It was difficult for Ramabai to get hold of those who needed her help most. One time she heard of a little widow who was in great misery, but the child was so stupefied with pain that she did not wish for relief from it, or think that anyone could help her. Ramabai asked the girl and the relations of her dead husband to come and visit her, in order that she might win the love of the young widow, and persuade her to stay when the others went. The relations were glad to visit Ramabai, and they stayed for some time in a little house within the grounds of the Sharada Sadan. Ramabai hoped that the care the child received while she stayed there would have an effect on her, and that before her relations left the place the widow would be eager to stay. But the days went on, and the child was still lifeless and dull, for though the Pandita did not know it, her relations managed to beat and ill-use her every day. At last Ramabai felt that she could wait no longer, so she told her guests in what was understood as the correct way, that their visit had come to an end. Then she asked the widow if she would stay behind. The relations did not wish her to stay, but they could not prevent her if she said she would, and she did say so, though she was still so dazed that Ramabai feared she would lose her after all. On that life the early years of pain have left traces that will never entirely go away. When Ramabai had carried on her work in this school for eight years, a famine broke out in Central India. She read of this famine, and the thought of all the orphans who were left friendless by it moved her, so that she hurried off to the famine district, and brought back with her three hundred girls. The pupils of the Sharada Sadan welcomed the little waifs, and made room for them within the grounds for that night. Some time before this the Pundita had bought a farm in order to provide for her widows’ school. The famine children were taken to this farm and nursed back to health there. Though in the Sharada Sadan Ramabai led the girls to Christ by indirect means only, she did not feel that she was bound to do so in the farm home. The famine orphans were a gift to her from God, not a loan from parents or relations, so she has from the first been free to tell them of the love of Christ the King, for all children, and for all in sorrow. The new home is called “Mukti,” that is “Salvation,” and high up over the great entrance the words “Praise the Lord” in Marathi, tell of Ramabai’s wish to call the walls of her children’s home “Salvation” and its gates “Praise.” CHAPTER XIII HORMASDJI PESTONJI