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Bedim ted T O IVY M O T H E R

I n loving appreciation for the ideals of sacri- fice and devotion she stirred in m e through her years of unselfish service i n the cause we

both love.

or His name's sake they ufent forth. 3 John 7

Aboard S. S. Dominic New York Harbor Nov. 10, 1927

DEAREST MOTHER, This morning dawned bright and clear just for us. I t

made us happy! I t is 2:30 P.M., and we are on board the little freighter that is to take us southward over the Atlantic Ocean and 2,400 miles up the Amazon River to the town that will be our first home-Iquitos, Peru.

Mr. Dorn and Miss Porter both came aboard with us, a courtesy which we felt was a real honor. They are both so very busy in the transportation office that usually only one leaves to see missionaries depart. But we have been on their hands for about a month, waiting for the boat, which you remember was delayed several times, and they feel as though we were their children now. Miss Porter bought material for four everyday dresses yesterday, and gave it to me to take to Iquitos. One piece is for Mrs. Stahl, one for her Indian girl, Chave, and one for Miss Jensen, and one for me. Wasn't that kind of her? She also gave me a white linen table runner and blue and white em- broidery floss so I would have some fancywork to do on

the boat. Today she brought me a lovely bouquet of red roses. I have been walking around feeling very proud and happy, carrying my flowers and the big bundle of mail that one of the stewards handed me a few minutes ago. We haven't looked to see whom the letters are from yet, but are saving that treat until we leave.

I t seems as though I ought to have an awful feeling of loss on the day that we leave our homeland, but instead we are joyful and optimistic about the future. I t would be harder, I am sure, if we were sailing from a port in California, where we would be waving good-by to you and many friends and relatives.

Miss Porter is going to mail this letter for us. 1'11 write you from Norfolk, Virginia, where we are stopping to take on coal.

Lovingly your daughter, BARBARA

S.S. Dominic s Nov. 11, 1927

DEAR MOTHER, We shall get to Norfolk about midnight, and stay there

till midnight tomorrow. The Dominic will take on 1,800 tons of coal, which will lower the boat from three to five feet. I t takes twenty-five tons of coal to run this freighter every day.

Last evening we read all our twenty-one steamer letters. t

I t was sweet to be remembered by so many classmates at Pacific Union College, friends, and relatives. 1 am sure we have you to thank for that surprise. Who else could have given them all our steamer address?

In most ol the letters friends mentioned how cheerful

you were, and oE course that comforted me a great deal. Not many mothers would give up their only child as bravely as you.

Our little cabin is freshly painted white. It is just big enough for two. On one side are our berths and a closet with two drawers below. On the other there is another closet with drawers, and a window seat below the porthole. Op- posite the door is the little washbasin, with shelves for our toilet articles. We have no hot water in the cabin, but the steward will bring it whenever we ring for it. Our bags and suitcases are under the berths, and our trunks are down in the hold.

We opened Elizabeth Ann's package today. I wonder if she showed it to you. She made us a scrapbook that is a biography of my life-very clever, indeed. There are pic- tures of me, supposedly, when a baby, a picture of you teaching school after daddy's death, when I was only a year old, then more pictures of me as I grew up, some showing my hobbies-birds and books-several amusing pictures about our courtship and my difficulty in deciding whether to finish college with my class or go with Henry now, con- cluding with the happy decision, our wedding, our honey- moon, shopping in New York, the home of our dreams, and --on the last page-a tempting picture of Henry, Jr., to be!

I t is Armistice Day, and just four months since the day we were married in the college chapel. Aren't we having a long honeymoon? It's lots of fun to travel, but I can't wait to unpack our new things and begin to keep house.

After we leave Norfolk we won't even see land for three weeks until we reach Pari at the mouth of the Amazon in Brazil. I'll send you a cable from there, but it will be a long, long time before you receive my next letter.

Love, BARBARA

S.S. Dominic Nov. 26, 1927

DEAR MOTHER, I never tire of watching the ocean. It is fine to feel oneself

the center of the universe. We can look around us on all sides for about six miles. Nothing but water and sky. But the sky is interesting for the unusual cloud effects. The clouds that we see piled along the horizon are high in the sky of some distant place. We like to go to the stern and watch the foam that marks our path in the water. Other times we go to the bow and look down as the boat cuts through the waves, throwing them to the sides. The ocean water is a beautiful blue, lighter near the white foam. At night it is jet black and the foam a fairy white. Often we see silvery flying fish, darting straight into a wave.

The first few days we weren't able to do much but lie around on deck in the folding chairs that we bought in Berrien Springs. We ran into a storm soon after leaving Norfolk, and this small boat of only 2,000 tons surely did pitch and toss. We couldn't be out on deck, as the waves were washing over it. We were both sick. I don't know which of us felt worse. Henry thinks I did, and I think he did1 But that soon passed, and then I was able to read and write and sew. I have done quite a bit on the cor- respondence course in Victorian prose. We have been read- ing Macaulay, Carlyle, and Newman together. I have fin- ished embroidering the table runner. The captain says it is a "bonnie linen" and "very sweet" (he's Scotch), and I hope you will think so too, for I am planning to send it to you.

I haven't been homesick or lonesome or discouraged or anything bad except seasick.

Our American tastes don't seem to be tuned to this English food. The only vegetables we have are boiled Brus-

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sels sprouts, boiled cabbage, and boiled turnips. When the cooks prepare the cabbage with mashed potatoes they call it "bubble and squcak." "English monkey" is a funny name they give to a cheese sauce on toast, which is very good. 'Their desserts are so queer, usually hot puddings, and to us they taste like breakfast cereal.

Since I am the only woman on board I have the place of honor next to the captain at the table. He is a big, jolly fellow, and he loves to talk to us and tell us stories. Some- times in the evening he sings old chanteys that the sailors used to sing to the rhythm of their work. Tonight he was telling us how he used to sail around Cape Horn to get to San Francisco.

We expect to reach ParA about next Monday. Henry says the treats are on me if he sees land first, but the captain says he will help me.

I tried to wash clothes the other day, and had a dread- ful time. The soap just slid off no matter how thickly I plastered it on, and the clothes appeared to be just as dirty and the water almost as clean when I finished as when I started. I askcd the steward what was the matter with the water. He asked me where I got it. I told him I used the hot water he brought me and cooled it from the faucet at the tub. He reminded me that the water in the faucet \+,as salt water! Of course it had to be done all over in fresh water.

At night I have the queerest dreams. I see Niagara Falls cascading down some hill at Pacific Union College, or a sky- scraper against the fir trees of Howell Mountain.

Yesterday we spent a quiet Sabbath reading and study- ing. I learned the first four commandments in Spanish.

Our boat is quite cosmopolitan. The signs are in German and Portuguese. The officers are English. There are two other American passengers, besides a Chinese and a Bra-

zilian. One of the Americans is very tiresome, because he talks continually. He is full of facts, but we sometimes have reason to doubt the validity of his information. I found a description in my reading from Newman that just fits him. There are some people poorly educated and of shallow thoughts, he says, who yet by travel have acquired a quantity of interesting details of which they talk inces- santly. This man left his wife and baby in Para on the way up, because his wife was ill and he didn't fancy having to take care of the baby!

Today we sent a marconigram to John Brown in Pari. It cost $2.35 for three words.

Affectionately, BARBARA

Para, Brazil Nov. 29, 1927

MOTHER DEAR, I am in South America! It is so exciting! We reached

Para at 3 P.M. yesterday. The night before we landed Henry and I were sitting

on the deck about eleven o'clock, watching for the beams of the lighthouse at Salinas, when the captain came by and invited me to go up on the bridge with him. I am the only passenger he has allowed on the bridge during the whole trip. He had me look through his binoculars, and sure enough, every seven seconds the light from the lighthouse flashed across the horizon. By the time I got back down on deck I could show it to Henry from there. So I won my treat, thanks to the captain!

A pilot came aboard, climbing up the rope ladder, to guide us into the harbor, because the sand bars shift con-

I tinually and no chart is reliable. He will pilot us all the way up the river. I had never really understood the work of a pilot before. He is in charge of the ship when he is on duty, and he is a highly paid, well-trained specialist. Now the thought that Christ is our pilot has new meaning to me. The words of the song, "Fear not, I will pilot thee," seem more beautiful after this experience.

Yesterday we could see land for the first time since leaving Norfolk, and you may be sure it looked good! The wonderful tropical jungles came right down to the water's edge. The deep-blue water of the ocean changed to a sickly green, and then we began to see large areas of muddy water mixed with the green. Then came the wavy, clear line between the green of the ocean and the brown of the Amazon River. The fresh water and the salt water do not mingle quickly. We have fresh water for our baths now, but it has a dirty color. The steward always gives us a little American water for rinsing.

As we came into the harbor we saw many little fishing boats with gaily colored sails-red, blue, or orange. They are truly picturesque.

