Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/161

Rh of such engagements, however, rather aid than injure his progress in this respect, by leading him to hear and use the language, while they relieve the weariness of continual study.

Upon taking charge of the Royapooram station, we found a small day-school for girls taught on the mission premises, and two boys' schools in neighbouring and populous parts of the city. In the care of these schools we found something to do at once, and, in our desire to instil the all-important truths of the gospel into the tender minds of the pupils, a stimulus to increased efforts to acquire the Tamil language. Our girls' school, to which the name of “Verandah school” was given from its being held on the portico of our house, was under the care of the missionary's wife. Though an humble and unpretending agency by which to benefit this heathen people, such schools must not be overlooked. They are one of the means by which the Hindus are to be raised from their degradation. The females are thus reached and influenced by the female missionary, when they could not be reached by the minister of the gospel.

Any one entering the house between the hours of eight in the morning and two, if he