Busy as she was, meeting and talking to the people who everywhere came to greet her and her mother, Anna’s mind was not so wholly occupied with the present that she was oblivious to the future.  On her return she made several valuable suggestions for the development of the work in the various places, such as that the chapel in one city be moved to a more central location, that a vacant piece of property belonging to the mission would be an excellent site for a day school for girls, etc.  “There ought to be a school in Whang Mai as a centre for women to work in,” her report reads.  “There are many women in that city who are friendly to the church....  When my parents were there there were quite a few women as members of the church, but now they don’t come to church, because there is no woman to talk to them.”  She summed up the impressions of her trip in the words, “The trip opened my eyes to the fact that the harvest is ‘truly plenteous’ and the labourers are sadly few.”  At the same time her faith added, “But I am so glad to know that my Master is before us who are few in number.”

III

THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE

It is not surprising that with all her interests Anna Stone longed to live and make use of the unusual opportunities which she had received.  “If God is willing I hope to work many years yet for Him,” she wrote Mrs. Joyce after she had been back in China a few months; and at the end of her second year’s work she said:  “There are many things for which I am very thankful in the past year, but perhaps the greatest was the joy in knowing that my Heavenly Father has really allowed me a share of work....  I don’t remember that there were many days of work neglected because of ill health.”

It was indeed remarkable that she was able to do as much as she did.  One who saw her in her work writes of the untiring enthusiasm and activity with which she gave herself to it:  “Her work was her very life.  She talked to me of her plans for the woman’s school, and of her great desire to see a revival here in the schools.  I am sure you know of her work last summer when the missionaries were all away—­how, feeling that it was a mistake that the native Christians should be without the helps of divine worship and the weekly prayer meeting, she, with her sister’s help, opened the church and held services all through the hot summer, doing the preaching herself and thus holding the people together.  I never met any one at home or here whose whole soul was more on fire with a burning desire to win souls than was Anna Stone’s, and I have met a large number of prominent workers in my work at home.  She undoubtedly realized that her time was very short and she must work all the time while she had strength.  Her work was not only in the school ... but she was at work in the day schools and boarding schools, in the church, in the league, in the visitation, in the hospital—­everywhere where her life was able to touch others; and one felt the influence of the Holy Spirit whenever in merest conversation with the girl.  That happy smile and merry laugh that so won the hearts of the people at home were bestowed upon every one here, and I do not wonder she was able to reach hearts where others failed.”