We found Elder and Mrs. John Brown in a pleasant upstairs apartment about three blocks from the wharf. Every afternoon about four they get a refreshing ocean breeze through the high front windows.

We went shopping today, and I bought a wide-brimmed straw hat to protect me a little from this tropical sun. I couldn't get one in New York before leaving, because it was already winter there. You know the trouble I always have finding a hat big enough to go over all my hair. Well, here you can have them made to order. T h e man who took my measurement wrote down sixty-one for the head size.

I t looked quite shocking to me, but soon I realized it indicated centimeters, not inches.

Elder Brown recently went up river to Manios and took many orders for our books. He had a sunstroke and also malaria while there. Now it is time to deliver the books, but since he has to go to a committee meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Mrs. Brown is going to make his delivery for him. Isn't she a brave little woman? She wishes she could go up to Manrios with us on the Dominic, but our boat doesn't leave until next Sunday, and the delivery has to be made earlier. But Henry will help her finish when we get there.

When we got off the boat and stepped on South Amer- ican soil for the first time, there were so many new and amusing things to look at that in my excitement I forgot all my manners and began pointing at things, till Henry reminded me I shouldn't! There were so many things to see-a man carrying a big tub of water on his head, the grass growing between the cobblestones of the "paved" road, the children wearing clothes so ragged that they might as well have had none at all (many of the smaller ones didn't have a stitch on), and the queer humpbacked oxen pulling wagons!

Dec. 4 , 1927. IYe are having the most fun! Yesterday Mrs. Brown took the boat to Manaos about 4 P.M., and Elder Brown left in the evening for Rio. We are staying in their house, and I'm trying my hand at housekeeping in this strange place. This is the first time we have been all by ourselves in a house, and we have been married five months already!

The wife of one of the colporteurs came last evening to have worship with us and again this morning for Sabbath school. She is a young German girl. Her husband is in an-

other town right now, so she is the only Adventist in Pari at present. I can't talk to her at all, but Henry speaks to her in Spanish, and she answers him in Portuguese. For Sab- bath school she asked the questions in Portuguese, and we took turns reading the answers from our Spanish Bibles. We sang several hymns, she singing in Portuguese and we in English. Her prayer in Portuguese sounded very sweet, but 1 could understand only a sentence or two. But, after all, language is not a great barrier. It is only a superficial handi- cap. The bond that binds us together as brothers and sisters is much stronger than language differences.

Henry is surely lucky to have grown up in Argentina, speaking both Spanish and German. I have to learn the hard way.

Everyone here has a mania for shaking hands. You shake hands when you meet, and shake hands when you say, "I really must be going now," and then you shake hands again when you finally go.

Yesterday we stopped on our way to the municipal park to get some ice cream. We asked for helados in Spanish and for ice cream in English, but all we could get was fruit ice. On our return we met Elder Brown, and took him with us to try again. They don't have real ice cream here, but he ordered a fruit ice made of mangoes that was delicious.

The municipal park is a most original show place. One rides away out into the forest on a streetcar. There every- thing is made to look as wild and as natural and old as

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possible. It is a charming spot with rocky caves, rustic benches, neatly swept paths, dense jungle, and a profusion of flowers and plants from many places.

Our boat doesn't sail till Monday night. That means we shall have been here a whole week.

Lots of love, BARBARA

On the Amazon Dec. 8, 1927

DEAREST MOTHER, We are on our way again. I t seems impossible that we

are really sailing up the great river we have dreamed about for so long. I am still the only woman on board.

This morning we came to Santarkm, where we took on a lighter, which we are to tow up to ManPos. We put on our robes and went out on deck to see the little town. The mate gave me his binoculars, and I could see the village and the sandy beach very well. The adobe houses with red-tiled roofs looked very pretty against the wonderful green of the forest. The women and children were coming down to the river to fill their water jugs for the day. People drink the river water all along here. Some women were washing in the river, and children were swimming, naked of course. A tributary of the Amazon flows in right there. T h e water was a pretty bluish green, and for a long way we could see very plainly the line between the blue water and the choc- olate Amazon. We won't see any more towns until we reach ManPos.

We have a mosquito netting over our porthole now. Nets are furnished for our beds, but we haven't used them yet. A net keeps out too much of the breeze from the electric fan, which we keep going all night. Beds are made up with only a sheet underneath and a folded sheet laid across the foot. I guess those blankets that you gave me will be un- necessary!

We were in a channel called "The Narrows" for twelve hours, closer to the impenetrable wall of the shore line than we will be anywhere else. T o go into the forest, one would have to cut out a path. We can't see in more than about a yard. And to think that no white man has been back in these miles and miles of forests! We pass little bamboo huts

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with naked children standing in the doorway. Most houses have some little potted plants at the door. The Indian boys ride out near our boat in their light dugout canoes, just for the fun of being rocked by the waves as we pass.

Yesterday we passed some good-sized hills, but we won't see any more. This country is perfectly flat and monotonous. At Iquitos, 2,300 miles up the river, the elevation is only 350 feet.

We saw the distant flames of a forest fire last night. No one fights fires here. The people just wait for the rain to put them out.

At sundown the green of the forest is of the softest, deepest hue, a color I have never seen before. I t lasts only a few minutes, for the twilight is so brief in these tropical lands.

Give my love to all our friends at the college and tell the girls to write to me.

Mandos, Brazil, Dec. 11, 1927. Here we are, 1,000 miles up the big river. We awoke Sunday in time to see the city coming into view on our left bank. At first it looked like a heap of ruins, but as we got nearer we saw some fine build- ings. The officers told us that at one time ManPos was very wealthy. The people just didn't know what to do with all their money. The city vied with Paris in display of riches, wine, and styles. But that all changed when the rubber boom failed. There are stiIl many beautiful buildings, and we see a number of fine cars. The opera house cost five million dollars and is one of the largest and most magnificent in the world, but it is not often open any more.

Mrs. Brown came aboard about 11 A.M. The Booth Company never allows any visitors aboard, but we were glad that they somehow made an exception for her. She had lunch with us on the Dominic, and then we went ashore

with her in the afternoon when it was cooler. She is stay- ing with a Protestant missionary lady, for there are no Ad- ventists in this city. She has been doing very well with her deliveries of books; has to hire an ltalian to carry or wheel her books around.

With Mrs. Brown we took the streetcar ride that goes out to Flores. 1 had read about it in the Adventures of a Tropical Tramp by Foster. It is a lovely ride, for the street- car runs far out into the forest. When Manaos was built and the streetcar line was laid out, the rubber boom was on, and the city was expected to continue to grow. But in- stead, the jungle has been growing in around the city, and now the streetcar line goes right through the forest.

Manios is on the Rio Negro, and, as the name suggests, its waters are black! We were asleep when we came to the junction of the two rivers and didn't see the line extending for six or seven miles that separates the black and the brown clear across the river. We hope to see it when we leave.

We are leaving Friday, which means that we will not reach Iquitos till after Christmas.

Lovingly, BARBARA

S.S. Dominic Dec. 17, 1927

DEAR LITTLE MOTHER, I t seems strange that in another week or so our long trip

will be over. I shall be sorry to leave the Dominic. Wednesday morning we went shopping, and Henry

asked for some green ribbon that I wanted, using the Spanish 16

word for ribbon (cinta). But this time the Spanish word didn't work, for the shopkeeper said he had it in pink but not in green, and when he brought out the box, what do you suppose it was? A box full of corsets!

Thursday morning Mrs. Brown came out to the boat, and we asked her if she would like to go swimming with us at the English Club. One of the officers had given us an introduction to the keeper. She was too tired to work that day, so we took some fruit along for our lunch and went again on the streetcar out through the forest to a lovely little pool of clear black water. The men do not come swimming until after working hours, so we were alone at the pool. The boat left soon after we returned, a day earlier than we expected.

Last evening we had mangoes for supper, and the other people at the table showed me how to eat one, watching with a great deal of amusement while I tried. A mango, they say, should be eaten only in the bathtub! I t is full of fibers that get between one's teeth and make it impossible to get a bite; one just has to pull at it. And how it sticks to the stone! I t tastes like soap and turpentine, but I liked it pretty well. We are also learning to like avocado pears now.

I t is truly wonderful how our pilots find their way among the labyrinth of channels, islands, and rivers that make up this great Amazon system. The sand bars are continually shifting, but the pilots seem to know where they are. Our boat draws sixteen feet of water, and since there are many places along the river now that are only sixteen or seventeen feet deep, we move slowly and carefully. All day long we can hear the sailors calling the soundings to the pilot on the bridge. On one side a Brazilian boy stands on the little platform and takes soundings and calls out the fathoms in Portuguese, and on the other side one of the English sailors calls his out in English.

