Then we made our way back to the drawing-room, and as the novelty of a return to civilization wore off, we felt more and more the genial influences around us. The Scottish are always hospitable, but few even of them could have exceeded in hospitality these missionaries at Mukden. Mrs. Webster was incessantly at work devising some fresh form of comfort for us—at one time making up a cosy room for each of us, at another producing every kind of clothing, and at another bringing out the most astonishing variety of Scottish cakes and scones and muffins.
This Scottish mission is established with a special object, and on lines different from most other missions. The object is to try and get at the Chinese officials and gentry ; to preach to the lower classes as well, but to make an especial attempt to get in touch with the gentry and upper classes of society. With this object, highly trained men are sent out, and the mission is established with some " style," though I use this word not to imply any particularly luxurious surroundings, but rather to impress the difference from the extremely simple and plain establishment of other missions which I have seen. It is recognized that Chinese officials are reluctant to mix freely with men who live in very humble houses and dress indifferently, and it is thought that men who adopt a higher style of living and dress will have more - chance of meeting with these sensitive Chinamen. It is, moreover, considered by the heads of this mission that men will work better in a distant land if they are accompanied by their wives to cheer and encourage them and help on the mission work by teaching children. It is part, too, of the general line of action that at each mission station there should also be a missionary doctor, through whom first access may be gained to men who might otherwise never be approachable.
This class of mission does not inspire the same amount of
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