Page:They're a multitoode (1900).djvu/59

 I was at the time too starved and ill to be frightened, and the man appeared to be kind and good, and told me not to be afraid. He brought me to his wife, a pleasant woman with a kind face, who gave me a little food, and after a while I slept. Then began a new life for me. At first I was terribly afraid lest my old enemy should come back and try to get me away. My new-found friends I soon began to like. The man was a small trader, who had done well in previous years, and though, like all the others, they were hard pressed by the famine, they had money enough to tide them over the worst. They had no children, so the man bought me as a servant for his wife, and I found in her a good mistress.

Meanwhile the distress grew. Many of the officials were so corrupt as to try to make money out of the calamities of the people. Transit by water was very slow, so it was long before relief came. At last we heard that kindly foreigners were bringing up some boat-loads of flour for the destitute people. It was when these boats arrived that I saw a foreigner for the first time in my life. There were two of them who attended to the transport of the rice from the boats to a temple. A strong force of soldiers prevented the rush of the hungry crowd, and the foreigners used to steal out late at night and early in the morning giving tickets to the destitute and taking care that they were not imposed upon by those whose need was not so great.

They told from time to time a strange story of a new religion of love, and of Someone called the Lord