she did. She became what Dr. Livingstone had been. He always wore a
blue cap with a gold band to show that he was a British Consul. Ma did
not wear a hat, but she acted as a Consul, started a native court, and,
like Deborah of old, judged the people and guided them about the new
laws that were put into force. It was the first time in the history of
our Empire that a woman had done such things. The result was all for
good. Wild and lawless as the people were, they obeyed Ma, and so the
rule of Britain over them began in peace.

Ma always bore herself with queenly dignity, but she was really very
humble. She only did the work because she thought it was what Jesus
wanted her to do. "I am only a poor weak woman," she said, "and not a
Queen at all." The officials of the Government knew better; when they
went to visit her they were amazed at the power she held over the
people, and the deep respect and admiration they felt for her.

"She is a miracle," they exclaimed, "this white Queen of Okoyong."

[Illustration: AT A PALAVER.]

[Illustration: SOME OKOYONG BAIRNS.]

CHAPTER V

Ma's great love for children; her rescue of outcast twins from
death; the story of little Susie, the pet of the household; and
something about a new kind of birthday that came oftener than
once a year.

Ma's house at Ekenge was always like a big nursery.

Mothers are much the same all over the world, but in Africa they are
very ignorant and thoughtless, and do not know how to care for their
children, while they believe so much in the strange customs of the
country that things are done to the little ones which seem to us
hard-hearted and cruel. It was worse in Ma's days, when most of the
people were still slaves.

She was always sorriest for the babies, they were so helpless, and the
only times she was really angry were when she saw them neglected or
starved or made drunk. Then she was like a tigress, and the people fled
before her. "Poor wee helpless things," she would say as she picked them
up and thought of the way the white babies at home were cared for. She
saw in the tiniest babe one for whom Jesus died; and she loved them all,
and washed them and nursed them, and sang to them day and night.

There was no cradle in the Mission House, but something better. Ma's bed
was in the middle of the room, and around it were hammocks slung to the
roof, from each of which a cord was hung. In these were placed the
babies, and