n station among the
Ibibios if there was no money in the homeland treasury. In May the
government appointed Mary to take charge of the courts in the Ibibio
district as she had done in Okoyong. It paid her for this work so now she
had money to carry on her mission work whether the Board paid her or not.

Court was held at Ikotobong. Three chiefs and a jury helped Mary in trying
the cases, but Mary's word was law. Mary was fair and kind, but at the same
time she saw to it that those who did bad things were punished. In a letter
to a friend she wrote:

God help those poor helpless women. They are treated worse than animals.
Today I had a crowd of people. How wicked they were! I have had a murder, a
poison bean case, a suicide, a man branding his slave wife all over her
face and body, a man with a gun who shot four people. It is all horrible.

But her work as judge did not stop her from doing her mission
work. Everywhere she went she told the natives of Jesus' death for
them. She opened schools and churches for natives. She also was thinking
about the other missionaries. She planned a place for them where they could
spend weekends or where they could rest when they were getting over
sickness. She chose a place half-way between Itu and Ikotobong on Enyong
Creek. It was high above the lowlands where most of the sickness was. A
friend sent her a check for $100 and Mary used it as a start for this rest
home. She had the ground cleared and a small English house built.

Although Mary was busy she was not well. During most of 1906 she had been
ailing.

"If you want to keep on with your missionary work," said the government
doctor, "you must go home to Scotland where you can rest up and get the
fever out of your system."

Mary did not want to leave her work. A few days after her talk with the
doctor, when he came to see her again, she was much better.

"It looks as if God wants me to stay. Does that sound like He could not do
without me! I do not mean it so. How little I can do! But I can at least
keep a door open for missionary work so others can come and do more."

The year 1907 came. Mary was much worse. She could walk only a few steps.
When she wanted to go anywhere, she had to be carried. At last she decided
to do as the doctor told her and go to Scotland for a vacation.

"Oh, the dear homeland!" she said with tears in her eyes. "Shall I really
be there and worship in the churches again? How I long for a look at a