You would have been amused to see those girls when they first reached Beirut.  They walked barefoot from Safita down to Tripoli, about forty miles, and then Uncle S. took them on to Beirut.  He bought shoes for them, and hired two little donkeys for them to ride, but they preferred to walk a part of the way, and would carry their shoes in their hands and run along the sandy beach in the surf, far ahead of the animals.  I rode out to meet them, and they were a sorry sight to see.  Uncle S. rode a forlorn-looking horse, and two ragged men from Safita walked by his side, followed by two ragged fat-faced girls riding on little donkeys.  The girls were almost bewildered at the city sights and scenes.  Soon we met a carriage, and they were so frightened that they turned pale, and their donkeys were almost paralyzed with fear.  One of the little girls, when asked if she knew what that was, said it was a mill walking.

The first few days in school they were so homesick for Safita that they ran away several times.  They could not bear to be washed and combed and sent to the Turkish bath, but wanted to come back here among the goats and calves and donkeys.  One night they went to their room and cried aloud.  Rufka, the teacher, asked them what they wanted?  They said, pointing to the white beds, “We don’t like these white things to sleep on.  We don’t want to stay here.  There are no calves and donkeys, and the room is so light and cold!” The people here in Safita think that the cattle help to keep the room warm.  In the daytime they complained of being tired of sitting on the seats to study, and wished to stand up and rest.  One was 11 and the other 12 years old, and that was in 1865.

One of them, Raheel, fell sick after a time, and was much troubled about her sins.  Her teacher Sara, who slept near her, overheard her praying and saying, “Oh Lord Jesus, do give me a new heart!  I am a poor sinner.  Do you suppose that because I am from Safita, you cannot give me a new heart?  O Lord, I know you can.  Do have mercy on me!”

Who are those clean and well dressed persons coming out of the church?  Our dear brother Yusef Ahtiyeh, the native preacher, and his wife Hadla, and Miriam, the teacher of the girls’ school.  Yusef is one of the most refined and lovely young men in Syria.  What a clear eye he has, and what a pleasant face!  He too has borne much for his Master.  In 1865, when he left the Greek Church, he was living with his brother in Beirut.  His brother turned him out of the house at night, with neither bed nor clothing.  He came to my house and staid with me some time.  He said it was hard to be driven out by his brother and mother, but he could bear anything for Christ’s sake.  Said he, “I can bear cursing and beating and the loss of property.  But my mother is weeping and wailing over me.  She thinks I am a heretic and am lost forever.  Oh, it is hard to bear, the ‘persecution of tears!’” But the Lord gave him grace to bear it, and he is now the happy spiritual guide of this large Protestant community, and the Nusairy Sheikhs look up to him with respect, while that persecuting brother of his is poverty-stricken and sick, and can hardly get bread for his children.