“My good wife has already begun her true missionary work, for she has a Bible class of nine of our young folks, whom she instructs Sabbath mornings through the English tongue which they have partially acquired.”
Promptly she took up the important task of learning the language:
“I love the Siamese language very much indeed. The first month I was here I took no lesson and I have lost two months since by sickness and absence, but I have read and nearly translated the gospel of Matthew; and I begin to make myself understood.”
During the dry season for the first several years Mrs. House made tours with her husband. One of these was to Prabat, the scene of the “footstep of Buddha,” where the doctor had experienced rough treatment on his previous visit; on this occasion, however, no attention was paid to the presence of foreigners. Mrs. House took pains to write vivid accounts of many of these tours for the home Sunday school; these and parts of her letters found their way into the missionary magazines of the day and afterwards were incorporated as a part of the volume, Siam and Laos.
In the summer of the second year we find her teaching an hour-and-a-half daily in the mission school and giving two hours daily to the study of the language beside the domestic cares. She had already taken under her maternal oversight the native girl Delia, and also accepted charge of Nancy, whom Mrs. Mattoon had raised; and while in some ways these wards were an assistance, yet their care and direction was a great responsibility. Comments upon her zeal appear frequently in the doctor’s letters, and ten years after her arrival he continues to mention her diligence:
“Harriette is as industriously engaged as ever. She will teach three full hours a day, besides what she does for her girls at home, reading and translating with the Siamese teacher. Nor can she be persuaded to spare herself. Has just started under superintendance of Delia and Ooey, alternately, an infant sewing and singing class.”
Thus by assistance of the girls whom she had already taught she undertook to extend her reach, training these girls in teaching under her own direction. After she had fairly mastered the language she sought further to enlarge her influence by preparing tracts and translating pamphlets. She is credited with these productions:
Questions in Gospel History, 1864; Stand by the Truth, 1869 (these two in conjunction with Dr. House); Catechism in Bible Truth, 1870; several juvenile story books.
Concerning the Catechism, Dr. House wrote to Mrs. House while she was in America (1871): “I take great satisfaction in the circulation of that little tract Bible Truth you toiled on so faithfully, and I like it better each day. Our whole school recite their ‘verse a day’ from that now.”