ng the men who were opening up the wild country, officials,
engineers, and traders, Ma had many dear friends, and she was always
praising them up for the work they were doing.

"We come of a wonderful race, Ratcliffe," she said. "How proud I am of
our countrymen many a time. How brave they are! What knowledge and grit
they possess! How doggedly they hold on! How they persevere and win! No
wonder a handful of them rule the horde of natives and leave their mark.
The native, clever in his own way, just stares and obeys."

[Illustration: MEMORIAL TO A DEAD CHIEF.]

[Illustration: MA'S HUMBLE HOUSE ON THE HILL: THE LAST SHE BUILT.]

CHAPTER X

This chapter tells how Ma became a gipsy again and lived on a
hill-top, and how after a hard fight she won a new region for
Jesus; gives some notes from her diary and letters to little
friends at home, and pictures her amongst her treasures.

Some distance from Ikpe there is a high hill called Odoro Ikpe, on which
the Government has a rest-house.

Ma climbed up there one Saturday night.

"What a grand view!" she cried, as she looked over the wide plain and
breathed in the cool fresh wind with a great content, "I've never been
so high before."

And then her eyes grew sad. For all that green country was the home of
heathenism. The chiefs had shut and bolted the door of their hearts
against Jesus, and would not let any teachers or missionaries come in
and disturb their ways.

Ma had often gone to them in her wheeled chair, fording rivers, crossing
swamps, pushing through wet forests, and stood and knocked at their
hearts in His name, but in vain. They were afraid that if she came all
their old fashions would tumble down about their ears.

She was not the one to lose courage. As she sat there on the hill-top,
she dreamed that she saw the whole region being won for Jesus, and the
people coming to His house clothed and in their right mind.

"O God!" she prayed, "old and feeble and unworthy as I am, help me to
win them."

And there and then she put on her armour and braced herself for battle.

"Janie," she said, "we'll stay here until we overcome these chiefs."

Janie looked round and grunted. The rest-house had only holes for
windows; there was a doorway, but no door; the floor was of dried mud,
and there was not even a table or a chair. But Ma could be happy with
nothing, she would have been content with bare ground for a bed, and the
starry sky for