a covering. She did, indeed, find that it was better to
sleep in the open air than in the stuffy rest-house, and she lay down
every night in the verandah with the cool wind fanning her cheeks.

Day after day she called the chiefs and talked with them; she coaxed the
little boys and girls, who were timid and sullen, to come and learn A B
C; she stood at night in the villages when the women were cooking at
their fires and the young people were dancing to the sound of the drum,
and spoke to all who would listen of the love of Jesus and His power to
free them from sin.

And at last, after a weary struggle, her patience and goodness and
humour melted the hard hearts, and one by one the chiefs came and said
they would allow her to do anything she liked, and they would try to
worship her God and learn the new ways.

[Illustration]

Her heart was full. She went out in the cool of the night and stood
gazing over the dim plain. All was silent and still, and the stars were
shining more gloriously than she had ever seen them before. Her eyes
swept over them, as they often did, and rested on the Southern Cross,
the group she loved most of all, because it was the symbol of her dear
Lord watching over the dark and sinful world, and her thin worn face was
beautiful, for her dream had come true.

She went in and sat on the floor, and leant her weary back against the
wall of the room, and wrote by the light of a candle stuck in its own
grease, telling her friends how happy she was--the happiest woman in all
the world.

"I can't think," she said, "why God has so highly honoured and trusted
me."

She was a wreck, her body was a mass of pain, she was growing deaf and
blind, she was tired and weak, and oh, so lonely! Yet her heart was
bursting with love and gratitude and joy. O wonderful Ma!

All this time she was working three stations--Use, Ikpe, and Odoro Ikpe,
and going constantly between them. She kept a diary, and every
night--often in the middle of the night--she wrote in it the story of
the day. And what a story of toil and heroism it is! Here are several
sentences from it:

Left the beach for Ikpe in the evening, sail in moonlight;
reached Ikpe 4 P. M. next day; ran on to a tree; boys thrown
into the water.

Egbo out all night, screaming and drumming like mad-men till
daylight. All drunk.

First night in new house. Sorry to leave the wee hut I have
enjoyed so much comfort and blessing in.