ontact with the man whom she could
only strive not to hate. His opium smoking habits increased, and the
pinch of poverty was felt in the home from which he was able to steal
so cunningly every article of value which might be exchanged for money
and spent on the drug.

A great joy came into Ai Do's life with the birth of a little son, and
she realised for the first time that matrimony was not solely a horror,
since it brought so much compensation in its train. The child was
publicly dedicated to God, and was its mother's joy for six brief
months.

At the end of that time, in the hot weather, it sickened with dysentery,
and in spite of her prayers and entreaties that she might be allowed to
deal with the disease as she had seen me deal with similar ailments, she
had to endure the torture of seeing it operated upon by a heathen
Chinese doctor, whose method of treatment was to use long needles which
he ran into its tender flesh. The needles were of course unclean, and
the child's death was doubtless hastened by the shock thus sustained.

She was spared the last sorrow of seeing its body thrown out to be
devoured by dogs and wolves through the fortunate advent of her father,
who insisted at her request that decent burial be given. This was a
cause of thankfulness for her to her life's end.

A year later, when her second son was born, the home was in a pitiful
condition. All the land which provided daily bread for the family was
gambled away, furniture and clothes had been sold or pawned for opium,
the wages she earned were all turned to the same use, and the poorest,
coarsest food was all that was procurable at a time when her strength
was quite insufficient to the strain imposed upon it.

As soon as the required month of purification was over, she returned to
us and then received all the care that love could suggest, but we soon
saw that she was going to escape from our poor, inadequate efforts to
protect and comfort her, into the care of the only One who could save
her from further sorrow. Phthisis took a rapid hold of her constitution,
and her strength daily declined. During this time she for the first time
opened her heart, and spoke out her sorrows and sufferings and those
deepest wrongs she had suffered which women have from time immemorial
hidden as a shameful secret. She spoke it all out now, and left me with
a determination that henceforth any one placed as she was should find an
advocate and protector in me to