Stir some dear heart at home today,
An earnest thought to lift above,
For mother-hearts so far away.
That all may know the mercy mild
Of Him who did the nurselings bless:
The heathen and the homeborn child
Are one in that great tenderness.
(Clara A. Lindsay in Woman’s Work.)
CASTE IN INDIA
In the village of the Wind a young girl became known as an enquirer. Her Caste passed the word along from village to village wherever its members were found, and all these relations and connections were speedily leagued in a compact to keep her from hearing more. When we went to see her, we found she had been posted off somewhere else. When we went to the somewhere else (always freely mentioned to us, with invitation to go), we found she had been there, but had been forwarded elsewhere. For weeks she was tossed about like this; then we traced her and found her. But she was thoroughly cowed, and dared not show the least interest in us.... Take a child of four or five, ask it a question concerning its Caste, and you will see how that baby tree has begun to drop branch rootlets....