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people all give themselves up to visiting and having a good time and rig themselves out in as gay clothes as they can afford. We too dress in our best to receive them.
I have been quite busy for a long time. Before Christmas Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm just came back from their little trip to Honan where they had gone after our Native conference. In their absence Miss Trüdinger and I were left in charge, she as housekeeper and I as “missionary in charge”. And I felt the force of a friend's words "that being left alone in a station made one feel the need of more workers more than a dozen addresses.
We had a jolly Christmas, a real happy time. Then I took my second examination in the language, and after that we all changed our abodes as Miss Trüdinger was going West to join her beloved. It was best for me to live in the Malcolm's little two-roomed house and they do have the two-story house, as I am just one and they, though they are one in heart, are still two in body. That took a week, about, for the place is so small we could not all move at once. After that Mrs. Malcolm accompanied Miss Trüdinger to Hankow and was gone over three weeks. This time I had all the responsibility, the women's and children's work as well as the housekeeping. The last month of the Chinese year the women are too busy to come very much and too busy to entertain us in their houses, so I did not go out and had very few to come in, but the regular ones came to the meetings. I had two classes to prepare for on Sunday. I merged my usual one into Mrs. Malcolm's in the morning, and then the Wednesday morning class and from fifteen to twenty children every Tuesday and Friday. So you can see it kept me busy preparing for them. Then at New Year twice we have to supply ourselves with food enough to last two weeks or more, as all the shops are closed and we are not able to buy anything. So the housekeeping gave me a little concern. I was glad to have Mrs. Malcolm back just before New Year. Although I did feel lost when I had handed all the responsibility back to her. I am in my element keeping house, for it's the one thing I feel I can do.
At New Year our friends, or those we have done anything special for, send us presents in the way of native sweets, and we