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 32 In the Footsteps of Halvor, 1921 THE RETURN OF SPRING Though I’m sad unto death, The tears refuse to come, And my long-drawn sighs Are changed to joyous song. The flowers in the courtyard Spread their colors to the sun Can I forever grieve and sorrow When spring calls loud and long? —sui furen, sui dynasty (ad 581–618) Chester was devastated by the death of Nelius. His life had been entwined with that of his beloved older brother since birth. Father Halvor was comforted by his complete faith in the afterlife, telling his children that God works in mysterious ways beyond our understanding. Yet Chester felt broken, as if part of him had died with his brother. And he felt guilty for surviving. Why Nelius? Why Mother? He had depended upon Nelius to always be there to laugh with him, sing, play, and share their secret languages. Only Nelius understood the complex, multidimensional nature of his character formed by early immersion and nurturing in China, Norway, the United States, and Canada, societies with diverse ideologies, cultures, and religions. There was now a vacancy in his life that would never be filled, and he would have to learn to bear it. Reverend Ronning, who had been counting on his oldest son to continue the family’s missionary work in China, now looked to Chester to fulfill his dreams by nurturing the mission schools that he and his beloved Hannah had founded in Fancheng. Halvor did not need to persuade his son. The moment Chester heard that his brother had been lost in Great Slave Lake, he knew his own life would be changed forever. Although Chester had recently graduated with a degree in education from the University of Minnesota and had been offered a lucrative 250  chester returns to china position teaching high school physics in Minneapolis, he now felt duty-bound to return to China. Chester’s wife, Inga, was not enthusiastic about his return to China. She was an accomplished pianist and absorbed in her study of music theory. Daughter Sylvia was only five years old. They were happy in their home in Edmonton, and Inga felt uneasy about venturing into a troubled land on the other side of the world. But she loved Chester, and even as she protested, she knew she would yield to his stronger will. Chester never claimed to feel the religious “call” that had motivated his parents and Nelius. He was driven more by a desire to help educate Chinese students than to convert them to Christianity. Like his father, he felt that education for the ordinary Chinese was the essential factor in China’s modernization. Their journey to China did not begin propitiously. The family set forth on the Empress of Australia, but on the third day the steamer developed engine trouble. The ship returned to Vancouver, where they transferred to the old Empress of China. Inga was not surprised: Chester seemed destined to follow in the footsteps of his father. In Shanghai they transferred to a Jardine, Matheson & Co. riverboat to steam up the Yangtze River to the British Concession in Hankow, where his parents had been married and where Nelius had been born. They purchased tickets to ride on the recently finished railway from Hankow to Peking. But when Chester learned that the trains through Henan Province were being attacked by soldierbrigands of feuding warlords and scores of passengers had been killed, he decided to sail back to Nanking and take the luxurious Blue Express that hurried along the coastal plain via Tientsin to Peking (at that time called Peip’ing). Inga was delighted. Chester kept the reports of the murders on the railroad from her. The food on the Blue Express was good, and the views from the diner of the walled villages, mysterious distant pagodas, and emerald-green rice paddies were more picturesque than she had imagined. Eight miles from Peking, they crossed a spidery steel trestle spanning the Yungting River, where Chester pointed out the white marble arches of the Marco Polo Bridge, so named because in the thirteenth century Polo had stood on the bridge and written in his famous Travels: “Its length is three hundred paces, and its width eight paces; so that ten mounted men can, without inconvenience ride abreast.” It also became a strategic point for the defense of northern China when, in 1937, the Japanese declared war on China. From the window, the landscapes of eternal China looked so...

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