The house, with the best arrangements that could be made, was so overcrowded that relief of some sort was a necessity. The Corbetts, despairing of getting suitable accommodations for themselves, went back to the neighborhood of Chefoo and never returned,—an immense gain for Chefoo, but an equally immense loss for Tengchow. Mills preferred to find a new house for himself and family, and—after the usual delays and difficulties because of the unwillingness of the people and of the officials to allow the hated foreigners to get such a permanent foothold in the place—he at length succeeded. But that was only a remote step toward actual occupation. A Chinese house at its best estate commonly is of one story; and usually has no floor but the ground and no ceiling but the roof, or a flimsy affair made of cornstalks and paper. The windows have a sort of latticework covered with thin paper; and it is necessary to tear down some of the wall, in order to have a sufficient number of them, and to give those which do exist a shape suitable for sash. The doors are low, few in number, rudely made, and in two pieces. A Chinese house may be large enough, but it is usually all in one big room. It fell to these missionaries to get in order the house which Mills secured; and to do this in the heat of summer, and during a season of almost incessant downpour of rain. They were obliged not merely to supervise most unsatisfactory laborers, but also to do much of the work with their own hands. Eventually Mills fell sick, and Mateer alone was left to complete the job. Yet he records that on the first day of August his associate had gone to his new residence, and he and Julia were happy in the possession of the old temple for their own abode. Unfortunately both of them were taken down with dysentery. Of the day the Mills family left he says in a letter to one of his brothers: Julia was able to sit up about half the day, and I was no better. You can imagine what a time we had getting our cooking stove up, and getting our cooking utensils out and in order,—no, you can’t either, for you don’t know what a Chinese servant is when of every three words you speak to him he understands one, and misunderstands two. However, we did finally get the machine going, and it works pretty well. Here they remained three years; and, here, after they had built for themselves a really “new home,” they long continued to carry on their school work.