LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA

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30 EARLY LIFE. Yet a tender cord which bound me to my parents and grandfather tied me also to their prince. This was to me another severe trial. I became extremely nervous and irritable, and I might have been utterly ruined if I had not found a consoling friend to rescue me from this trouble. He often invited me to his house to study Dutch with him, and as he was farther advanced in the study he was a great hdp to me. He lent me a number of books to read, and among them I found a Japanese translation of the story of Robinson Cru­soe. It created in me a desire to visit foreign lands. Being pleased with it, I showed it to my grand­father and urged him to read it. When he read it through, he gave me a solemn warning, saying, • Young man, don't read such a book; I fear it will mislead you.' At that time I received permission from my pr·ince to go to a private school, and stayed there a part of the time when he did not require my service. Some time afterwards my friend lent me a number of Chinese books. One of them was a his­torical geography of the United States written by the Rev. Dr. Bridgman of the North China mission. An­other was a brief History of the world written by an English missionary in China. Another was Dr. W il­liamson's little magazine ; and what excited most my curiosity were a few Christian books, published either at Shanghai or Hongkong. I read them with close attention. I was partly a skeptic, and partly struck with reverential awe. I became acquainted with the name of the Creator through those Dutch books I studied before, but it never came home so dear to my heart as when I read the simple story of God's creation of the universe on those pages of a brief Chinese Bible History. I found out that the world

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