Hsiao Yun (Little Cloud) was the little four-year-old daughter of Mr. Hu the gatekeeper at the mission compound in Manchuria. She lived with her parents, her brother Tong, and her older sister, Ping-an, in a little two-room cottage close to the gates of the compound. Much of the time she played in the front yard; for the most part she played around the big gates watching the people coming and going.
When the missionary and his wife came in or went out, sometimes they would give her one or two pennies. They thought the little girl would spend them on candy or on the sugar apples which children dearly loved in Manchuria.
“Hold out your hand, dear!” the missionary’s wife said one day.
Little Cloud closed her fingers tightly over a shiny penny.
“Hsieh! Hsieh! (Thank you)!” she cried. “We pu p’ei (I am unwohy)!”
That autumn the missionary had some special meetings and spoke about the great need for the gospel in India. He told of how many of the little Indian children had never heard the word of God.
Winter came on, and with it the biting, bitter cold of Manchuria. Little Cloud had just turned five. One day while playing about the drafty gateway she caught a cold. It quickly developed into pneumonia. They did all they possibly could for her, but the missionary and his wife and her own parents soon saw that there was no hope. She was sinking fast.
Then one day as they stood beside her bed, Hsiao Yun sat up and said, “Mother, I’ll meet you in heaven!” and she passed quietly into the arms of her loving Saviour.
One evening, as a bright fire burned in the stove, the missionary and his wife were sitting talking over the happenings of the day. Suddenly a knock came at the door, and when the missionary opened it, he saw poor Mrs. Hu standing there crying.
“Come in!” he said. She went straight to his wife and gave her a small soap box. With tears streaming down her cheeks and her voice choking with emotion, she said, “My little Yun, before she died, gave me these pennies, which she had saved up all unknown to me. She said they were to be used to buy Bibles for the poor little Indian children.”
The missionary opened the box, and sure enough, there were all the pennies that Hsiao Yun had received. The missionary and his wife added enough to make five dollars, and then sent it on to India.
ML-04/30/1978