The young people were the most hopeful to begin with, and were soon doing remarkably well. Every afternoon we women had a Bible class together. Most of those who came were baptized Christians or catechumens, though some unbelievers were always present. About twenty-five crowded into Mr. Kim’s anpang each day. It is delightful to be allowed to teach such women, so hungry for truth, so eager to learn, so full of humble loving interest in every word, with such a spirit of childlike faith. Mrs. Kim, in whose house we were staying, was a busy woman, and her life was not an easy one. She was small and frail, with two children, her husband and old mother to work for, with one servant to help. The preparation of food for her own family and many Korean guests (for a Korean gentleman’s guest house is always well filled at meal time) was in itself no light matter. The rice comes in very rough, only partly husked, and must be pounded a long while in a great wooden vessel, with a heavy club, larger at either end, which is almost all that a woman can lift (a fine exercise for athletic women’s clubs). Water is usually brought in on the head from quite a distance, brass bowls and spoons kept bright, garments must be washed and smoothed, with what pains I have already described, animals cared for, fires made. But the country women work in the fields, too, helping to sow the cotton, tobacco, rice and barley. When the cotton is ripe they pick and prepare it, and only after much toil is it ready for use. Then they weave their own cloth and make up their own garments, in the dark little rooms in which the women live and work. They prepare and dry certain vegetables for winter’s use, and with much labor, themselves press out the castor oil which they use in their tiny lamps. In the fall they make their kimchi for the whole year. Timely hints dropped now and then, and the example of a Christian husband’s care for his wife, have done wonders among the native Christian homes, and much lightened the hard lot of the women. Of course we did our own cooking in all these little villages, our personal entertainment adding nothing to the work of the poor house wife. The people at Sorai are extremely generous and were constantly bringing us presents of chickens, eggs, persimmons, etc. We were much embarrassed by all this bounty, for we knew the people were poor and that such gifts cost a large sacrifice on their part. When one’s wages are not more than ten cents a day a chicken means quite a good deal of money. Yet we could not refuse their offerings, for when we tried to do so they felt so hurt we found it was impossible. The people already at that time were paying the running expenses of a Christian day school, which they had endowed, by setting apart the income from certain fields for this purpose, and if the crop was poor and the income insufficient, they made it up to the required amount.