you could go with me, Mrs. Ahok," Miss Bradshaw said, when she had told her
of the physician's decision. This was a very remarkable suggestion to make
to this little Chinese woman, whose life had been such a secluded one that
a few years before she would not even accept an invitation to dinner with
the Baldwins, since there were to be foreign gentlemen present. Only a
short time before, when the Baldwins were returning to America and Mrs.
Ahok had gone with them, on her husband's launch, to the steamer anchorage,
twelve miles away, they had considered it a great honour, since this
Chinese friend had never been so far from home before. But Mrs. Ahok's
response was even more remarkable than Miss Bradshaw's proposition; for in
three days her little Chinese trunks packed and ticketed, "Dublin,
Ireland." Mr. Ahok had heartily consented to his wife's going; and she,
unwilling to have her sick friend take the long journey alone, and mindful
of the service she might perform for her people in England, by telling of
their need and pleading for workers, quickly decided to go.

A letter from a friend who was with her the day she sailed shows the spirit
with which she took this remarkable step: "I was impressed with two things;
her implicit confidence in her missionary friend, and her sweet, innocent
trust in the love and care of her Heavenly Father. She was leaving an
elegant home and a large household, and in giving last advice to servants
and children her voice was clear and joyous, but I noticed that she often
furtively wiped the tears off her cheeks. In her good-bye to her dearly
loved aged mother, whose grief was inconsolable, she said: 'Don't grieve,
don't worry, just pray and God will take care of me and I will come back.
Then we will sit here together and I will have so many things to tell you.'
Again and again she said to her children, 'Study your lessons diligently
and pray night and morning.'"

Mrs. Ahok sailed from Foochow the 26th of January, 1890. At Hong Kong she