On the ship she found the Rev. and Mrs. Hugh Goldie.  They, too, had been missionaries in Calabar for many years, and now after a short vacation were going back once more.  All the way to Africa the friend talked about the great work of winning souls for Jesus, especially the souls of the people of Calabar.

At last the big steamship entered the mouth of the Calabar and Cross Rivers.  It was not far now to Duke Town.  Soon Mary would learn what work she should do.  Would it be work she wanted to do?  Would it be work in the jungles?  Mary would soon know.

#4#

On Her Own

“Mary, how would you like to have a mission station of your own?” asked Daddy Anderson.

“Why, I’d love it,” answered Mary.

“It is hard work and very unpleasant at times,” said Daddy Anderson.

“I don’t care how hard or unpleasant it is,” said Mary, “as long as I can work for my Lord.”

“Good, then you will be in charge of the Old Town Station, two miles up the river.”

It did not take Mary long to pack her things and move to Old Town.  But what a sight greeted her when she arrived!  The first thing she saw as she came into the village was a man’s skull hanging from the end of a pole and swinging slowly in the breeze.

“Where is the mission house?” asked Mary of one of the natives.

“Down that way at the end of the road, Ma,” he answered.

Mary found the mission house.  It was an old tumble-down shack.  It was made of long twigs and branches, daubed over with mud.  The roof was made of palm leaves.  It was not nearly as nice a home as the one on Mission Hill in Duke Town.  When Mary went inside, she found that it was whitewashed and somewhat clean.  Mary got busy cleaning up her house, and as she did, she began to make her plans.

“I don’t care if my house is not so fine.  I am nearer to the jungles.  I want to get into the jungles sometime and win those poor, ignorant heathen people for Jesus.  I am going to live in a house like the natives and use the tools and things they do—­only I’ll be a lot cleaner.  Then they will feel that I am one of them and I’ll be better able to win them for Jesus.  Then, too, it’s cheaper to live that way and to eat bananas.  I will be able to send more money home to my poor mother in Scotland.  Living this way will also help me get ready for the time when I can go into the jungles.  Then I will have to live that way.”

Mary held services every Sunday.  She started a day school for the children.  The grownups came, too.  Mary was so friendly and kind that the natives loved her.  More and more came to hear about Jesus.  Mary showed them that He was the Saviour of the blacks and whites alike.  Many came from faraway places to hear the white ma and go to her school.

Mary soon visited all the villages in the neighborhood and every place she went she would tell the people about Jesus.  At one place the king of that part of the country came regularly to hear the white ma.  He would sit on the bench with the little children and listen to Mary tell about the Saviour who loves all people.