182
WEI PEH TI
Sitting in the cold room with brick floor and talking so much and the melting snow outside gave me as bad a cold as I ever had in my life, so I had to go to bed. For two weeks I was about as sick as I care to be, but I got up and went around to my usual duties, as there was no one to help me there. Mrs. Malcolm let the housekeeping take most of her time and her packing the rest and Mrs. Ferguson had her little ones beside not having our pronunciation so the women do not understand her very well. So I was needed. When Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm went down to Ingcheo [Ying-chou] Fu to the native conference and Mr. Ferguson too. I stayed to help Mrs. Ferguson, and the children have each one had a turn at being sick too, first Mary (4 years), then Henry (5½ yrs), then Lillian (2 yrs), who is just getting better now. The children are dear and sweet but the mother is very dependent and I am sort of deputed nurse. The usual thing where a single lady worker lives with a family.
I am thinking of going down to Wuhu to the Provincial Conference and have some teeth attended to and take a rest all at the same time, killing three birds or more with one stone. Mrs. Ferguson wants me to hasten and be back in plenty of time as she expects to be confined in June. I need to get some extra strength for that and the hot weather. Although I do not expect to be nurse.
Another anxiety too has been the Evangelist's wife who has just had a little daughter. She was very ill and the child too who is still in a precarious condition. As they are Christians the little girl is as precious as a boy, in any other family she would be left to die. But we have tried to do what we could and they are very carefully feeding the little thing, so it may pull through. I have not told all my troubles and I did not mean to tell this many. I am sorry not to have anything interesting this time.
I want to tell you how much I have enjoyed the children's pictures. They stand on my table and I have had real pleasure out of them. They have such sweet bonny faces it just does me good to look at them. The real little children that have come have not detracted from them either. I will be glad to get the picture of the four. Do you remember your desire to be a ...