So soon as possible in addition to the room used for carpenter work, a side house was devoted to the purposes of a shop, which grew in completeness as time went on. An upper story was used for storing finished apparatus, for a painting, varnishing, and drying room. The lower story was the shop proper, with well, smithy, a long workroom, private room for chemicals and so forth. Every conceivable amount of space in the shop—above, around, and below—was occupied with materials, on boards hung from above, in cases made of old boxes lining the walls, and on the floor. The shop contained not only materials for things that are to be, but became also a tomb of things that were, but are not, as well as a hospital for things disabled. What old histories were unearthed when, after forty years, this shop had to be moved to Wei Hsien! Up there it was perpetuated, the main difference consisting in larger and better quarters, with some improved conveniences. His wife continues: For every machine bought, the market was canvassed by correspondence, and the best selected. Especially was this true with reference to any tools or machinery used in the construction of apparatus,—as machines for turning, blacksmithing, plumbing, screw-cutting, burnishing, electroplating, casting, and so forth. His shop was thoroughly fitted with all appliances for the making of apparatus, or electric or steam outfitting, so that he was ready to do anything, from setting up a windmill or water system, or installing an engine and dynamo, to brazing broken spectacle frames or repairing a bicycle. So far as it was practicable he turned over the actual mechanical labor to Chinese workmen,—a skilled foreman and apprentices under the foreman’s direction. Why, though a missionary, did he employ so considerable a part of his time in this way? Especially at the outset of his missionary career stern necessity to meet his own needs and those of his associates drove him to this line of work. Had he been set down in China at some such place as Shanghai, where foreign articles could be purchased, very likely his mechanical gifts would have remained largely dormant. But at Tengchow he helped to make a stove out of odds and ends, because one was indispensable in order to keep warm. For the same sort of reason he extracted teeth and made false sets, cobbled shoes, and acted as master workman of all the building trades in the erection of the “new home.” Sometimes he was thus compelled to do things which seemed strange even to him. When, in 1865, little Katie Mills died, he had to act the part of undertaker. He said: