he assured us that he had never seen anything so interesting in his
life, and he would have great things to tell the people of his
village.

There isn't a place you go, or a thing you do out here that doesn't
afford some kind of amusement.

The first glamour of the country has gotten dimmed a bit, not that the
interest has waned for a moment, but I have come to see that the
beauty and picturesqueness are largely on the surface. If ever I have
to distribute tracts in another world, I am going to wrap a piece of
soap in every one, for I am more and more convinced that the surest
way to heaven for the heathen is the Soapy Way.

During the holidays I tried to study up a little and add a drop or two
to that gray matter that is supposed to be floating around in my
brain. But as a girl said of a child in Kindergarten, "my intelligence
was not working." Putting Psychology into easy terms, stopping to
explain things I do not understand very well myself, struggling
through the medium of a strange language, and trying to occidentalize
the oriental mind has been a stiff proposition for one whose learning
was never her long suit! When I come home I may be nothing but a
giggly, childishly happy old lady, who doesn't care a rap whether her
skin fits or not.

The prospect of war is getting more and more serious. Out in the
Inland Sea, the war ships are hastening here and there on all sorts of
secret missions. I hope with all my heart there will not be war, but
if there is, I hope Japan will wipe Russia right off the map!