C Ihe Ladies c cu. V'VVAN - History and Classics, Department of

94 THE LADIES, THE GWICH'IN, AND THE RATHe had translated the hymn "Jerusalem the Golden" for them, because hethought certain lines would appeal to their imagination. "All jubilant with song... the daylight is serene, .. the shout of them that triumph, the song of them thatfeast." "When he tried to describe hell fire he painted it as a very cold place.He came to visit us several times, we had long talks with him and he boughtsome of Gwen's sketches, He was about to return, on leave, to England, where hewas to meet his fiancee, who had been waiting many years for him, in London.He was sadly absentminded and seemed like a man bemused with too long solitude.Sometimes we wondered if he were on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Irecall him as a small and rather insignificant looking man but he was a bravepioneer, completely selfless, led by his own vision into those northern lands. Ifever there lived a true-hearted, wide-minded missionary, that man was CanonHester. We always longed to know his subsequent history.Looking back on our brief acquaintance with those two fine men, I seem to seethe archdeacon occupying, by the very nature of his office and his mentality, apedestal whereon he would remain for the "term of his natural life. " But ifCanon Hester had been placed upon a pedestal, he would, I am sure, at oncehave come down from it, such was the urgency of his need to mingle, with allhumility and on equal terms, with his fellow man.