"None of the rest suffered so many falls, nor, I think, any of the laden
beasts. Her son was in terrible distress at every fall, for he was
carrying his infant in his arms ... and he could not put the child down in
the mud without danger to it."

Indeed, it must have been a very distressful journey for all, and not
least for the poor little infant missionary! People may wonder what was
the necessity of taking this last at all. [Footnote: Dr. Cronin and his
wife were both engaged to come out to Mr. Groves. Then she died, and as he
felt bound to fulfil his promise and did not like to leave the baby, he
brought it too.] An old clergyman, however, once said to me, "I would
rather take an infant in arms with me, than go all by myself on a journey
abroad."

At last Aleppo was reached. In his letter, on 10th February to his mother,
Newman says how long their stay there would be is quite uncertain. He "is
taking daily lessons in Arabic, and speaking French."

"I am afraid you will not think the better of me when I tell you that I am
become a smoker; and this though I had so great a dislike to it in
England. I do not mean that I am always smoking--certainly not; but I have
bought two pipes and amber mouthpieces, and all the apparatus; which shows
that I am in earnest. When a man in college smoked cigars in his room, and
we (the Balliol fellows) generally condemned it, I remember, in reply to
my remark that a man who smoked made himself a nuisance, one of them said,
'It would not do to generalize; for in Germany the man who _objects_ to
smoking is the nuisance.' ... If anyone calls on me I must offer him a
pipe and smoke one myself; and, conversely, when I call on anyone, I must
not refuse the pipe.... The pipe fills up gaps of time, and 'breaks the