1834, Mrs. Smith writes, "Yesterday I
commenced the female school with four scholars, which were increased to
ten to-day, and the number will probably continue to augment as before
from week to week. As I walked home about sunset this evening, I
thought, 'Can it be that I am a schoolmistress, and the only one in all
Syria?' and I tripped along with a quick step amid Egyptians, Turks and
Arabs, Moslems and Jews, to my quiet and pleasant home."

November 9. "I sometimes indulge the thought that God has sent me to the
females of Syria--to the little girls, of whom I have a favorite
school--for their good."

January 5, 1835. "On Friday I distributed rewards to twenty-three little
girls belonging to my school, which, as they are all poor, consisted of
clothing. Our Sabbath School also increases. Eighteen were present last
Sabbath."

On the 11th of January Dr. Thomson wrote, "Mrs. Smith's female school
prospers wonderfully, but it is the altar of her own health; and I fear
that in the flame that goeth up toward heaven from off that altar, she
will soon ascend as did Manoah's angel. We can hardly spare her; she is
our only hope for a female school in Beirut at present."

The state of society in Syria at that time is well pictured in the
following language, used by Mrs. Smith in a letter dated February 12,
1835: "Excepting the three or four native converts, we know not one
pious religious teacher, one judicious parent, one family circle
regulated by the fear of God; no, _not even one_!"

"I wish I had strength to do more, but my school and my studies draw
upon my energies continually." Even at that early day Moslem girls came
to be taught by Mrs. Smith. She writes June 2, "A few days since, one of
my little Moslem scholars, whose father was once an extensive merchant
here, came and invited me to make a call upon her mother. I took Raheel
and accompanied her to their house which is in our neighborhood. I found
it a charming spot and very neatly kept. Hospitality is regarded here as
a religious act, I think, and a reputation for it is greatly prized."

In July she wrote of what has not ceased to be a trial to all
missionaries in Beirut for the past forty years, the necessity of
removing to the mountains during the hot summer months. The climate of
the plain is debilitating to foreigners, and missionary families are
obliged to spend three months of the hot season in the Lebanon villages.
"My school interests me more and mor