ready to wear—the first the child had ever owned in her life. Then she was allowed to take some soap and give herself a bath, and then to don her new jacket and a new waist-cloth. That evening, when she went home, she was the happiest child in the village, and served as a good advertisement of the new-fashioned school. Before very long the veranda and the missionary's hands were both full.
That was seventeen years ago, and from that time to this the school has been carried on, and done a grand good work in many respects—one of the most important of which is that it has furnished teachers for five branch schools that have been established in different localities around it. Many of its pupils are now industrious and pious wives and mothers at the head of Christian families, while a few have gone, as there is good reason to believe, to finish their education in heaven.
Some object strongly to the plan of giving money to the pupils of mission-schools, and perhaps elsewhere: giving boarding instead of money, or some other plan, might be better; but after so many years of experience those in charge are fully convinced that for Petchaburee this is the only feasible plan.
If a respectable, self-reliant Church is ever built up in Siam, it will be by cultivating the graces of industry, cleanliness and godliness
