+understand it, but those who watch her know that all is well. Sometimes
+long afterwards she reads her own heart's story and opens it to us. "I
+was torn with longing for my home. I dreamed night after night about it,
+and I used to waken just wild to run back. And yet I knew if I had, it
+would have been destruction to my soul. And then the baby came, and you
+put her into my arms, and she grew into my heart, and she took away all
+that feeling, till I forgot I ever had it." This was the story of one, a
+young wife, for whom the natural joys of home can never be. But if there
+is selfishness or slackness or a weak desire to drift along in easiness,
+taking all and giving nothing, things are otherwise. For such the
+nurseries hold nothing but noise and interruptions. We ask to be spared
+from such as these. Or if they come, may they be inspired by the
+constraining love of Christ and "The Glory of the Usual."
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[E] _Overweights of Joy_, ch. xxiii. Suhinie left the nursery for a few
+hours' rest at noon on February 2, 1910. She fell asleep, to awaken in
+heaven.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+The Little Accals
+
+          But Thou didst reckon, when at first
+            Thy word our hearts and hands did crave,
+          What it would come to at the worst
+                  To save.
+          Perpetual knockings at Thy door,
+          Tears sullying Thy transparent rooms.
+
+
+[Illustration: THREE LITTLE ACCALS.]
+
+THESE lines come with insistence as I look at the little Accals, who
+follow in order after the Accals, convert children, most of them, now
+growing up to helpfulness. If part of the story of one such young girl
+is told, it may help those to whom such tales are unfamiliar to
+understand and to care.
+
+December 16, 1903, was spent by three of us in a rest-house on the
+outskirts of a Hindu town. We were on our way to Dohnavur from Madras,
+where we had seen Mr. and Mrs. Walker off for England. The two days'
+journey had left us somewhat weary; and yet we were strong in hope that
+day, for we knew there was special thought for us on board ship and at
+home, and something special was being asked as a birthday gift of joy.
+Arulai (Star) and Preena (the Elf), the two who were with me, were full
+of expectation. The day had often been marked by that joy of joys, a
+lost sheep found; and as we looked out at the heathen town with its
+many people so unconscious of our thoughts about them, we wondered where
+we should find the one our thoughts had singled from among the crowd,
+and we went out to look for her.
+
+[Illustration: PREENA AND PREEYA
+
+(To left and right) getting ready for a Coming-Day Feast.]
+
+Up and down the long white streets we looked for her; on the little
+narrow verandahs, in the courtyards of the houses, in their dark inner
+rooms when we were invited within, out again into the sunshine--but we
+could not find her. That evening I remember, though we did not say so to
+each other, we felt a little disappointed. We had not met one who even
+remotely cared for the things we had come to bring.
+
+No one had responded. There was not, so far as we knew it, even a little
+blade to point to, much less a sheaf to lay at His feet. After nightfall
+a woman came to see us. But she was a Christian, and beyond trying to
+cheer her to more earnest service among the heathen, there was nothing
+to be done for her. She left us, she told us afterwards, warmed to hope;
+and she talked to a child next morning, a little relative of her own,
+whose heart the Lord opened.
+
+For three months we heard nothing; then unexpectedly a letter came. "The
+child is much in earnest, and she has made up her mind to join your
+Starry Cluster" (a name given by the people to our band, which at that
+time was itinerating in the district), "so I purpose sending her at
+once." The parents, for reasons of their own, agreed to the arrangement,
+and the little girl came to Dohnavur. It was wonderful to watch her
+learning. She is not intellectually brilliant, but the soul awakened at
+once, and there was that tenderness of response which refreshes the
+heart of the teacher. She seemed to come straight to our Lord Jesus and
+know Him as her Saviour, child though she was; and soon the longing to
+win others possessed her, and a younger child, who was her special
+charge among the nursery children, was influenced so gently and so
+willingly, that we do not know the time when, led by her little
+Accal, she too came to the Lover of children.
+
+But one day, suddenly, trouble came. The parents appeared in the
+Dohnavur compound and claimed their daughter; and we had no legal right
+to refuse her, for she was under age. We shall never forget the hour
+they came. They had haunted the neighbourhood, as we afterwards heard,
+and prowled about outside the compound, watching for an opportunity to
+carry the child off without our knowledge. But she was always with the
+other children, so that plan failed. When first she heard they had come,
+she fled to the bungalow. "My parents have come! My father is strong!
+Oh, hide me! hide me!" she besought us. "I cannot resist him! I cannot!"
+and she cried and clung to us. But when we went out to meet them, she
+was perfectly quiet; and no one would have known from her manner as she
+stood before them, and answered their questions, without a tremble in
+her voice, how frightened she had been before.
+
+"What is this talk about being a Christian?" the father demanded
+stormily. "What can an infant know about such matters? Are you wiser
+than your fathers, that their religion is not good enough for you?" And
+scathing mockery followed, harder to bear than abuse. "Come! Say salaam
+to the Missie Ammal, and bring your jewels" (she had taken them off),
+"and let us go home together." The child stood absolutely still, looking
+up with brave eyes; and to our astonishment said, as though it were the
+only thing to be said: "But I am a Christian. I cannot go home."
+
+We had not thought of her saying this. We had, indeed, encouraged her as
+we had encouraged ourselves, to rest in our God, who is unto us a God of
+deliverances; but we had not suggested any line of resistance, and were
+not prepared for the calm refusal which so quietly took it for granted
+that she had no power to refuse.
+
+The father was evidently nonplussed. He knew his little daughter, a
+timid child, whose translated name, Fawn, seems to express her exactly,
+and he gazed down upon her in silence for one surprised moment, then
+burst out in wrath and indignant revilings. "Snake! nurtured in the
+bosom only to turn and sting! Vile, filthy, disgusting insect, born to
+disgrace her caste!" And they cursed her as she stood.
+
+Then their mood changed, and they tried pleadings, much more difficult
+to resist. The father reminded her of his pilgrimage to a famous Temple
+at her birth: "He had named her before the gods." Her mother touched on
+tenderer memories, till we could feel the quiver of soul, and feared for
+the little Fawn. Then they promised her liberty at home. She should read
+her Bible, pray to the true God, "for all gods are one." I saw Fawn shut
+her eyes for a moment. What she saw in that moment she told me
+afterwards: a fire lighted on the floor, a Bible tossed into it, two
+schoolboy brothers (whose leanings towards Christianity had been
+discovered) pushed into an inner room, the sound of blows and cries.
+"And after that my brothers did not want to be Christians any more."
+Poor little timid Fawn! We hardly wonder as we look at her that she
+shrank and shut her eyes. I have seen a child of twelve held down by a
+powerful arm and beaten across the bare shoulders with a cocoa-nut shell
+fastened to the end of a stick; I have seen her wrists twisted almost to
+dislocation--seen it, and been unable to help. I think of the child, now
+our happy Gladness, lover of the unlovable babies; and I for one cannot
+wonder at the little Fawn's fear. But aloud she only said: "Forgive me,
+I cannot go home."
+
+The father grew impatient. "Get your jewels and let us be gone!" Fawn
+ran into the house, brought her jewels, and handed them to her father.
+He counted them over--pretty little chains and bangles, and then he eyed
+her curiously. A child to give up her jewels like this--he found it
+unaccountable. And then he began to argue, but Fawn answered him with
+clearness and simplicity, and he could not perplex her. She knew Whom
+she believed.
+
+At last they rose to go, cursing the day she was born with a curse that
+sounded horrible. But their younger daughter, whom they had brought with
+them, threw herself upon the ground, tearing her hair, beating her
+breast, shrieking and rolling and flinging the dust about like a mad
+thing. "I will not go without my sister! I will not go! I will not go!"
+And she clung to Fawn, and wept and bewailed till we hardly dared to
+hope the child would be able to withstand her. For a moment the parents
+stood and waited. We, too, stood in tension of spirit. "They have told
+her to do it," whispered Fawn, and stood firm. Then the father stooped,
+snatched up the younger child, and departed, followed by the mother.
+
+All this time two of our number had been waiting upon God in a quiet
+place out of sight. One of the two went after the parents, hoping for a
+chance to explain matters to the mother. As she drew near she heard the
+wife say in an undertone to her husband: "Leave them for to-day. Wait
+till to-night. You have carried off the younger in your arms against her
+will. What hinders you doing the same to the elder?" And that night we
+prayed that the Wall of Fire might be round us, and slept in peace.
+
+As a dream when one awaketh, so was the memory of that afternoon when we
+awoke next morning. And as a dream so the parents passed out of sight,
+for they left before the dawn. But weeks afterwards we heard what had
+happened that night. They had lodged in the Hindu village outside our
+gate. There has never been a Christian there, and the people have never
+responded in any way. It is a little shut-in place of darkness on the
+borders of the light. But when the parents proposed a raid upon the
+bungalow that night they would not rise to it. "No, we have no feud with
+the bungalow. We will not do it." The nearest white face was a day's
+journey distant, and a woman alone, white or brown, does not count for
+much in Hindu eyes. But the Wall of Fire was around us, and so we were
+safe.
+
+If the story could stop here, how easy life would be! One fight, one
+fling to the lions, and then the palm and crown. But it is not so. The
+perils of reaction are greater for the convert than the first great
+strain of facing the alternative, "Diana or Christ." Home-sickness
+comes, wave upon wave, and all but sweeps the soul away; feelings and
+longings asleep in the child awake in the girl, and draw her and woo
+her, and blind her too often to all that yielding means. She forgets the
+under-side of the life she has forsaken; she remembers only the
+alluring; and all that is natural pleads within her, and will not let
+her rest. "Across the will of Nature leads on the path of God," is
+sternly true for the convert in a Hindu or Moslem land.
+
+And so we write this unfinished story in faith that some one reading it
+will remember the young girl-converts as well as the little children.
+Fawn has been kept steadfast, but she still needs prayer. These last
+five years have held anxious hours for those who love her, and to us, as
+to all who have to do with converts. "Perpetual knockings at Thy door,
+tears sullying Thy transparent rooms," are words that go deep and touch
+the heart of things.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+The Glory of the Usual
+
+
+[Illustration: AFTER HER BOTTLE.]
+
+"AND all things were done in such excellent methods, and I cannot tell
+how, but things in the doing of them seemed to cast a smile"--is a
+beautiful sentence from Bunyan's _Holy War_, which has been with us ever
+since we began the Nursery work. Lately we found its complement in a
+modern book of sermons, _The Unlighted Lustre_, by G. H. Morrison. "No
+matter how stirring your life be, it will be a failure if you have never
+been wakened to the glory of the usual. There is no happiness like the
+old and common happiness, sunshine and love and duty and the laughter of
+children. . . . There are no duties that so enrich as dull duties."
+
+The ancient voice and the new voice sing to the same sweet tune; and we
+in our little measure are learning to sing it too.
+
+As we have said, India is a land where the secular does not appeal. When
+we were an Itinerating Band, we had many offers from Christian girls and
+women to join us, as many in one month as we now have in five years.
+Sometimes it has seemed to us that we were set to learn and to teach a
+new and difficult lesson, the sacredness of the commonplace. Day by day
+we learn to rub out a little more of the clear chalked line that someone
+has ruled on life's black-board; the Secular and the Spiritual may not
+be divided now. The enlightening of a dark soul or the lighting of a
+kitchen fire, it matters not which it is, if only we are obedient to the
+heavenly vision, and work with a pure intention to the glory of our God.
+
+[Illustration: NORTH LAKE AND HILLS.]
+
+The nursery kitchen is a pleasant little place. We hardly ever enter it
+without remembering and appreciating John Bunyan's pretty thought, for
+there things in the doing of them seem to cast a smile. Ponnamal, who,
+as we said, superintends the more delicate food-making work, has trained
+two of her helpers to carefulness; and these two--one a motherly older
+woman with a most comfortable face, the other the convert, Joy--look up
+with such a welcome that you feel it good to be there. Scrubbing away at
+endless pots and pans and milk vessels is a younger convent-girl, who,
+when she first came to us, disapproved of such exertion. She liked to
+sit on the floor with her Bible on her lap and a far-away look of
+content on her face until the dinner-bell rang. Now she scrubs with a
+sense of responsibility.
+
+All the younger converts have regular teaching, for they have much to
+learn, and all, older and younger, have daily classes and meetings;
+above all, it is planned that each has her quiet time undisturbed. But
+it is early understood that to be happy each must contribute her share
+to the happiness of the family; and one of the first lessons the young
+convert has to learn is to honour the "Grey Angel," Drudgery, and not to
+call her bad names.
+
+The kitchen has an outlook dear to the Tamil heart. A trellis covered
+with pink antigone surrounds it, but a window is cut in the trellis so
+that the kitchen may command the bungalow. "While I stirred the milk I
+saw everything you did on your verandah," remarked one of the workers
+lately, in tones of appreciation. The opposite outlook is the mountain
+shown in the photograph; only instead of water we have the
+kitchen-garden with its tropical-looking plantains and creeping marrows.
+"And the warm melon lay like a little sun on the tawny sand," is a line
+for an Eastern garden when the great marrows ripen suddenly.
+
+The kitchen thus favoured without, is adorned within, according to the
+taste of its owners, with those very interesting pictures published by
+the makers of infant foods. "How do you choose them?" we asked one day.
+"The truest and the prettiest," was the satisfactory answer. Our
+Dohnavur text, which hangs in every nursery, looks down upon the
+workers, and, as they put it, "keeps them sweet in heart": "Love never
+faileth."
+
+When first we began to cultivate babies we were very ignorant, and we
+asked advice of all who seemed competent to give it. The advice was most
+perplexing. Each mother was sure the food that had suited her baby was
+the best of all foods, and regarded all others as doubtful, if not bad.
+One whom we greatly respected told us Indian babies would be sure to get
+on anyhow, as it was their own land. And one seriously suggested
+rice-water as a suitable nourishment. Naturally we began with the
+time-honoured milk and barley-water, and some throve upon it. But we
+found each baby had to be studied separately. There was no universal
+(artificial) food. We could write a tractlet on foods, and if we did we
+would call it "Don't," for the first sentence in it would be, "Don't
+change the food if you can help it." This tractlet would certainly close
+with a word of thanks to those kind people, the milk-food manufacturers,
+who have helped us to build up healthy children; for feelings of
+personal gratitude come when help of this kind is given.
+
+The nursery kitchen is a room full of reminders of help. "I have
+commanded the ravens," is a word of strength to us. Once we were very
+low. A little child had died under trying circumstances. One of the
+milk-sellers, instead of using the vessel sent him, poured his milk
+into an unclean copper vessel, and it was poisoned. He remembered that
+it would not be taken unless brought in the proper vessel, so at the
+last moment he corrected his mistake, but the correction was fatal, for
+there was no warning. The milk was sterilized as usual and given to the
+child. She was a healthy baby, and her nurse remembers how she smiled
+and welcomed her bottle, taking it in her little hands in her happy
+eagerness. A few hours later she was dead.
+
+At such times the heart seems foolishly weak, and things which would not
+trouble it otherwise have power to make it sore. We were four days'
+journey from the nursery at the time, and had the added anxiety about
+the other babies, to whom we feared the poisoned milk might have been
+given, and we dreaded what the next post might bring. Just at that
+moment it was suggested, with kindest intentions, that perhaps we were
+on the wrong track, the work seemed so difficult and wasteful.
+
+It was mail-day. The mail as usual brought a pile of letters, and the
+top envelope contained a bill for foods ordered from England some weeks
+before. It came to more than I had expected, in spite of the kindness of
+several firms in giving a liberal discount; and for a moment the
+rice-water talk (to give it a name which covers all that type of talk)
+came back to me with hurt in it: "To what purpose is this waste?" But
+with it came another word: "Take this child away (away from the terrible
+Temple) and nurse it for Me." And with the pile of letters before me,
+and the bill for food in my hand, I asked that enough might be found in
+those letters to pay it. It did not occur to me at the moment that the
+prayer was rather illogical. I only knew it would be comforting, and
+like a little word of peace, if such an assurance might even then come
+that we were not off the lines.
+
+Letter after letter was empty. Not empty of kindness, but quite empty
+of cheques. The last envelope looked thin and not at all hopeful.
