Late in 1881 they were gladdened by the arrival of Robert Mateer and Lillian as reënforcements to the mission. Robert has been one of the most efficient of the Presbyterian missionaries in Shantung, especially in evangelism, and is still doing most excellent work. Lillian was attractive in person and proved herself an accomplished and successful teacher. In the course of time she married Mr. Samuel Walker. The failure of his health compelled their return home. The year 1882 seems to have been marked by a distinct advance all along the line. The average attendance rose to sixty-five. The new students were selected out of the possible admissions, and consisted of such as gave most promise as to work and character, some of them being already well advanced in their studies, and full-grown men. The secret of this was the enlargement of the constituency of the institution, through the reputation it had already won for itself among the Chinese in general, and through the increase of native Christians. Perhaps the most remarkable improvement was in the prosecution of their work by the students; a state of things due to such causes as the presence of a larger number of select and advanced pupils, with a fuller and higher and prescribed curriculum, with formal public graduation at its completion. So straitened had their quarters become that in the following year another building was obtained, care being taken that its outfit should, as heretofore, be of so plain a character as not to lift the men who went out from the institution above their own people in their ideas and habits of living. Of course, the growth of the school and its differentiation according to the stages of the curriculum necessitated a considerable increase in the force of teachers. After graduates began to go out, several of these were employed. Lillian Mateer for a while helped in the school, but it was not long until her marriage to Mr. Walker terminated her connection with the Presbyterian work and her residence at Tengchow. In the autumn of 1882 very substantial and permanent help came by the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. W. M. Hayes, whose large services will require further notice as this biography proceeds. Were it not that the story of the life of Mrs. Julia Mateer is told fully in a suitable volume, much would be said here as to her remarkable achievements, especially in the school.