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