+Cheques are usually inside reliable-looking covers. I opened it. There
+was nothing but a piece of unknown writing. But the writing was to ask
+if we happened to have a need which a sum named in the letter would
+meet. This sum exactly covered the bill for the foods. When the cheque
+eventually reached me it was for more than the letter had mentioned, and
+covered all carriage and duty expenses, which were unknown to me at the
+time the first letter came, and to which of course I had not referred in
+my reply. Thus almost visibly and audibly has the Lord, from whose hands
+we received this charge to keep, confirmed His word to us, strengthening
+us when we were weak, and comforting us when we were sad with that
+innermost sense of His tenderness which braces while it soothes.
+
+Surely we who know Him thus should love the Lord because He hath heard
+our voice and our supplication. Every advertisement on the walls of the
+little nursery kitchen is like an illuminated text with a story hidden
+away in it:--
+
+          When Thou dost favour any action,
+            It runs, it flies;
+          All things concur to give it a perfection.
+
+The nursery kitchen, we were amused to discover, has a sphere of
+influence all its own. Our discovery was on this wise:--
+
+One wet evening we were caught in a downpour as we were crossing from
+the Taraha nursery to the bungalow, and we took shelter in the
+kindergarten room, which reverts to the Lola-and-Leela tribe when the
+kindergarten babies depart. The tribe do not often possess their Sittie
+and their Ammal both together and all to themselves, now that the
+juniors are so numerous, and they welcomed us with acclamations. "Finish
+spreading your mats," we said to them, as they seemed inclined to let
+our advent interrupt the order of the evening; and we watched them
+unroll their mats, which hung round the wall in neat rolls swung by
+cords from the roof, and spread them in rows along the wall. Beside each
+mat was what looked like a mummy, and beside each mummy was a matchbox
+and a small bundle of rags.
+
+Presently the mummies were unswathed, and proved to be dolls in more or
+less good condition. Each was carefully laid upon a morsel of sheet, and
+covered with another sheet folded over in the neatest fashion. "If we
+teach them to be particular when they are young, they will be tidy when
+they are old," we were informed. It was pleasant to hear our own remarks
+so accurately repeated.
+
+The matchboxes were next unpacked; each contained a bit of match, a
+small pointed shell, a pebble (preferably black), and a couple of minute
+cockles. "I suppose you don't know what all these are?" said Lola,
+affably. "That," pointing to the match, "is a spoon; and this," taking
+the pointed shell up carefully, "is a bottle. This is the 'rubber,' of
+course," and the black pebble was indicated; "and these" (setting the
+cockle-shells on a piece of white paper on the floor) "are bowls of
+water, one for the bottle and the other for the rubber." We suggested
+one bowl of water would hold both bottle and rubber; but Lola's entirely
+mischievous eyes looked quite shocked and reproving. "Two bowls are
+better," was the serious reply; "it is very important to be clean."
+"What does your child have?" we inquired respectfully. "Barley-water and
+milk, two-and-a-half ounces every two hours--that's five tablespoonfuls,
+you know." "And Leela's?" "Oh, Leela's child is delicate. She has to
+have Benger. Two ounces every two hours; and it has to be a long time
+digested." "Do all your children have their food every two hours?" Lola
+looked surprised, and Leela giggled: how very ignorant we seemed to be!
+"No, only the tiny ones; our babies are very young. After they get older
+they have more at a time and not so often. That child there," pointing
+to another mat, "has Condensed, as we haven't enough cow's milk for them
+all. It suits her very well. She has six ounces at a time; once before
+she goes to sleep, and then none till she wakens in the morning. She's a
+very healthy child." "How do you know the time?" we asked, prepared for
+anything now. "Oh, we have watches. This is mine," and a toy from a
+Christmas cracker was produced; "Leela's watch is different" (it was
+indeed different--a mere figment of the imagination), "but she can look
+at mine when she wants to." "Why does your child sleep with Leela's?"
+(All the other infants had separate sleeping arrangements.) Lola looked
+shy, and Leela looked shyer. These little matters of affection were not
+intended for public discussion.
+
+By this time the rain had cleared, so we prepared to depart, and the
+further entertainments provided for us by the cheerful tribe that
+evening do not belong to this story. We escaped finally, damp with much
+laughter in a humid atmosphere. "Come every evening!" shouted the tribe,
+as at last we disappeared, and we felt much inclined to accept the
+invitation.
+
+The kitchen is a busy place in the morning, and again in the evening,
+when the fresh milk is carried to it in shining aluminium vessels to be
+sterilized or otherwise dealt with. But even in the busiest hours there
+is almost sure to be a baby set in an upturned stool, in which she sits
+holding on to the front legs in proud consciousness of being able to sit
+up. Or an older one will be clinging to the garments of the busy
+workers, or perched beside them on a stool. Once we found Tara and Evu
+seated on the window-sill. Ponnamal was making foods at the table under
+the window, and the little bare feet were tucked in between bowls and
+jugs of milk. "But, indeed, they are quite clean," explained Ponnamal,
+without waiting for remark from us, for she knew what we were thinking
+of her table decorations. "We dusted the sand off their little feet
+before we lifted them up." The babies said nothing, but looked
+doubtfully up at us, as if not very sure of our intentions. But
+Ponnamal's eyes were so appealing, and the little buff things in blue
+with a trellis of pink flowers for background made such a pretty
+picture, that we had not the heart to spoil it. Then the little faces
+smiled gratefully upon us, and everybody smiled. The kitchen is a happy
+place of innocent surprises.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+The Secret Traffic
+
+          "Sir, to leave things out of a book because they
+          will not be believed, is meanness."--DR. JOHNSON.
+
+
+WHEN first, upon March 7, 1901, we heard from the lips of a little child
+the story of her life in a Temple house, we were startled and
+distressed, and penetrated with the conviction that such a story ought
+to be impossible in a land ruled by a Christian Power. The subject was
+new to us; we knew nothing of the magnitude of what may be called "The
+Secret Traffic of India"--a traffic in little children, mere infants
+oftentimes, for wrong purposes; and we did not appreciate, as we do now,
+the delicacy and difficulty of the position from a Government point of
+view, or the quiet might of the forces upon the other side. And though
+with added knowledge comes an added sense of responsibility, and a fear
+of all careless appeal to those whose burden is already so heavy, yet
+with every fresh discovery the conviction deepens that something should
+be done--and done, if possible, soon--to save at least this generation
+of children, or some of them, from destruction.
+
+"It is useless to move without a body of evidence at your back," said a
+friend in the Civil Service to us at the close of a long conversation.
+"If you can get the children, of course they themselves will furnish the
+best evidence; but, anyhow, collect facts." And this was the beginning
+of a Note-book, into which we entered whatever we could learn about the
+Temple children, and in which we kept letters relating to them.
+
+By Temple children throughout this book we mean children dedicated to
+gods, or in danger of being so dedicated. Dedication to gods implies a
+form of marriage which makes ordinary marriage impossible. The child is
+regarded as belonging to the gods. In Southern India, where religious
+feeling runs strong, and the great Temples are the centres of Hindu
+influence, this that I have called "The Traffic" is worked upon
+religious lines; and so in trying to save the children we have to
+contend with the perverted religious sense. Something of the same kind
+exists in other parts of India, and the traffic under another name is
+common in provinces where Temple service as we have it in the South is
+unknown. Again, in areas where, owing to the action of the native
+Government, Temple service, as such, is not recognised, so that children
+in danger of wrong cannot, strictly speaking, be called Temple children,
+there is yet need of legislation which shall touch all houses where
+little children are being brought up for the same purpose; so that the
+subject is immense and involved, and the thought of it suggests a net
+thrown over millions of square miles of territory, so finely woven as to
+be almost invisible, but so strong in its mesh that in no place yet has
+it ever given way. And the net is alive: it can feel and it can hold.
+
+But all through this book we have kept to the South--to the area where
+the evil is distinctly and recognisably religious. Others elsewhere have
+told their own story; ours, though in touch with theirs (in that its
+whole motive is to save the little children), is yet different in
+manner, in that it is avowedly Christian. India is a land where
+generalisations are deceptive. So we have kept to the South.
+
+We ourselves became only very gradually aware of what was happening
+about us. As fact after fact came to light, we were forced to certain
+conclusions which we could not doubt were correct. But at first we were
+almost alone in these conclusions, because it was impossible to take
+others with us in our tedious underground hunt after facts. So the
+question was often asked: "But do the children really exist?"
+
+I have said we were almost alone, not quite. Members of the Indian Civil
+Service, who are much among the people, knew something of the custom of
+child-dedication, but found themselves unable to touch it. Hindu
+Reformers, of course, knew; and two or three veteran missionaries had
+come into contact with it and had grieved over their helplessness to do
+anything. One of these had written a pamphlet on the subject twenty
+years before our Nursery work began. He sent it to me with a sorrowful
+word written across it, "Result? Nil." But we do not often meet our
+civilian friends, for they are busy, and so are we; and the few
+missionaries whose inspiring sympathy helped us through those earlier
+years were in places far from us, and so were all the Reformers. So
+perhaps it was not wonderful that, beset by doubting letters from home
+and a certain amount of not unnatural incredulity in India, we sometimes
+almost wondered if we ourselves were dreaming. "Well, if they do exist,
+I hope you will be able to find them!"--varied by, "Well, if you do find
+them, they will be a proof of their own existence!"--were two of the
+most encouraging remarks of those early days.
+
+From the beginning of this work, as stated before, we have tried to
+collect facts about the traffic and the customs connected with it. Notes
+were kept of conversations with Hindus and others, and these notes were
+compared with what evidence we were able to gather from trustworthy
+sources. These brief notes of various kinds we offer in their
+simplicity. We have made no attempt to tabulate or put into shape the
+information thus acquired, believing that the notes of conversations
+taken down at the time, and the quotations from letters copied as they
+stand, will do their work more directly than anything more elaborate
+would. Where there is a difference of detail it is because the customs
+differ slightly in different places. No names are given, for obvious
+reasons; but the letters were written by men of standing, living in
+widely scattered districts in the South. The evidence contained in them
+was carefully sifted, and in many cases corroborated by personal
+investigation, before being considered evidence: so that we believe
+these chapters may be accepted as fact. Dated quotations from the
+_Madras Mail_ are sufficient to prove that we are not writing ancient
+history:--
+
+_January 2, 1909._--"The following resolution was put from the chair and
+carried unanimously: 'The Conference (consisting of Hindu Social
+Reformers) cordially supports the movement started to better the
+condition of unprotected children in general, and appreciates
+particularly the agitation started to protect girls and young women from
+being dedicated to Temples.'"
+
+_May 8, 1909._--"Once more we have an illustration from Mysore of the
+fact that the Government of a Native State are able to tread boldly on
+ground which the British Government in India are unable to approach. At
+various times, in these columns and elsewhere, has the cry raised
+against the employment of servants of the gods in Hindu Temples been
+uttered; but, as far as the Government are concerned, it has fallen, if
+not on deaf ears, on ears stopped to appeals of this kind, which demand
+action that can be interpreted as a breach of that religious neutrality
+which is one of the cardinal principles of British rule in India. The
+agitation against it is not the agitation of the European whose
+susceptibility is offended at a state of things that he finds hard to
+reconcile with the reverence and purity of Divine worship; but it is the
+outcry of the reverent Hindu against one of the corrupt and degrading
+practices that, in the course of centuries, have crept into his
+religion. In this particular instance the Mysore Government cannot be
+accused of acting hastily. As long ago as February, 1892, they issued a
+circular order describing the legitimate services to be performed in
+Temples by Temple women. In 1899, the Muzrai Superintendent, Rai Bahadur
+A. Sreenivasa Charlu, directed that the Temple women borne on the
+Nanjangud Temple establishment should not be allowed to perform _tafe_
+(or dancing) service in the Temple; but that the allowances payable to
+them should be continued for their lifetime, and that at their death the
+vacancies should not be filled up. Against this order the Temple women
+concerned memorialised H.H. the Maharajah as long ago as 1905, and the
+order disposing of it has only just been issued. In the course of the
+latter the Government say:--
+
+"'From the Shastraic authorities quoted by the two Agamiks employed in
+the Muzrai Secretariat, it is observed that the services to be performed
+by Temple women form part and parcel of the worship of the god in Hindu
+Temples, and that singing and dancing in the presence of the deity are
+also prescribed. It is, however, observed that in the case of Temple
+women personal purity and rectitude of conduct and a vow of celibacy
+were considered essential. But the high ideals entertained in ancient
+days have now degenerated. . . . The Government now observe that whatever
+may have been the original object of the institution of Temple women in
+Temples, the state in which these Temple servants are now found fully
+justifies the action taken by them in excluding the Temple women from
+every kind of service in sacred institutions like Temples. Further, the
+absence of the services of these women in certain important Temples in
+the State has become established for nearly fifteen years past, and the
+public have become accustomed to the idea of doing without such
+services.'
+
+"The exclusion of Temple women from Temple services obtains in Mysore in
+the case of a few large Temples whose _Tasdik Pattis_ have been revised.
+But the time has come, the Government think, for its general
+application, and they therefore direct that the policy enunciated in the
+abstract given above should be extended to all Muzrai Temples in the
+State. It is to be hoped that the good example thus set will bear fruit
+elsewhere, where the Temple women evil is more notorious than it was in
+Temples of Mysore."
+
+A copy of the Government document to which this cutting relates lies
+before me. It is bravely and clearly worded, and its intention is
+evident. The high-minded Hindu--and there are such, let it not be
+forgotten--revolts from the degradation and pollution of this travesty
+of religion, and will abolish it where he can. _But let it be remembered
+that, good as this law is, it does not and it cannot touch the great
+Secret Traffic itself. That will go on behind the law, and behind the
+next that is made, and the next, unless measures are devised to ensure
+its being thoroughly enforced._
+
+Cuttings from newspapers, quotations, evidence--it is not interesting
+reading, and yet we look to our friends to go through to the end with
+us. Let us pause for a moment here and remember the purpose of it all;
+and may the thought of some little, loved child make an atmosphere for
+these chapters!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+Blue Book Evidence
+
+          "The precipitous sides of difficult questions."--E. B. B.
+
+
+OUR first evidence consists of abridged extracts from the Census Report
+for 1901. After explaining the different names by which Temple women are
+known in different parts of the Madras Presidency, the Report continues:
+"The servants of the gods, who subsist by dancing and music and the
+practice of 'the oldest profession in the world,' are partly recruited
+by admissions and even purchases from other classes. . . . The rise of
+the Caste and its euphemistic name seem to date from the ninth and
+tenth centuries, during which much activity prevailed in South India
+in the matter of building Temples and elaborating the services held in
+them. . . . The duties then, as now, were to fan the idol with Tibetan
+ox-tails, to carry the sacred light, and to sing and dance before the
+god when he is carried in procession. Inscriptions show that in A.D.
+1004 the great Temple of the Chola king at Tanjore had attached to it
+four hundred women of the Temple, who lived in free quarters in the four
+streets round it, and were allowed tax-free land out of its endowments.
+Other Temples had similar arrangements. . . . At the present day they
+form a regular Caste, having its own laws of inheritance, its own
+customs and rules of etiquette, and its own councils to see that all
+these are followed, and they hold a position which is perhaps without a
+parallel in any other country. . . .
+
+"The daughters of the Caste who are brought up to follow the Caste
+profession are carefully taught dancing and singing, the art of dressing
+well, . . . and their success in keeping up their clientele is largely
+due to the contrast which they thus present to the ordinary Hindu
+housewife, whose ideas are bounded by the day's dinners and babies."
+
+Closely allied to this Caste is that formed by the Temple musicians, who
+with the Temple woman are "now practically the sole repository of Indian
+music, the system of which is probably one of the oldest in the world."
+In certain districts the Report states that a custom obtains among
+certain castes, under which a family which has no sons must dedicate one
+of its daughters to Temple service. The daughter selected is taken to a
+Temple and married there to a god, the marriage symbol being put on her
+as in a real marriage. Henceforth she belongs to the god.
+
+Writing in 1904, a member of the Indian Civil Service says: "I heard of
+a case of dedication (three girls) at A. at the beginning of this year,
+but I could not get any evidence. The cases very rarely indeed come up
+officially, as nearly every Hindu is interested in keeping them dark."
