The living pageant, “The Big Mountain and the Little Chisel,” had
not ended, but some of the actors had to retire. Dr. House, who had
been in the leading rôle for twenty-nine years, and Mrs. House,
who had been his loyal understudy for twenty, handed their lines
to other willing players and took their seats on the dais of time
to watch the Divine plot unfold. Repeated efforts on the part of
Mrs. House to recuperate her health only confirmed the physician’s
surmise that the immediate cause of her suffering was the tropical
climate. There was no alternative of wisdom but to return to her
native clime. So it came about that Dr. and Mrs. House resigned.
Their leave-taking was almost like laying down life itself, for
their hearts had become intimately entwined with the lives of the
Siamese people. In March, 1876, the two sailed for “home again.”
But to return to America was not to abandon their zeal for Siam;
they made themselves ambassadors at large to the Church in the
United States in behalf of the Kingdom of Christ in that land.