Dec. 22. Today we passed the Brazilian frontier. The Brazilian fort, Tabatinga, and the Peruvian outpost, Leticia, were in sight of each other. We had to wait a long time at both places for the officials to come aboard and go through the necessary red tape. You would have thought they were busy managing New York Harbor instead of waiting there week after week for a lone boat to come through. Just after leaving Leticia we watched the green and yellow flag of Brazil come down from the mast and the red and white Peruvian flag go up.

At Leticia a customs officer who lives in Iquitos got on board. Henry asked him if the priests were very strong in Iquitos. He told us that the people no longer had con- fidence in the priests and that the big Protestant "boss" had just arrived. We asked what his name was, and he said, "Stahl"!

The captain has received a radiogram from the Booth agent in Iquitos saying the river has fallen four feet, and that will make us more cautious than ever. We anchor about five or six every evening, and one small motor launch goes up river with an officer and some men to sound the river and find the deepest channel. They come back in an hour or two, and then we travel until twilight again. I t is slow progress. On the last trip the captain got onto a sand bank and was there ten days, and he certainly doesn't intend to have that happen to him again.

The Brazilian boats that come up to Iquitos once a month make better time than we do. They are flat-bottomed river boats. They are built for the tropics and have screens on the sides. The mosquitoes are really terrible on this ocean freighter. Our tiny porthole is entirely inadequate for air in this awful heat. If we open it wide, we have the cabin full of mosquitoes. At the dinner table in the evening I sit and suffer and scratch and wiggle, and then the waiter comes

along with a pillowcase and has me slip my legs into it! That helps a lot, but even so I often leave the table before we finish eating and go to bed, safely tucked under a hot sheet.

Dec. 24. This Christmas Eve-the first one I have ever been away from you-I would give almost anything to know that you are as happy as I am tonight.

Dec 25. We have had a real Merry Christmas, and I shall write you all about it in an air-mail letter from Iquitos. An air-mail service is just being started, and we'll patronize it once to let you know we are safe, but I imagine we won't be able to afford it after that. I'm anxious to receive a letter from you in Iquitos. We arrive tomorrow.

As ever, BARBARA

ellowhelpers to the truth. 3= 3 John 8

Iquitos, Peru Jan. 2, 1928

DEAREST MOTHER, At last we are in lquitos with Elder and Mrs. Stahl! We

had been on the Dominic for seven weeks, celebrating both Thanksgiving and Christmas aboard, and we were glad to be able to start the New Year with our real work.

When we anchored at the dock here it was impossible to see anything of the town, because the water was so low that we were away down below the bank of the river. The Amazon rises and falls as much as forty feet at this point, and as a result it is necessary to have a floating dock.

We were happy to be able to recognize among the people on the wharf Elder Stahl's commanding figure, dressed in white and wearing a tropical helmet. Here was the hero of thousands of Adventist young people, the great pioneer missionary who had thrilled me as a child with his stories, the man who worked among the Indians around Lake Titicaca until he could no longer live in those high altitudes, and then, instead of returning to retire in the United States, insisted on beginning pioneer work again, down in the jungles of the Amazon. As we saw him stand-

ing on the dock we thought what a privilege was ours to be able to work with him. How many other young people from the Atlantic to the Pacific would have been glad to be chosen for the work we were in! He and Mrs. Stahl, with some Indians, came aboard and helped us get through the customs without any difficulty, and soon we were at the Stahls' home.

They live in a large upstairs apartment overlooking the central plaza of the town, on one of the very few paved streets. They had a dinner ready for us that tasted very good after so much boat food. Besides the Indians who are with them there is a Danish girl, Ana Jensen, who came to help them with their work. She has been lonely. When she saw me she threw her arms around me and said in her broken English, "Oh, I am so glad you haf come. We need young people here!"

We were taken to a hotel to stay until we can find a house, but we are still having our meals with the Stahls. This hotel is really a horrible place. One night I woke up crying in my sleep. The room was filled with the most terrible screams and growls. I t was only some cats fighting under our beds! You should see the bathtub. Of course it's not a private one. I t is an enormous cement tank, something like a watering trough, with a shower overhead, and it is all green and slimy and full of cockroaches. But in this heat one is glad for any kind of cool bath.

Mrs. Stahl asked me if I were a nurse, and I had to say no. I could only acknowledge my experience giving treat- ments at the St. Helena Sanitarium. Then she asked me if I were a teacher, and again I had to say no, though I was brought up in the normal department and in the at- mosphere of teachers' institutes and conventions during all your years of teaching. Then she asked if I were a stenographer so I could help Elder Stahl in the office, and

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again I had to say no. I was beginning to feel that I would not be very useful, when Mrs. Stahl remarked that her In- dian girls needed some dresses but she hadn't been able to get any. I offered to make dresses for all five of them. She was happy to know I could sew, and I have the dresses al- most finished now. I was glad I knew how to do something practical.

There is another missionary family here, Mr. and Mrs. Schaeffler. They are waiting for an opportunity to go up river to establish a mission among the Indians.

We have found a little cottage that we are going to rent, and I can hardly wait to move in and unpack our wed- ding presents. I t is a prefabricated house that was sent out from England. The walls look like beaverboard. I t is out of town a little distance, surrounded by trees-fruit trees, rubber trees, a palm, and flowering shrubs. I t has three rooms, and a big porch at the side. No running water or bathroom facilities. But there is a well. Mrs. Stahl suggested that we take a girl to work for us. I could not imagine what I would do with a maid when there are only the two of us, but she says the girl has nowhere to go and wants to be baptized. I t would be a help to have her do the marketing, and probably I'll learn Spanish faster if I have to talk to'her all the time. Her name is Concepci6n.

We have church in a big meeting hall under the Stahls' apartment. The place is just packed with people. Last Sabbath I noticed that there were many little children with no one to teach them. Mrs. Stahl is superintendent of the Sabbath school and has the young people's class. I asked Elder Stahl after church if I could teach the children next week. He was delighted, and offered me the use of his office for the little tots. You wonder how I can teach them in Spanish, but I have that all figured out. The Stahls have an Indian girl with them whose name is Chave. She has

traveled all through Europe and the United States with them, and therefore understands English. I am going to teach the Sabbath school lesson to her in English just the way I want her to teach it to the children in Spanish. Then I had Henry write out all the announcements I want to make in Spanish, like, "Let us sing," and, "We shall kneel in prayer." I am learning those by memory, and next Sab- bath I am going to teach the children1

When Elder Stahl introduced us to the people, I sur- prised them all, and myself too, by saying a few words in Spanish. I t wasn't much, but it pleased the people, and after all, the only way to learn is to talk.

The little cottage we are renting is partly furnished. We are hoping that our freight will come on the river boat the last of this month. Until then we are going to use some borrowed things. The Stahls are going to let us have an army cot and we are buying a hammock. Lots of people sleep in hammocks, and I guess we can learn too; then when our beds come, it will be nice to have the hammock extra.

This letter is going with the first air-mail plane flying over the Andes, and I hope it arrives very soon.

As ever your loving daughter, BARBARA

Iquitos, Peru Jan. 9, 1928

MOTHER DEAR, The Dominic, as usual, is postponing its sailing date,

and that gives me time to write again. I think when it does leave, we shall stand on the shore and feel like the Pilgrims watching the hlayflower disappear in the distance. But we

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shall not be wishing we were returning on it, for we are happy here.

It seems strange to date this letter January when it is still like summer.

Henry is giving a Bible study to three men who are here from a place five days up river. Because they are leaving tonight they want to learn everythii~g in a hurry. They came here about noon, just as we were ready to sit down to dinner. We postponed our meal while Henry gave them a study, but after they had done some business in town they were back again, and have been drinking in one subject after another.

Last evening the hall was packed. I t was the best crowd yet, about six hundred. The aisles and all standing room were occupied, and the children had to sit on the edge of the platform and on the stairs of the platform. I play the organ and Henry leads the music. I am always surrounded by children. They give me cheap candy, slipping it shyly into my hands with their dirty, sweaty little fingers.

Oh, I must tell you about my first Sabbath of teaching the children. I had three benches ready for them in Elder Stahl's office, and expected about twenty. The superin- tendent announced that all children under twelve should go to his office, and fifty children came! They sat on the floor and on boxes and on a trunk, and in Elder Stahl's office chairs. Chave taught them the lesson as I had taught it to her, but it wasn't very satisfactory. 1'11 be glad when I can do it myself. Then I can show Chave and some other young girls how it should be done. But the children were very quiet and good, fortunately1 I t was awkward to have to look at a piece of paper every time I wanted to say anything. I could have one hundred children out as easily as fifty, but where would we put them?

Last Sabbath was a big day for me in another way too.

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that announces the arrival of a ship. Our hearts skipped a beat, thinking of the letters we hoped to receive and of the freight we are so anxious to have. But it wasn't until evening that the mail was finally distributed and we received a bundle of letters. Three were from you. Letters were never so interesting.

