Again three Marys were in close association--Miss Mary Edgerley, Miss
Mary Johnstone, and Miss Mary Slessor. During the year, however, the
two former proceeded home on furlough, and the last was left in entire
charge of the women's side of the work at Creek Town. It was the final
stage of her training for the larger responsibilities that awaited her.
There was at first little in the situation to beguile her spirits. It
was a bad season of rain and want, and she was seldom out of the abodes
of sickness and death. So great was the destitution that she lived on
rice and sauce, in order to feed the hungry. And never had she suffered
so much from fever as she did now in Creek Town.
Her duties lay in the Day School, Sunday School, Bible Class, and
Infant Class, but, as usual, the more personal aspect of the work
engaged her chief energies. The training of her household, which, as
she was occupying a part of Mr. Goldie's house and had less
accommodation, was a small one then, took much of her time and thought
and wit. First in her affections came Janie, now a big and strong girl
of four years, and as wild as a boy, who kept her in constant hot-
water. She was a link with the home that had been, and Mary regarded
her as specially her own: she shared her bed and her meals, and even
her thoughts, for she would talk to her about those who had gone. The
child's memory of Britain soon faded, but she never ceased to pray for
"all in Scotland who remember us." She was made more of than was good
for her, but was always brought to her level outside of Creek Town.
Mary had heard that both her parents were dead, but one day the father
appeared at the Mission House. She asked him to come and look at his
child. He shrugged his shoulders, and said, "Let me look from a
distance." Mary seized him and drew him towards the child, who was
trembling with terror. In response to a command in Efik the girl threw
her arms around his neck, and his face relaxed and became almost
beautiful. When he looked into her eyes, and she hid her head on his
breast, the victory was complete. He set her upon his knee and would
scarcely give her up. Although he lived a long way off he returned
every other day with his new wife and a gift of food.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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