r
was born. What a darling she was! Before her illness, Mary had been
giving a short Bible talk at the women's meeting every other week;
but now it seemed impossible to find time for the hours of preparation
such a talk entailed. Because of her slow recovery it was finally
decided that she and the children must go to a hill resort earlier
than usual that summer. When she returned, she was horrified to
realize that it had been six months since she had given a message in
the native language.

She was feeling much better in every way, however, and settled down to
"get back into the work." The girl who helped her had developed
nicely, and now the two children could be entrusted to her care. In
spite of John's slowness at the language, he had always been able to
make himself understood, and the little church was growing. With his
encouragement, they had started a preaching band, and went to nearby
towns and villages with the Gospel. Sometimes they stayed away for
several weeks at a time. They insisted that John accompany them; and
indeed, he would not have been happy anywhere else. But more and more
Mary found herself left alone at home with the children. Where was the
happy home that she had wanted to establish for John? He was as dear
and as kind as ever when she saw him--but he was away so much! And
during the times he was at home, there were often visitors to see him.
On evenings when there were no visitors she always longed to say,
"Come and sit in the easy chair, John, and we'll have a cozy time
together," but her Puritan conscience usually overcame the promptings
of her heart, and instead she would look at the clock and say
brightly, "Oh, there's still time for you to get in an hour or two of
study! Isn't that nice!"

The time passed rapidly. John _did_ persevere with his language study,
and very slowly got off the required examinations. Mary never had as
much time as he did for study, but she usually kept ahead of him in
the book work. She did not dream of trying to rival him in his
knowledge of the spoken colloquial! At first she used to save up her
problems for him to deal with, but she found that when he returned
from a country trip he was always so tired that she did not like to
burden him, and soon she was struggling alone with most of them. The
children grew rapidly, and usually kept in health, although there were
several occasions when they had serious illnesses. At such times she
would realize afresh that,