“There isn’t time,” J.W. objected.  “But if you won’t think me a nuisance, maybe I can tell you part of it.  For example, Sunday school.  Long ago I discovered that the whole church was providing for Sunday school progress through a Board of Sunday Schools, and there isn’t a modern Sunday school idea anywhere that this Board doesn’t put into its scheme of work.  I was a very small part of it myself for a while, so I know.”

“Yes, and even I know a little about the Sunday School Board,” confessed Miss Morel.  “It has helped us a lot in the Philippines.  And so I must admit that the church does try to improve and extend Sunday school work.  What else?”

J.W. told about his experiences on the Mexican border, where home missions and foreign missions came together.  Then, seeing that she was really listening, he told of his and Marty’s college days, how Marty had borrowed money from the Board of Education, and how the same Board had a hand in the college evangelistic work.  He told about the deaconesses who managed the hospital at Manchester, and the training school which Marcia Dayne Carbrook had attended when she was getting ready to go to China.  That school had sent out hundreds of deaconesses and other workers.

The thought of Marcia made him think of Joe, and he told what he knew of how the Wesley Foundation at the State University had helped Joe when he could easily have made shipwreck of his missionary purpose.  Of course the story of his visit to the Carbrooks in China must also be told.

Miss Morel changed the subject again.  “Tell me, Mr. Farwell,” she asked, “were you in the Epworth League when you were at home?”

“I surely was,” said J.W.  “That was where I got my first start; at the Cartwright Institute.”  And the story jumped back to those far-off days when he was just out of high school.

As he paused Miss Morel said, “I was an Epworthian, too, and in the young women’s missionary societies.  We had a combination society in our church, so I was a ‘Queen Esther’ and a ‘Standard Bearer’ as well.  Those organizations did me a world of good.  You know, when I think of it, the women’s missionary societies have done a wonderful work in America and everywhere.”

“I guess they have,” said J.W.  “I know my mother has always been a member of both, and she’s always been the most intelligent and active missionary in the Farwell family.”

The talk languished for a while, and then Miss Morel exclaimed, “I know why we’ve stopped talking; we’re hungry.  It is almost time for luncheon, and if you have an appetite like mine, you’re impatient for the call.”

J.W. looked at his watch and saw that there was only ten minutes of the morning left.  So they separated to get ready against the sounding of the dinner gong.