Children -- India; India -- Social life and customs; Missions -- India
Sellamuttu, who comes next to Ponnamal, is the "Pearl" of previous
records, and she has been a pearl to us through all our years together.
She is special Accal to the household of children above the baby-age--a
healthy, high-spirited crow of most diverse dispositions; and she is
loved by one and all with a love which is tempered with great respect,
for she is "all pure justice," as a little girl remarked feelingly not
long ago, after being rather sharply reproved for exceeding naughtiness:
"within my heart wrath burned like a fire; but my mouth could not open
to reply, for inside me a voice said, 'It is true, entirely true; Accal
is perfectly just.'"
This Accal, however, is most tender in her affections, and among the
babies she has some particular specials. One of these is the
solemn-faced morsel of the photograph, to save whom she travelled,
counting by time, as far as from London to Moscow and back; and the baby
arrived as happy and well as when the friends at "Moscow" sent her off
with prayers and blessings and kindness. But the photograph was a shock.
"Aiyo!" she said, quite upset to see her delight so misrepresented,
"that is not Suseela! There is no smile, no pleasure in her face!" We
comforted her by the assurance that any one who understood babies and
their ways would consider the camera responsible for the expression.
And at least the baby was obedient. Had she not told her to make a
salaam, and had not the little hand gone up in serious salute? A
perfectly obedient baby is Sellamuttu's ideal, and she was satisfied.
[Illustration: TO THE RIGHT, SUHINIE, AND HER BABY SUNUNDA]
Both these sisters came to us at some loss to themselves, for both could
have lived at home at ease if they had been so inclined. Ponnamal lost
all her little fortune by joining us. She could, perhaps, have recovered
it by going to law, but she did not feel it right to do so, and she
suffered herself to be defrauded. "How could I teach others to be
unworldly if I myself did what to them would appear worldly-minded?"
That was all she ever said by way of explanation.
Next to Ponnamal and Sellamuttu come the motherly-hearted Gnanamal and
Annamai. They came to us when we were in circumstances of peculiar
difficulty. The work was just beginning, and we had not enough
trustworthy helpers; so, wearied with disturbed nights, we were almost
at the end of our strength. "Send us help!" we prayed, and went on each
trying to do the work of three. It was one hot, tiring afternoon, when
we longed to forget everything and rest for half an hour, but could not,
because there was so much to do, that a bright, capable face appeared at
the door of our room, and Annamai, Lulla's beloved, came in and said:
"God sent me, and my relative" (naming a mission catechist) "brought me.
And so I have come!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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