“Upon reaching the city we found that the Mohammedan officers connected with the magistrate’s court, at whose disposal the girls had been placed, had distributed many of them in houses of infamy throughout the city to be brought up to a life of sin. This matter was presented to the governor, and the children were ordered to be immediately recovered and forwarded to the mission. They were sent in large carts, each containing twenty girls. The oldest was probably twelve or thirteen years, the youngest a mere babe; but three-fourths of them were under eleven years of age. Each driver had his list for his load. He lifted out the largest one first and laid her down, then the rest, placing them around her as if building them into a bee-hive shape. Then the heaps were counted and the signature affixed to each list, and the carts moved out. “The children were all untidy, and their countenances bore the traces of the hunger through which they had passed.... But these were girls, and the glad thought was that they were our own to save and train and elevate. We accepted them as a trust from God. All hands were soon at work in loving labor to change the aspect of things. The missionary women and their native helpers before the sun went down had accomplished a delightful transformation. Bodies were washed, clean clothing put on, and a hearty meal of wholesome food banished the gloomy looks and brought forth the first smiles on those little faces.”[44] [Illustration: BASKET OF BABIES FROM THE ORPHANAGE, GUNTUR, INDIA] [Sidenote: Famine waifs.] Not only are orphanages established, but missionaries use many other means to provide for helpless, dependent, or neglected children who are thrown on their care. After one of India’s great famines the Rev. Rockwell Clancy of Allahabad formed a distributing station for famine waifs and collected and placed hundreds of them in various schools and institutions throughout the land. A new missionary to China after only a month’s study of the language had rather an interesting trip with his collection of famine orphans. He writes:-- “The trip to Nanking, including a ten-mile trip on the Presbyterian motor boat to the railroad station and the one hundred miles by rail, was full of wonders to these little country lads. On the cars when eating our slim lunch, consisting of a bun and a boiled egg for each boy, one of the boys who was a little older than most of them politely offered part of his share to the people who were occupying the same seat with him, and this in spite of the fact that he had been going hungry for weeks or months.