Page:Siam and Laos, as seen by our American missionaries (1884).pdf/221

 supposed to need any education, and are therefore trained from childhood to help their mothers with all kinds of heavy as well as light work. Thus it comes to pass that the girls grow up to be the "hewers of wood and drawers of water," the planters and the traders of Siam, while the influence of their brothers is to a great extent a dead weight on the prosperity of the country.

And now what have missionaries done to show Siam a better way? Christianity implies knowledge, and missionaries believe in schools. "The Oriental mind is quick in childhood, but early stops its growth;" then to civilize and Christianize such a people the most hopeful plan is to begin with the children. So, wherever a Presbyterian mission has been established in Siam the church and the school have grown up together.

The mission-school for boys in Bangkok was opened in the early days of the work there, and through all these years it has been doing a grand work in educating the children of the Church as well as those brought to it from heathen families, who have often carried the blessed truths of the Bible with them to their heathen homes. In this, which was the first mission-school in Siam, many plans have been tried and much valuable experience gained.

In Siam, as in other Eastern countries, the native mind is becoming roused to seek for