Jesus loves me;
He has paid my debt;
He has brought me back from where I strayed;
He has washed my heart.

Yes, my Jesus, Yes, my Jesus.
Yes, my Jesus. Mine in love."

They would learn the words off by heart because there was only the
one hymn-book, and they would sing them together, Shomolekae's voice
leading.

They learned them so well that sometimes when the mothers were out
hoeing in the fields, or the little boys were paddling in their canoes
and fishing in the marshy waters, you would hear them singing the
hymns that they learned in Shomolekae's little school hut.

Then on Sunday they would have Sunday-school, and when that was over
Shomolekae would gather the chocolate-faced men and women and boys and
girls together--all who would come--and he would teach them to kneel
down and pray to the one God, Who is our Father, and they would sing
the hymns that they had learned, and then he would speak to them a
simple little address, telling them of the Lord Jesus.

But Shomolekae desired always to go further and further, even though
it was dangerous and difficult. So he got a canoe and launched it
in the river by the village and paddled further and further up the
stream, under the overhanging trees, and sometimes across the deep
pools in which the big and fierce hippopotami and crocodiles lived.

He paddled up the River Okanvango, though many times he was in danger
of his life. The river was not like rivers in our own country, deep
and with strong banks; it was often filled all over with reeds, and
as shallow as a swamp, and poor Shomolekae had to push his way
with difficulty through these reeds. Always at night the poisonous
mosquitoes came buzzing and humming around him. The evil-tempered
hippopotamus would suddenly come up from the bottom of the river with
his wicked beady eyes, and great cavernous mouth, with its enormous
teeth, yawning at Shomolekae as though he quite meant to swallow him
whole.

On the banks at night the lions would roar, and then the hyenas would
howl; but Shomolekae's brave heart held on, and he pushed on up the
river to preach and teach the people in the villages near the river.

So through many years, with high courage and simple faith, Shomolekae
worked.

A good many boys and girls in England before they are ten years old
own many more books than Shomolekae ever had and have read more than
he. They also have better homes than he, for he pushed on from one