We do not propose to vacate the old premises, but to appropriate them to the school, for which they would be admirably adapted. We look forward with confidence to an increase of the school. Our present number of scholars, however, occupy all the room we can possibly spare; if we increase we must build not only sleeping rooms, but a large schoolroom. This would not, it is true, cost as much money as a foreign house, but it would not come as far below as perhaps you might suppose. The main building would make one or two most admirable schoolrooms, which will accommodate any school we will likely ever have. One of the side buildings would make a very convenient dining room and kitchen, and the other, with additional buildings made vacant, would with a very little refitting furnish at least ten new rooms besides what we now have. It will probably be many years before we will have more than these. With all his largeness of vision he did not yet foresee the coming Tengchow college; though he was planning for greater things for the mission as well as for the health and comfort of himself and wife. Because the language employed was solely Chinese, at the beginning neither Mateer nor his wife could take part in the instruction; all had to be done by the Chinese assistant, who was a professing Christian. It was not long, however, until both the Mateers were able to help; though at no time did he give himself exclusively to teaching. The boys were taught to read and write in their own language, so that for themselves they might be able to study the Bible and other books which they were expected to use. Arithmetic was a part of this course in the elementary department with which the school began, and it was one of the very first of the branches of which Mateer took charge. Mrs. Mateer had a class in geography, and widened their vision of the world by informing them of other lands besides China. Three times a week she undertook the peculiarly difficult task of instructing them to sing. Of course, there was morning worship. This was held in the schoolroom. The service consisted of a hymn, of a chapter in the New Testament read verse about, and a prayer. There was also evening worship. On Sabbath morning all attended the little native chapel. In the afternoon a sort of Sunday school was held, and in it Mateer taught the bigger boys, and Mrs. Mateer the smaller, in the Scriptures. At worship on Sabbath evening he questioned them all in turn about the sermon in the morning. Such was the very humble way in which the school was nurtured in its infancy, and started on the road to become what has been pronounced to be the very best of all the colleges in China.