So though several times messengers were started out to carry our letters to the coast, they were turned back by the boxers before they had gone far. it was not long before the boxers, like a pestilence [contagious disease], had spread all over shansi. school had not closed yet in fen chou fu, but as the feeling of alarm deepened, fathers came to take their boys home, and school was dismissed before the end of june. —the boxer rebellion, fei ch'i-hao, 1900 why did fathers take their boys out of christian school early? so the boys could work in the fields to protect the boys from the boxers so the boys could join the boxers because the fathers could not send letters