+We, too, have had the same difficulty, and the evidence we now submit is
+doubly valuable because of its source. It is very rarely that we have
+found it possible to get behind the scenes sufficiently to obtain
+reliable information from those most concerned in this traffic.
+
+The head priest of one of our Temples admitted to a friend who was
+watching for opportunities to get information for us that the "marriage
+to the god is effected privately by the Temple priest at the Temple
+woman's house, with the usual marriage-symbol ceremony. To avoid the
+Penal Code (which forbids the marriage of children to gods) a nominal
+bridegroom is sometimes brought for the wedding day to become the
+nominal husband. This Caste is recruited by secret adoption."
+
+A Temple woman's son, now living the ordinary life apart from his clan,
+explains the very early marriage thus: "If not married, they will not be
+considered worthy of honour. Before the children reach the age of ten
+they must be married. . . . They become the property of the Temple
+priests and worshippers who go to the Temple to chant the sacred songs."
+
+A Temple woman herself told a friend of ours: "The child is dressed like
+a bride, and taken with another girl of the same community, dressed like
+a boy in the garb of a bridegroom. They both go to the Temple and
+worship the idol. This ceremony is common, and performed openly in the
+streets." In a later letter from the same friend further details are
+given: "The child, who should be about eight or nine years old, goes as
+if to worship the idol in the Temple. There the marriage symbol is
+hidden in a garland, and the garland is put over the idol, after which
+it is taken to the child's home and put round her neck." After this she
+is considered married to the god.
+
+A young Temple woman in a town near Dohnavur told us she had been given
+to the Temple when she was five years old. Her home was in the north
+country, but she did not remember it. She had, of course, understood
+nothing of the meaning of the ceremony of marriage. She only remembered
+the pretty flowers and general rejoicing and pleasure. Afterwards, when
+she began to understand, she was not happy, but she gradually got
+accustomed to it. Her adopted relations were all the friends she had.
+She was fond of them and they of her. Her "husband" was one of the
+Temple priests.
+
+A Hindu woman known to us left home with her little daughter and
+wandered about as an ascetic. She went to a famous Temple, where it is
+the custom for such as desire to become ascetics to enter the life by
+conforming to certain ceremonies ordained by the priests. She shaved her
+head, took off her jewels, wore a Saivite necklet of berries, and was
+known as a devotee. She had little knowledge of the life before she
+entered it, and only gradually became aware of the character borne by
+most of her fellow-devotees. When she knew, she fled from them and
+returned to her own village and the secular life, finding it better than
+the religious.
+
+In telling us about it she said: "I expected whiteness, I found
+blackness." She told us that she constantly came into contact with
+Temple women, none of whom had chosen the life as she and her
+fellow-ascetics had chosen theirs. "Always the one who is to dance
+before the gods is given to the life when she is very young. Otherwise
+she could not be properly trained. Many babies are brought by their
+parents and given to Temple women for the sake of merit. It is very
+meritorious to give a child to the gods. Often the parents are poor but
+of good Caste. Always suitable compensation and a 'joy gift' is given by
+the Temple women to the parents. It is an understood custom, and ensures
+that the child is a gift, not a loan. The amount depends upon the age
+and beauty of the child. If the child is old enough to miss her mother,
+she is very carefully watched until she has forgotten her. Sometimes she
+is shut up in the back part of the house, and punished if she runs out
+into the street. The punishment is severe enough to frighten the child.
+Sometimes it is branding with a hot iron upon a place which does not
+show, as under the arm; sometimes nipping with the nail till the skin
+breaks; sometimes a whipping. After the child is reconciled to her new
+life, occasionally her people are allowed to come if they wish; and in
+special circumstances she pays a visit to her old home. But this is
+rare. If she has been adopted as an infant, she knows nothing of her
+own relations, but thinks of her adopted mother as her own mother. As
+soon as she can understand she is taught all evil and trained to think
+it is good."
+
+As to her education, the movements of the dance are taught very early,
+and the flexible little limbs are rendered more flexible by a system of
+massage. In all ways the natural grace of the child is cultivated and
+developed, but always along lines which lead far away from the freedom
+and innocence of childhood. As it is important she should learn a great
+deal of poetry, she is taught to read (and with this object in view she
+is sometimes sent to the mission school, if there is one near her home).
+The poetry is almost entirely of a debased character; and so most
+insidiously, by story and allusion, the child's mind is familiarised
+with sin; and before she knows how to refuse the evil and choose the
+good, the instinct which would have been her guide is tampered with and
+perverted, till the poor little mind, thus bewildered and deceived, is
+incapable of choice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+"Very Common in those Parts"
+
+          "The dark enigma of permitted wrong."--F. R. H.
+
+
+THE mixture of secrecy and openness described by the Temple woman is
+confirmed by Hindus well acquainted with Temple affairs. "All the Temple
+women are married to the gods. In former times the marriages were
+conducted upon a grand scale, but now they are clandestinely performed
+in the Temple, with the connivance of the priest, and with freedom to
+deny it if questioned. Some ceremonies are performed in the Temple, the
+rest at home. Sometimes the marriage symbol is blessed by the priest,
+and taken home to the child to be worn by her. In all these cases the
+priest himself has to tie it round her neck. The previous arrangements
+for the marriage are made by the priests with the guardians of the child
+who is to be initiated into the order of Temple women.
+
+"The ceremony of tying on the marriage symbol is never in our district
+performed in public. None but intimate friends know about it. There is a
+secret understanding between the priests and the Temple women concerned.
+When the time arrives for the marriage symbol to be tied on, after the
+usual ceremonies the priest hands over the symbol hidden in a garland of
+flowers.
+
+"Of course, there is music on the occasion. When outsiders ask what all
+the noise is about, the people who know do not say the real thing. They
+say it is a birthday or other festival day. The symbol is tied on when
+the child is between five and eleven, after which it is considered
+unholy to perform the marriage ceremony. The symbol is at first hidden
+from the gaze of the public. Later it is shown publicly, but not while
+the girl is still young."
+
+This tallies exactly with our own experience. More than once an eager
+child in her simplicity has shown me the marriage symbol, a small gold
+ornament tied round her neck, or hanging on a fine gold chain; but the
+Temple woman in whose charge she was has always reproved her sharply,
+and made her cover it up under her other jewels, or under the folds of
+her dress.
+
+The reason for this secrecy, which, however, is not universal, is, as is
+inferred in the evidence of the head priest, because it is known to the
+Temple authorities that what they are doing is illegal; though, as a
+matter of fact, as will be seen later, prosecutions are rare, and
+convictions rarer still.
+
+The Caste is recruited, as the Blue Book states, by "admissions and even
+purchases from other classes." On this point a Brahman says: "When the
+Temple woman has no child, she adopts a girl or girls, and the children
+become servants of the gods. Sometimes children are found who, on
+account of a vow made by their parents, become devotees of the gods."
+Another Brahman, an orthodox Hindu, writes: "In some districts people
+vow that they will dedicate one of their children to the Temple if they
+are blessed with a family. Temple women often adopt orphans, to whom
+they bequeath their possessions. In most cases the orphans are bought."
+
+The position of the Temple woman has been a perplexity to many. The
+Census Report touches the question: "It is one of the many
+inconsistencies of the Hindu religion, that though their profession is
+repeatedly vehemently condemned in the Shastras (sacred books), it has
+always received the countenance of the Church." Their duties are all
+religious. A well-informed Hindu correspondent thus enumerates them:
+"First they are to be one of the twenty-one persons who are in charge of
+the key of the outer door of the Temple; second, to open the outer door
+daily; third, to burn camphor, and go round the idol when worship is
+being performed; fourth, to honour public meetings with their presence;
+fifth, to mount the car and stand near the god during car-festivals."
+The orthodox Hindu quoted before remarks on the "high honour," as the
+Temple child is taught to consider it, the marriage to the god confers
+upon her.
+
+We have purposely confined ourselves almost entirely to official and
+Hindu evidence so far, but cannot forbear to add to this last word the
+confirmatory experience of our own Temple children worker: "When I try
+to persuade the Hindus to let us have their little ones instead of
+giving them to the Temples they say: 'But to give them to Temples is
+honour and glory and merit to us for ever; to give them to you is
+dishonour and shame and demerit. So why should we give them to you?'"
+
+We have said that convictions are rare. This is because of the great
+difficulty in obtaining such evidence as is required by the law as it
+stands at present. One case may be quoted as typical. A few years ago,
+in one of our country towns, a father gave his child in marriage to the
+idol "with some pomp," as the report before us says. He was prosecuted,
+but the prosecution failed, for the priest and the parents united in
+denying the fact of the marriage; and the evidence for the defence was
+so skilfully cooked that it was found impossible to prove an offence
+against the Penal Code.
+
+Once, deeply stirred over the case of a little girl of six who was about
+to be married to a god as her elder sisters had been a few months
+previously, we wrote to a magistrate of wide experience and proved
+sympathy with the work. His letter speaks for itself:--
+
+"I have been waiting some little time before answering your letter,
+because I wanted time to think over your problem. As far as I can make
+out, there is no way in the world of preventing a woman marrying her own
+daughter to the gods at any age; but you can prosecute her if she does.
+If you could get her into prison for marrying the elder girls, the
+younger might be safe; but I don't think you can do anything directly
+for her. She is not being 'unlawfully detained'; and even if she were,
+all you could do would be to get her returned to her parents and
+guardians, which would be worse than useless.
+
+"The question is whether you can hope to get a conviction in the other
+case.
+
+"I don't see how you can. You can say in court that you saw the little
+girls with their marriage symbol on, and that they said they had been
+married to the god. The little girls will deny it all, and say they
+never set eyes on you before. Moreover, I don't think the ordinary Court
+would be satisfied without some other evidence of the fact of
+dedication; and considering how everyone would work against you, I think
+you would find it extraordinarily hard. The local police would be worse
+than useless."
+
+To every man his work: it appears to us that expert knowledge is
+required, and ample means and leisure, if the expenditure involved is to
+result in anything worth while; and a careful study of all available
+information regarding prosecutions, convictions, and, I may add,
+sentences, has convinced us, at least, of the futility of such attempts
+from a missionary point of view: for even if convictions were certain,
+_as long as the law hands the child back to its guardians after their
+unfitness to guard it from the worst that can befall it has been
+proved_, so long do we feel unable to rejoice exceedingly over even the
+six months' rigorous imprisonment, which in more than one case has been
+the legal interpretation of the phrase "up to a term of ten years,"
+which is the penalty attached to this offence in the Indian Penal Code.
+
+In this connection it may be well to quote a paragraph from the _Indian
+Social Reformer_:--
+
+"The Public Prosecutor at Madras applied for admission of a revision
+petition against the order of the Sessions Judge, made in the following
+circumstances:--
+
+"One, S., a priest, was convicted by the first-class subdivisional
+magistrate of having performed the ceremony of dedicating a young girl
+in the Temple of N., and thereby committing an offence punishable under
+Section 372 of the Penal Code. He accordingly sentenced him to six
+months' rigorous imprisonment. On appeal, the Sessions Judge reduced the
+sentence to two months, on the ground that the rite complained against
+was a very common one in those parts. The Public Prosecutor based his
+petition on the ground that it had been held in a previous case 'that
+such a dedication was an offence, and that it was highly desirable that
+the interests of minors should be properly protected.' This protection,
+it was submitted, could only be vouchsafed by making offending people
+understand that they would render themselves liable to heavy punishment.
+The present sentence would not have a deterrent effect, and he
+accordingly applied for an enhancement of the same. His lordship
+admitted the petition, and directed notice to the accused."
+
+It is something to know the six months' sentence was confirmed. But is
+not the fact that a Sessions Judge should commute such a sentence, on
+the ground that the offence was "very common," enough to suggest a doubt
+as to the deterrent effect of even this punishment?
+
+
+
+
+NOTE
+
+
+During the last few months the Secretary of State for India has
+addressed official inquiries to the Government of India regarding the
+dedication of children to Hindu gods, and the measures necessary for the
+protection of such children.
+
+If the anticipated change in the law is to result in more than a Bill on
+paper--a blind, behind which things will go on as before only more out
+of sight--it is, we believe, needful to ensure:
+
+          1st. Protection for all children found to be in
+          moral danger, whether or not they are or may be
+          dedicated to gods.
+
+          2nd. That, irrespective of nationality or
+          religion, whoever has worked for and won the
+          deliverance of the child should be allowed to act
+          as guardian to it.
+
+          3rd. That such a Bill shall be most thoroughly
+          enforced.
+
+_February, 1912._
+
+                                       To face p. 268.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+On the Side of the Oppressors there was Power
+
+
+I HAVE been looking over my note-book, in which there are some hundreds
+of letters, clippings from newspapers, and records of conversations
+bearing upon the Temple children. It is difficult to know which to
+choose to complete the picture already outlined in the preceding
+chapters. A mere case record would be wearisome; and indeed the very
+word "case" sounds curiously inappropriate when one thinks of the
+nurseries and their little inhabitants; or looks up to see mischievous
+eyes watching a chance to stop the uninteresting writing; or feels,
+suddenly, soft arms round one's neck, as a baby, strayed from her own
+domain, climbs unexpectedly up from behind and makes dashes at the
+typewriter keyboard. Such little living interruptions are too frequent
+to allow of these chapters being anything but human.
+
+The newspaper clippings are usually concerned with public movements,
+resolutions, petitions, and the like. There is one startling little
+paragraph from a London paper, dated July 7, 1906; the ignorance of the
+subject so flippantly dealt with is its only apology. No one could have
+written so had he understood. The occasion was the memorial addressed to
+the Governor in Council by workers for the children in the Bombay
+Presidency:--
+
+"Society must be very select in Poona. There has been a custom there for
+young ladies to be married to selected gods. You would have thought that
+to be the bride of a god was a good enough marriage for anyone. But it
+is not good enough for Poona." It is time that such writing became
+impossible for any Englishman.
+
+In India the feeling of the best men, whether Hindu or Christian, is
+strongly against the dedication of little children to Temples, and some
+of the newspapers of the land speak out and say so in unmistakable
+language. The _Indian Times_ speaks of the little ones being "steeped
+deep from their childhood" in all that is most wrong. A Hindu, writing
+in the _Epiphany_, puts the matter clearly when he says: "Finally, one
+can hardly conceive of anything more debasing than to dedicate innocent
+little girls to gods in the name of religion, and then leave them with
+the Temple priests"; and another writer in the same paper asks a
+question which those who say that Hinduism is good enough for India
+might do well to ponder: "If this is not a Hindu practice, how can it
+take place in a Temple and no priest stop it, though all know? . . . In
+London religion makes wickedness go away; but in Bombay religion brings
+wickedness, and Government has to try to make it go away." This immense
+contrast of fact and of ideal contains our answer to all who would put
+sin in India on a level with sin in England.
+
+Christian writers naturally, whether in the _Christian Patriot_ of the
+South or the _Bombay Guardian_ of the West, have no doubt about the
+existence of the evil or the need for its removal. They, too, connect it
+distinctly with religion, and recognise its tremendous influence.
+
+But we turn from the printed page, and go straight to the houses where
+the little children live. The witnesses now are missionaries or trusted
+Indian workers.
+
+"There were thirteen little children in the houses connected with the
+Temple last time I visited them. I saw the little baby--such a dear,
+fat, laughing little thing. It was impossible to get it, and I see no
+hope of getting any of the other children."
+
+"When I was visiting in S. a woman came to talk to me with her three
+little children. Two of them were girls, very pretty, 'fair' little
+children. 'What work does your husband do?' I asked; and she answered,
+'I am married to the god.' Then I knew who she was, and that her
+children were in danger. I have tried since to get them, but in vain.
+Everyone says that Temple women never give up their little girls. These
+two were dedicated at their birth. This is only one instance. We have
+many Temple women reading with us, and many of the little children
+attend our schools."
+
+"There are not scores but hundreds of these children in the villages of
+this district. Here certain families, living ordinary lives in their own
+villages, dedicate one of their children as a matter of course to the
+gods. They always choose the prettiest. It is a recognised custom, and
+no one thinks anything of it. The child so dedicated lives with her
+parents afterwards as if nothing had happened, only she may not be
+married in the real way. She belongs to the god and his priests and
+worshippers."
