kindled easily. The romance of that visit had never died in her
heart, and among the many careers that dazzled her youthful
vision was that of converting such Syrian heathen as might
continue in idol worship after the Burches' efforts in their
behalf had ceased. She thought at the age of eighteen she might
be suitably equipped for storming some minor citadel of
Mohammedanism; and Mrs. Burch had encouraged her in the idea,
not, it is to be feared, because Rebecca showed any surplus of
virtue or Christian grace, but because her gift of language, her
tact and sympathy, and her musical talent seemed to fit her for
the work.

It chanced that the quarterly meeting of the Maine Missionary
Society had been appointed just at the time when a letter from
Mrs. Burch to Miss Jane Sawyer suggested that Rebecca should form
a children's branch in Riverboro. Mrs. Burch's real idea was that
the young people should save their pennies and divert a gentle
stream of financial aid into the parent fund, thus learning early
in life to be useful in such work, either at home or abroad.

The girls themselves, however, read into her letter no such
modest participation in the conversion of the world, and wishing
to effect an organization without delay, they chose an afternoon
when every house in the village was vacant, and seized upon the
Robinsons' barn chamber as the place of meeting.

Rebecca, Alice Robinson, Emma Jane Perkins, Candace Milliken, and
Persis Watson, each with her hymn book, had climbed the ladder
leading to the haymow a half hour before Abijah Flagg had heard
the strains of "Daughters of Zion" floating out to the road.