"He was no doubt wondering himself when he entered, still sullen.

"I said to him, 'Kin, I could give you as punishment a hundred strokes
of the rattan. I could put you on rice and water for a month, or I could
put you to a room for a week in solitary confinement. But I am not
going to do either or any of them. I am going to pray for you!"

"'I don't want you to, sir!' he cried in alarm.

"'Kneel down!' I said to him.

"'I don't want to.'

"'Kneel down, I say!'

"'I won't!'

"'But this is your punishment. You would submit to the rattan if I
imposed that. You must submit to this!' I said.

"'I hate prayer!'

"'Kneel down, boy!'

"He knelt. I prayed. He wept."

This was the cryptic way the missionary came to the climax of his story.
Again the Southern Cross shot into view as we turned a curve in the
river.

"The fountain broke. A boy's heart was won! I didn't have to fire him. I
won him!"

"That lad came to me two years later as he started out from our school
in Batavia, and said, 'Mr. Worthington, that moment when you called me
into your office was the crucial moment of my life. If you had been
unkind to me then; if you had punished me, even as much as I deserved
it; if you had not been Christ-like, I should have killed you. I had my
knife ready. There was a demon in me! Your kindness, your praying for
me, broke something inside of me. I guess it was my heart. I cried. I
prayed. That morning saved my soul!'"

"That was a marvelous experience, Mr. Missionary! It was a marvelous way
to meet the situation," I said in a low tone, looking up at the white
outline of the Southern Cross, and remembering two thieves.

"It was Christ's way!" said the missionary.

But perhaps the outstanding Flash-light of national Friendship is that
of America for the Philippines. I shall never forget the day we started
southward from winter-bound China for sun-warmed Manila.

As the great ship swung about in the muddy waters of the Yangsti and
turned southward, the bitter winds of winter were blowing across her
deserted decks. But in two days one felt not only a breath of warm
tropical winds on his face but he also felt a breath of warmer
friendship blowing into his soul as he thought of the Philippines and
America.

The first breath of warm winds from southern tropical seas gently kissed
one's cheeks that afternoon. It was a soothing breath of romance,
freighted with the scent of tropical trees. It was much of a contrast