+
+"The house was very orderly and nice. I sat on the verandah and talked
+to the women, who were all well educated and so attractive with their
+pretty dress and jewels. They seemed bright, but, of course, would not
+show me their real feelings, and I could only hold surface conversation
+with them."
+
+We are often asked if the Temple houses are inside the walls which
+surround all the great Temples in this part of the country. They are
+usually in the streets outside. Most of the Brahman Temples are
+surrounded by a square of streets, and the houses are in the square or
+near it. There is nothing to distinguish them from other houses in the
+street. It is only when you go inside that you feel the difference. An
+hour on the shady verandah of one of these houses is very revealing. You
+see the children run up to welcome a tall, fine-looking man, who pats
+their heads in the kindest way, and as he passes you recognise him. Next
+time you see him in the glory of his office, you wish you could forget
+where you saw him last.
+
+Sometimes we are asked who the children are. How do the Temple women get
+them in the first instance?
+
+We have already answered this question by quotations from the Census
+Report, and by statements of Hindus well acquainted with the subject. It
+should be added that often the Temple woman having daughters of her own
+dedicates them, and as a rule it is only when she has none that she
+adopts other little ones. A few extracts from letters and notes from
+conversations are subjoined, as they show how the system of adoption
+works:--
+
+"We are in trouble over a little girl, the daughter of wealthy parents,
+who have dedicated her to the gods and refuse to change their mind. The
+child was ill some time ago, and they vowed then that if she recovered
+they would dedicate her."
+
+"The poor woman's husband was very ill, and the mother vowed her little
+girl as an offering if he recovered. He did recover, and so the child
+has been given."
+
+"It is the custom of the Caste to dedicate the eldest girl of a certain
+chosen family, and nothing will turn them from it. One child must be
+given in each generation."
+
+"She is of good caste, but very poor. Her husband died two months before
+the baby was born, and as it was a girl she was much troubled as to its
+future, for she knew she would never have enough money to marry it
+suitably. A Temple woman heard of the baby, and at once offered to adopt
+it. She persuaded the mother by saying: 'You see, if it is married to
+the gods, it will never be a widow like you. It will always be well
+cared for and have honour, and be a sign of good fortune to our
+people--unlike you!' (It is considered a sign of good omen to see a
+Temple woman the first thing in the morning; but the sight of a widow at
+any time is a thing to be avoided.) The poor mother could not resist
+this, and she has been persuaded."
+
+"The mother is a poor, delicate widow, with several boys as well as this
+baby girl. She cannot support them all properly, and her relatives do
+not seem inclined to help her. The Temple women have heard of her, and
+they sent a woman to negotiate. The mother knew that we would take the
+little one rather than that she should be forced to give it up to Temple
+women; but she said when we talked with her: 'It cannot be wrong to give
+it to the holy gods! This is our religion; and it may be wrong to you,
+but it is not wrong to us.' So she refused to give us the baby, and
+seems inclined to go away with it. It is like that constantly. The thing
+cannot be wrong because it is religious!"
+
+"I heard of two little orphan girls whose guardian, an uncle, had
+married again, and did not want to have the marriage expenses of his two
+little nieces to see to. So at the last great festival he brought the
+children and dedicated them to the Saivite Temple, and the Temple women
+heard about it before I did, and at once secured them. I went as soon as
+I could to see if we could not get them, but she would not listen to us.
+She said they were her sister's children, and that she had adopted them
+out of love for her dead sister."
+
+A lawyer was consulted as to this case, but it was impossible to trace
+the uncle or to prove that the children were not related to the Temple
+woman. Above all, it was impossible to prove that she meant to do
+anything illegal. So nothing could be done.
+
+As a rule the Temple woman receives little beyond bare sustenance from
+the Temple itself. In some Temples when the little child is formally
+dedicated, she (or her guardian) receives two pounds, and her funeral
+expenses are promised. But though there is little stated remuneration,
+the Temple woman is not poor. Poverty may come. If she breaks the law of
+her caste, or offends against the etiquette of that caste, she is
+immediately excommunicated, and then she may become very poor. Or if she
+has spent her money freely, or not invested it wisely, her old age may
+be cheerless enough. But we have not found any lack of money among the
+Sisterhood. No offer of compensation for all expenses connected with a
+child has ever drawn them to part with her. They offer large sums for
+little ones who will be useful to them. We have several times known as
+much as an offer of one hundred rupees made and accepted in cases where
+the little child (in each case a mere infant) was one of special
+promise. A letter, which incidentally mentions the easy circumstances in
+which many are, may be of interest:--
+
+"K. is a little girl in our mission school. Her mother is a favourite
+Temple woman high up in the profession. She dances while the other women
+sing, and sometimes she gets as much as three or four hundred rupees for
+her dancing. She is well educated, can recite the 'Ramayana' (Indian
+epic), and knows a little English. She spends some time in her own
+house, but is often away visiting other Temples. Just now she is away,
+and little K. is with her. . . . Humanly speaking, she will never let her
+go."
+
+The education of the mission school is appreciated because it makes the
+bright little child still brighter; and we, who know the home life of
+these children, are glad when they are given one brief opportunity to
+learn what may help them in the difficult days to come. We have known of
+some little ones who, influenced by outside teaching, tried to escape
+the life they began to feel was wrong, but in each case they were
+overborne, for on the side of the oppressors there was power. I was in a
+Temple house lately, and noticed the doors--the massive iron-bossed
+doors are a feature of all well-built Hindu houses of the South. How
+could a little child shut up in such a room, with its door shut, if need
+be, to the outside inquisitive world--how could she resist the strength
+that would force the garland round her neck? She might tear it off if
+she dared, but the little golden symbol had been hidden under the
+flowers, and the priest had blessed it; the deed was done--she was
+married to the god. And only those who have seen the effect of a few
+weeks of such a life upon a child, who has struggled in vain against it,
+can understand how cowed she may become, how completely every particle
+of courage and independence of spirit may be caused to disappear; and
+how what we had known as a bright, sparkling child, full of the
+fearless, confiding ways of a child, may become distrustful and
+constrained, quite incapable of taking a stand on her own account, or of
+responding to any effort we might be able to make from outside. It is as
+if the child's spirit were broken, and those who know what she has gone
+through cannot wonder if it is.
+
+And then comes something we dread more: the life begins to attract. The
+sense of revolt passes as the will weakens; the persistent, steady
+pressure tells. And when we see her next, perhaps only three months
+later, the child has passed the boundary, and belongs to us no more.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+And there was None to Save
+
+          Thou canst conceive our highest and our lowest
+            Pulses of nobleness and aches of shame.
+
+                                   FREDERIC W. H. MYERS.
+
+
+IN speaking of these matters I have tried to keep far from that which is
+only sentiment, and have resolutely banished all imagination. I would
+that the writing could be as cold in tone as the criticism of those who
+consider everything other than polished ice almost amusing--to judge by
+the way they handle it, dismissing it with an airy grace and a hurting
+adjective. Would they be quite so cool, we wonder, if the little wronged
+girl were their own? But we do not write for such as these. The thought
+of the cold eyes would freeze the thoughts before they formed. We write
+for the earnest-hearted, who are not ashamed to confess they care. And
+yet we write with reserve even though we write for them, because nothing
+else is possible. And this crushing back of the full tide makes its
+fulness almost oppressive. It is as though a flame leaped from the page
+and scorched the brain that searched for words quite commonplace and
+quiet.
+
+The finished product of the Temple system of education is something so
+distorted that it cannot be described. But it should never be forgotten
+that the thing from which we recoil did not choose to be fashioned so.
+It was as wax--a little, tender, innocent child--in the hands of a
+wicked power when the fashioning process began. Let us deal gently with
+those who least deserve our blame, and reserve our condemnation for
+those responsible for the creation of the Temple woman. Is it fair that
+a helpless child, who has never once been given the choice of any other
+life, should be held responsible afterwards for living the life to which
+alone she has been trained? Is it fair to call her by a name which
+belongs by right to one who is different, in that her life is
+self-chosen? No word can cut too keenly at the root of this iniquity;
+but let us deal gently with the mishandled flower. Let hard words be
+restrained where the woman is concerned. Let it be remembered she is not
+responsible for being what she is.
+
+In a Canadian book of songs there is a powerful little poem about an
+artist who painted one who was beautiful but not good. He hid all trace
+of what was; he painted a babe at her breast.
+
+          I painted her as she might have been
+            If the Worst had been the Best.
+
+And a connoisseur came and looked at the picture. To him it spoke of
+holiest things; he thought it a Madonna:--
+
+          So I painted a halo round her hair,
+            And I sold her and took my fee;
+          And she hangs in the church of St. Hilaire,
+            Where you and all may see.
+
+Sometimes as we have looked at the face of one whose training was not
+complete we have seen as the artist saw: we have seen her "as she might
+have been if the worst had been the best." There was no halo round her
+hair, only its travesty--something that told of crowned and glorified
+sin; and yet we could catch more than a glimpse of the perfect "might
+have been." So we say, let blame fall lightly on the one who least
+deserves it. Perhaps if our ears were not so full of the sounds of the
+world, we should hear a tenderer judgment pronounced than man's is
+likely to be: "Unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing. . . . For there
+was none to save her."
+
+Our work at Dohnavur is entirely among the little children who are
+innocent of wrong. We rarely touch these lives which have been stained
+and spoiled; but we could not forbear to write a word of clear
+explanation about them, lest any should mistake the matter and confuse
+things that differ.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We leave the subject with relief. Few who have followed us so far know
+how much it has cost to lead the way into these polluted places. Not
+that we would make much of any personal cost; but that we would have it
+known that nothing save a pressure which could not be resisted could
+force us to touch pitch. And yet why should we shrink from it when the
+purpose which compels is the saving of the children? Brave words written
+by a brave woman come and help us to do it:--
+
+"This I say emphatically, that the evil which we have grappled with to
+save one of our own dear ones does not sully. It is the evil that we
+read about in novels and newspapers for our own amusement; it is the
+evil we weakly give way to in our lives; above all, it is the destroying
+evil that we have refused so much as to know about in our absorbing care
+for our own alabaster skin; it is that evil which defiles a woman. But
+the evil that we have grappled with in a life and death struggle to save
+a soul for whom Christ died does not sully; it clothes from head to foot
+with the white robe, it crowns with the golden crown."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There remains only one thing more to show. It was evening in an Indian
+town at a time of festival. The great pillared courts of the Temple were
+filled with worshippers and pilgrims from all over the Tamil country and
+from as far north as Benares. Men who eagerly grasped at anything
+printed in Sanscrit and knew nothing of our vernacular were scattered in
+little groups among the crowd, and we had freedom to go to them and give
+them what we could, and talk to the many others who would listen.
+Outside the moonlight was shining on the dark pile of the Temple tower,
+and upon the palms planted along the wall, which rises in its solid
+strength 30 feet high and encloses the whole Temple precincts. There
+were very few people out in the moonlight. It was too quiet there for
+them, too pure in its silvery whiteness. Inside the hall, with its
+great-doored rooms and recesses, there were earth-lights in abundance,
+flaring torches, smoking lamps and lanterns. And there was noise--the
+noise of words and of wailing Indian music. For up near the closed doors
+which open on the shrine within which the idol sat surrounded by a
+thousand lights, there was a band of musicians playing upon stringed
+instruments; sometimes they broke out excitedly and banged their drums
+and made their conch-shells blare.
+
+Suddenly there was a tumultuous rush of every produceable sound;
+tom-tom, conch-shell, cymbal, flute, stringed instruments and bells
+burst into chorus together. The idol was going to be carried out from
+his innermost shrine behind the lights; and as the great doors moved
+slowly, the excitement became intense, the thrill of it quivered through
+all the hall and sent a tremor through the crowd out to the street. But
+we passed out and away, and turned into a quiet courtyard known to us
+and talked to the women there.
+
+There were three, one the grandmother of the house, one her daughter,
+and another a friend. The grandmother and her daughter were Temple
+women, the eldest grandchild had been dedicated only a few months
+before. There were three more children, one Mungie, a lovable child of
+six, one a pretty three-year-old with a mop of beautiful curls, the
+youngest a baby just then asleep in its hammock; a little foot dangled
+out of the hammock, which was hung from a rafter in the verandah roof.
+We had come to talk to the grandmother and mother about the dear little
+six-year-old child, and hoped to find their heart.
+
+But we seemed to talk to stone, hard as the stone of the Temple tower
+that rose above the roofs, black against the purity of the moonlit sky.
+It was a bitter half-hour. Some hours are like stabs to remember, or
+like the pitiless pressing down of an iron on living flesh. At last we
+could bear it no longer, and rose to go. As we left we heard the
+grandmother turn to her daughter's friend and say: "Though she heap gold
+on the floor as high as Mungie's neck, I would never let her go to those
+degraded Christians!"
+
+Once again it was festival in the white light of the full moon, and once
+again we went to the same old Hindu town; for moonlight nights are times
+of opportunity, and the cool of evening brings strength for more than
+can be attempted in the heat of the day. And this time an adopted mother
+spoke words that ate like acid into steel as we listened.
+
+Her adopted child is a slip of a girl, slim and light, with the ways of
+a shy thing of the woods. She made me think of a harebell growing all by
+itself in a rocky place, with stubbly grass about and a wide sky
+overhead. She was small and very sweet, and she slid on to my knee and
+whispered her lessons in my ear in the softest of little voices. She had
+gone to school for nearly a year, and liked to tell me all she knew. "Do
+you go to school now?" I asked her. She hung her head and did not
+answer. "Don't you go?" I repeated. She just breathed "No," and the
+little head dropped lower. "Why not?" I whispered as softly. The child
+hesitated. Some dim apprehension that the reason would not seem good to
+me troubled her, perhaps, for she would not answer. "Tell the Ammal,
+silly child!" said her foster-mother, who was standing near. "Tell her
+you are learning to dance and sing and get ready for the gods!" "I am
+learning to dance and sing and get ready for the gods," repeated the
+child obediently, lifting large, clear eyes to my face for a moment as
+if to read what was written there. A group of men stood near us. I
+turned to them. "Is it right to give this little child to a life like
+that?" I asked them then. They smiled a tolerant, kindly smile.
+"Certainly no one would call it right, but it is our custom," and they
+passed on. There was no sense of the pity of it:--
+
+          Poor little life that toddles half an hour,
+          Crowned with a flower or two, and then an end!
+
+We had come to the town an hour or two earlier, and had seen, walking
+through the throng round the Temple, two bright young girls in white. No
+girls of their age, except Temple girls, would have been out at that
+hour of the evening, and we followed them home. They stopped when they
+reached the house where little Mungie lived, and then, turning, saw us
+and salaamed. One of the two was Mungie's elder sister. Little Mungie
+ran out to meet her sister, and, seeing us, eagerly asked for a book. So
+we stood in the open moonlight, and the little one tried to spell out
+the words of a text to show us she had not forgotten all she had
+learned, even though she, too, had been taken from school, and had to
+learn pages of poetry and the Temple dances and songs.
+
+The girls were jewelled and crowned with flowers, and they looked like
+flowers themselves; flowers in moonlight have a mystery about them not
+perceived in common day, but the mystery here was something wholly
+sorrowful. Everything about the children--they were hardly more than
+children--showed care and refinement of taste. There was no violent
+clash of colour; the only vivid colour note was the rich red of a silk
+underskirt that showed where the clinging folds of the white
+gold-embroidered _sari_ were draped a little at the side. The effect was
+very dainty, and the girls' manners were modest and gentle. No one who
+did not know what the pretty dress meant that night would have dreamed
+it was but the mesh of a net made of white and gold.
+
+But with all their pleasant manners it was evident the two girls looked
+upon us with a distinct aloofness. They glanced at us much as a
+brilliant bird of the air might be supposed to regard poultry, fowls of
+the cooped-up yard. Then they melted into the shadow of an archway
+behind the moonlit space, and we went on to another street and came upon
+little Sellamal, the harebell child; and, sitting down on the verandah
+which opens off the street, we heard her lessons as we have told, and
+got into conversation with her adopted mother.
