A single night was all that he could spend with his family, and they had so much to speak of that David proposed they should sit up all night.

This, however, his mother would not hear of.

"I remember my father and him," writes his sister, "talking over the prospects of Christian missions.

They agreed that the time would come when rich men and great men would think it an honor to support whole stations of missionaries, instead of spending their money on hounds and horses.

On the morning of 17th November we got up at five o'clock.