Often we go with Elder Stahl to look at launches for sale. We haven't found the right one yet. Little did Henry realize when, as class pastor, he helped raise five hundred dollars for a launch for Elder Stahl on the Amazon, that we would be here helping to pick it out! Other days we go to see property for the mission buildings. There was a high piece of land along the river bank that looked attractive. The owner told Elder Stahl the frontage was 83 meters, but when we paced it off it was about 63, and then when Elder Stahl saw the title it was 35. Of course the price re- mained stationary, and he lost interest.

I like Friday best of all now, because that is the day I change the linen. I t is such fun to get out clean pretty pillow slips, towels, and luncheon sets and think of the friends who gave them to us.

MJe were disappointed that our freight didn't come on this boat. Now we must wait another month, and sleep an- other month in the borrowed cot and the hammock. We take turns using the hammock, and sometimes we have to change in the middle of the night. I t is so hard to stretch out in a hammock!

The other night we were walking home from meetings when Concepcibn informed us that it would rain very hard in a few minutes. The air did smell good, and there was the biggest wind (merely a breeze!) we have felt for a long time. Heeding her warning, we ran as fast as we could. Our walk is only one brick wide, and it was fun trying to run on it without falling off into the swamps on either side. That

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night it did get quite cool, and everybody in Iquitos caught cold!

Elder Stahl has been called to attend a union meeting in Lima, but there is not time for him to make the trip and arrive on time. Lima is about as far away from us as the distance between Los Angeles and San Francisco, but it takes a month to make the trip! One travels ten days on a small launch, a week on a smaller one, a day in a canoe, eight days by muleback over the Pichis trail, one day by auto over the summit of the Andes, and then one day by train down to Lima. Elder Stahl is going by air in order to reach the meeting on time. He leaves tomorrow morning at 4 A.M., and we are going to the airport to see him off. There are many things our mission needs, and we hope that he can be there to present our requests for a secretary-treasurer, for money to rent a larger hall for the meetings, and for financial help on our church building and mission houses.

Lovingly, BARBARA

Iquitos, Peru Jan. 30, 1928

DEAR MOTHER, In one more day I will be twenty-one! Then perhaps the

people will stop calli~lg me muiieyuita (little doll) and tell- ing me that I have a face like a wawa (baby).

Whenever you think of me, just be sure that I am having a very interesting time at that moment. For all the days are interesting. People bring us fruit and flowers every day, and we go out all the time too. Then we have meetings four nights a week. I see new things and learn new things every day.

Ana Jensen and I played a violin duet at the meeting last evening. I t was "Shall We Gather at the River?" The people loved it! Ana plays better than I, but she can't read music! So we have to choose a piece that she is familiar with. Then she plays the air and I play the second part, and we have a duet! But then there is no one to accompany us, because we are the only two who play the organ. I t is a bit presumptuous for a beginner like me to play the violin in public, but it is more daring yet for me to try training a choir of girls to sing, because you know as well as I do that I can't keep a tune myself! But they don't know it, for with the help of the organ I can tell whether their tones are right or wrong. Their special music adds a great deal to the meet- ings. Then I am giving Chave some organ lessons-without a book!

Last Sabbath I had Concepci6n give the lesson to the children. I had explained very carefully to her how she was to tell the story to them and not read it or ask the questions from the Quarterly. But she got up and read every question without taking her eyes from the Quarterly. Chave answered the questions. The children just sat there patiently. I t was awful. I give them the memory verse drill myself now. We have some Picture Rolls that help.

We don't know whether Elder Stahl reached Lima or not. The radio connections aren't working, and telegrams may be ten days coming through. No plane has come this way for twenty days.

Feb. I . Yesterday we tried a new vegetable. I t grows on a palm tree in long stalks. The tender inside part I cut up for a raw salad with olives and eggs, and the rest of the stalk we prepared like asparagus. I was pleased to find some- thing so good. Henry has lost twenty pounds, and it is hard to tempt his appetite. Real Irish potatoes cost about

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thirty-five cents a pound. Sugar is the same price. We can't buy fresh butter but use canned butter. It is a dark orange color and strong tasting-and expensive. People just can't believe it when we tell them what fresh butter is like. We can't afford to buy any canned goods at all, because prices are sky high. So we use native foods, like yucca, which is a distant, stringy cousin of the potato. The only vegetables we have are some long string beans. They are about a yard long and have no taste at all. Some little tomatoes about the size of one's thumb are procurable. There are two vegetables of normal size and taste, but I never liked either one-cucumbers and egg plant. Now, however, I'm learning to like them all right, and I'm trying to see how many different ways I can prepare them. Why, I even learned to make a cucumber pudding!

The wonderful tropical fruit is what saves the situation. Every evcning for supper we have a big bowl of fruit salad. It always contains bananas and oranges and may also have pineapple or ariy of a half dozen other tropical fruits. The fruits are all cheap.

Milk is very watery. Cows don't thrive in this dampness. Their hoofs rot! The soil is so rich that no root vegetables like carrots or beets grow; they would all go to leaves. 1 get out all my recipe books and try to figure out what 1 can make. But there are so many ingredients called for that we don't have that the recipes we can use are limited. 1 appreciate my Cornforth cookbook; it has so many sub- stitutions in it. For instance, it will call for two tablespoon- fuls of peanut butter or two tablespoonfuls of browned flour, one pint of milk or one cup of milk and one cup of water; one cup of granola or one cup of zwieback crumbs; a half cup of gluten meal, zwieback crumbs, or very light brown flour. Statements like these help: "one cup finely chopped walnuts (these may be omitted)."

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n much patience, in aBictions, in g necessities, in distresses.

2 Corinthians 6:4

Feb. 7. Henry has been writing articles for the best newspaper in town. I t is called the Eco, and has very liberal leanings, but now the Eco has in some way offended the prefect, and the owner of the paper is to be sent to Lima. Henry is going to talk with the prefect, hoping that we have not displeased him by writing for a paper that he does not favor.

Feb. 13. Henry went to the prefect and assured him that we were in favor of his administration and that the articles in the Eco had no political significance. He was pleasant. He had given the owner of the Eco the choice of leaving town or dismissing his editor, but when another newspaper offered the editor a job at his own price, the prefect let the matter drop. Now Henry can continue his articles again. We are thankful the crisis is passed.

Elder Stahl didn't get any farther on his way to Lima than the first stop, Masisea. When the plane tried to take off there it struck the trees on the edge of the landing field and smashed up. Elder Stahl and the other passengers had some minor injuries. Now he is sick with fever. Mrs.

Stahl just received this word in a radiogram that came after two weeks. She hopes he will return home today on a boat that is expected. I t is too late to get to Lima by the over- land route now, and he can't stay on in the miserable little cluster of huts that is Masisea, especially with fever. Now our committee in Lima will not get reports and petitions in time for the committee meeting!

This morning a man knocked at our gate and said that the baby next door was dying. We dressed in about three minutes, and rushed over to the house. We found a little girl of two or three years with a temperature of 104 degrees. We gave the child some simple treatments, and the tempera- ture went down at once. This forenoon she was playing around as usual. Most people can't afford to buy milk, and they feed the babies yucca and fish and boiled bananas. IL makes one's heart sick to see their pale little faces.

Mrs. Stahl is trying to save the life of a tiny baby at her house now. The parents attend our meetings and will soon be baptized. They used to have money but have lost it all. Now they all live in a miserable little two-room shack- 21 of them! There is the old mother, her two sons, their wives, and servants (they would need servants!) and thirteen children. I t was no place to take care of a starved, dying baby, so Mrs. Stahl took it home, and the little thing is better already, but it is just skin and bones and big sad eyes.

Feb. 20. We are having the loveliest vacation now, for it is Carnival time. This is the second of the three days of celebration. We aren't having meetings, because no one who doesn't want to play goes onto the streets during Carnival. What a gay time they all have, just like children! They put on their old clothes and throw water or flour at one an- other. From the housetops pails of water are thrown on people below. Everyone carries little atomizers with per-

fumed water with which to spray one another. If it gets in one's eyes, it isn't fun. Those who can afford it have mas- querade costumes and there is dancing all night. From the balcony window of the Stahls' house on the main street we saw the procession pass. First came the herald, or king's fool. He was dressed in the Stars and Stripes! Then the king of the Carnival, called CarnavaMn, passed in a big wagon drawn by oxen. He was a grotesque giant figure with a man inside him to manipulate his arms and head. The queen of the Carnival rode in a car decorated like a float. She was a pretty young girl, dressed in white satin, with lovely silk lace and pearls. Four maids of honor accompanied her. Usually the queen of beauty is chosen from the society girls, but this year the people chose a queen of labor, a girl who works in a big store here. She was Her Majesty Angelica I, and the king was His Majesty Carnaval6n III. Tomorrow night he (or better say, his figure) will be buried in the plaza with great ceremony and shouting.