+
+We found her interested in listening to what we had to say about
+dedicating children to the service of the gods. She was extremely
+intelligent, and spoke Tamil such as one reads in books set for
+examination. It was easy to talk with her, for she saw the point of
+everything at once, and did not need to have truth broken up small and
+crumbled down and illustrated in half a dozen different ways before it
+could be understood. But the half-amused smile on the clever face told
+us how she regarded all we were saying. What was life and death
+earnestness to us was a game of words to her; a play the more to be
+enjoyed because, drawn by the sight of two Missie Ammals sitting
+together on the verandah, quite a little crowd had gathered, and were
+listening appreciatively.
+
+"That is your way of looking at it; now listen to my way. Each land in
+all the world has its own customs and religion. Each has that which is
+best for it. Change, and you invite confusion and much unpleasantness.
+Also by changing you express your ignorance and pride. Why should the
+child presume to greater wisdom than its father? And now listen to me!
+I will show you the matter from our side!" ("Yes, venerable mother,
+continue!" interposed the crowd encouragingly.) "You seem to feel it a
+sad thing that little Sellamal should be trained as we are training her.
+You seem to feel it wrong, and almost, perhaps, disgrace. But if you
+could see my eldest daughter the centre of a thousand Brahmans and
+high-caste Hindus! If you could see every eye in that ring fixed upon
+her, upon her alone! If you could see the absorption--hardly do they
+dare to breathe lest they should miss a point of her beauty! Ah, you
+would know, could you see it all, upon whose side the glory lies and
+upon whose the shame! Compare that moment of exaltation with the
+grovelling life of your Christians! Low-minded, flesh-devouring,
+Christians, discerning not the difference between clean and unclean!
+Bah! And you would have my little Sellamal leave all this for that!"
+
+"But afterwards? What comes afterwards?"
+
+"What know I? What care I? That is a matter for the gods."
+
+The child Sellamal listened to this, glancing from face to face with
+wistful, wondering eyes; and as I looked down upon her she looked up at
+me, and I looked deep into those eyes--such innocent eyes. Then
+something seemed to move the child, and she held up her face for a kiss.
+
+This is only one Temple town. There are many such in the South. These
+things are not easy to look at for long. We turn away with burning eyes,
+and only for the children's sake could we ever look again. For their
+sake look again.
+
+It was early evening in a home of rest on the hills. A medical
+missionary, a woman of wide experience, was talking to a younger woman
+about the Temple children. She had lived for some time, unknowingly,
+next door to a Temple house in an Indian city. Night after night she
+said she was wakened by the cries of children--frightened cries,
+indignant cries, sometimes sharp cries as of pain. She inquired in the
+morning, but was always told the children had been punished for some
+naughtiness. "They were only being beaten." She was not satisfied, and
+tried to find out more through the police. But she feared the police
+were bribed to tell nothing, for she found out nothing through them.
+Later, by means of her medical work, she came full upon the truth. . . .
+"Why leave spaces with dotted lines? Why not write the whole fact?"
+wrote one who did not know what she asked. Once more we repeat it, to
+write the whole fact is impossible.
+
+It is true this is not universal; in our part of the country it is not
+general, for the Temple child is considered of too much value to be
+lightly injured. But it is true beyond a doubt that inhumanity which may
+not be described is possible at any time in any Temple house.
+
+Out in the garden little groups of missionaries walked together and
+talked. From a room near came the sound of a hymn. It was peaceful and
+beautiful everywhere, and the gold of sunset filled the air, and made
+the garden a glory land of radiant wonderful colour. But for one woman
+at least the world turned black. Only the thought of the children nerved
+her to go on.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+The Power behind the Work
+
+          "To Him difficulties are as nothing, and
+          improbabilities of less than no account."--_Story
+          of the China Inland Mission._
+
+
+THE Power behind the work is the interposition of God in answer to
+prayer.
+
+Recently--so recently that it would be unwise to go into detail--we were
+in trouble about a little girl of ten or eleven, who, though not a
+Temple child, was exposed to imminent danger, and sorely needed
+deliverance. I happened to be alone at Dohnavur at the time, and did not
+know what to answer to the child's urgent message: "If I can escape to
+you" (this meant if she braved capture and its consequences, and fled
+across the fields alone at night), "can you protect me from my people?"
+To say "Yes" might have had fatal results. To say "No" seemed too
+impossible. The circumstances were such that great care was needed to
+avoid being entangled in legal complications; and as the Collector
+(Chief Magistrate) for our part of the district happened just then to be
+in our neighbourhood, I wrote asking for an appointment. Early next
+morning we met by the roadside. I had been up most of the night, and was
+tired and anxious; and I shall never forget the comfort that came
+through the quiet sympathy with which one who was quite a stranger to
+us all listened to the story, not as if it were a mere missionary
+trifle, but something worthy his attention. But nothing could be done.
+It was not a case where we had any ground for appeal to the law; and any
+attempt upon our part to help the child could only have resulted in more
+trouble afterwards, for we should certainly have had to give her up if
+she came to us.
+
+As the inevitableness of this conclusion became more and more evident to
+me, it seemed as if a great strong wall were rising foot by foot between
+me and that little girl--a wall like the walls that enclose the Temples
+here, very high, very massive. But even Temple walls have doors, and I
+could not see any door in this wall. Nothing could bring that child to
+us but a Power enthroned above the wall, which could stoop and lift her
+over it. I do not remember what led to the question about what we
+expected would happen; but I remember that with that wall full in view I
+could only answer, "The interposition of God." Nothing else, nothing
+less, could do anything for that child.
+
+Her case was complicated, if I may express it so, by the fact that
+though she knew very little--she had only had a few weeks' teaching and
+could not read--she had believed all we told her most simply and
+literally, and witnessed to her own people, whose reply to her had been:
+"You will see who is stronger, your God or ours! Do you think your Lord
+Jesus can deliver you from our hand, or prevent us from doing as we
+choose with you? We shall see!" And the case of an older girl who had
+been, as those who knew her best believed, drugged and then bent to her
+people's will, was quoted: "Did your Lord Jesus deliver her? Where is
+she to-day? And you think He will deliver you!" "But He will not let you
+hurt me," the child had answered fearlessly, though her strength was
+weakened even then by thirty hours without food; and, remembering one of
+the Bible stories she had heard during those weeks, she added, "I am
+Daniel, and you are the lions"--and she told them how the angel was sent
+to shut the lions' mouths. But she knew so little after all, and the
+bravest can be overborne, and she was only a little girl; so our hearts
+ached for her as we sent her the message: "You must not try to come to
+us. We cannot protect you. But Jesus is with you. He will not fail you.
+He says, 'Fear thou not, for I am with thee.'" That night they shut her
+up with a demon-possessed woman, that the terror of it might shake her
+faith in Christ. Next day they hinted that worse would happen soon. Our
+fear was lest her faith should fail before deliverance came.
+
+Three and a half months of such tension as we have rarely known passed
+over us. Often during that time, when one thing after another happened
+contrariwise, as it appeared, and each event as it occurred seemed to
+add another foot to the wall that still grew higher, help to faith came
+to us through unexpected sources like voices blown on the winds.
+
+Once it was something Lieut. Shackleton is reported to have said to
+Reuter's correspondent concerning his expedition to the South Pole:
+"Over and over again there were times when no mortal leadership could
+have availed us. It was during those times that we learned that some
+Power beyond our own guided our footsteps." And the illustrations which
+followed of Divine interposition were such that one at least who read,
+took courage; for the God of the great Ice-fields is the God of the
+Tropics.
+
+Once it was a passage opened by chance in a friend's book--Pastor
+Agnorum. The subject of the paragraph is the schoolboy's attitude
+towards games: "Glimpses of his mind are sometimes given us, as on that
+day at Risingham when you refused to play in your boys' house-match,
+unless the other house excluded from their team a half-back who was
+under attainder through a recent row. They declined, and you stood out
+of it. The hush in the field when your orphaned team, in defiance of the
+odds, scored and again scored! Their supporters, in chaste awe at the
+marvel, could hardly shout: it was more like a sob: a judgment had so
+manifestly defended the right. The cricket professional, a man naturally
+devout, looked at me with eyes that confessed an interposition, and all
+came away quiet as a crowd from a cemetery. It was not a game of
+football we had looked at, it was a Mystery Play: we had been edified,
+and we hid it in our hearts."
+
+And once, on the darkest day of all, it was the brave old family motto,
+on a letter which came by post: "Dieu defend le droit." It was something
+to be reminded that, in spite of appearances to the contrary, the
+kingdom is the Lord's, and He is Governor among the people.
+
+"Eyes that confessed an interposition." The phrase was illuminated for
+us when God in very truth interposed in such fashion that every one saw
+it was His Hand, for no other hand could have done it. Then we, too,
+looked at each other with eyes that confessed an interposition. We had
+seen that which we should never forget; and until the time comes when it
+may be more fully told to the glory of our God, we have hid it in our
+hearts.
+
+The reason we have outlined the story is to lead to a word we want to
+write very earnestly; it is this: Friends who care for the children, and
+believe this work on their behalf is something God intends should be
+done, "pray as if on that alone hung the issue of the day." More than we
+know depends upon our holding on in prayer.
+
+All through those months there was prayer for that child in India and in
+England. The matter was so urgent that we made it widely known, and some
+at least of those who heard gave themselves up to prayer; not to the
+mere easy prayer which costs little and does less, but to that waiting
+upon God which does not rest till it knows it has obtained access,
+knows that it has the petition that it desires of Him. This sort of
+prayer costs.
+
+But to us down in the thick of the battle, it was strength to think of
+that prayer. We were very weary with hope deferred; for it was as if all
+the human hope in us were torn out of us, and tossed and buffeted every
+way till there was nothing left of it but an aching place where it had
+been. God works by means, as we all admit; and so every fresh
+development in a Court case in which the child was involved, every turn
+of affairs, where her relatives were concerned (and these turns were
+frequent), every little movement which seemed to promise something, was
+eagerly watched in the expectation that in it lay the interposition for
+which we waited. But it seemed as if our hopes were raised only to be
+dashed lower than ever, till we were cast upon the bare word of our God.
+It was given to us then as perhaps never before to penetrate to the
+innermost spring of consolation contained in those very old words: "I
+should utterly have fainted, but that I believe verily to see the
+goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Oh, tarry thou the
+Lord's leisure: be strong, and He shall comfort thine heart; and put
+thou thy trust in the Lord."
+
+This Divine Interposition has been very inspiring. We feel afresh the
+force of the question: "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" And we ask
+those whose hearts are with us to pray for more such manifestations of
+the Power that has not passed with the ages. Lord, teach us to pray!
+
+For it has never been with us, "Come, see, and conquer," as if victory
+were an easy thing and a common. We have known what it is to toil for
+the salvation of some little life, and we have known the bitterness of
+defeat. We have had to stand on the shore of a dark and boundless sea,
+and watch that little white life swept off as by a great black wave. We
+have watched it drift further and further out on those desolate waters,
+till suddenly something from underneath caught it and sucked it down.
+And our very soul has gone out in the cry, "Would God I had died for
+thee!" and we too have gone "to the chamber over the gate" where we
+could be alone with our grief and our God--O little child, loved and
+lost, would God I had died for thee!
+
+Should we forget these things? Should we bury them away lest they hurt
+some sensitive soul? Rather, could we forget them if we would, and dare
+we hide away the knowledge lest somewhere someone should be hurt? For it
+is not as if that black wave's work were a thing of the past: it has
+gone on for centuries unchecked: it is going on to-day.
+
+Several months have passed since the chapters which precede this were
+written. We are now, with some of our converts who needed rest and
+change, in a place under the mountains a day's journey from Dohnavur. It
+is one of the holy places of the South; for the northern tributary of
+the chief river of this district falls over the cliffs at this point in
+a double leap of one hundred and eighty feet, and the waters are so
+disposed over a great rounded shoulder of rock that many people can
+bathe below in a long single file. To this fall thousands of pilgrims
+come from all parts of India, believing that such bathing is meritorious
+and cleanses away all sin. And as they are far from their own homes, and
+in measure out on holiday, we find them more than usually accessible and
+friendly. This morning I was on my way home after talk with the women,
+and was turning for a moment to look back upon the beautiful sorrowful
+scene--the flashing waterfall, the passing crowd of pilgrims, the
+radiance of sunshine on water, wood, and rock, when a Brahman, fresh
+from bathing, followed my look, and glancing at the New Testament and
+bag of Gospels in my hand, smiled indulgently and asked if we seriously
+thought these books and their teaching would ever materially influence
+India. "Look at that crowd," and he pointed to the people, his own caste
+people chiefly. "Have we been influenced?"
+
+Then he told me the story of the Falls, how ages ago a god, pitying the
+sins and the sufferings of the people, bathed on the ledge where the
+waters leap, and thereafter those waters were efficacious to the
+cleansing of sin from the one who believingly bathes. To the one who
+believes not, nothing happens beyond the cleansing of his body and its
+invigoration. "Even to you," he added, in his friendliness, "virtue of a
+sort is allowed; for do you not experience a certain exhilaration and a
+buoyancy of spirit and a pleasure beyond anything obtainable elsewhere
+[which is perfectly true]? This is due to the benevolence of our god,
+whose merits extend even to you."
+
+He was an educated man; he had studied in a mission school, and
+afterwards in a Government college. He had read English books, and parts
+of our Bible were familiar to him. He assured me he found no more
+difficulty in accepting this legend than we did in accepting the story
+of our Saviour's incarnation. And then, standing in the Temple porch
+with its carved stone pillars, almost within touch of the great door
+that opens behind into the shrine, he led the way into the Higher
+Hinduism--that mysterious land which lies all around us in India, but is
+so seldom shown to us. And I listened till in turn he was persuaded to
+listen, and we read together from the Gospel which transcends in its
+simplicity the profoundest reach of Hindu thought: "In the beginning was
+the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." We did not
+pause till we came to the end of the paragraph. I could see how it
+appealed, for deep calleth unto deep; but he rose again up and up, and
+that unknown part of one's being which is more akin to the East than to
+the West, followed him and understood--when the door behind us creaked,
+and a sudden blast of turbulent music sprang out upon us, deafening us
+for a moment, and he said, "It is the morning worship. The priests and
+the Servants of the gods are worshipping within." It was like a fall
+from far-away heights to the very floor of things.
+
+Then he told me how in the town three miles distant, the Benares of the
+South, the service of the gods was conducted with more elaborate
+ceremonial. "I could arrange for you to see it if you wished." I
+explained why I could not wish to see it, and asked him about the
+Servants of the gods, and about the little children. "Certainly there
+are little children. The Servants of the gods adopt them to continue the
+succession. How else could it be continued?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+If this were All
+
+
+AN hour earlier three of us had stood together by the pool at the foot
+of the Falls, and watched the people bathe. At the edge of the rock an
+old grandmother had dealt valiantly with an indignant baby of two, whom,
+despite its struggles, she bathed after prolonged preparation of divers
+anointings, by holding it grimly, kicking and slippery though it was,
+under what must have seemed to it a terrible hurrying horror. When at
+last that baby emerged, it was too crushed in spirit to cry.
+
+Beyond this little domestic scene was a group of half-reluctant women,
+longing and yet fearing to venture under the plunging waters; and beyond
+them again were the bathers, crowding but never jostling each other, on
+the narrow ledge upon and over which the Falls descend. Some were
+standing upright, with bowed heads, under the strong chastisement of the
+nearer heavier fall; some bent under it, as if overwhelmed with the
+thundering thud of its waters. Some were further on, where the white
+furies lash like living whips, and scourge and sting and scurry; and
+there the pilgrims were hardly visible, for the waters swept over them
+like a veil, and they looked in their weirdness and muteness like martyr
+ghosts. Further still some were carefully climbing the steps cut into
+the cliff, or standing as high as they could go upon an unguarded
+projection of rock, with eyes shut and folded hands, entirely oblivious
+apparently to the fact that showers of spray enveloped them, and the
+deep pool lay below.
+
+I had never seen anything quite like this: it was such a strange
+commingling of the beautiful and sorrowful. The women--"fair"-skinned
+Brahman women they chanced to be--were in their usual graceful raiment
+of silk or cotton, all shades of soft reds, crimson, purple, blue,
+lightened with yellow and orange, which in the water looked like dull
+fire. Their golden and silver jewels gleamed in the sunlight, and their
+long black hair hung round faces like the faces one sees in pictures.
