ame and took her back. She was willing
to do this as long as she had no children. The little baby stayed with Mary
and became another of her family.

One evening Mary was sitting on the porch of her mission house talking to
the children. Suddenly they heard a loud noise. They heard the beating of
drums. Then they heard men singing loudly.

"What's that?" asked Mary. She took the twin boys that were with her and
rushed down to the road to see what was going on. Here she found a crowd
of people. They were all dressed up. Some wore three-cornered hats with
long feathers hanging down. Some had crowns. Some wore masks with animal
heads and horns. Some put on uniforms with gold and silver lace. Some just
covered their bodies with beadwork and tablecloths trimmed with gold and
silver.

When Mary came, the shouting stopped. The king came forward to meet her.

"Ma," said the king, "we have had a palaver. We have made new laws. The
old laws were not God's laws. Now all twins and their mothers can live in
town. If anyone kills twin babies or hurts the mothers, he shall be hung."

"God will bless you for making those wise laws," said Mary.

The mothers of the twins who lived at the mission and other mothers, too,
gathered around Mary. They laughed and shouted. They clapped their hands,
and with tears running down their cheeks, cried: "Thank you! Thank you!"
They made so much noise that Mary asked the chief to stop them.

"Ma, how can I stop these women's mouths?" asked the chief. "How can I do
it? They be women."

Mary was happy, but after a while some of the people began to forget the
new laws. Quietly and underhandedly they began to go back to doing the old
bad things again. This was because they were not Christians. They did not
love and trust the Saviour. Mary knew that the main thing to do if she were
to get them to live right and do right was to change their hearts. New laws
could not really change them. Only faith in Jesus could do that.

"I must help them more. I must lead more of them to Jesus," said
Mary. "Many are sick. I will give them medicine, and at the same time tell
them about Jesus who makes the soul well and the body, too."

As Mary gave out medicine, many people would often crowd around her to hear
her "Jesus talk." She told them of Jesus' love for them. She told them how
He had died that they might be saved from everlasting death and be made
pure. Mary had her hardships. Often she would not be