ut a child to
sleep, and asked Mana, one of the girls, to look after Susie, as she was
full of play and mischief. Mana took her, and while getting the tea
ready, placed a jug of boiling water on the floor for a moment. Susie,
babylike, seized it and spilt the water over her bare body. She was
dreadfully scalded. Ma was frantic, and for a fortnight scarcely let her
out of her arms. Often the child smiled up in her face and held up her
wee hand to be kissed. Ma at last carried her down to Creek Town, and
woke up the doctor there at midnight in the hope that something more
could be done. But the shock and wounds had been too severe, and when Ma
got back the bright life of the queen of the household flickered and
went out.

Ma's grief was pitiful, and made even the people wonder. "See how she
loved her," they said one to another. They came and mourned with her,
and stood by at the burial. Susie was robed in white, with her own
string of beads round her neck, and a white flower in her hand.

It was very lonesome for Ma afterwards. "My heart aches for my darling,"
she wrote. "Oh, the empty place and the silence and the vain longing for
the sweet voice and the soft caress and the funny ways. Oh, Susie!
Susie!"

Her heart went out towards Iye, the slave mother, and by and by she
bought her for L10 and made her free, and she remained in the Mission
House, a faithful worker, and a great help to Ma and those who came
after her.

All the stories of Ma's adventures with twins cannot be told, because
she had to do with hundreds of them, but this is one which shows what
she had often to go through.

One afternoon when she was busy teaching in the school, a message was
thrown suddenly at her from the door.

"Ma! come, twins."

"Where?" she asked.

"Twelve miles away in the bush, and the mother is very ill."

Ma went to the door and looked up. "There is going to be a storm," she
said, "and I have a sickly baby to look after and night will soon be
here, but--come along, Janie, we'll go."

Darkness fell ere they reached the spot, and the stars were hidden
behind clouds, and they could hardly see a yard in front.

They found the woman lying unconscious on the ground. One of the
infants was dead, and Janie dug a hole and buried it. Ma ordered the
husband and his slave to make a stretcher, which they did very
unwillingly. Then she placed the woman on it and bade them carry her.
Still more unwillingly, and grumbling all the tim