her decision.

Confident that she was obeying the call of God, she set about her
preparations for the long journey before her in a cheerful spirit,
answering the demurs of her friends with, "It is God's call. I
must go." She was greatly cheered when she found that Miss
Isabella Thoburn, whose brother (now Bishop Thoburn) had been some
years in India, was to be her traveling companion. They sailed
from New York November 3, 1869, and arrived in Bareilly January
20, 1870, during the annual conference of the Methodist Mission.



APPOINTMENT TO BAREILLY


The two ladies, whose previous slight acquaintance had ripened
into warmest friendship during their weeks of journeying together,
had hoped that they might be associated together in mission work,
but it was not so to be. Miss Thoburn was appointed to educational
work in Lucknow, and Dr. Swain found that she was to remain in
Bareilly. This appointment gave her the opportunity to begin her
medical work at once, for there were not only the girls'
orphanage, for which Mrs. Thomas had so long desired efficient
medical help, but scores of Christian women who could not go to
the city hospital. In addition to these, there was the class of
fourteen intelligent Christian girls that had for two years been
receiving excellent preparatory training from Mrs. Thomas, who had
fully believed that her prayer for a lady doctor would be answered
and that these girls would yet have the opportunity for the study