CHAPTER III.
MADRAS.
Any one who has undergone a hot, dusty journey of twenty-six hours on hard benches in India will comprehend how pleasant it was to feel that we had arrived, and I shall not easily forget our feeling of gratitude to Him who had so graciously "preserved our going out and our coming in," now, as in so many wanderings by sea and land. It was indeed a welcome sight as we got out of our dusty little den to spy our friend Mr. Rae, of the Free Church Mission, waiting for us, he and his wife having most hospitably claimed us as their guests. We were soon driven to the Mission Boarding-school, which is their home at present, Mrs. Rae having lately undertaken the superintendence of it.
It is quite in accordance with the tradition of this good old school that a missionary lady should be at its head. Many of our best missionaries have occupied the post, whose names deserve to be held in grateful and lasting remembrance as having borne the heat and burden of the troublous day which saw female education started in Madras;
