Miss Whately was but just beginning to learn Arabic, and the only assistants she could get for starting her school were a Syrian matron--who could speak but a few words of English and read with difficulty the New Testament--and her daughter of thirteen. Accompanied by the Syrian matron, Miss Whately went out into the surrounding lanes and invited the women to send their little girls to her to be taught to read and sew. She met with many curt refusals and received many fallacious promises; but when at last, in February 1861, a start was made, nine little girls were present the first morning "No recruiting sergeant," she says, "was ever so pleased with a handful of future soldiers, for it was beating up for recruits for the Lord." [1] The numbers gradually increased, though from time to time they were seriously affected by the spreading of malicious reports and the opposition of bigoted relatives and the only way to keep up the attendance was to go round visiting to obtain recruits, and to cultivate an acquaintance with the parents of the old scholars. In three months the children had been reduced to some sort of order, taught the alphabet and the way to sew; they could repeat a few texts, and sing a few hymns with some approach to sweetness. But perhaps of more importance still, they had learned to love and obey their teacher. Before her return to England for the summer she took them for an early morning feast in the public gardens of Cairo: and when the simple repast was finished, while "the little ones danced and waved boughs in a perfect ecstacy of merriment," the elder girls, she says, "seemed to find no pleasure so great as following us about, pointing to the flowers, and frequently throwing their arms round us, exclaiming, 'I love thee! I love thee much!' with eyes really overflowing with affection. How often had it been said 'You can make nothing of Moslem girls!' but the key of love is wonderfully powerful, and equally so in every land in opening the doors of young hearts." [2] [Footnote :1 _Bagged Life in Egypt_, new ed., p. 29.] [Footnote :2 _Ibid_., p. 110.] Meanwhile the beginnings of other Christian work had been made by Miss Whately. In the early mornings she would drive or ride a few miles out of the city, and seating herself near to some hamlet would enter into conversation with the women and girls, and seek to instil into their dark minds some drops of divine truth. Much of her time also was spent in visiting the poorer women of the city. When, at the end of May, both the heat of the climate and family claims necessitated her return home, she placed her little school under the care of a teacher whom the Society for Promoting Female Education in the East provided.