Dr. Stone did not interrupt the tirade which was now poured forth, but picked up a piece of wood and a pebble from the floor, and when the old woman waited for her to answer, quietly replied to the pebble and bit of wood in her hand.  Finally the woman said, “Why don’t you answer me?  You have come to see me, and perhaps I have been rude, but you are my relative and I want to be friends with you.”  Still Dr. Stone did not answer, but went on talking to the stone and wood, until the old woman lost patience and exclaimed, “What nonsense is this!”

Then Dr. Stone put her arm around her and answered, “If you think it is nonsense for me to talk to the stone and wood in your house, instead of giving you attention, how do you think the Heavenly Father feels,—­the one who created you, the one who is your Father—­when you satisfy yourself with images of wood and stone instead of giving that love and devotion to Him?” Before Dr. Stone left the young women knelt in prayer, but the mother would not join them.

Later, with her mother’s consent, Yu Kuliang went to the hospital, and there spent four of the ten last days of her life, in the companionship of her cousin.  Dr. Stone gave her every minute that could be spared from her hospital duties, telling her of the glad new life which she was soon to enter, and praying with her.  Many times Yu Kuliang tried to leave the bed to kneel with Dr. Stone, but the doctor explained to her that her prayers were just as acceptable where she was, and that she was too weak to kneel.  “Those four days in the hospital with cousin were the happiest in my life,” she told her mother when she returned to her home.

When she knew that she could not get well she insisted, weak as she was, upon being dressed and having her photograph taken, for all the photographs which she had had before were in the dress of the Taoist nun, and she wanted to have one taken after she had become a Christian.

Just before her death she said to her mother, “Mother, there is nothing in this life of ours, nothing!  We were all wrong.  I’m so glad it is over and now I am not at all afraid, for I am going to that beautiful place.”  And then, her lifelong quest at length crowned with success, she went to behold the face of Him who is the Truth.

* * * * *

ANNA STONE

  I. EAGER FOR EDUCATION

 II.  AMONG HER OWN PEOPLE

III.  THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE

* * * * *

[Illustration:  Anna Stone]

ANNA STONE

I

EAGER FOR EDUCATION