Page:Village life in Korea (1911).djvu/192

162 years ago there lived a man in this community who had a wife and one little girl. They were very poor, and for some reason best known to himself the husband left the wife and little girl and turned his face to parts unknown. What was this poor woman to do? How she was to keep the wolf from the door was the question that was to be faced with every returning day. There seemed just one thing to do, and that was to find a man who would be willing to take the little daughter as a prospective wife and close a trade by which they might be able to get food sufficient to keep them from starving. In the meantime we had started to preach the gospel in this community, and the mother and girl had heard and accepted it and were attending church and professing to be Christians. This added a new difficulty to the case, since in a community of so few Christians it would be hard to find a Christian husband for the girl. However, it was not long till the mother had found a young man some fifteen years older than the girl who was willing to make the trade. He had attended Church a few times, and promised to do the doctrine and be a true believer. The contract was closed, and he was to, provide food for the mother and the girl till she was large enough to be married. In the meantime the mother and daughter did the cooking and other work for the man. The mother and girl proved faithful to the Church, and were baptized in due time; but the man stopped attending church and went from bad to worse, till it was evident that he was a very bad man. As the girl grew older and began to realize what was before her,