There are about a dozen cars in town now, and people recognize them by the enormous numbers of their license plates. They will say, "There goes number 3. That belongs to Seiior Garcia." The cars have been doing good business during the Carnival, taking people for short rides at fifty cents apiece. Since there are only a few blocks of paved - streets, they are always passing and repassing. Then the miniature train takes the barefoot passengers for a ride of a few blocks and gives them a rare thrill.

Mrs. Stahl received a cable from Elder Stahl saying that he had arrived safe in Lima by plane. It was courageous of him to make the trip after the accident he had. The other passengers were afraid and took the trail. Now we pray that one of the union men will return with Elder Stahl and see our needs here.

Since we couldn't have evening meetings on account of 3 35

the Carnival, we dccided to take a little timc to practice our instruments. One evening we were having a duet with Henry's clarinet and my violin, and you can imagine what it soundcd like, both of us being beginners. We were inter- rupted by a knock at the door. It was a servant with a note in her hand. What was our surprise to find it written in Eng- lish and signcd by our next-door neighbor, an English bachelor who works with the Standard Oil. It read:

"Will you kindly change your practice hour to one when I am not at home (8-12 A.M. and 3-7 P.M.), for it makes in- telligent reading or coherent thought impossible."

I am afraid it is the last time I will persuade Henry to practice! And our neighbor has his yard full of screaming macaws that we have to listen to all day long!

Feb. 22. We are going to move a week from today from this little pasteboard house down in the swamps to an up- stairs apartment a block from the river. All the neighbors around us have malaria, and we want to move before it gets us too. The new apartment is a larger place than we need and will look bare without furniture, for we are still waiting for ours to arrive, but it is all we could find. There are five high-ceilinged rooms and a big porch with a roof over it. Henry is going to install electricity himself. The floors are of pretty hardwood in stripes of two colors. T h e walls are painted a bright robin's egg blue, and the woodwork is Pay.

If Henry only had his carpenter tools with him, he could be making us some furniture, but they are coming with the freight-if that ever comes.

We are buying new mosquito netting. T h e nets we bought in New York are too large a mesh for these extra fine mosquitoes. I bought twenty-four yards of net, and it cost eighty cents a yard. There will be thirty-six yards of

stitching on it. I'm making it like a pretty one I've seen, so that it will drape over the head of the bed by day.

Last Sabbath I had sixty-eight in kindergarten. I am go- ing to teach the lesson myself next Sabbath, a decision which means I have to write it out and memorize it. Chave and the girls who help me have improved a lot in their teaching. We are making sand tables now, and soon I'll have the class organized like a real kindergarten.

We are anxious for the arrival of the monthly steamer with letters from you and with our freight. We heard a rumor that the boat was delayed because of an accident and that the freight had been thrown overboard to keep the boat from sinking. Now, please don't worry about it. If we lose all our things, we can still live happily without them.

Your loving daughter, BAREARA

DEAREST MOTHER, Last Sabbath I taught the children all by myself in

Spanish. Since we have been here only about two months, I was afraid, but I got along all right. The children seemed to get the story in spite of my mistakes. Ramos, a native worker who lives with the Stahls, had made the sand table for me, and Indian boys filled it with beautiful white sand. The little children looked and looked at the sand table, and after Sabbath school they crowded around it, kneel- ing down and admiring Abraham's woolly sheep, but not one of them touched it! I had eighty children in kinder- garten. That was because there was no school that day. If we only had our own church school, they could always at- tend Sabbath school like that. At the end of Sabbath school

the children went onto the platform and sang "Hear the Pennies Dropping" as they dropped their pennies into a gaily decorated tin can. We had translated the song into Spanish, and also the little verse that begins, "Jesus, bless these pennies brought Thee." I had a peso changed into two-penny pieces, so they would all have some offering. It was the first time the parents had seen what the children do in Sabbath school, and of course they were pleased.

Sabbath afternoon we walked about a mile out of town to visit a family there. I was amused to see a coffin on the rafters, in plain view of the living room below, apparently waiting for its next victim. Henry says it is common for the people to buy their own coffins and have them ready. There was one thing funnier than that, however, and that was a bust that Brother Tello was making of Henry. He used to earn a living by making images for the priests, and now he is trying to put his talents to better use and is learn- ing to model in clay. I hope we didn't hurt his feeling by laughing, but we couldn't help it. The bust didn't even faintly resemble Henry.

Henry has been making us some furniture with a bor- rowed saw and hammer. How fortunate that he knows how! We haven't been able to sleep in the hammock in this house, because the walls are plaster and we can't hang it up. There are two hammock hooks on the porch, and we use it there to sit in, but the hooks are so high on the wall that the hammock is not flat enough for sleeping. We still have the cot the Stahls lent us, and the Schaefflers let us have an army cot of theirs. It is very uncomfortable, having wooden bars under the canvas in just the wrong places. How happy we shall be for good beds, if our freight ever comes. We pray that it is not all lost. Most of the new furniture is from boxes, and I fix it up with curtains. Henry has made a washstand, a wardrobe, a kitchen table, a food cupboard

with mosquito netting all around it, and a settee, which I padded and covered. Yesterday I went into the room that serves as his shop, complaining about the way the mosquitoes treat me. I noticed he was tacking mosquito netting in pleats onto a board. I wondered what it could be. Later he appeared with the most original contrivance for keeping mosquitoes off my legs while I am at the table or just sitting down. I put my feet on the board and then draw the mosquito net up around my legs and tie it with a draw- string over my knees. I t works!

Every time we eat cooked squash we wish it were either baked or in a pie. We are anxious to get our oil stove with its oven. But we had a real treat last week. When Mrs. Stahl said I might use her oven, Concepci6n and I carried three pie shells and a big bowl of squash pie filling over to her house and baked them in her oven. Since the Schaefflers have no oven either, and Mrs. Stahl has been too busy with her nursing to do any baking, the pies were a treat for us all.

Last Tuesday, Mrs. Schaeffler came over to tell us that the boat on which we suppose our freight was coming was ship- wrecked and the cargo lost. I wrote you that we had heard rumors about it before. The accident happened on February 23, and the boat is the San Salvador. The news didn't reach Iquitos for about a week. Two launches have gone down river to help if possible, but they won't be back for another week. According to a newspaper report the S u n Salvador was overloaded in Manios. When wood for fuel was taken on at different places along the river, the water line came up higher and higher until water overflowed the main deck. On the 23d the ship hit a floating log, and a leak was made in the hull. The captain tried to reach a beach at once, but before he could do so, the engines were flooded and stopped. All night long the crew pumped water out and threw cargo

overboard. The caigo made a ridge in the water all around the boat. Then fire broke out in the holds, but it was put out. The afternoon of the fourth the passengers crowded into two little row boats and lelt the ship and their baggage too. There were about forty of them, with nothing to eat but tea and dried nlcat. They went clolvnstream and stayed all night at a ranch, sleeping on the floor. The next day a German boat came along carrying materials lor a sewer system for Iquitos and for a projected railway to Lima. Some of the passengers were able to get on the German boat. It passed by the San Salvador but could not go alongside her because of shallow water. The river is very high and ris- ing all the time. The S u n S n l v a d o ~ may be submerged now. I hope at least the mail and the cargo lists are rescued. Of course it will be a dreadful thing for us it all our freight is lost 01 even damaged. We don't know whether it was in- sured against accident or not, because it was sent atter we left New York, and on a diffeient steamship line. How we have beell looking forward to the arrival of our twin Simmons beds and the stoves, to say nothing of our trunks and boxes full ot wedding presents, books, ancl the cooking utensils bought at Rlacy's in New York. And how we have longed to see our icebox! But we are not worrying. We just pray and trust.

Today someone sent me a present of a muskrat. We shall give it to the next child that comes in to visit us! People are always offe~ing us parrots and monkeys, but I think they are so dirty and noisy. And what would we do with a rat in an upstairs apartment?

Henry gave a stereopticon lecture in San Juan yesterday. We started about 2:30 in the afternoon, taking the Indian boys to carry the things. Several of the church members went along also. We took some lunch and our swimming suits. It rained on the way, arid we were soaking wct ~ v l ~ e n n e ar-

40

rived, in spite of umbrellas. \l'c changed our clothes in a bamboo kitchen and then ran clown through the forest to

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the river. Since our swimming suits are with our freight we wore improvised ones. Only Miss Jensen had a real swim- ming suit. Some of the costumes were amusing. One girl had borrowed a black skirt from a woman along the way and slie tied it over one shoulder and under the other arm. Henry announced that the girls would swim first and then the boys, but it was no use! The children up to about twelve years just made one dash for the water, boys and girls alike, in their birthday suits. I heard the girls asking one another who had brought soap. I asked them what they wanted soap for, and they said, to wash their hair of course. Someone had remembered, so the bar made the rounds, and everyone had a good shampoo except Miss Jensen and me. The people in San Juan loved the lantern slides. I ran them through the machine. We took some pic- tures and hope to have some to send you.

