A Missionary Twig Part 23

"That wouldn't suit me," she said--"to lie down in the daytime and be fanned. I'd want to be up and doing."

"I fear even your energy would flag in that climate," replied Mrs.

Thurston, laughing. "Foreigners are obliged to be very careful or they could not live there at all. Of course we missionaries were not idle at the time I speak of. We were studying, writing, or making arrangements about our work."

She then told a good deal about the way the missionaries work among the people, taking her hearers with her in imagination to some of the mission-schools, and to the Sunday services in the little church where her husband had preached. In doing this she repeated a pa.s.sage of Scripture and sang a hymn in the Tamil language--the language used in that part of India.

"Now I will tell you something of zenana visiting," she said.

"Mrs. Thurston," said Ruth, "wont you please first tell us exactly what a zenana is?" Ruth knew herself, but she was afraid some of the others did not.

"The word zenana," replied Mrs. Thurston, "strictly means women's apartment, but as it is generally used by us it means the houses of the high caste gentlemen, where their wives live in great seclusion. These high caste women very seldom go out, except occasionally to worship at some temple. They live, as we would say, at the back of the house, their windows never facing the street. Sometimes they have beautiful gardens and pleasant rooms, but often it is just the other way. They have few visitors and no male visitors at all, never seeing even their own brothers. The low caste women, though they lack many privileges the others have, yet have more freedom and are not secluded in this way."

"I'd rather be low caste," said Marty.

"You wouldn't rather be either if you knew all about it," said Miss f.a.n.n.y.

"In visiting the poorer people," Mrs. Thurston went on to say, "when I was seen to enter a house the neighbors all around would flock in, so that I could talk with several families at once. But in visiting a zenana I only saw the inhabitants of that one house. To be sure there was generally quite a crowd of them, for the rich gentlemen often have several wives. Then there would be the daughters-in-law, for the sons all bring their wives to their father's house. Then all these ladies have female servants to wait on them and who are constantly present, so altogether there would be quite a company."

"I suppose they would be glad to see you," suggested Mrs. Ashford.

"Oh, yes. They welcome any change, their lives are so dull."

"What do they do with themselves all day long?" inquired Miss f.a.n.n.y. "I suppose they don't work, as they have plenty of servants to do everything for them. They don't shop or market or visit. They have no lectures or concerts to attend. They are not educated, at least not many of them; and even if they could read, they have no books. Oh, what a life!"

"What do they do, Mrs. Thurston?" Marty asked.

"Well, they look over their clothes and jewels, spend a great deal of time every day in being bathed in their luxurious way, and being dressed. Then they lounge about, gossip, and quarrel a good deal, I suspect. They are very fond of hearing what is going on, and the servant who brings them the most news is the greatest favorite."

"And that's the way so many women have lived for centuries!" sighed Ruth.

"Things are improving somewhat now," said Mrs. Thurston. "Education for women is very much more thought of than in former years. A great many girls are now allowed to attend the Government and other schools, and many men in these days are anxious to have their wives educated. Some employ teachers to come to their houses and teach the inmates. If only all these women could receive a Christian education, India would soon be a delightfully different place."

"How do the missionaries get into these zenanas?" Ruth inquired. "Do they go as teachers or visitors or--what?"

"In some cases missionary ladies have gained admission by going to teach these shut-in ladies fancy-work or something of the kind. Other times they contrive to get introduced in some way, going as visitors.

But in every case they aim to make their visit the means of carrying the gospel to these women."

"Are they willing to have you talk on religious subjects?" asked Mrs.

Ashford.

"Some of them are not. You know there is, of course, as much diversity among them as among any other women. But after they have got used to our coming, and have examined our clothes and asked us all sorts of questions, some of them very childish ones, they generally listen to what we wish to say and become interested in the Bible and the story of the cross."

Mrs. Thurston then spoke particularly of some of the houses she used to visit, told about the pretty little children and their pretty young mothers, what they all did and said, in a way that interested her hearers very much. She also told how some of these friends of hers had received the gospel message and were converted to Christ. "And if you only understood the position of these people under this dreadful caste system, you would see what difficulties they have to contend with before they can come out on the Lord's side," she said. "But it is our duty and privilege to show them the right way, the way of life, and shall we not do all in our power to send them the gospel? Those of them who know about free and happy America are looking to us for help. Did you ever hear some verses called 'Work in the Zenana'? I can repeat a couple of them."

