itting was great fun to the children. So many of the pots and pans
and jars were hung on bits of wood on the posts outside that Ma declared
the house was like one of the travelling caravans she used to see in
Scotland; and so she called it "The Caravan." When everything was
finished she stood and looked at it with a twinkle in her eye. "Be it
ever so humble," she said gaily, "there's no place like home!" Then they
sat down to a merry meal. What did it matter if there was only one dish
and no spoons or forks? There was no happier family in all the land that
night.

Ma was now able to read her Bible in peace and pray to God in quietness
and comfort. But outside she had still the goats and fowls and rats and
the insects and even the wild things of the forest, and sometimes they
came in. One morning when she awoke, she saw on her bed a curious thing,
and found that it was the skin of a snake that had stolen in during the
night and shed its old clothes as these reptiles sometimes do. So she
began to dream of a bigger house with an upstairs, where she could be
safer.

But first there must be a church. The chief and free men and women
helped, and by and by there rose a long roomy shed, complete, except for
a door and windows. What a day it was when it was set apart and used for
the worship of God--the first church in wild Okoyong!

Ma told the people that they could not come to God's house except with
clean bodies and clean hearts. Few of them had clean clothes, or clothes
at all, and the children never wore any. But Ma had been receiving boxes
from Sunday Schools and work-parties in Scotland, and out of these she
dressed the women and little ones in pinafores of all colours. How proud
and happy they were! But the excitement died into quietness and
reverence when they went inside the building, and an awe fell upon them
as Ma explained what a church meant, and that God was in their midst.

The chiefs rose and said that they would respect the building, that no
weapon of war would ever be brought into it, and that all their quarrels
would be left outside; and they promised to send their followers to the
services and their children to the schools.

But like some better people at home these wayward savages could not be
good for long. They went back to their evil doings, and were soon away
raiding and fighting, leaving only a few women and the children in the
village. It was the rum and gin that caused most of the mischief. Ever