M a r c h 14. The list oE cargo that was thrown overboard has come, and our things are not among them! In fact, we aren't even sure that our freight was on that boat. Tomor- row the first launch returns, and Sabbath the S u n Salvador itself is coming. I t is patched up now. They say 70 per cent of the cargo is water soaked, but that isn't as bad as we had heard at first.

March 16. The San S n l v a d o ~ , which should have arrived the last of February with our monthly mail, finally docked here the 10th of Illarch. We could hardly wait to get our mail, and dinner was pretty cold by the time we had finished all the letters. By afternoon some more mail was distributed, and we had another treat. "As cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country."

Wednesday the airplane came in about noon. I rather expected a letter from you and perhaps some word about Elder Stahl. When I went to the post office I found a letter addressed to "Sefiora Birbara de Westphal" from the office in Lima. It was a letter from you that Elder Thompson had sent over from Lima. I ran up to Mrs. Stahl and told her I had an air-mail letter from my mother that was only one month and a half old. It was two weeks getting here from Lima by air.

Now to answer some of your questions. No, the womeri do not wear tropical helmets. Everyone has a black cottoll parasol. There are two rainy seasons here-one in January, February and March, and the other in October and Novem- ber. August and September are going to be the hottest months. They tell us that in June there will be a few days when a cool wind will blow down from the Andes.

No, there is no water system in town. All good houses have rain tanks. One is always just above the bathroom, and if it doesn't rain, there is no water in it. Ours is empty right now. We buy a gallon of spring water every day from a ragged old man who comes around with the water cans on the back of his mule. We filter our drinking water and we boil our milk. No, we haven't any bedbugs, but we do see cockroaches and lizards all the time in our house. Our kitchen cupboard stands in little cans of kerosene to keep out the ants and other bugs. We also have chameleons, and we like to have them around because they catch mosquitoes. They assume the color of the surface they are on. If half the body is on our bright blue wall and half on the gray wood- work, then half the body appears blue and the other half gray.

We have had most discouraging news. The union com- mittee in Lima wasn't able to give us the help we need, notwithstanding Elder Stahl's finally having arrived there.

NO teacher for the one hundred children here, not enough money to build the two mission houses, not enough to buy the mission property for school and church (our hall is a foul-smelling place in which six hundred people sit on wooden benches with no backs), not enough budget to operate the launch if we did succeed in buying one, no new workers. When everything is so miraculously open to us, it seems a tragedy not to be able to go ahead and take ad- vantage of the opportunities. I suppose there is never enough money to go around to the different missions, and probably others are just as disappointed as we are when their superin- tendents come home without the needed budget, but surely no other field needs help as much as our Amazon mission.

I have been thinking of starting a school myself. But we have no room for it and no equipment, and there are no girls in the church who have more than three years of elementary school to help me.

The union president, Elder Peugh, is returning with Elder Stahl to make us a visit. We are anxious for him to see how wonderfully our work is going here. But I suppose it is the same story when he visits Ecuador, or the Lake mission, or the coastal Peru mission. Each mission wants to show him the needs and opportunities!

Last Thursday night we had a special meeting for bap- tismal candidates. Henry, Brother Schaeffler, and Mrs. Stahl acted as a committee to interview each one. They passed on thirty-seven names. With the San Juan candidates these will make about one hundred for our membership. There are many others who want to be baptized, but they have matrimonial difficulties that cannot be arranged. For in- stance, there is a woman who has lived with a man twenty years, and they have several children. She and the children want to be baptized, but she refuses to be married to him; says she has no love for him at all, and that he is a bad man

and untrue to her, but he supports her and the children, and she cloesn't know what she could do if she left him. Then there is another couple who both want to be baptized with their children, but they are not married, and the man never can be, although they love each other, because he was mar- ried years and years ago to a girl in another town who left him soon aftcr the wedcling. He has no idea where she is now, and couldn't get a divorce anyway, for there are no divorce laws in Peru. So there are many problems. We don't know one single family in town yet that doesn't have its scandal, its "skeleton in the closet." The people marvel at our homes. We missionary families are apparently the only couples they have ever seen who are true to each other. Scores of these children don't even know who their parents are. Women care for other women's children, and men support the children of other men.

Yesterday in Sabbath school Virginia tried to teach the lessoil to the children. She just couldn't get one word out af- ter another. I had to let her sit down, and take the Quarterly and do it myself. I was surprised that I could get through it in Spanish without having prepared for it.

Sabbath a little girl named AngClica was here. She has no shoes or stockings and only two cheap dresses. She is very bright and the most generous girl I have ever seen. She sings in the chorus now. One clay she earned a sol tak- ing care of someone's baby, and she gave Mrs. Stahl about half of it as tithe. At the evening meetings she sometimes slips into my hand candy that another little girl gives her. She felt bad because she couldn't buy a Morning Watch Calendar and learn her verses like the other M.V. members, and was so happy when I bought her one.

We are trying to teach the girls in our little chorus to sing soprano and alto. 'They never heard of such a thing before, and since none of them can read music it really is a task.

44

After considerable practice on their part and a great deal of patience on ours they have learned "Sitling at the Feet of Jesus." I chose that because the alto is all on only two notes!

Our freight should be out of the customs in two or three days. Then we will know the worst-about the con- dition of our things and the price we shall have to pay for duty.

h fnrc l~ 25. Last Thursday we got our freight out of the customs, after waiting for it ten days, and we never worked harder than when unpacking and arranging our new things, or enjoyed anything more. Considering that our goods had been through both fire and water, they arrived in pretty good condition. Only the sewing machine seems to be ruined. I t was so water soaked that the wooden cabinet just fell off like wet cardboard. The metal parts are red with rust, and not a wheel will budge. By Friday evening we had our house looking quite different. Our beds give us our chief pleasure. \Ye hadn't slept on good beds since we were visiting in Washington, D.C., five months ago.

I t is such fun to have an oven. I have been rnaking baked dishes in quick succession, three times a day: baked squash and potatoes, muffins, gingerbread, macaroni.

Have I written you about Mr. Richter, who works for the Standard Oil here? He is a German whom we met at the Schaefflers. His sweetheart arrived today from Germany all by herself. Missionaries aren't the only brave people! Imagine her making that long trip all alone1 Mr. Richter had been awaiting the arrival of this month's river boat with much excitement. He had told us to listen for the firing of the bomb, which always announces the arrival of a foreign boat, and then to be ready for the wedding in just two llours. The wedding was in the apartment of some of Mr.

Richter's friends. Brother Schaeffler performed the ceremony in German, and I played the Lohengrin wedding march on the Stahls' tiny folding organ, which the bridal party had borrowed. They had told Brother Schaeffler that when the champagne was served there would be some "sin-alcohol" for us, but one sip told us that it was all alike. I t was for a purpose therefore that we wandered over to the balcony windows, and soon we were placing our emptied glasses on the trays again1 Mrs. Richter is a little woman, and she looked so frightened. I think she and I are going to be good friends.

It is wonderful how friendly these simple people are, and how eager they are to learn more. There isn't a day but that we have visitors and more visitors. Sometimes we get tired of it and long for a little privacy. Then I give them pictures to look at, or ask Concepci6n to entertain them for a while, and I retire to rest or to get some needed work done. They are like children, and are not offended. Mrs. Stahl sets us a wonderful example in hospitality. Sometimes she is feeling so ill that she can hardly sit up, but she will have twenty visitors around and be smiling and talking to them. As the Stahls live in the same building where the church services are held, all the women think they should go upstairs and greet "la hermana Ana" before, and again after, the meetings. Ivlrs. Stahl says, "Well, after all, that is what we are here for."

We desperately need a larger meeting hall. The air gets very bad with such a crowd, and we can't expect to have the better class of people come to such a place and sit on benches with no backs. The only larger halls in town are the two theaters.

Mrs. Stahl sent a cable to the office in Lima asking for funds with which to pay the workers and also inquiring about her husband They wired that he is at the Metraro

46

Mission wit11 Elder Peugh. Today she received an air letter from him saying they planned to start over the Pichis trail the sixteenth. As Mrs. Stahl knows that the mud is several feet deep on the trail at this time of the year, she asked the church members to pray that it won't rain.

Brother Chavez, the native worker from Yurimaguas, is here waiting Elder Stahl's return. Tomorrow he and his wife and baby are going to move into our house and occupy ConcepciBn's room, and she can sleep on our new day bed instead of on her own straw matress.

People come and look at our house continually, to ad- mire our American beds and our homemade furniture. They look around and ask where the kitchen is. They don't recognize it in the clean, sunny bedroom that we use for our kitchen, because they are used to a dark little alcove far away from the rest of the house for the kitchen. Then they ask where we cook, because they don't recognize in our shiny new oil stove the substitute for their open grate. Ac- cording to American standards, our kitchen wouldn't look so attractive as it does to them, for it has no water and no built-in cupboards or draining board.

Well, the boat will be going back down river now, and I will close this long letter to you.

