Duncan dropped the piece of lead to the
ground.

"We can't scare her, boys," he said. "She's game."

"There is Someone who is far braver than I am. He's the One who makes me
brave. Won't you come to the services and hear about Him?" asked Mary.

"All right, Spunky, I will," said Duncan. "And the rest of the fellows
will, too. Come on, boys, we're going to the church tonight and no funny
business."

This was not the only time that Mary had to face the tough boys and girls
of the slums. But she had a Friend who was closer to her than even her
dear mother. He made her strong and brave and true. Mary loved her Saviour,
and was ready to do whatever He might want her to do.

Her class grew larger all the time. She visited the members in their slum
homes. She fitted herself into the family. If the baby needed tending, she
tended to it. If someone was sick, she helped to nurse the sick person.
Always she told the family about Christ and His power to save. The people
of the slums came to love this home missionary and many of them were won to
Christ through her work.

The years went by. Did Mary still remember she wanted to be a missionary in
Calabar? Yes, she remembered, but now she had all she could do to support
her family. Since Robert, the would-be missionary, had died, Mother Slessor
hoped that her youngest son John would be a missionary. But God had other
plans. John became sick. He was sent to New Zealand for his health, but
died when he arrived in that country. Was there to be no missionary from
the Slessor family?

Whenever missionaries came to the Wishart Church or to Dundee, Mother
Slessor, Mary, Susan and Janie would go to hear them. At home they would
read the stories of missionaries and their work. They read missionary
magazines. They read about the missionaries in China, Africa, Japan, India,
and even Calabar.

One day William Anderson, a missionary to the West Coast of Africa, came to
the little church. He told of the great need for missionaries in Africa. He
told of the bad things which the people did who did not know Jesus.

Sitting in church, listening to the missionary, Mary saw in her mind a
picture of Africa. It was not a beautiful picture. She saw captured Negroes
being taken to other lands as slaves. She saw alligators and crocodiles
swimming in the muddy waters, ever ready to eat black children who would
come too close to the river. She saw cannibal chiefs at their terrible
feasts and fe