“Oh, yes,” said Mrs. Thurston, “the scenery in some parts of these tropical countries is very fine, the foliage is so luxuriant, the flowers so gorgeous, the skies so brilliant. Indeed, a photograph only gives the merest hint of the beauties.”
She described certain mountain and forest views, also some parks and gardens she had visited.
“Don't you remember those lines in the missionary hymn, Mr. Stokes,” Miss Dora asked,
“'Where every prospect pleases,
And only man is vile'?”
Mrs. Thurston told them that the people in India do not live on farms as many do in this country, but crowd together in towns and villages, going out from there to work in the fields. She briefly described the large city of Madras, with its mingled riches and poverty, its streets crowded with all sorts of people, some of them with hardly any clothing on, its temples and bazaars, or shops. Then she spoke of Madura, where her home had been so long.
It was hard to get her listeners, as they sat in this cool, shady garden, fanned by mountain breezes, to understand how hot it is in India, especially Southern India. They thought the punkahs, or huge fans, that are in all the churches and larger houses, and which a man works constantly to cool the air, must be very queer contrivances. The idea of having to stay indoors during the middle of the day, keeping very still, lying down, perhaps, did not strike Mrs. Stokes very favorably.
“That wouldn't suit me,” she said—“ to lie down in the daytime and be fanned. I'd want to be up and doing.”
“I fear even your energy would flag in that climate,” replied Mrs. Thurston, laughing. “Foreigners are obliged to be very careful or they could not live there at all. Of course we missionaries were not idle at the time I speak of. We were studying, writing, or making arrangements about our work.”
She then told a good deal about the way the missionaries work among the people, taking her hearers with her in imagination to some of the mission-schools, and to the Sunday services in the little church where her husband had preached. In doing this she repeated a passage of Scripture and sang a hymn in the Tamil language—the language used in that part of India.
“Now I will tell you something of zenana visiting,” she said.