further at this time would not only cripple the work among the needy
peoples of our field, but shut the door of opportunity in many places,
and injure the people in their efforts to rise, and discourage our
self-sacrificing missionaries. The people are grateful for these schools
and churches and need more of them. We appeal to our Northern friends to
come to the rescue of the American Missionary Association at this time.

* * * * *

A SCHOOLBOY'S COMPOSITION.


A little lad six years of age in the primary grade of Knox Institute,
Athens, Ga., attended rhetoricals in which several pupils read
compositions on the subject of America. He was greatly impressed, went
home, and wrote without supervision the composition below. Although he
has put the raccoon, lion and tiger among the birds, it is certainly a
pretty good composition for the first one written by a child six years
of age. Could any of the children six years old to whom THE AMERICAN
MISSIONARY may come do better than this little black boy?

AMERICA.

America is a large country, and it has many large rivers, and it has
many animals, and has wild creatures.

America is a most important country. And many a people like to go there.
And it has many wild birds--mocking birds, nightingale, raccoon, and
also the opossum and lion, tiger, elephant, and the rhinoceros.