house for themselves, while it would
be courting many dangers to expect them to live for an indefinite
period in a state of single blessedness. Thus it came about that I
undertook a journey with Jahan Khan down to India, and in one of the
zenana missions there we found a girl who was to become his helpmeet
through life. She came of one of those Afghan families which had long
been domiciled in British India, and had been brought to the Christian
faith through the devoted efforts of some lady missionary. She had also
received the training of a compounder and midwife from the lady doctor
where she had been converted, and so was able to be, not only a light
to his home, but also an efficient helper in the work of the mission.

Some time after the happy pair had made their home in Bannu, and
after on three successive occasions the arrival of a young Afghan
had brought still more happiness into their married life, a letter
came from a devoted missionary working in a difficult outpost in the
Persian Gulf. The letter set forth how the missionary had been left
almost without a helper in one of the most difficult and fanatical
fields of missionary effort among Muhammadans, and ended by an appeal
for some native worker to come out and help. It was difficult to
resist such an appeal, and though loth to lose the services of Jahan
Khan even for a time, one felt that one had no worker more eminently
suited for stepping into the breach. The Afghan makes an excellent
pioneer. His pride of race and self-reliance enable him to work in
an isolated and difficult field, where a convert from the plains of
India would quickly lose heart. So it came about, in a few weeks' time,
that we had a farewell meeting in Bannu for bidding God-speed to Jahan
Khan and family in their new sphere of missionary labour; and we felt
what a privilege it was, for not only had we seen the first-fruits of
the harvest of Afghanistan, but had also seen an Afghan convert going
out as a missionary to what was as much a foreign country for him as
India is for us. For some time he shared with the devoted American
missionaries the vicissitudes of work among the fanatical Arabs of
Bahrain, and here his eldest daughter was taken from him and laid
to rest in the little Christian cemetery. When some time later he
could be spared to return to Bannu, we put him to work in the mission
hospital, where he was not only able to influence the numerous Afghans
who every week came from