During the war there was no oil to be had for the machinery, but Mr.
Hope did not stop all the wheels and cable to America that he would
have to close the school.
"See all these beans growing around us," he said to his boys. "They are
almost like the castor beans we have in America, and Americans make oil
out of the castor bean. Bring me a jack from the carpenter shop." The
boys ran to get the jack. "Now, turn it upside down and make a press
out of it."
They mashed the beans until a thick oil ran out. Then Mr. Hope bought
peanuts, not ten cents worth in a paper sack from the corner store,
but tons from the farms where they grew. The boys mashed them until
barrelfuls of oil were stored away. It was a better grade and much
cheaper than the oil they bought from Europe. Today two hydraulic
presses make the manufacture of oil easy.
"What shall we do now?" asked a boy one day. "There are no more of the
American brooms."
"Why not make brooms here in our own school?" said Mr. Hope.
They planted broom-corn seed and it grew so well that now broom-making
is one of the trades taught at Elat.
During the war there was no soap to be had. Some people said, "How
dreadful!" but Mr. Hope said, "What good luck! We shall have to find a
way to make our own soap."
He sent to America for lye, and the school has added soap-making to its
other work.
One day the boys asked what they should do with the shavings in the
carpenter shop.
"Burn them," said Mr. Hope. "Burn all of them."
The foolish boys set fire to them on the dirt floor of the shop. They
were piled up so high that the roof mats caught fire and in a few
moments there was nothing left of the carpentry shop but a pile of
ashes and a few blackened tools.
But almost before the ashes were cold, Mr. Hope started the remorseful
boys to building another shop, and in less than a week they were back
at work.
Many of the young men who came to the school were married, and Mr.
Hope decided that he would build a town where each man who attended
school could live in his own home. His town now has houses on each side
of the street and more than one hundred families live there. In the
afternoons, Mrs. Hope has classes for the girls and women. She teaches
them to cook and to sew, to read and to write, and to take care of
their children.
After the boys and men and their wives have finished their training
in the schools, they go back to their own villages. Often they build
themselves a home. The chief is sure to be interested in a man who
has a house better than his own, so the mission boys become men of
importance.
Hundreds of boys have been turned away from the school because
they could not be accommodated. Only the strongest Christian boys
are chosen. These boys come from all parts of the mission and are
recommended for admission by the missionaries who know them.
[Illustration: FRED HOPE
His steadfastness and perseverance won for him from the Africans the
name, "Tree-Not-Shaken-by-the-Wind."]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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