That final evangelistic itineration was made in 1878, and lasted from the middle of October to the middle of November. It was out toward the general region of Ping Tu and Laichow fu. The party consisted of Mateer and Mills, Mrs. Mateer and Mrs. Shaw, and a couple of Chinese assistants. Mrs. Mateer and Mrs. Shaw visited the native Christians while the men went to districts where there were no churches. In a letter to the Board Mateer said: We each hired a donkey to carry our bedding and books, while we walked from village to village, and preached in the streets. I preached in this way in one hundred and ninety villages, and Mr. Mills in about as many. We went aside from the great roads into villages never before visited by any foreign missionary. We had audiences of from eight or ten, up to two or three hundred. In many cases we had a goodly proportion of women as hearers. Our reception was very various, for which in most cases we have no means of accounting. In some cases many came out to see and hear us. In other cases no one seemed inclined to pay any attention to us, and a considerable time would elapse before we would succeed in drawing a company to preach to. In one village I failed entirely to get anyone to listen. A goodly number saw us, but they passed by without stopping. One boy ventured to ask where we came from, when instantly a man near by at work reproved him for speaking to us. My assistant and I sat and waited about half an hour, and then went on to the next village. We carried a few books in our hands as a sort of advertisement of our business, and to give to such as would accept them. Sometimes the books were readily accepted, and we could have given away any number; but frequently not a soul would accept a book. No doubt some would have liked very well to have a book, but they were ashamed to accept it from the hated foreigner in the presence of so many of their neighbors and acquaintances. Only in two or three cases was any open hostility shown us, and in these it was confined to two or three individuals who failed to carry the crowd with them, so that in spite of their attempts to scatter our audience we still had plenty of hearers. Then as to the value of this kind of missionary effort he added an estimate from which he never deviated, and which in substance he continued to repeat: This method of work is very excellent, and at the same time very laborious. It reaches obscure places, and a class of people—those who stay at home—not otherwise reached. To be successful it must be pursued at a time of year when the people are somewhat at leisure. VIII THE TENGCHOW SCHOOL