But it was no use. So the only thing for her to do was to save the
little mites before they could be murdered. It was Eme Ete who told her
when twins came, and when she got the secret message she dropped the
work she was doing and made swiftly for the spot. Sometimes they were
already dead and thrown away in pots, and the mother driven into the
backwoods. If she were in time she took the infants home and nursed them
and guarded them from the father and relatives, who usually tried to
steal and destroy them.

One day she saved twins in her own village, and took them into the
Mission House and put them in her bed. The people were alarmed, and said
that dreadful things would happen. Chief Edem kept away. "I cannot go
any more to my Mother's house," he groaned; "no, never any more." No one
spoke to her. Mothers kept their children out of her way. She was sad
and sorrowful, but she would not give in, for she knew she was doing
right.

One of the twins died, but the other grew and waxed strong. The people
liked their Ma so much that they, too, were unhappy at the cloud that
had fallen between, and at last they began to make friends.

"Ma, forgive us," they said humbly. "We have not been taught right. Let
your heart warm to us again."

So the shadow passed away. What cheered Ma most of all was that the
father of the twin carried it home, and took back the mother, which
showed that the old stupid notion was beginning to die.

[Illustration: IYE.]

Another day there was a great uproar. Twins had come to a slave woman,
called Iye, about five miles off. Ma met her in the forest carrying the
infants in a box on her head, a howling mob of men and women hounding
her on. They had destroyed all her property and torn up her clothes. Ma
took the box, because no one would touch it, and helped the poor mother
along to the Mission House. They could not go by the usual path, as the
villagers would not have used it afterwards, so they had to wait in the
hot sun until another lane was cut.

The boy twin was dead, but the girl was alive, and with care became
plump and strong. She was a bonnie child with a fair skin and sweet
ways, and she became the pet of the household. Ma called her Susie,
after her elder sister, and loved her as much as if she had been her
own. Even the mother, after she got well and went away, sometimes came
back to see her, and was proud of her good looks.

Fourteen months passed. One day Janie went upstairs to p