es in India
do not do more manual labor is because they have a certain dignity that
they must maintain; that they would lose caste and influence should they
do menial work of any kind. This is quite a mistaken idea. One of the
things that a missionary stands for is serving, serving by hands and
feet as well as by brain and spirit. The simple reason is that
missionaries are employed by the missionary society to do other things.
It isn't a question of giving eight hours a day to mission work, but
it's a question of giving all the time.

But suppose she hadn't her hands so full of mission work, even then she
could not do her own cooking.

Perhaps she might do some of it if she had an up-to-date little kitchen,
with linoleum on the floor, if there were a sink and a gas range, and
all sorts of lovely pots and pans, but alas! in India there is not even
a kitchen. It is a cook-house, and is quite detached from the rest of
the house. If she cooked there, the missionary lady would have to keep
running back and forth in the hot sun or in the pouring rain of the
monsoon. There is no linoleum--only a damp, uneven stone floor, and
there is no sink--all the work requiring water is done on the floor by
a drain-pipe, and sometimes if the screen gets broken over the mouth of
the drain-pipe, toads come hopping in, and sometimes even cobras come
squirming through. The Indian cook-house is always dark and smoky. There
is no little gas range; just a primitive cooking place made of bricks
plastered together. This contains a number of holes in which are
inserted grates. Charcoal fires are burning in these little grates.
Charcoal has to be fanned and fanned with a black and grimy fan to get
it into the glowing stage. Of course a clean fan would do as well, but
one never sees a clean fan in an Indian cook-house.

However, do not suppose for a minute that the missionary lady has no
responsibility regarding the cooking. She has. She cooks with her nerves
and brains. She has to train up the cook in the way he should go, and
after he has gotten into the way, she has to walk along by his side, for
she must be brains for him for ever and ever. She has to see that he
walks in paths of truth and uprightness. She has to keep everything
under lock and key, and is apt to lose her keys when she is in the
biggest hurry. She is also apt to lose her temper, and feels worse over
this than she does when she loses her keys. She has to argue over
prices; to fu