nking her.

"I have been so afraid, Ma, that you would think us unworthy of a teacher
and take her away," said the woman. "I could not live again in darkness. I
pray all the time. I lay my basket down and pray on the road."

"That is good," said Mary. "Prayer can do anything. I know. I have tested
it. Of course, God does not always answer our prayers the way we want them
answered, but He does answer them and in the way that is best for us. Trust
God always."

One day Mary thought of a new plan she wanted to try out. She had been in
the jungle for five years. She was due to get a year's vacation at home in
Scotland. Instead of this she asked for something else. She wrote to the
Mission Board:

I would like to have leave from the mission station at Akpap for six
months. This time I would spend traveling between Okoyong and Amasu. I
would visit many places which I do not have time to visit now. Already I
have seen a church and a mission house built at Itu, and a school and a
couple of rooms at Amasu. I have visited several towns at Enyong and have
found good enough places to stay.

I shall find my own canoe and crew. I shall stay at any one place just as
long as I think wise. The members of my family [she meant the twins and
slave children and other unwanted children she had adopted] shall help in
teaching the beginners in the schools.

I plan to live at Itu as my headquarters. I will look after the small
schools I have started at Idot and Eki. I will visit and work for Jesus in
the towns on both sides of Enyong creek all the way to Amasu. I will live
there for a while or travel among the Aros telling them of Jesus. Then I
will come back by easy stages to Itu and home.

Please send an assistant to help Miss Wright at Akpap, so I will be free to
do this new work in the jungle. I would like Miss Wright to help me with
some work among the cannibals, in some places, so that I will have more
time for pioneer work in the places farther away.

Itu should be our main station. We can reach the various tribes best from
it. It is the gateway to the Aros and the Ibibios and near many other
tribes. That is why it became a slave market. It could be reached so
easily. It is only a day's journey from the seaport of the ocean steamers,
having waterway all the year round and a good beach front. Itu is a natural
place for our upriver and downriver work to come together.

Mary was now fifty-six years old. She had suffered much fro