"'Do you see those dusky faces Gazing dumbly to the West-- Those dark eyes, so long despairing, Now aglow with hope's unrest?

"'They are looking, waiting, longing For deliverance and light; Shall we not make haste to help them, Our poor sisters of the night?'"

There was a great deal more talk about India, Mrs. Thurston being besieged with questions, until Ruth feared she would be worn out, and said the meeting had better close.

"Oh! I like to talk about my dear India," said Mrs. Thurston with a tearful smile; "and if it is any help to you all in your work, I am only too willing to give you the help."

"You have helped us ever so much," replied Ruth, "and we are very grateful. I'm sure we shall always feel the greatest interest in that wonderful old India, with its sore need of the gospel."

"Yes," said Almira, "I feel now that every cent of money we can sc.r.a.pe together should be used for India."

"Unfortunately it is not the only needy place in the world," said Miss Mary.

"Well," said Ruth, "we must just work hard and do all we can for heathen lands."

Then they sang several hymns, Hiram and Hugh Campbell having carried Almira's melodeon out to the garden, and closed by repeating the Lord's prayer in concert.

During the singing Mrs. Stokes had slipped away, and Mrs. Ashford and Ruth exchanged smiling glances when they saw her standing by the garden-gate as the friends pa.s.sed out, insisting that they should take some cookies and drop cakes from a basket she held. She would not hear of the hotel ladies getting into the carriage until they had partaken of the sliced cake and hot tea she had ready for them on the side porch.

"Ah, this is the way you get around it, Mrs. Stokes!" said Ruth.

"Now, Ruth," exclaimed the good woman, "don't you say a word. I a'n't going to have these folks go back home all f.a.gged out when a cup of tea will do 'em good."

"This is another perfectly elegant missionary meeting," said Marty. "I wonder if Edith and the other girls are having as good a time as I am."

CHAPTER XX.

COUSIN ALICE'S ZENANA WORK.

Mr. Ashford came up to the farmhouse about the first of September, and spent a week before taking his family home. So Marty did not arrive in time to be present at the first meeting of the band, but on the third Sat.u.r.day of the month she was on hand with her budget of news. She had much to hear as well as to tell, and it would take a long time to relate all the missionary experiences of those travelled Twigs. Indeed for several weeks something new was constantly coming up. It would be, "O Miss Agnes, I forgot to tell about such a thing." Or, "I just now remember what I heard at such a place. May I tell it?"

Edith had attended a grand missionary meeting at the seaside, and Rosa had gone with her mother and elder sister to a missionary convention, where she saw and heard several missionaries who were at home for rest, and also several new ones who were going out soon. Others of the girls had attended band meetings where they were visiting, or had joined with other young workers in holding meetings in hotels and cottages. But no one had, like Marty, been present at the forming of a band and helped it start. Nor had they, like her, become well acquainted with a real missionary.

"Oh, I just had the nicest long talks with her!" said Marty, meaning of course Mrs. Thurston. "I could ask her anything I wanted, you know. I even sat in her lap sometimes and hugged her real hard; and she would pat me and smooth my hair with the very same hands that used to do things for the little girls in India."

"How elegant it must have been to have a missionary meeting in that pretty old garden, and such a nice missionary there to tell you things!"

said one of the girls.

"It _was_," replied Marty briefly but fervently.

"Oh, I wish I could help start a band as Marty did!" exclaimed Daisy.

"Perhaps you have helped, though you may not be there to see it start,"

said Miss Walsh. "Perhaps what you told those little girls from Georgia about our band and missions in general will bear good fruit, and there may be after a while a brand-new band in that far-away Southern town, that little Daisy helped to start."

"Oh, I do hope so," said Daisy, smiling and pressing her hands together.

"I think it would be nice to ask Marty's mountain band to write to our band and tell us what they're doing, and we'll tell them what we're doing," suggested Edith.