The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1873-09-18
Letters from the Old World.
BY MISS JENNIE A. NELSON.
DEHRA DooN, Northern India,
June %. 1873.

NIX. DOARDMAN-D6ar Clf GLdlh
you for your kind letter, received
some months ago I hope you will
not infer from my long silence, that I
did not appreciate it.
I am indeed thankful if my letters
have added any interest whatever to
your paper, and given any pleasure
to your readers.
L wish to express my gratitude to
you and to them, for the s'charity, y
with which my hurried epistles have
been received. l think it is that
charity (which covers a multitude
of" defects.
I have only sent one article home,
intended for publication, and that I
never heard of since. It was a His
torical account of the Dehra Mission,
by Mr.. Woodside.
I thank you for your offer to send
your paper to some of my friends,
and will give you the address of a
few.
My duties are now more arduous,
and life is less of novelty, SO my
writing is a secondary matter, altho'
it is one of my greatest enjoyments.
All the kind messages waited to
me from over the seas, are very, very
precious. They keep me in such a
home atmosphere, Ifnd it hard some
times to realize that 1 am $4,000
miles away. However, when 1 meet
people who ask me if america is
anything like London, and those who
think our late war was between
North and South Anaericd, I feel
that 1 mast be a long acay from
home.
We Americans must invoke some
''power the gift to gle us, to hear
ourselves, as others hear US.
find the 'naSaE t,oa'ag" is one of
our marked national characteristics.
A lady said to me one day, "Are you
really an American 2" I said, 1 am
proud to say I am. She replied, Il
never would have taken you for one,
because you do not talk through
yOu- nose" I was too much amused
to be provoked.
I will copy for you, word for word,
some answers to questions in Geog
raphy from examination papers of
Native Boys School in the Panjab:
1st. Immense tracts of Land are
destitute of water, is called DESERT
In Asia there is desert of Arabia
and desert of Happy"
I'd. "NountailS are on the earth
instead of nails. This is the use of
mountains-that God has nailed the
mountains in the earth for this pur-
pose, that the earth may not be in
trembling state. When God first
made the world it was in trembling
state; by mailing the mountains now
it cannot trena6Ie."
"The mountains of Panjab are
very useful to Eng gentlemen, for in
hot season they go and live there
til 4 months"
These are boys 0nsaoers. I hope
to send you some from our girls.
June "a.
I have just returned to my room
from my singing class, which l enjoy
very much. I never heard sweeter
voices. These girls have learned a
great number of hymns.
One evening just as they were as
sembled for worship, wind storm
came up, which soon extinguished all
the lights. It was so dark 1 could
not see one of them, but I started q
hymn. Soon the voices arose above
the storm. We sang on, one hymn
after another, until we got the ad-
vantage of the storm, having sung II
or Is hymns.
I have been trying to teach the
boys in our Mission Boys School to
sing. I have no words to express the
chaos of sounds 1 had upon my first
effort. Most of the boys are Heathen,
and know little of our hymns. 1
hope to sing Theology into them.
T am sorry to say that Mr.. Herron's
health is not good this year. He
and Mrs. H. are now in the Hills, he
having been ordered there by his
physician. We hear he is improving
already by the bracing mountain air.
Mountains are useful to as, as they
are to "Eng. gentlemen" of the Pan
iab, but we do not stay ''til 4 months. !"
I have just returned from a two
weeks sojoun there, and feel elstronger
than I did last year. sold Indians"
say this is an unusually hot season,
but 1 have felt the heat much more
at home. "The rains" have COM
menced, and now the air is delight
full.
How clearly dear old Hillsboro is
pictured upon my heart, and what
cluster of dear faces are before me as
I write. My warmest greetings to
them all, and others who have re-
membered me so kindly. 1t is such
comforting thought that we and
our work are remembered around so
many family affairs. We need the
quickening power of the Spirit in our
own souls.
Yours very sincerely,
JENNIE A. NELSON.
N. B. Please correct my letters
very carefully, as 1 write them amid
many Interruptions and in haste.
The two States of New York and
OIL. ....., .l..nr Gh,.,n fr,n,.4l.. e