+The men wore their ordinary white, and the ascetics the salmon-tinted
+saffron of their profession.
+
+Then, as if to add an ethereal touch to it all, a rainbow spanned the
+Falls at that moment, and we saw the pilgrims through it or arched by it
+as they stood, some at either end of the bow where the colours painted
+the rock and the spray, and some in the space between. The sun struck
+the forest hanging on the steeps above, and it became a vivid thing in
+quick delight of greenness. It was something which, once seen, could
+hardly be forgotten. The triumphant stream of white set deep in the
+heart of a great horseshoe of rock and woods; the delicate, exquisite
+pleasure of colour; and the people in their un-self-consciousness,
+bathing and worshipping just as they wished, with for background rock
+and spray, and for a halo rainbow. To one who looked with sympathy the
+picture was a parable. You could not but see visions: you could not but
+dream dreams.
+
+Then from the quiet heights crept a colony of monkeys, their chatter
+drowned in the roar of the Falls. On they came, wise and quaint, like
+the half-heard whispers of old-time jokes. And they bathed in the mimic
+pools above, as it seemed in imitation of the pilgrims, holding comical
+little heads under the light trickles.
+
+And below the scene changed as a company of widows came and entered the
+Falls. They were all Brahmans and all old, and they shivered in their
+poor scanty garments of coarse white. Most of them were frail with long
+fasting and penance, and they prayed as they stood in the water or
+crouched under its weight. Such a one had sat on the stone under the
+special fall which, as the friend who had taken me observed with more
+forcefulness than sentiment, "comes down like a sack of potatoes." I had
+tried to stand it for a minute, but it pelted and pounded me so that
+less than a minute was enough, and I moved to make room for a Brahman
+widow who was bathing with me. And then she sat down on the stone, and
+the waters beat very heavily on the old grey head; but she sat on in her
+patience, her hands covering her face, and she prayed without one
+moment's intermission. How little she knew of the other prayer that rose
+beside hers through the rushing water--it was the first time I at least
+had ever prayed in a waterfall--"Oh, send forth Thy light and Thy truth;
+let them lead her!" She struggled up at last and caught my hand; then,
+steadying herself with an effort, she felt for the iron rod that
+protects the ledge, and blinded by the driving spray and benumbed by the
+beat of the water, she stumbled slowly out. But the wistful face had a
+look of content upon it, and her only concern was to finish the
+ceremonial out in the sunshine--she had brought her little offerings of
+a few flowers with her--and so, much as I longed to follow her and tell
+her of the cleansing of which this was only a type, it could not have
+been then. Oh, the rest it is at such a time to remember that the Lord
+is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works.
+
+Below the pool, in the broad bed of the stream and on its banks, all was
+animation and happy simple life. Here the women were drying their
+garments, without taking them off, in a clever fashion of their own.
+There some were washing them in the stream. Children played about as
+they willed. But in and among the throng, anywhere, everywhere, we saw
+worshippers, standing or sitting facing the east, alone or in company,
+chanting names for the deity, or adoring and meditating in silence.
+Doubtless some were formal enough, but some were certainly sincere; and
+we felt if this were all there is to know in Hinduism, the time must
+soon come when a people so prepared would recognise in the Saviour and
+Lover of their souls, Him for whom they had been seeking so long, "if
+haply they might feel after Him and find Him."
+
+But this is not all there is to know. Back out of sight behind the
+simple joyousness of life, to which the wholesome waters and the
+sparkling air and the beauty everywhere so graciously ministered, behind
+that wonderful wealth of thought as revealed in the Higher Hinduism
+which is born surely of nothing less than a longing after God--behind
+all this what do we find? Glory of mountain and waterfall, charm and
+delight of rainbow in spray; but what lies behind the coloured veil?
+What symbols are carved into the cliff? Whose name and power do they
+represent?
+
+This book touches one of the hidden things; would that we could forget
+it! Sometimes, through these days as we sat on the rocks by the
+waterside, in the unobtrusive fashion of the Indian religious teacher,
+who makes no noise but waits for those who care to come, we have almost
+forgotten in the happiness of human touch with the people, the lovable
+women and children more especially, that anything dark and wicked and
+sad lay so very near. And then, suddenly as we have told, we have been
+reminded of it. We may not forgot it if we would. It is true that the
+thing we mean is disowned by the spiritual few, but to the multitude it
+is part of their religion. "Of course, Temple women must adopt young
+children; and they must be carefully trained, or they will not be meet
+for the service of the gods." So said the Brahman who only a moment
+before had led me into the mystic land, deep within which he loves to
+dwell: what does the training mean?
+
+A fortnight ago the friend to whom the child is dear took me to see the
+little girl described in a letter from an Indian sister as "a little
+dove in a cage." I did not find that she minded her cage. The bars have
+been gilded, the golden glitter has dazzled the child. She thinks her
+cage a pretty place, and she does not beat against its bars as she did
+in the earlier days of her captivity. As we talked with her we
+understood the change. When first she was taken from school the woman to
+whose training her mother has committed her gave her polluting poetry to
+read and learn, and she shrank from it, and would slip her Bible over
+the open page and read it instead. But gradually the poetry seemed less
+impossible; the atmosphere in which those vile stories grew and
+flourished was all about her; as she breathed it day by day she became
+accustomed to it; the sense of being stifled passed. The process of
+mental acclimatisation is not yet completed, the lovely little face is
+still pure and strangely innocent in its expression; but there is a
+change, and it breaks the heart of the friend who loves her to see it.
+"I must learn my poetry. They will be angry if I do not learn it. What
+can I do?" And again, "Oh, the stories do not mean anything," said with
+a downward glance, as if the child-conscience still protested. But this
+was a fortnight ago. It is worse with that little girl to-day; there is
+less inward revolt; and to-morrow how will it be with her?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+"To Continue the Succession"
+
+
+FOR to-morrow holds no hope for these children so far as our power to
+save them to-day is concerned. It will be remembered that we felt we
+could do more for them by working quietly on our own lines than by
+appealing to the law; but lately, fearing lest we were possibly doing
+the law an injustice by taking it for granted that it was powerless to
+help us, we carefully gathered all the evidence we could about three
+typical children: one a child in moral danger, though not in actual
+Temple danger; another the adopted child of a Temple woman; the third a
+Temple woman's own child: and we submitted this evidence to a keen
+Indian Christian barrister, and asked for his advice.
+
+L., the first child he deals with, the little "dove in the cage," is in
+charge of a woman of bad character, by the consent and arrangement of
+her mother. The mother speaks English as well as an Englishwoman, and
+her eldest son is studying for his degree in a Government college.
+Although Temple service is not intended, the proposed life is such that
+a similar course of training as that to which the Temple child is
+subjected, is now being carried on. This is the barrister's reply to my
+letter:--
+
+"I have carefully perused the statements of the probable witnesses. L.'s
+mother is not a Temple woman, and the foster-mother also is not a Temple
+woman. The law of adoption relating to Temple women does not apply to
+them. The foster-mother, therefore, can have no legal claim to the
+child. But the mother has absolute control over the bringing-up of the
+child, and it would not be possible in the present state of the law to
+do anything for the child now."
+
+S. This is the little one who whispered her texts to me in the
+moonlight, and whose foster-mother told her to tell me she was being
+trained for the Service of the gods. She is evidently destined to be a
+Temple woman. "The first question for consideration is how the old woman
+is related to her. If she is the adopted mother, or if she could
+successfully plead adoption of the child, the Civil Courts will be
+powerless to help. If we can get some reliable evidence that the child
+has not been adopted" (this is impossible) "we may be able to induce the
+British Courts to interfere on her behalf and say she shall not be
+devoted to Temple service until she attains her majority; but it would
+not be possible to induce the Courts to hand the child over to the
+Mission."
+
+K., the little girl whose own mother is a Temple woman. She has been
+taught dancing, which to our mind was conclusive proof of her mother's
+intentions. To make sure we asked the question, to which the following
+is the reply: "No children of [good] Hindu parents are taught dancing.
+Even the lowest caste woman thinks it beneath her dignity to dance,
+excepting professional devil-dancers, who are generally old women,
+mostly widows, of an hysterical temperament. When young children of
+women of doubtful character are taught dancing, it means they are going
+to be married to the idol. When children of Temple women are taught
+dancing the presumption is all the greater. But the difficulty in the
+case of K. is to get one who has higher claims to guardianship than the
+mother. In the case of a Temple woman's child there is no one.
+
+"It is this which makes it impossible for the well-wishers of the
+children to interfere. . . . The law punishes only the offence committed
+and not the intent to commit, or even the preparation, unless it amounts
+to an attempt under the Penal Code."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Bluebeards are not an institution in England; but if they were, and if
+one of the order were known to possess a cupboardful of pendent heads,
+would Englishmen sit quiet while he whetted his butcher's knife quite
+calmly on his doorstep? Would they say as he sat there in untroubled
+assurance of safety, feeling the edge of the blade with his thumb, and
+muttering almost audibly the name of his intended victim, "We have no
+right to interfere, he is only sharpening his knife; an intent to
+commit, or even the preparation for crime, is not punishable by law,
+unless it amounts to an attempt, and he has not 'attempted' yet."
+Surely, if such intent were not punishable it very soon would be. It
+would be found possible--who can doubt it?--to frame a new law, or amend
+the old one, so as to deal with Bluebeards. And a Committee of Vigilance
+would be appointed to ensure its effectual working.
+
+Of course, the simile is absurdly inadequate, and breaks down at several
+important points, and the circumstances are vastly more difficult in
+India than they ever could be in England, just because India is India;
+but will it not at least be admitted that the law meant in kindness to
+the innocent is fatal to our purpose?--which is to save the children
+while they are still innocent.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We do not want to ask for anything unreasonable, but it seems to us that
+the law concerning adoption requires revision. In Mayne's _Hindu Law and
+Usage_ it is stated that among Temple women it is customary in Madras
+and Pondicherry and in Western India to adopt girls to follow their
+adopted mother's profession: and the girls so adopted succeed to their
+property; no particular ceremonies are necessary, recognition alone
+being sufficient. In Calcutta and Bombay such adoptions have been held
+illegal, but in the Madras Presidency they are held to be legal. In a
+case where the validity of such adoption was questioned, the Madras High
+Court affirmed it, and it has now, "by a series of decisions, adopted
+the rule . . . which limits the illegality of adoption to cases where
+they involve the commission of an offence under the Criminal Code."
+This, as we have said, makes it entirely impossible to save the child
+through the law before her training is complete; and after it is
+complete it is too late to save her. Train a child from infancy to look
+upon a certain line of life as the one and only line for her, make the
+prospect attractive, and surround her with every possible unholy
+influence; in short, bend the twig and keep it bent for the greater part
+of sixteen years, or even only six--is there much room for doubt as to
+how it will grow? An heir to the property may be required; but with the
+facts of life before us, can we be content to allow the adoption of a
+child by a Temple woman to be so legalised that even if it can be proved
+to a moral certainty that her intention is to "continue the succession,"
+nothing can be done?
+
+Then as to the guardianship: again we do not want to ask too much, but
+surely if it can be shown that no one else has moved to save the child
+(which argues that no one else has cared much about her salvation) we
+should not be disqualified for guardianship on the sole ground that we
+are not related? In such a case the relatives are the last people with
+whom she would be safe. An order may go forth from that nebulous and
+distant Impersonality, the British Government, to the effect that a
+certain child is not to be dedicated to gods during her minority. But
+far away in their villages the people smile at a simplicity which can
+imagine that commands can eventually affect purposes. They may delay the
+fulfilment of such purpose; but India can afford to wait.
+
+_We would have the law so amended, that whoever has been in earnest
+enough about the matter to try to save the child from destruction,
+should be given the right to protect her, if in spite of the odds
+against him he has honestly fought through a case and won._
+
+"Is it not a sad thing," writes the Indian barrister--we quote his words
+because they seem to us worthy of notice at home--"that a Christian
+Government is unable to legislate to save the children of Temple women?
+I am sorry my opinion has made you sad. Giving my opinion as a lawyer, I
+could not take an optimistic view of the matter. _The law as it stands
+at present is against reform in matters of this kind._ Even should a
+good judge take a strong view of the matter, the High Court will stick
+to the very letter of the law."
+
+So that, as things are, it comes to this: We must stand aside and watch
+the cup of poison being prepared--so openly prepared that everyone knows
+for which child it is being mixed. We must stand and wait and do
+nothing. We must see the little girl led up to the cup and persuaded to
+taste it. We must watch her gradually growing to like it, for it is
+flavoured and sweet. We must not beckon to her before she has drunk of
+it and say, "Come to us and we will tell you what is in that cup, and
+keep you safely from those who would make you drink it"; for "any
+attempt to induce the child to come to you, or any assistance given to
+help her to escape to you, would render you liable to prosecution for
+kidnapping--a criminal offence under the Penal Code." Any one of us
+would gladly go to prison if it would save the child; but the trouble
+is, it would not: for the law could only return her to her lawful
+guardians from whose hold we unlawfully detached her. We, not they,
+would be in the wrong; they did nothing unlawful in only preparing the
+cup. Does someone say that we put the case unfairly--that the law does
+not forbid us to warn the child, it only forbids us to snatch her away
+when the cup is merely being offered her? But remember, in our part of
+India at least, these cups are not given in public. The preparation is
+public enough, the bare tasting is public too; but the cup in its
+fulness is given in private, and once given, the poison works with
+stealthy but startling rapidity. Warn the child before she has drunk of
+it, and she does not understand you. Warn her after she has drunk, and
+the poison holds her from heeding.
+
+Besides, to be very practical, what is the use of warning if we may only
+warn? Suppose our one isolated word weighs with the child against the
+word of mother or adopted mother, and all who stand for home to her;
+suppose she says (she would very rarely have the courage for any such
+proposal, but suppose she does say it): "May I come to you? and will you
+show me the way, for it is such a long way and I do not know how to find
+it? I should be so frightened, alone in the night" (the only time escape
+would be possible), "for I know they would run after me, and they can
+run faster than I!" What may we say to her? What may I say to the
+Harebell supposing she asks me this question? She is only six, and there
+are six long miles over broken country between her home and ours. We
+could not find it ourselves in the dark. But supposing she dared it all,
+and an angel were sent to guide her, have we any right to protect her?
+None whatever. If there are parents, or a parent, they or she have the
+right of parentage; if an adopted mother, the right of adoption.[F]
+
+We know that the law is framed to protect the good, and the rights of
+parentage cannot be too carefully guarded; but to one who has not a
+legal mind, but only sees a little girl in danger of her life, and has
+to stand with hands tied by a law intended to deal with totally
+different matters, it seems strange that things should be so. This is
+not the moment (if ever there is such a moment) to choose, for
+deliberate lawlessness; but there are times when the temptation is
+strong to break the law in the hope that, once broken, it may be
+amended. Only those who have had to go through it know what it is to
+stand and see that cup of poison being prepared for an unsuspicious
+child.
+
+The last sentence in the barrister's letter begins with "I despair." The
+sentence is too pungent in its outspoken candour to copy into a book
+which may come back to India: "I despair": then unto Thee we turn, O
+Lord our God; for now, Lord, what is our hope? truly our hope is even in
+Thee: oh, help us against the enemy; for vain is the help of man. Hath
+God forgotten to be gracious? Will the Lord absent Himself for ever? O
+God, wherefore art Thou absent from us for so long? Look upon the
+Covenant, for all the earth is full of darkness and cruel habitations.
