t only four
pages at a time; and, besides, bits of the press were wanting, and I had
first to manufacture substitutes from scraps of iron and wood. I
managed, however, to make it go, and by and by it did good service. By
it I printed our Aniwan Hymn-Book, a portion of Genesis in Aniwan, a
small book in Erromangan for the second Gordon, and some other little
things.

The old Chief had eagerly helped me in translating and preparing this
first book. He had a great desire "to hear it speak," as he graphically
expressed it. It was made up chiefly of short passages from the
Scriptures that might help me to introduce them to the treasures of
Divine truth and love. Namakei came to me, morning after morning,
saying, "Missi, is it done? Can it speak?"

At last I was able to answer, "Yes!"

The old Chief eagerly responded, "Does it speak my words?"

I said, "It does."

With rising interest, Namakei exclaimed, "Make it speak to me, Missi!
Let me hear it speak."

I read to him a part of the book, and the old man fairly shouted in an
ecstasy of joy, "It does speak! It speaks my own language, too! Oh, give
it to me!"

He grasped it hurriedly, turned it all round every way, pressed it to
his bosom, and then, closing it with a look of great disappointment,
handed it back to me, saying, "Missi, I cannot make it speak! It will
never speak to me."

"No," said I; "you don't know how to read it yet, how to make it speak
to you; but I will teach you to read, and then it will speak to you as
it does to me."

"O Missi, dear Missi, show me how to make it speak!" persisted the
bewildered Chief. He was straining his eyes so, that I suspected they
were dim with age, and could not see the letters. I looked out for him a
pair of spectacles, and managed to fit him well. He was much afraid of
putting them on at first, manifestly in dread of some sort of sorcery.
At last, when they were properly placed, he saw the letters and
everything so clearly that he exclaimed in great excitement and joy--

"I see it all now! This is what you told us about Jesus. He opened the
eyes of a blind man. The word of Jesus has just come to Aniwa. He has
sent me these glass eyes. I have gotten back again the sight that I had
when a boy. O Missi, make the book speak to me now!"

I walked out with him to the public Village Ground. There I drew A B C
in large characters upon the dust, showed him the same letters in the
book, and left him to compare them, and fin