Page 200 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 200
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
But it was all forgotten and the six months of separation seemed like a dream when we finally met our
husbands again and could hand over all our responsibilities to them. Raymond, of course did not
know his daddy at all and was very jealous of him. Every time he saw Percy with his arms around me
or kissing me, he crawled as fast as he could to me, climbed up on my knee, and put his head on my
shoulder. I commented that ‘he is determined his mummy is his, and nobody else’s.’ It was not long
before he accepted his daddy again, and they became great friends.
I teased Marj on the first morning after we met Fred and Percy about her beautifully polished shoes!
Fred was noted among us for always having his shoes well polished and even muddy roads and hard
mountain travel didn’t stop him looking as ‘dapper’ as ever and making sure Marj did too!
For the mountain trip, Percy walked, I had a sedan chair and Raymond was in a basket I had had
made for him, which a Chinese coolie carried at one end of his carrying pole. Raymond loved it and
sang and talked or slept all the time
we were jogging along, and of course
he was the centre of attention
whenever we stopped for a meal. To
be travelling with Percy again through
our lovely mountains was sheer joy.
In spite of the cold, there was a
fascination about getting up early to
walk a stage before breakfast, to
smell the smell of wood fires and
cooking rice rising up from the valley
around us, and just to walk together
in the fresh morning air and talk and
talk!
The Mission station at Fengxiang, usually occupied by Miss Ruby Thompson, was empty at that time,
but we decided to go there anyway in preference to a Chinese inn. We found the main premises
occupied by military, but not the rooms which Miss Thompson used. The leader was a man notorious
for his rough ways, but Percy and Fred approached him politely and told him we only wanted to stay
one night and we knew Miss Thompson would be happy for us to occupy her rooms. He agreed, and
we settled in while he went off somewhere else on his own business. Later we were startled to hear
gunshots quite close and looking out we saw him returning, stalking into the courtyard, shooting off his
rifle as he came, not at anybody in particular, but just to let everybody know he was there and he was
the boss! His surname was Han, and he was known all over the district as Han Bopi (Han who skins
people), and people were very afraid of him. He came in to visit us during the evening and wanted to
see the children who were playing on the ‘kang’ (heated bed), Raymond with Kath and Beryl Strange.
To my surprise, Raymond who was usually so friendly with all Chinese, gave one look at him and then
scrambled quickly away to the far side of the bed. We felt that with a child’s intuition, he knew that this
man was evil.
Our last stage on that journey over the mountains was a memorable one too. We failed to make the
regular stage and had to put up in a wayside village. The accommodation was meant mainly for
muleteers so we were all ushered into one huge room with a long bed stretching the full length of one
wall. We had our own bedding of course, but were not exactly delighted to find that we had to share
one bed with the coolies. No use complaining, so we made the best of it. We gave one half of the bed
to the coolies who were lice ridden and dirty, then we settled ourselves on the other half with as wide a
Return to Table of 200
Contents
Amy Moore
But it was all forgotten and the six months of separation seemed like a dream when we finally met our
husbands again and could hand over all our responsibilities to them. Raymond, of course did not
know his daddy at all and was very jealous of him. Every time he saw Percy with his arms around me
or kissing me, he crawled as fast as he could to me, climbed up on my knee, and put his head on my
shoulder. I commented that ‘he is determined his mummy is his, and nobody else’s.’ It was not long
before he accepted his daddy again, and they became great friends.
I teased Marj on the first morning after we met Fred and Percy about her beautifully polished shoes!
Fred was noted among us for always having his shoes well polished and even muddy roads and hard
mountain travel didn’t stop him looking as ‘dapper’ as ever and making sure Marj did too!
For the mountain trip, Percy walked, I had a sedan chair and Raymond was in a basket I had had
made for him, which a Chinese coolie carried at one end of his carrying pole. Raymond loved it and
sang and talked or slept all the time
we were jogging along, and of course
he was the centre of attention
whenever we stopped for a meal. To
be travelling with Percy again through
our lovely mountains was sheer joy.
In spite of the cold, there was a
fascination about getting up early to
walk a stage before breakfast, to
smell the smell of wood fires and
cooking rice rising up from the valley
around us, and just to walk together
in the fresh morning air and talk and
talk!
The Mission station at Fengxiang, usually occupied by Miss Ruby Thompson, was empty at that time,
but we decided to go there anyway in preference to a Chinese inn. We found the main premises
occupied by military, but not the rooms which Miss Thompson used. The leader was a man notorious
for his rough ways, but Percy and Fred approached him politely and told him we only wanted to stay
one night and we knew Miss Thompson would be happy for us to occupy her rooms. He agreed, and
we settled in while he went off somewhere else on his own business. Later we were startled to hear
gunshots quite close and looking out we saw him returning, stalking into the courtyard, shooting off his
rifle as he came, not at anybody in particular, but just to let everybody know he was there and he was
the boss! His surname was Han, and he was known all over the district as Han Bopi (Han who skins
people), and people were very afraid of him. He came in to visit us during the evening and wanted to
see the children who were playing on the ‘kang’ (heated bed), Raymond with Kath and Beryl Strange.
To my surprise, Raymond who was usually so friendly with all Chinese, gave one look at him and then
scrambled quickly away to the far side of the bed. We felt that with a child’s intuition, he knew that this
man was evil.
Our last stage on that journey over the mountains was a memorable one too. We failed to make the
regular stage and had to put up in a wayside village. The accommodation was meant mainly for
muleteers so we were all ushered into one huge room with a long bed stretching the full length of one
wall. We had our own bedding of course, but were not exactly delighted to find that we had to share
one bed with the coolies. No use complaining, so we made the best of it. We gave one half of the bed
to the coolies who were lice ridden and dirty, then we settled ourselves on the other half with as wide a
Return to Table of 200
Contents
