Mr. and Mrs. Judson obtained a native teacher, and settled down to a daily struggle with their task.  The man was at first unwilling to have Mrs. Judson as a pupil, thinking it below his dignity to instruct a woman:  but when he saw that she was determined to persevere he abandoned his opposition.  As the teacher knew no English and the pupils knew no Burman, progress was of necessity very slow.  “Our only mode of ascertaining the names of objects which met our eye,” wrote Mrs. Judson, “was by pointing to them in the presence of our teacher, who would immediately speak the names in Burman; we then expressed them as nearly as possible by the Roman character, till we had sufficiently acquired the power of the Burman.”

In order to get more in contact with the people, they left Mr. Carey’s hospitable roof and took up their residence in the centre of the town.  This obliged Mrs. Judson to commence housekeeping on her own account, and consequently she had less time to devote to study; yet to her surprise she made faster progress now than she had ever done before.  She thus described her daily life, in a letter home:  “We are busily employed all day long.  Could you look into a large open room, which we call a verandah, you would see Mr. Judson bent over his table covered with Burman books, with his teacher at his side, a venerable-looking man in his sixtieth year, with a cloth wrapped round his middle and a handkerchief on his head.  They talk and chatter all day long with hardly any cessation.

“My mornings are busily employed in giving directions to the servants, providing food for the family, etc.  At ten my teacher comes, when, were you present, you might see me in an inner room at one side of my study table, and my teacher the other, reading Burman, writing, talking, etc.  I have many more interruptions than Mr. Judson, as I have the entire management of the family.  This I took on myself for the sake of Mr. Judson’s attending more closely to the study of the language; yet I have found, by a year’s experience, that it is the most direct way I could have taken to acquire the language, as I am frequently obliged to speak Burman all day.  I can talk and understand others better than Mr. Judson, though he knows more about the nature and construction of the language.”

It was impossible to do any direct evangelistic work until the language had been more fully mastered, and Mrs. Judson was continually spurred on in her studies by the desire to speak to the natives about the Lord Jesus Christ.  “O Thou Light of the world,” she prayed, as she realised more fully the ignorance of the people, “dissipate the thick darkness which covers Burmah, and let Thy light arise and shine!”

CHAPTER IV.

A HEAVY AFFLICTION.

[Illustration:  Ann Hasseltine Judson]