_August 8th, 1903._[1]
Do you know what day this is? It is the third anniversary of our
meeting. Three years ago today, three simple, childlike girls received a
costly gift from heaven, the gift of a friend after their own hearts!
The childlike girls have grown to be women, life has furrowed wrinkles
in the still young faces; their hearts have been through fire. Have they
wasted and gone to ashes, or have they come forth from the fire
purified?
* * * * *
Just now we have company; at the table where I sit there are five of us
working. Justinah the wise woman came this morning and will stay until
next week. We think her a treasure. She spends her time here usefully,
teaches embroidery and is so severe when we are careless. When we make a
mistake, she immediately pulls everything out. How rich I felt this
morning when she laid her hand trustingly on my shoulder, while I
explained something or other to her. Now she feels at home with us; I
look with so much pleasure into her fine intelligent eyes; they say so
much.
She is a dessa-child. Oh, how full of love is her calling! You would
enjoy meeting her. She listens with attention when one speaks, and then
asks such intelligent questions. If you ever come to our neighbourhood
again, I hope to be able to take her to you. This clever little woman
has already attended forty-eight women in child-birth, and she is such a
young thing still, with all a child's eagerness.
The Regent of Rembang comes on the seventeenth of this month. I have
asked him to bring his children with him. I am so anxious to make the
acquaintance of my future family. The children are to be my future, and
I shall live and work for them, strive, and suffer, if need be, for
them. I hope that they will love me. I have asked their father to give
the entire control of his children to me. My dream is to make them feel,
in so far as it is possible, that they are my own children.
There are others that call themselves my children; the Under-Collector
here, a rich regent's son and heir, said, "Make my child your servant,
let her scrub the floor, draw water, anything that you will, if you will
but let her stay with you." I listened with a smile on my face, but I
felt like crying.
I said nothing, promised nothing, but only prayed silently that I might
lock all the little children entrusted to me safely in my heart, and
nourish them with my love.
I am only going to take one child with me to my new dwelling--a girl of
eight or so, who has been given into my care by her parents. She is the
daughter of a teacher and has been to school. She is a lovely child,
clever and quick. If she shows any inclination at all, I shall educate
her for some profession. Now she receives lessons from my sister in
handiwork. In the Rembang there are women and children of gentle birth
who have been educated. I shall try to gain their interest in our work
later.
My future sister-in-law is already "tainted" by a Western education;
that will be pleasant for me. My days, at home are numbered; only two
more short months and my future protector will come for me. He and his
younger brother, the regent of Toeban, have been here. The day is set;
it is the twelfth of November. The wedding will be very quiet, only our
families will be present and neither of us is to wear bridal dress; he
will be in his uniform, as I have already seen him. That is my wish. His
children are not coming, to my great disappointment. They are still too
little, and the journey is tiresome.
[1] To Mevrouw Abendanon.