+Surely Thou hast seen it, for Thou beholdest ungodliness and wrong. The
+wicked boasteth of his heart's desire. He sitteth in the lurking-places
+of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent. He
+saith in his heart, "God hath forgotten: He hideth His face; He will
+never see it." Arise, O Lord God, lift up Thine hand! Up, Lord,
+disappoint him, and cast him down; deliver the children! Show Thy
+marvellous lovingkindness, Thou that art the Saviour of them which put
+their trust in Thee, from such as resist Thy right hand. Thy voice is
+mighty in operation: the voice of the Lord is a glorious voice. We wait
+for Thy lovingkindness, O God: be merciful unto the children: O God, be
+merciful unto the children, for our soul trusteth in Thee, and we call
+unto the Most High God, even unto the God that shall perform the cause
+which we have in hand. For Thou hast looked down from Thy sanctuary; out
+of heaven did the Lord behold the earth, that He might hear the
+mournings of such as are in captivity, and deliver the children
+appointed to death. Arise, O God, maintain Thine own cause! Our hope is
+in Thee, Who helpeth them to right that suffer wrong. The Lord looseth
+the prisoners. God is unto us a God of deliverances. Power belongeth
+unto Thee. Our soul hangeth upon Thee: Thou shalt show us wonderful
+things in Thy righteousness, O God of our salvation, Thou that art the
+hope of all the ends of the earth. And all men that see it shall say,
+This hath God done; for they shall perceive that it is His work. He
+shall deliver the children's souls from falsehood and wrong; for God is
+our King of old; the help that is done upon earth He doeth it Himself.
+Sure I am, the Lord will avenge the poor, and maintain the cause of the
+helpless. Why art thou so heavy, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted
+within me? Oh, put thy trust in God; for I will yet praise Him which is
+the help of my countenance and my God!
+
+Are there any prayers like the old psalms in their intense sincerity? In
+the times when our heart is wounded within us we turn to these ancient
+human cries, and we find what we want in them.
+
+Let us pray for the children of this generation being trained now "to
+continue the succession," whom nothing less than a Divine interposition
+can save. The hunters on these mountains dig pits to ensnare the poor
+wild beasts, and they cover them warily with leaves and grass: this
+sentence about the succession is just such a pit, with words for leaves
+and grass. Let us pray for miracles to happen where individual children
+are concerned, that the little feet in their ignorance may be hindered
+from running across those pits, for the fall is into miry clay, and the
+sides of the pit are slippery and very steep.
+
+More and more as we go on, and learn our utter inability to move a
+single pebble by ourselves, and the mighty power of God to upturn
+mountains with a touch, we realise how infinitely important it is to
+know how to pray. There is the restful prayer of committal to which the
+immediate answer is peace. We could not live without this sort of
+prayer; we should be crushed and overborne, and give up broken-hearted
+if it were not for that peace. But the Apostle speaks of another prayer
+that is wrestle, conflict, "agony." And if these little children are to
+be delivered and protected after their deliverance, and trained that if
+the Lord tarry and life's fierce battle has to be fought--and for them
+it may be very fierce--all that will be attempted against them shall
+fall harmless at their feet like arrows turned to feather-down; then
+some of us must be strong to meet the powers that will combat every inch
+of the field with us, and some of us must learn deeper things than we
+know yet about the solemn secret of prevailing prayer.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[F] To-day (February 16, 1912) as I go through proofs of the second
+edition, I hear by post of a young girl in a distant city who lately
+escaped to a missionary, and asked for what he could not give
+her--protection. She had to return to her own home. In her despair, she
+drowned herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV
+
+What if she misses her Chance?
+
+          "Who would be planted chooseth not the soil
+           Or here or there, . . .
+           Lord even so
+           I ask one prayer,
+           The which if it be granted
+           It skills not where
+           Thou plantest me, only I would be planted."
+
+                                          T. E. BROWN.
+
+
+TWO pictures of two evenings rise as I write. One is of an English
+fireside in a country house. The lamps have been lighted, and the
+curtains drawn. The air is full of the undefined scent of
+chrysanthemums, and the stronger sweetness of hyacinths comes from a
+stand in the window. Curled up in a roomy arm-chair by the fire sits a
+girl with a kitten asleep on her lap. She is reading a missionary book.
+
+The other this: a white carved cupola in the centre of a piece of water
+enclosed by white walls. People are sitting on the walls and pressing
+close about them in their thousands. A gorgeous barge is floating slowly
+round the shrine. There is very little moon, but the whole place is
+alight; sometimes the water is ablaze with ruby and amber; this fades,
+and a weird blue-green shimmers across the barge, and electric lamps at
+the corners of the square lend brilliancy to the scene. The barge is
+covered with crimson trappings, and hundreds of wreaths of white
+oleander hang curtain-wise round what is within--the god and goddess
+decked with jewels and smothered in flowers. Round and round the barge
+is poled, and in the coloured light all that is gaudy and tawdry is
+toned, and becomes only oriental and impressive; and the white shrine in
+the centre reflected in the calm coloured water appears in its
+alternating dimness, and shining more like a fairy creation than common
+handiwork.
+
+We who were at the festival, three of us laden with packets of marked
+Gospels, met sometimes as we wandered about unobserved, losing ourselves
+in the crowd, that we might the more quietly continue that for which we
+were there; and in one such chance meeting we spoke of the English girl
+by the fireside, and longed to show her what we saw; and to show it with
+such earnestness that she would be drawn to inquire where her Master had
+most need of her. But no earnestness of writing can do much after all.
+It is true the eye affects the heart, and we would show what we have
+seen in the hope that even the second-hand sight might do something; but
+words are clumsy, and cannot discover to another that poignant thing the
+eye has power to transmit to the heart. And it is well that it is so,
+for something stronger and more consuming than human emotion can ever be
+must operate upon the heart if the life is to be moved to purpose. "A
+moving story" is worth little if it only moves the feelings. How far out
+of its selfish track does it move the life into ways of sacrifice? That
+is the question that matters. What if it cost? Did not Calvary cost?
+Away with the cold, calculating love that talks to itself about cost!
+God give us a pure passion of love that knows nothing of hesitation and
+grudging, and measuring, nothing of compromise! What if it seem
+impossible to face all that surrender may mean? Is there not provision
+for the impossible? "In the Old Testament we find that in almost every
+case of people being clothed with the Spirit it was for things which
+were impossible to them. To be filled with the Spirit means readiness
+for Him to take us out of our present sphere and put us anywhere away
+from our own choice into His choice for us." These words hold a message
+alike for us as we meet and pass in that Indian crowd, and for the girl
+by the fireside at home who wants to know her Lord's will that she may
+do it, and whose heart's prayer is: "May Thy grace, O Lord, make that
+possible to me which is impossible by nature."
+
+Let us have done with limitations, let us be simply sincere. How ashamed
+we shall be by and by of our insincerities:--
+
+          Thy vows are on me, oh to serve Thee truly,
+            Pants, pants my soul to perfectly obey!
+          Burn, burn, O Fire, O Wind, now winnow throughly!
+            Constrain, inspire to follow all the way!
+                Oh that in me
+                Thou, my Lord, may see
+                Of the travail of Thy soul,
+                And be satisfied.
+
+We had only a few hours to spend in the town of the Floating Festival;
+and being anxious to discover how things were among the Temple
+community, I spent the first hour in their quarter, a block of
+substantial buildings each in its own compound, near the Temple. I saw
+the house from which two of our dearest children came, delivered by a
+miracle; it looked like a fortress with its wall all round, and upstairs
+balcony barred by a trellis. The street door was locked as the women
+were at the Festival. In another of less dignified appearance I saw a
+pretty woman of about twenty, dressed in pale blue and gold, evidently
+just ready to go out. One of those abandoned beings whose function it is
+to secure little children "to continue the succession" was in the house,
+and so nothing could be attempted but the most casual conversation. All
+the other houses in the block were locked as the women were out; but I
+saw a new house outside, built in best Indian style, and finely
+finished. It had been built for, and given as a free gift, to a noted
+Temple woman.
+
+These houses would open, in the missionary sense of the word, but not in
+an afternoon. It would take time and careful endeavour to win an
+entrance. Such a worker would need to be one whom no disappointment
+could discourage, a woman to whom the word had been spoken, "Go, love,
+. . . according to the love of the Lord." When will such a worker come?
+
+As I left the Temple quarter, I met my two companions who had been at
+work elsewhere, and we walked together to the place of festival.
+Tripping gaily along in front was a little maid with flowers in her
+hair. It was easy to know who she was, there was something in the very
+step that marked the light-footed Temple child. Poor little
+all-unconscious illustration of India's need of God!
+
+Later on we saw the same illustration again, lighted up like a great
+transparency, the focus for a thousand eyes. For on the dais of the
+barge, in the place of honour nearest the idols, stood three women and a
+child. The women were swathed in fold upon fold of rich violet silk,
+sprinkled all over with tinsel and gold; they were crowned with white
+flowers, wreathed round a golden ornament like a full moon set in their
+dark hair; and the effect of the whole, seen in the luminous flush of
+colour thrown upon them from the shore, was as if the night sky
+sparkling with stars had come down and robed them where they stood. Then
+when it paled, and sheet-lightning played, as it seemed, across water
+and barge and shrine, the effect was wholly mysterious. The three
+swaying forms--for they swayed keeping time to the music that never
+ceased--resembled one's idea of goddesses rather than familiar
+womenkind. To the Indian mind it was beautiful, bewilderingly beautiful;
+and the simple country-folk around drew deep breaths of admiration as
+they passed.
+
+The little girl looked more human. She too was in violet silk and
+spangles and gold, and her little head was wreathed with flowers. It may
+have been her first Floating Festival, for she gazed about her with eyes
+full of guileless wonder, and the woman beside whom she stood laid a
+light, protecting hand upon her shoulder.
+
+That little child! How the sight of her held us in pity as the barge
+sailed slowly round. She was so near to us at times that we could almost
+have touched her when the barge came near the wall; and yet she was
+utterly remote, miles of space might have lain between; it was as if we
+and she belonged to different planets. And yet our little ones who might
+have been as she, were so close--we could almost feel their loving
+little arms round our necks at that moment--this child, how far away she
+was! Had one of us set foot on the place where she stood, the friendly
+thousands about us would have changed in a second into indignant furies,
+and so long as the memory of such impiety remained no white face would
+have been welcome at the Floating Festival.
+
+We stood by the wall awhile and watched; the sorrow of it all sank into
+us. There in the holiest place of all, according to their thinking,
+close to the emblems of deity, they had set this grievous perversion of
+the holy and the pure. Right on the topmost pinnacle of everything known
+as religious there they had enthroned it, and robed it in starlight and
+crowned it as queens are crowned. "Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of
+holiness!" "One thing have I desired of the Lord . . . to behold the fair
+beauty of the Lord"--such words open chasms of contrast. God pity them;
+like those of old, they know not what they do.
+
+We came away, our books all sold and our strength of voice spent out,
+for everywhere people had listened; and as we came home, strong
+thanksgiving filled our hearts, thanks and praise unspeakable for the
+little lives safe in our nursery, for the two especially who but for
+God's interposition might have been on that barge--and oh, from the
+ground of our heart we were grateful that He had not let us miss His
+will concerning these little children. We thought of those special two
+with their dear little innocent ways. We could not think of them on the
+barge. We could not bear to think of it--again and again we thanked God,
+with humble adoring thanksgiving, that He kept us from missing our
+chance.
+
+But the mere thinking of that intolerable thought brought us back upon
+another thought. What of that girl by the fireside? What if she misses
+her chance? We know, for letters confess it, that many a life has missed
+its chance. What of the woman, strong and keen, with pent-up energies
+waiting for she knows not what? What of the girl by the fireside
+crushing down the sense of an Under-call that will not let her rest? The
+work to which that Call would lead her will not be anything great: it
+will only mean little humble everyday doings wherever she is sent. But
+if the Call is a true Call from heaven, it will change to a song as she
+obeys; and through all the afterward of life, through all the loneliness
+that may come, through all the disillusions when her "dreams of fair
+romance which no day brings" slip away from her--and the usual and
+commonplace are all about her--then and for ever that song of the Lord
+will sing itself through the quiet places of her soul, and she will be
+sure--with the sureness that is just pure peace--that she is where her
+Master meant her to be.
+
+Not that we would write as if obedience must always mean service in the
+foreign field. We know it is not so: we know it may be quite the
+opposite; but shall we not be forgiven if we sometimes wonder how it is
+that with so much earnest Church life at home, with so many evangelistic
+campaigns, and conventions, there is so poor an output so far as these
+lands abroad are concerned? Can it be that so many are meant to stay at
+home? We would never urge any individual friend to come, far less would
+we plead for numbers, however great the need; we would only say this:
+Will the girl by the fireside, if such a one reads this book, lay the
+book aside, and spend an hour alone with her Lord? Will she, if she is
+in doubt about His will, wait upon Him to show it to her? Will she ask
+Him to fit her to obey? "And this I wish to do, this I desire;
+whatsoever is wanting in me, do Thou, I beseech Thee, vouchsafe to
+supply."
+
+Forgive if we seem to intrude upon holy ground, but sometimes we see in
+imagination some great gathering of God's people, and we hear them
+singing hymns; and sometimes the beautiful words change into others not
+beautiful, but only insistent:--
+
+          The Lord our God arouse us! We are sleeping,
+            Dreaming we wake, while through the heavy night
+          Hardly perceived, the foe moves on unchallenged,
+            Glad of the dream that doth delay the fight.
+          O Christ our Captain, lead us out to battle!
+            Shame on the sloth of soldiers of the light!
+
+                 *       *       *       *       *
+
+          Good Shepherd, Jesus, pitiful and tender,
+            To whom the least of straying lambs is known,
+          Grant us Thy love that wearieth not, nor faileth;
+            Grant us to seek Thy wayward sheep that roam
+          Far on the fell, until we find and fold them
+            Safe in the love of Thee, their own true home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+"Thy Sweet Original Joy"
+
+          Beacons of hope, ye appear!
+          Languor is not in your heart,
+          Weakness is not in your word,
+          Weariness not on your brow.
+
+
+WITHIN the last few months a friend, a lover of books, sent me _The
+Trial and Death of Socrates_, translated into English by F. J. Church.
+Opening it for the first time, I came upon this passage:--
+
+_Socrates:_ "Does a man who is in training, and who is in earnest about
+it, attend to the praise and blame of all men, or of the one man who is
+doctor or trainer?"
+
+_Crito:_ "He attends only to the opinion of the one man."
+
+_Socrates:_ "Then he ought to fear the blame and welcome the praise of
+the one man, not the many?"
+
+_Crito:_ "Clearly."
+
+And Socrates sums the argument thus: "To be brief; is it not the same in
+everything?"
+
+Surely the wise man spoke the truth: it is the same in everything. The
+one thing that matters is the opinion of the One. If He is satisfied,
+all is well. If He is dissatisfied, the commendation of the many is as
+froth. "Blessed are the single-hearted, for they shall have much peace."
+
+But Nature is full of pictures of bright companionship in service; the
+very stars shine in constellations. This book of the skies has been
+opening up to us of late. Who, to whom the experience is new, will
+forget the first evenings spent with even a small telescope, but
+powerful enough to distinguish double stars and unveil nebulae? You look
+and see a single point of light, and you look again and twin suns float
+like globes of fire on a midnight sea; and sometimes one flashes golden
+yellow and the other blue, each the complement of the other, like two
+perfectly responsive friends. You look and see a little lonely cloud, a
+breath of transparent mist; you look and see spaces sprinkled with
+diamond dust, or something even more awesome, reaches of radiance that
+seem to lie on the borderland of Eternity.
+
+And the shining glory lingers and lights up the common day, for the
+story of the sky is the story of life.
+
+          Far was the Call, and farther as I followed
+          Grew there a silence round my Lord and me--
+
+is for ever the inner story, as for ever the stars must move alone,
+however close they are set in constellations or strewn in clusters; but
+in another sense is it not true that there is the joy of companionship
+and the pure inspiration of comradeship? God fits twin souls together
+like twin suns; and sometimes, with delicate thought for even the
+sensitive pleasure of colour, it is as if He arranged them so that the
+gold and the blue coalesce.
+
+And we think of the places which were once blank, mere misty nothings to
+us. They sparkle now with friends. Some of them are familiar friends
+known through the wear and tear of life; some we shall never see till we
+meet above the stars. And there the nebula speaks its word of mystery
+beyond mystery, but all illuminated by the light from the other side.
