During the last week of the year I spent a few days at the village of Mê Dawk Dêng to hold a communion service there, and incidentally to give my family and the teachers of the Girls’ School a much-needed outing. It was at the height of the rice-harvest, and, one evening, we all greatly enjoyed the sight of a regular rice-threshing “bee” at the farm of one of our elders. The “bee” is always at night. The bundles of rice from the harvest-field are piled up so as to form a wall five feet high around a space of some twenty-five feet square, with an opening for entrance at one corner. In the centre of this square is a horizontal frame of bamboo poles, against which the bundles of rice-heads are forcibly struck. The grain falls to the ground below, and the straw is tossed outside. In those days the whole plain at rice-harvest was lighted up by bonfires of the burning straw—a glorious sight as I have watched it from Doi Sutēp. We pitched our tent near by to enjoy the scene. The men and boys do the threshing, while the women and girls do the cooking for the feast with which the work ends. The village maidens are always on hand to encourage their beaux in their work by passing to them water or betel-nut, and to serve the viands at the feast. It reminded me much of the husking bees I had seen as a lad in the South seventy years ago. How near of kin is all the world! We had a delightful communion service on the Sabbath. Seven adults and six children were baptized. On Monday morning we returned home refreshed and better prepared for the work before us. * * * * * [Illustration: MARKET SCENE IN CHIENGMAI] [Illustration: IN THE HARVEST FIELD] The year had been one of marked progress. The Girls’ School had been strengthened by the arrival of Miss Lizzie Westervelt. The new station at Lakawn had been opened, and Dr. and Mrs. Peoples had been installed there. More new work had been opened in the neighbourhood of Chiengmai and Lampūn than in any one year of the history of the mission. One hundred and two adults were added to the communion roll, and about as many children were baptized. Our new “witchcraft-house” at Bān Pên, with its hospitable family, afforded a comfortable prophet’s chamber for the missionaries and a chapel for worship. The Bethel church was afterwards organized in it. That family became highly respected, and has furnished some of the most influential members of our church. The work in Nawng Fān, seven miles south of Chiengmai—Nān Inta’s village—had steadily grown. It still continues to be one of our best out-stations, and will, during the present year [1910] be organized into a church. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ XXV CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES PLANTED