days
before being shot.

DAVID LIVINGSTONE

In a poor but respectable workman's home in Blantyre, near Glasgow, was
born a hundred years ago a little lad named David Livingstone, who was
to make himself a great and famous name, not only as the discoverer of
lakes and rivers, but also as one of the noblest men who ever offered
their lives for the welfare of mankind.

[Illustration: LIVINGSTONE'S JOURNEYS IN AFRICA.]

In the national school of the town he quickly learned to read and
write. His parents could not afford to let him continue his studies, but
sent him at ten years of age to a cotton mill, where he had to work from
six o'clock in the morning till eight in the evening. The hard work did
not break his spirit, but while the machines hummed around him and the
thread jumped on the bobbins, his thoughts and his desires flew far
beyond the close walls of the factory to life and nature outside. He did
his work so well that his wages were raised, and he spent his gains in
buying books, which kept him awake far into the night. To add to his
knowledge he attended a night-school, and on holidays he made long
excursions with his brothers.

Years fled and the boy David grew up to manhood. One day he told his
parents that he wished to be a medical missionary, and go to the people
in the east and south, tend the sick, and preach to any who would
listen. In order to procure means for his studies he had to save up his
earnings at the factory, and when the time was come he went with his
father to Glasgow, hired a room for half-a-crown a week, and read
medicine. At the end of the session he went back to the factory to
obtain money for the next winter course. Finally he passed his
examination with distinction, and then came the last evening in the old
home and the last morning dawned. His father went with him to Glasgow,
took a long farewell of his son, and returned home sad and lonely.

Livingstone sailed from England to the Cape, and betook himself to the
northernmost mission-station, Kuruman in Bechuanaland. Even at this time
he heard of a fresh-water lake far to the north. It was called Ngami,
and he hoped to see it one day.

From Kuruman he made several journeys in different directions to gain a
knowledge of the tribes and their languages, to minister to their sick
and win their confidence. Once when he was returning home from a journey
and had still 150 miles to trek, a little black girl was found crouching
under