+
+In the work of which these chapters have told there has been the
+wonderful comfort of sympathy and help from fellow-missionaries of our
+own and sister missions; and, as all who have read, understand, nothing
+could have been done without the loyal co-operation of our Indian
+fellow-workers whose tenderness and patience can never be described. We
+think of the friends in the mission houses along the route of our long
+journeyings; we remember how no hour was too inconvenient to receive us
+and our tired baby travellers; we think of those who in weariness and
+painfulness have sought for the little children; and we think of those
+who have made the work possible by being God's good Ravens to us. We
+think of them all, and we wish their names could be written on the cover
+of this book instead of the name least worthy to be there. And now
+latest and nearest comfort and blessing, there are the two new
+"Sitties," whose first day with us made them one of us. What shall I
+render unto the Lord for all His benefits towards me?
+
+The future is full of problems. Even now in these Nursery days questions
+are asked that are more easily asked than answered. We should be afraid
+if we looked too far ahead, so we do not look. We spend our strength on
+the day's work, the nearest "next thing" to our hands. But we would be
+blind and heedless if we made no provision for the future. We want to
+gather and lay up in store against that difficult time (should it ever
+come) a band of friends for the children, who will stand by them in
+prayer.
+
+There has been another compelling influence. We recognise something in
+the Temple-children question which touches a wider issue than the
+personal or missionary. Those who have read _Queen Victoria's Letters_
+must have become conscious of a certain enlargement. Questions become
+great or dwindle into nothingness according as they affect the honour
+and the good of the Empire. We find ourselves instinctively "thinking
+Imperially," regarding things from the Throne side--from above instead
+of from below.
+
+We fear exaggerated language. We would not exaggerate the importance of
+these little children or their cause. We have said that we realise, as
+we did not when first this work began, how very delicate and difficult a
+matter it would be for Government to take any really effective action,
+and less than effective action is useless. We recognise the value of our
+pledge of neutrality in religious matters, and we know what might happen
+if Government moved in a line which to India might appear to be contrary
+to the spirit of that pledge. It would be far better if India herself
+led the way and declared, as England declared when she passed the
+Industrial Schools Amendment Act of 1880, that she will not have her
+little children demoralised in either Temple houses recognised as such,
+or in any similar houses, such as those which abound in areas where the
+Temple child nominally is non-existent. But must we wait till India
+leads the way? Scattered all over the land there are men who are against
+this iniquity, and would surely be in favour of such legislation as
+would make for its destruction. But few would assert that the people as
+a whole are even nearly ready. A great wave of the Power of God, a great
+national turning towards Him, would, we know, sweep the iniquity out of
+the land as the waters of the Alpheus swept the stable-valley clean, in
+the old classic story. Oh for such a sudden flow of the River of God,
+which is full of water! But must we wait until it comes? Did we wait
+until India herself asked for the abolition of suttee? Surely what is
+needed is such legislation as has been found necessary at home, which
+empowers the magistrate to remove a child from a dangerous house, and
+deprives parents of all parental rights who are found responsible for
+its being forced into wrong. Surely such action would be Imperially
+right; and can a thing right in itself and carried out with a wise
+earnestness, ever eventually do harm? Must it not do good in the end,
+however agitating the immediate result may appear? Surely the one calm
+answer, "_It is Right_," will eventually silence all protest and still
+all turbulence!
+
+Such a law, it is well to understand at the outset, will always be
+infinitely more difficult to enforce in India than in England, because
+of the immensely greater difficulty here in getting true evidence; and
+because--unless that River of God flow through the land--there will be
+for many a year the force of public opinion as a whole against us, or if
+not actively against, then inert and valueless. Caste feeling will come
+in and shield and circumvent and get behind the law. The Indian
+sensitiveness concerning Custom will be all awake and tingling with a
+hidden but intense vitality; and this, which is inevitable because
+natural, will have to be taken into account in every attempt made to
+enforce the law. The whole situation bristles with difficulties; but are
+difficulties an argument for doing nothing?
+
+"Whoever buys hires or otherwise obtains possession of, whoever sells
+lets to hire or otherwise disposes of any minor under sixteen with the
+intent that such minor shall be employed or used for . . . any unlawful
+purpose or knowing it likely that such minor will be employed or used
+for any such purpose shall be liable to imprisonment up to a term of ten
+years and is also liable to a fine."
+
+_But_ where it appeared that certain minor girls were being taught
+singing and dancing and were being made to accompany their grandmother
+and Temple woman to the Temple with a view to qualify them as Temple
+women, it was held that this did not amount to a disposal of the minors
+within the meaning of the section.
+
+Ought this interpretation of the Indian Penal Code to be possible? The
+proof the law requires at present, proof of the sale of the child or its
+definite dedication to the idol, is rarely obtainable. The fact that it
+is being taught singing and dancing (although it is well known, as the
+barrister's letter proves, that among orthodox Hindus such arts are
+never taught to little children except when the intention is bad) is not
+considered sufficient evidence upon which to base a conviction. To us it
+seems that the presence of the child in such a house, or in any house of
+known bad character, is sufficient proof that it is in danger of the
+worst wrong that can be inflicted upon a defenceless child--the
+demoralisation of its soul, the spoiling of its whole future life,
+before it has ever had a chance to know and choose the good.
+
+[Illustration: From the Rock, Dohnavur.]
+
+And so we write it finally as our solemn conviction that there is need
+for a law like our own English law, and we add--and those who know India
+know how true this sentence is--_such legislation, however carefully
+framed, will be a delusion, a blind, a dead letter, unless men of no
+ordinary insight and courage and character are appointed to see that it
+is carried out_.
+
+God grant that these chapters, written in weakness, may yet do something
+towards moving the Church to such prayer that the answer will be, as
+once before, that an angel will be sent to open the doors of the
+prison-house!
+
+The frontispiece shows the rock to which we go sometimes when we feel
+the need of a climb and a blow. It is associated in our minds with a
+story:--"Between the passages by which Jonathan sought to go over unto
+the Philistines' garrison there was a sharp rock on the one side and a
+sharp rock on the other side. . . . And Jonathan said to the young man
+that bare his armour: 'Come and let us go over unto the garrison of
+these uncircumcised: it may be that the Lord will work for us: for there
+is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few.' And his
+armour-bearer said unto him: 'Do all that is in thine heart: turn thee,
+behold I am with thee according to thy heart.'"
+
+We have a rock to climb, and there is nothing the least romantic
+about it. We shall have to climb it "upon our hands and upon our feet."
+It is all grim earnest. "We make our way wrapped in glamour to the
+Supreme Good, the summit," writes Guido Rey, the mountaineer, in the joy
+of his heart. But later it is: "One precipice fell away at my feet, and
+another rose above me. . . . It was no place for singing." Friends, we
+shall come to such places on the Matterhorn of life. As we follow the
+Gleam wherever it leads, may we count upon the upholding of those for
+whom we have written--the lovers of little children?
+
+And now, in conclusion, all I would say has already been so perfectly
+said, that I cannot do better than copy from the writings of two who
+fought a good fight and have been crowned--Miss Ellice Hopkins, brave,
+sensitive, soldier-soul on the hardest of life's battlefields; and
+George Herbert, courtier, poet, and saint. "Often in that nameless
+discouragement," wrote Miss Hopkins, as she lay slowly dying, "before
+unfinished tasks, unfulfilled aims and broken efforts, I have thought of
+how the creative Word has fashioned the opal, made it of the same stuff
+as desert sands, mere silica--not a crystallised stone like the diamond,
+but rather a stone with a broken heart, traversed by hundreds of small
+fissures which let in the air, the breath, as the Spirit is called in
+the Greek of our Testament; and through those two transparent mediums of
+such different density it is enabled to refract the light, and reflect
+every lovely hue of heaven, while at its heart burns a mysterious spot
+of fire. When we feel, therefore, as I have often done, nothing but
+cracks and desert dust, we can say: So God maketh His precious opal!"
+
+We would never willingly disguise one fraction of the truth in our
+desire to win sympathy and true co-operation. There will be hours of
+nameless discouragement for all who climb the rock. For some there will
+be the "broken heart."
+
+And yet there is a joy that is worth it all a thousand times--well worth
+it all. Who that has known it will doubt it? This reach of water
+recalls it. The palms, as we look at them, seem to lift their heads in
+solemn consciousness of it. For the water-side--where we stand with
+those for whom we have travailed in soul, when for the first time they
+publicly confess their faith in Christ--is a sacred place to us.
+
+[Illustration: THE PLACE OF BAPTISM.]
+
+Has our story wandered sometimes into sorrowful ways? To be true it has
+to be sorrowful sometimes. We look back to the day of its beginning, the
+day that our first little Temple child came and opened a new door to us.
+
+          Since that time many a bitter storm
+          My soul hath felt, e'en able to destroy,
+          Had the malicious and ill-meaning harm
+                  His swing and sway;
+          But still Thy sweet original joy
+          Sprung from Thine eye did work within my soul,
+          And surging griefs when they grew bold control,
+                  And got the day.
+
+It is true. Many a bitter storm has come; there have been the shock and
+the darkness of new knowledge of evil, and grief beside which all other
+pain pales, the grief of helplessness in the face of unspeakable wrong.
+But still, above and within, and around, like an atmosphere, like a
+fountain, there has been something bright, even that "sweet original
+joy" which nothing can darken or quench.
+
+          If Thy first glance so powerful be
+          A mirth but opened and sealed up again,
+          What wonders shall we feel when we shall see
+                Thy full-orbed love!
+          When Thou shalt look us out of pain,
+          And one aspect of Thine spend in delight,
+          More than a thousand worlds' disburse in light
+                In heaven above!
+
+And not alone, oh, not alone, shall we see Him as He is! There will be
+the little children too.
+
+_Those who care to know how the Temple Children's work began will find
+the story in_ "THINGS AS THEY ARE." _Preface by Eugene Stock; 320 pp.
+and Thirty-two Illustrations from Photographs taken specially for this
+work. Cloth, 2s. 6d. net (post free 2s. 10d.) Also,_ "OVERWEIGHTS OF
+JOY." _Preface by Rev. T. Walker, C.M.S. With Thirty-four Illustrations
+chiefly from Photographs taken specially for this work. Cloth, 2s. 6d.
+net (post free 2s. 10d.), Morgan & Scott Ld., 12, Paternoster Buildings,
+London._
+
+
+
+ONLY A LIMITED NUMBER OF COPIES REMAIN
+
+OF THE
+
+
+ORIGINAL EDITION OF
+
+LOTUS BUDS
+
+
+CONTAINING
+
+FIFTY PHOTOGRAVURE ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Cloth Boards, 14s. 6d. _net_ (_post free_, 15s.).
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"THE MOST STRIKING MISSIONARY BOOK EVER PUBLISHED."
+
+_Her Majesty Queen Alexandra graciously accepted a copy._
+
+          "The feature of the book is fifty photogravure
+          illustrations from photographs specially taken of
+          the children. Many of these--indeed, all of
+          them--are very charming. Some of them are mere
+          babies, others of larger growth, but in each case
+          the photographer has succeeded in presenting
+          pictures which will elicit high admiration. The
+          laughing faces, curly hair, and fine physical
+          development of the little Indians, make
+          photographs exceedingly attractive. Indeed, we
+          have never seen a more 'taking' series of children
+          of the Orient. . . . The book will interest not only
+          supporters of missions but all lovers of
+          children."--_The Westminster Gazette._
+
+          "The photogravure illustrations--fifty in
+          number--are perfect as works of art. Some are
+          pictures of scenery; most are characteristic
+          representations of the children. All are
+          full-page."--_British Weekly._
+
+          ". . . the beautiful little faces depicted in the
+          photogravures which adorn the volume. There are
+          fifty of these photogravures in the book, the
+          major portion being of children, and we regard it
+          as extremely improbable that more splendid
+          pictures are to be found in any other
+          work."--_Baby._
+
+          "The most wonderful photographs."--_Contemporary
+          Review._
+
+          "We have seldom seen more attractive illustrations
+          than those of the Indian children which are here
+          reproduced."--_East and West._
+
+          "They are the finest photographs of children we
+          have ever seen, and beautifully produced."--_The
+          Record._
+
+          "We must, in conclusion, compliment all concerned
+          in the manner in which this appeal for the
+          children has been issued--the author, the artist,
+          and the publishers (Messrs. Morgan & Scott Ld.),
+          having combined to produce in 'Lotus Buds' a fine
+          piece of work."--_The Publishers' Circular._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+          MORGAN & SCOTT LD., 12, Paternoster Buildings, London, E.C.
+
+
+
+
+ALSO BY AMY WILSON-CARMICHAEL
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THINGS AS THEY ARE: MISSION WORK IN SOUTHERN INDIA
+
+With Preface by EUGENE STOCK. 320 pages, and Thirty-two beautiful
+Illustrations from Photographs taken specially for this work. Ninth
+Edition. Paper, 1s. 6d. _net_ (_post free_, 1s. 9d.); Cloth Boards,
+2s. 6d. _net_ (_post free_, 2s. 10d.).
+
+DR. A. RUDISILL, M.E. Press, Madras:--"In 'Things as They Are' are
+pictured by pen and camera some things as they are. It is all the more
+needful now when so many are deceived, and are being deceived, as to the
+true nature of idolatry, that people at home who give and pray should be
+told plainly that what Paul wrote about idolaters in Rome and Corinth is
+still true of idolaters in India."
+
+"The account of native life, of the customs of the people, of the few
+pleasures they enjoy, and the many sorrows that oppress them, is as
+accurate as it is lucid and entertaining. It will be well to give this
+book studious attention; it is so completely sincere and so free from
+prejudice; and there are many excellent illustrations after
+photographs."--_Literary World._
+
+
+OVERWEIGHTS OF JOY: MISSION WORK IN SOUTHERN INDIA
+
+Preface by Rev. T. WALKER, C.M.S. 320 pages, and Thirty-four beautiful
+Illustrations from Photographs taken specially for this work. Paper 1s.
+6d. _net_ (_post free_, 1s. 9d.).; Cloth Boards, 2s. 6d. _net_
+(_post free_, 2s. 10d.). (Companion Volume to "Things as They Are.")
+
+"There is a life and enthusiasm and devotion, combined with literary
+ability and winsomeness of style, which make the book very captivating,
+as well as very touching. It is quite wonderfully illustrated with
+sunsets on the Ghauts and all kinds of wonders, and withal it is a song
+of spiritual triumph from a soul that feels intensely the cost of the
+Cross. A book, indeed, for every Christian home."--_The Churchman._
+
+"One of the most striking and inspiring missionary books of recent
+years."--_The Christian World._
+
+
+THE BEGINNING OF A STORY
+
+Being the story of the beginning of the work among Temple children,
+related for the friends of the Temple children. Bound in Art Covers,
+tied with silk cord. Artistic design embossed in gold, 6d. _net_
+(_post free_, 8d.).
+
+"This little book tells a touching story. It is hoped that many who are
+interested in the work on behalf of Indian children exposed to terrible
+peril will circulate this booklet to further a cause which has aroused
+widespread and prayerful interest."--_Irish Baptist Magazine._
+
+"This is a delightful booklet in its attractive blue and gold covers,
+and with the picture of the smiling Indian maiden looking out upon
+us."--_Bible Standard._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MORGAN & SCOTT LD., 12, Paternoster Buildings, London, E.C.
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Obvious punctuation errors were corrected.
+
+The original contained each chapter number and title on a page preceding
+the actual start of the chapter. These repeated Chapter Titles were
+removed to avoid redundancy.
+
+Varied hyphenation, such as "armchair" and "arm-chair", was retained.
+The Bear Garden is not hyphenated when used in titles but is hyphenated
+within the text.
+
+Page 22, "subjeect" changed to "subject" (is the subject of)
+
+Page 237, "form" changed to "from" (from Bunyan's)
+
+Page 237, "C. H." changed to "G. H." (by G. H. Morrison)
+
+Page 238, "suprintends" changed to "superintends" (superintends the
+more)
+
+Page 256, "opportunties" changed to "opportunities" (watching for
+opportunities)
+
+Page 256, "aviod" changed to "avoid" (To avoid the Penal)
+
+Page 298, "own their" changed to "their own" (from their own homes)
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOTUS BUDS***
+
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author	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-15 02:47:34 -0700
committer	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-15 02:47:34 -0700
commit	0e23d20238675889c43ac4ee3e35b9af1144a46b (patch)
tree	f767fd65e7a83f2bfc87a901b2cf2d0a37c6b553