Christmas is a great event in the Woolston Memorial Hospital, not only for the patients and workers, but also for as many of the neighbours as can be accommodated in the chapel.  There is never any difficulty with regard to unwilling guests; on the contrary, the neighbours invariably respond with almost disconcerting enthusiasm.  The first year that they were invited to the Christmas exercises, red Chinese cards, reading “Admit one only,” were distributed to one hundred and twenty families, one to each house, the choice of the member who should use it being left to the family.  Careful explanations as to why all could not be invited were made; but in spite of this, during the days preceding Christmas, the doctor was besieged by the non-elect with requests for invitations.

[Illustration:  Dr. Hue’s Christmas Party]

The guests were invited for half-past seven Christmas evening, but the great majority of them were on hand at four o’clock waiting for the doors to be opened.  When they were opened, and the guests began to pass in, presenting their red tickets, a new predicament arose; for it was discovered that many of these tickets were of their own manufacture, the number of those which were passed in far exceeding the number of those which had been given out.  But when the doctor looked over the crowds, and saw how eager they were to get in, and how good-natured they were, she had not the heart to turn them away, so told the gatekeepers to let them in as long as they could find a place in which to stand.  And although the chapel was crowded to its utmost seating and standing capacity, even the basement and the yard outside being filled, Dr. Hue said that no better behaved or more quiet crowd could have been desired.  They listened attentively to the exercises, which were fully two hours long, and at the close, group by group, they all went up to thank the doctor for the pleasure she had provided for them, and then quietly dispersed.

Tea, cakes, and oranges had been provided for the invited guests, but as more than twice the number invited had arrived, it was found necessary to omit that part of the entertainment.  However, the doctor sent her servants the following day to distribute the cakes and fruits among those for whom they had been provided.  That the guests had enjoyed themselves was evident when the next Christmas drew near, for many either sent to Dr. Hue, or came themselves, to remind her not to forget to invite them to the Christmas entertainment.  Nor did a single guest fail to appear on Christmas evening.

If a physician’s chief reward is the gratitude and appreciation of those among whom he works, Dr. Hue is indeed rewarded for her self-forgetful service of those whom she lovingly terms “my Chinese.”  Appreciation of the work she is doing is convincingly shown by the way in which the people flock to her, and in their great eagerness to have the hospital kept open the year around.  This has proved to be impossible,