With lots of love, BARBARA

Iquitos, Peru March 30, 1928

MY DEAR MOTHER, Last Sabbath was the thirteenth Sabbath, and we had a

special program. My little children's division sang a pretty motion song and gave an exercise on creation. The people

47

were delighted. Mrs. Stahl's big young people's class also had parts on the program. Miss Jensen played a violin solo, and I accompanied her. I t was to have been a duet, but th?' strings 011 my violin have broken, and I have no more. They break easily because of the dampness.

We had one hundred children at Sabbath school, just double what it was when I started three months ago. We have the largest Sabbath school anywhere in South America now, except among the Indians.

Do you remember my writing about that bright little girl AngPlica, for whom I bought a Morning Watch Calendar? Well, I found Mrs. Stahl yesterday making dresses for three little girls. She said she had found some very cheap material that had been damaged by the fire and water of the Sari Salvador. Mrs. Stahl went shopping with me, and I bought material for a dress for AngPlica. When I fitted it on her I told her that it was for a little friend about her s i~e , so she was happily surprised when she knew it was hers. She is the only one of our choir girls who comes to church without shoes and stockings. I told her to wear her white cotton stockings and tennis shoes next Sabbath with the new calico dress.

Last evening Henry and I went through the porch wherc Concepci6n was supposed to be sleeping on the day bed, and noticed that she wasn't there. She was sleeping on her straw mattress in the carpenter shop. She said that the night before she had dreamed that she was falling all night. I t was the first time she had ever slept on a bed with springs, and the novelty of it disturbed her rest.

A p r i l 6. This week is Holy Week. The big celebration was on Friday. All our friends happened in to visit us that

i day. We knew it was because they could get a good view of I

the procession from our balcony windows, which overlook I

the main street. First came the stantlard-bearers, and a bed 01 flowers which the people carried, then an iinage of Christ on a litter, then an image of the virgin. The image of Christ was such a tawdry thing that we could only turn our eyes away in shame. The people were all dressed in black or wllite-inourning the death of Christ. The young girls and &ildren wore white veils, and tlie women black ones. Many of the women carried lighted candles in their hands. At each corner the procession stopped, and a girl sang in Latin. What was our sorrow to recognize the voice of Juanita! She had sung in our meeting only two days before. Mrs. Stahl has visited her and talked to her about being baptized, but the poor girl has to support an invalid mother by taking in washing, and she only earns twelve soles a month that way-enough to pay the rent. Then for their food she has to make money in the only way that is open to her, and if she were baptized, that would be cut off. If she had been willing to take her stand, as Concepci6n did, not knowing where her next meal would come from when she left the man she was living with, we would have tried to find some way of helping her. But she lacked the faith.

Today we celebrated the Lord's supper again. It was observed with more order and reverence this time. Wouldn't you like to have seen Henry breaking the bread that I had made? Mrs. Stahl announced to the women, and Henry to the men, that they would not kiss one another after the ceremony, and thus the embarrassment of a former occasion would be avoided.

Henry and one of the Indian boys spent three whole days scrubbing each tiny part of my sewing machine in kerosene. I didn't think they would ever get it assembled again when I saw the parts strewn all around. The book of directions is illegible, and the machine is a model I have never used before. There was one screw inside the arm that wouldn't

budge, but after I poured boiling water on it, it moved1 Henry made a cedar stand to fit the machine. I can't say that the machine sews yet-but almost!

We decided that it was time the people themselves began to take some responsibility in the meetings, and as a be- ginning we elected natives for the offices of the new Mis- sionary Volunteer Society. The first meeting was amusing. The brother in charge, after much squirming and twisting and looking at Mrs. Stahl beside him, finally got enough courage to stand. Then he rubbed his glasses and put them down on his nose. Next he turned around and asked Mrs. Stahl what to say. Then he wiped his glasses again and put them a bit farther down on his nose and said, "Very well, brethren, let us sing." But he had forgotten the number! Once more he turned to Mrs. Stahl for assistance. But he is really a fine man, and soon it will be a different story.

April 19. This morning, before we were out of bed, Anicia came rushing into our bedroom all excited, saying, "The baby is coming; the baby is coming!" Anicia is the fourteen-year-old girl who lives with the Schaefflers. She is a charming, vivacious child, and we are all very fond of her. She wanted us to rush over to see the baby, but we knew from a previous understanding that our part was to keep her entertained until we heard that Mrs. Stahl had brought the new baby safely into this world. So we amused her and let her help us with work until Miss Jensen came about two o'clock with the news: Grace Elizabeth Schaeffler, weight 8% pounds. I t was a real event for our three Adventist mis- sionary families to have a new baby in our midst.

Henry made a little trip up river by canoe with one of our brethren who is a surv~yor. I kept very busy while he was gone so as not to get too lonesome, but when Friday evening came and he wasn't back yet, I began to feel fearful. Mrs.

Srahl came over and said that probably he hadn't bee11 able to get a canoe because of the fiesta that day. But in just a little while we hea1.d voices at the foot of the stairs, and there he was, as brown as a berry, with two other men, and carrying a big bag of oranges he had brought to us. I never was happier!

We have at last found a place where we can go swim- ming and cool off without much fear of boas or crocodiles. Ana Jensen and I went out into the country with several girls, and the people told us about this pool. The owner was a pleasant lady and said we might come any time to swim, and that we might change our clothes in her parlor. It is a clear pool of dark water, deep enough for diving, and the boas that infest the near-by stream and swamp are kept out by a little dam. We get something besides pep when we go swimming-chiggers. They are little red bugs about the size of the point of a needle, and they make you itch for a couple weeks.

Henry is planning a big venture. He wants to rent the biggest theater in town, El Teatro Alhambra, for one night a week for a series of four meetings. I t is right on the main plaza, opposite the big cathedral. But it is really stepping out by faith to start the venture. We have no budget for it, and Elder Stahl isn't here yet to consult with. Mrs. Stahl is as full of enthusiasm as we, and she is helping us to plan it. We are taking up offerings in the Sunday night meetings every week now to help rent the theater, and we plan to take up offerings at the the theater meetings also. When I tell you that this involves only eight dollars rent for each night you will see how poor our mission is. Eight dollars! Why, in the United States what conference wouldn't gladly pay eight dollars to have the biggest theater in town filled! But here eight dollars is a major financial problem.

11 tlze city was moved, saying, W h o x is this?

Matthew 21:IO

April 24. Last night we had our first meeting in the Al- hambra Theater, and I must tell you all about it. Henry had to go through all kinds of red tape to get the license to hold meetings there. That took him several days. The young people in the church distributed announcements all over town. These preparations were very busy ones, and we were so excited and worried that we couldn't eat or sleep properly. Henry was preparing his sermon on the Bible as the measur- ing rod of life, and I was practicing songs with the choir, piano solos and accoinpaniments for Miss Jensen. The meet- ing was to begin at eight-thirty, but we were there by six- thirty, getting the ushers ready and arranging the platform. We had thirty young people for ushers, all wearing little ribbons that said, Introductor, and the girls were dressed in white. The doors were not to be opened until a quarter to eight, but at seven-thirty there were so many people in the plaza, and so many of them were fighting with the police- men to get in, that the doors were opened. The people rushed in like an avalanche. The noise was frightening. Some children were knocked down. The ushers were trying to put the rich people in the seats usually reserved for them. Henry and I were behind the scenes, peeking through the cracks and getting more and more nervous. By eight o'clock

the theater was full, and since there was not even stand- ing room left we decided to begin a half hour early. I played the piano first. There were so many noisy children around the piano that the soft preludes had to be played as loud as possible. The piano was an old tinny thing, and the sound didn't carry. We had prayed that it wouldn't rain that night, because rain keeps the people away from every- thing. We were thankful that it didn't rain until they were all inside. But what a downpour there was then! Henry really had to shout to make himself heard above the bom- bardment of that tropical rain on the tin roof. But he made them hear! Even the people standing out in the plaza heard! They listened very attentively to the lecture. The subprefect was there, the mayor of the town, newspaper reporters, our friends from the Standard Oil, and a wonder- ful mixture of rich and poor. Mrs. Stahl was sitting near the mayor, and she said he was nodding his assent to every- thing that was said. Later he said to her, "Never before have there been so many people in this theater." The place holds 3,000 people, and there certainly were at least 3,500 in at- tendance. We couldn't count them. Those who were out in the plaza said that as many people had to go back home as were admitted. This means that a conservative estimate of those who came out that night was 5,000. Henry gave a fine lecture. He had promised the authorities not so say a word against the state religion. He never does anyway. I t is easy to preach the truth only, and not attack others. The people were pleased with the pictures he showed of Mary. They had been told that we did not believe in the Virgin Mary. When they find that we honor her as the mother of Christ, it breaks down prejudice. After the meeting we all went to the Stahls' and had a praise service. Henry was still too excited to sleep that night, and the next morning he was so hoarse that I gave him fomentations to his throat.

