But still his dream had not come true, and in the confusion it seemed to grow more and more dim. The war went on, bread had to be baked every day, new ovens had to be built, thousands of pounds of flour had to be bargained for. Presently he had a new occupation—he set up a laundry. The clothes of the wounded men were filthy, and he offered to have them washed. But they were so filthy that the women feared to handle them, badly as they needed work. The brain which had studied the making of an ox-yoke and the pushing off of a boulder and the making of bread worked quickly. Out of an empty cask Dr. Hamlin made a washing machine, and the vermin-filled clothes did not have to be touched by hand until they were clean—a new problem was solved! His friends had told him that he had sixteen professions, and now he had another,—that of laundryman! He did not suspect that all the time he was baking bread and washing clothes there was coming nearer and nearer the fulfilment of his dream. He had prayed and hoped that some day a rich man would come and see the good that might be done by a Christian college. Now that good man was at hand, Christopher Robert, an American merchant. Mr. Robert was traveling in the East, and one day as he was crossing the Bosphorus he saw a boat loaded with loaves of bread. "What in the world does this mean?" he asked his friends. "That looks like American bread. Who bakes it?" "A missionary named Hamlin," was the answer. "A missionary who bakes bread!" repeated Mr. Robert. "He baked it first to give work to his Armenian Christians, and when the hospital was opened he was persuaded to bake it for the patients. It's the best and also the cheapest bread ever seen in this part of the world." "I should like to meet that man," said Mr. Robert. "That will be an easy matter," said his friends. But when Mr. Robert met Dr. Hamlin, he heard only a little about bread and a great deal about another matter. Though no record of their conversation has been kept, it must have been something like this: "I'm very much interested in your bread-making, Dr. Hamlin." "I had no idea what I was getting into," was Dr. Hamlin's probable reply. "But it had to be done. What I'm chiefly interested in is the founding of a Christian college here in Constantinople." "It must have been a tremendous work to bake all this bread." "It was, but oh, Mr. Robert, what wonderful work we could do if we could have a college to train young men!" "And your laundry enterprise, Dr. Hamlin, that must have been the greatest blessing to the sick." "It made them more comfortable. If we could have a Christian college here, it would leaven the whole empire." "How did you learn so many trades, Dr. Hamlin?"