drinking and killing as this chief of Okoyong entered the spirit-land,
only the faint noises of the forest, and the stillness of the starry
sky, and a woman's mute prayer. When all was done she dragged her
wearied body back in the cool of the dewy dawn to Akpap.

Was it a wonder that she began to lose her strength? Fevers laid her
low, and illnesses, due to lack of good food, weakened her. She could
scarcely crawl about. Yet she would not give in, and bravely drudged
away at her work. At last the other missionaries said, "Ma, if you don't
go home, you will die." She did not want to die: she wanted to live, and
do much more for Jesus. "If," she said, "a holiday will help me, I will
go. But what shall I do with my girls? I cannot leave Janie, Mary,
Alice, and Maggie here. If I go I must take them with me."

Her friends were astonished.

"How can you take four black girls to Scotland, and you so ill, Ma? It
is impossible."

"God can do impossible things," she replied in simple faith. "He will
keep me and take care of them."

"What about your clothes?" they asked.

"We have none but the old things we have on: the ants have eaten up the
rest. But God will provide what we need."

Sure enough, when they went to Duke Town a box arrived from a Glasgow
church, and in it was all the nice warm clothing they required.

It was the same everywhere. Kindness fell on her like sunshine. At
Liverpool she handed her purse to a railway porter, and he bought the
tickets and fixed them up in a carriage. And at Edinburgh there was a
faithful friend, Mrs. M'Crindle, on the platform, waiting to take the
whole family to her home in Joppa.

"Isn't God good to me?" she often said, with a happy smile.

[Illustration: ALICE, MARY, MAGGIE, JANIE.]

The four African foundlings were stared at by the rosy-cheeked boys and
girls, who, however, were kind to them when they heard their sad
stories. None except Janie knew a word of English, but they were all
clever, and soon picked it up, and Mary even went to school in
Portobello.

After a happy time Ma took a house of her own at Seton Mill, where she
got a glimpse of the sea, and here they all lived as in Africa, Janie
being cook, and Ma going about often bare of foot and bare of head. But
life in Scotland is not like what it is in the wilds of the Tropics, and
Ma was sometimes found shivering over the fire. So a fairy godmother, in
the shape of Miss Adam, a lady of the Church who loved her,