The Alhambra Theater is the biggest, finest thing in Iquitos, but it is really an old barn. 'The front is built of wood, but the sides are made of kerosene cans, and the roof is sheets of corrugated iron. I climbed down a step- ladder to get from the platform to the piano. I had to be very careful not to fall through the floor where the piano stool was. Behind the scenes the theater was an old hay- mow, minus the hay! Little boys suddenly were appeari~lg from between the tin sheets that are the walls, or sticking their curious heads over the balconies on the sides and then climbing in. I t took six men to raise and lower the curtain, and they had an old box filled with bricks for a counterweight with which to help move it!

Time goes so fast. I t still seems like last summer, and I suppose it always will until we live where there is a winter again. I t has been a long summer of dreams come true- in our home and in our work.

This success here in Iquitos is not due to our efforts. I t just seems that God goes ahead with His work, and we have to rush to keep up with it, or sometimes even to keep it in sight.

May 1. Our second big meeting at the Alhambra was also a success. We didn't have as many people, but it was a more select crowd, and the people were much quieter and more orderly. They were all admitted by tickets, which they had obtained previously. Although the tickets were free, it cut down the attendance, but we felt it would be much better to have fewer people and be able to have better order. There were 2,000 present. No boys under sixteen years of age were allowed inside. Henry had a meeting the next night in our own hall just for the boys. He and the 300 boys had a good time together with stories and lantern slides.

I had a fever the night of the second big meeting, but

just had to keep going. I was in bed several days and missed the third meeting.

A young artist and his sister who live alone up on the Nanay River invited us to visit them at their place. We went by canoe. Judging by the pictures I saw on his walls, it is a good thing he is earning his living by cutting mahogany logs instead of by painting1 Their father was a big land- owner in the rubber boom days, but now they have nothing. These young people are studying the Bible. They were both educated in England. I t was a beautiful trip. Coming home, we took short cuts through the woods with the canoe1 The water was so high that the paths were flooded, and we wound around through the forest trails, admiring the water lilies, orchids, and big, bright butterflies, just as dusk touched the luxuriant tropical vines and ferns on both sides of us. I t gave us the strangest feeling to glide through the jungle with water all around us.

I have been thinking of Lamb's essay on "Distant Cor- respondence." Do you remember that he says:

"It is no easy effort to set about a correspondence at our distance. The weary world of waters between us oppresses the imagination. I t is difficult to conceive how a scrawl of mine should ever stretch across it. I t is a sort of pre- sumption to expect that one's thoughts should live so far. I t is like writing for posterity." Then he says that letters should contain news, sentiment, and puns, or humorous re- marks. As to the news, he philosophizes, "But what security can I have that what I now send you for truth shall not, be- fore you get it, unaccountably turn into a lie?" He gives some amusing examples. "Then as to sentiment. I t fares little better with that. This kind of dish, above all requires to be served up hot. . . . If it have time to cool, it is the most tasteless ol all cold meats. . . . As to the apreeable levities. . . . They are so far from a capacity of being packed

up and sent beyond sea, they will scarce endure to be transported by hand from this room to the next. . . . The nutriment for their brief existence is the intellectual at- mosphere of the by-standers. . . . A pun, and its recognitory laugh must be co-instantaneous."

Of course I don't really feel that way about our distant correspondence. We know and understand each other too well to let the oceans or the months come between us. I was just thinking how useless it is for you in March to worry about a fever that I had in January. I ask you some questions about Christmas. At the end of April I have your answer-and Christmas is long past and out of mind.

You can imagine how my correspondence courses go. I finish the last lesson before I receive the corrections and helpful suggestions from the teacher on the first one.

When we hear the bomb fired from the boat, our hearts skip a beat. Soon we begin making trips or sending some boy to the post office. Then we just drop everything and read and read. First, all the letters, then the school paper -the Campus Chronicle-then little by little during the next month the magazines. We receive twenty or thirty letters each time. There are those who smile and tell us that the days will come when all our schoolmates and our aunts and uncles and cousins will forget to write, and only our parents will remember.

May 5. The Eco, which has been helping us so much, has changed its attitude since the first meeting in the Al- hambra Theater. The editor is a socialist, and he is against the government, against the Catholics, and now against us also. He wrote a very sarcastic article against Henry now that he knows we believe in the law. But the Lord works things out His own way. Now the prefect's paper, El Dia, is pub- lishing good reports of our lectures.

I am using Miss Hale's primer for teaching English to Brother Ramos, because I haven't been able to find a real English book written for the purpose. Since everything is in the present tense, and there is much repetition, it does very well. I write out a little vocabulary and grammar and a little exercise for each lesson. Soon he will be ready for the first reader!

M a y 10. Last night was the last of our series of lectures in the theater. There were between 3,500 and 4,000 present, and many were turned away because there was no more room. The girls about whose singing I was discouraged are now singing two-part music very well. They even attracted the attention of the newspaper reporter, who remarked about these simple "daughters of the town" having learned to sing so well.

After the meeting was all over, we felt as though the burden of the world had rolled off our shoulders. We had some ice cream sent up to the Stahls, and we stayed there visiting and praying and counting the offering money until about midnight. Mrs. Stahl said, "Well, I like to see mothers proud of their children, and tonight I am just as proud of you children as I can be." Henry, Brother Ramos, Ana Jensen, and I are all only in our twenties, and Mrs. Stahl, with a spirit that is just as youthful as ours, makes us a good mother.

Between the Chavez' cute baby, Martita, and our puppy, we have lively times at home. This afternoon we are going to take some pictures of them with Mrs. Stahl's small pet tiger. We have little time to ourselves, for we make many, many visits, and from morning to night we are either visiting or receiving visitors.

Mrs. Stahl had a picnic for the thirty girls in her Sab- bath school class. I made the cookies and helped her with

the sandwiches and punch. The girls brought fruit. It was the first outing we have had, and the first picnic the girls have ever had. We ran and played on the land that we hope will belong to the mission soon. But we paid for it later with the bugs we had picked up from the grass.

I spent one whole day making peanut butter. I shelled peanuts all morning, roasted, and winnowed them all after- noon, and ground them up in the evening.

We had Mrs. Stahl, Ana Jensen, and Dr. Bassler for supper last evening. He is the president of the Standard Oil-a bachelor, a genius, and a fine American. The other Americans in town are a disgrace to their coun t ry4 runk most of the time. Dr. Bassler has a very fine library, and he invited us to use his books whenever we wish. He also has a regular zoo in his yard-birds, snakes, and animals collected on the field trips made by his company.

Ana and I visited a Jewish family who have a half dozen pretty daughters who played the piano, violin, and mandolin in turns for us, and between times showed us the beautiful crocheting and embroidery they do. The oldest daughter was just recently married at a fashionable wedding. When we left, Ana said, "Well, there is one family that is all right -happy and devoted to one another." But Mrs. Stahl laughed and said, "The parents were married a month ago on the same day as the daughter!" It is not uncommon for the modern prospective son-in-law to give the old folks an ultimatum: "I won't marry your daughter until you two are married and give her the name of her father."

We came out just five soles ahead on the expenses in the Alhambra Theater! We are using the money to buy lumber to make some backs on the benches in our meeting hall. Henry and Brother Schaeflier are going to do the work with the help of Ramos and Chavez. They hope to surprise Elder Stahl when he comes back.

May 22. At last Elder Stahl is returning from Lima, and Elder Peugh will be with him. They are to arrive on the little launch called the Ucayali, and we are all dressed and ready to rush down to the port as soon as we hear its whistle. Every launch has its own whistle. This one will be one long, one medium, one short. It sounds like the party line tclc- phone at P.U.C., doesn't it? We may hear it this afternoon or perhaps not until tomorrow. But whenever it is heard, all the church members and many other friends will hurry to the wharf to give Elder Stahl a real welcome. I made him a big layer cake with the word Welcome written across it. Mrs. Stahl says he is always hungry for sweets when he comes home from one of these long trips.

Last evening Mr. Holt was here. He is an Australian newspaper columnist who is traveling through these parts. He offered to help us print our films. Here we can get them developed but not printed. Having bought all the necessary equipment in New York, we fixed up the carpenter shop into a dark room, and he showed us how to make prints. After this we will know how to do it ourselves, and now we have pictures to send to our mothers. I must send all the negatives home to yo11 when I have an opportunity, because they spoil in this heat and dampness. The prints in our album are turning yellow. M7hen we take pictures we have to use up the film in just a few hours, or it will spoil in the kodak. We keep our film in a mctal box sealed with adhesive tape.

Ana and I made several calls this morning. I wish I could tell you about each one, because each was interesting, but I'll just mention two. Mercedes is a young woman with four little children to support. Her husband is in jail for stealing. Every day, three times a day, she sends him his food. hlercedes speaks a little English, because she was brought up in Barbad