schools for girls. In the East knowledge is thought to be not only unnecessary, but positively injurious, to women; so when the missionary ladies first tried to gather up pupils for a girls' school they met with all kinds of objections from the parents. In the first place, they could not understand the motives. How could any one be so unselfish as to spend time in teaching a lot of girls without any compensation? They did not believe it. So at once evil-minded persons spread infamous tales, and explained the thing by affirming that it was only a trick to secure the children, and by and by they would be sent to America and sold as slaves.
Another objection was that for girls to go to school was altogether against the custom, and that, of itself, was enough in Siam. Again, suppose they went to school and learned to read, then they would know more than their mothers, and how could they honor and respect their parents, as they were in duty bound to do?
But the greatest objection of all was that the girls were the workers in the family, and if they were to spend the day in school who would ha kin (seek a living) for the family? And this seemed to be a real difficulty.
The question of bread and meat, or rather rice and fish, the missionary could neither ignore nor argue away. These heathen mothers in this respect were just like other human beings: they
