sely when she was opening the packages, you
would have seen that she was seeking for something with a quick and
impatient eye. When at last she found what she wanted she gave a shout
of triumph. Tins of home-made toffee and chocolate! They were always
there, for every one knew she liked sweets. When at home she used to ask
that these might be sent out, because the bush bairns were fond of them,
but her friends just laughed in her face. "Miss Slessor," they would
say, "you can eat as many as the bairns!" "Of course I can," she
confessed.

After the children had looked at all the gifts Ma would tell them where
they came from, and would kneel down and thank Jesus for putting it into
the hearts of the givers in Scotland to care for His forlorn black folk
in Africa.

Then Ma said, "Away to bed, bairns. But oh, hasn't it been grand? It's
just been like a birthday. Many happy returns!"

Ma did not give all the things away. A brilliant gown might go to the
chief as a gift--and he would sit proudly in Court with it and be
admired and envied by all,--or a flannelette garment to some poor and
aged woman to keep her warm during the shivery fog season; but as a rule
Ma liked the people to work for what they got, or to pay something for
them. Thus she taught them to want clothes and other things, and showed
them how to get them, and in this way she was a real Empire builder. She
used to say that there was no truer or more successful Empire maker than
the missionary.

[Illustration: OPENING ONE OF THE BOXES FROM SCOTLAND.]

[Illustration: MA'S HOUSE AT AKPAP.]

CHAPTER VI

How the Queen of Okoyong brought a high British official to talk
to the people; how she left her nice home and went to live in a
little shed; how she buried a chief at midnight; how she took
four black girls to Scotland, and afterwards spent three very
lonely years in the forest.

The tribes in some of the out-of-the-way places were apt to forget that
British law was now the law of the land, and go back to the old habits
that were so deep-rooted in their nature. Ma often threatened that she
would have to make them feel the power that stood behind her. Once, when
the land of a widow was stolen, she asked the people whether they would
have the case judged by God's law or by the Consul and a gun? After a
while they said, "Iko Abasi--God's word."

Ma opened her Bible and read: "Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour's
landmark--that