Daddy Anderson laughed.
"Mary, Mary," he said, "it"s only two o"clock in the morning. The light you see is our bright tropical moon. It"s not the sun." And all the workers laughed, and Mary laughed with them.
"I guess I"m not a very good bell-ringer," she said.
Mary"s real job was to teach the children in the school on Mission Hill. She remembered how she had played when she was a little girl that she was teaching the children of Calabar. Now she was really doing it. She loved the little black children. After school she would take long walks with them into the bush. There they saw beautiful birds of many bright colors, and beautiful flowers of all kinds.
Mary ran races with the black children. How they loved that! She climbed trees as fast as any boy. The black children loved their white ma who taught them and played with them. But playing with the children often made Mary late for meals.
"Mary, Mary," scolded Mammy Anderson gently, "you are late again. I am going to punish you. You go to your room. Since supper is over, you"ll just have to go to bed without it."
Mary went to her room. In a little while she heard a knock at her door.
"It"s Daddy, Mary," said a deep voice. "Please open your door."
Mary opened the door. There stood Daddy Anderson with his hands full of biscuits and bananas which he was bringing to her with Mammy"s consent.
"I thought you might be hungry," said Daddy Anderson.
"You and Mammy are perfect dears," said Mary. "I don"t deserve all your kindness." Mary soon began to visit the different yards or compounds in Duke Town. Missionaries had been here for thirty years, but there weren"t many of them. They worked chiefly in Duke Town, Old Town, and Creek Town--three towns at the mouth of the Calabar River. They also had opened a station at Ikunetu and Ikorofiong on the Cross River. One day Mary was at one of the stations with another missionary. When he finished his talk, he said, "Mary, won"t you speak to these people?"
Mary stood up. "Please read John 3:1-21," she said. The missionary did. Then Mary told the people how they could be born again. She told them of the joy that they would have if they took Jesus into their hearts. She told them of the hope of life after death with G.o.d in Heaven. The natives listened. They liked her talk. After that whenever she came to that district, crowds would come to hear her speak.
"Mammy," said Mary, after she had come from a trip to the outstations, "it hurts my heart to see how cruel these people are. And those awful, ugly, cruel G.o.ds they pray to. The chiefs are so cruel and mean and have no mercy. And then that terrible secret society, the Egbo. I saw some of their runners dressed in fearful costumes scaring the people and whipping them with long whips. I saw a poor man whom they had beaten almost to death. Then there is that horrible drinking. They are worse than wild animals when they become drunk. And worst of all is that they have slaves and sell their own people as slaves."
"Ah, la.s.sie," said Mammy Anderson, "you haven"t seen anything yet. There are millions of these black people in the bush and far back in the interior. Most of them are slaves. They don"t treat a slave any better than a pig. The slaves sleep on the ground like animals. They are branded with a hot iron just as animals are. And just as the farmers back home fatten a pig for market, so the girls are fattened and sold for slave wives. The slaves can be whipped or sold or killed. When a chief dies, the tribe cuts off the heads of his wives and slaves and they are buried with him. The tribes are wild and cruel. Many of them are cannibals, who eat people. They spend their lives in fighting, dancing, and drinking. But the way they treat twins is one of the worst things they do."
"What do they do to twins?" asked Mary.
"They kill them," said Mammy Anderson. "Sometimes they bury the twins alive and sometimes they just throw them out into the bush to die of hunger. The mother is driven into the bush. No one will have anything to do with her. She is left to die in the jungle or to be eaten by the wild animals."
"But why do they do such cruel, wicked things to harmless babies?" asked Mary.
"They believe that the father of one of the twins is an evil spirit or devil. But they don"t know which one"s father was a devil, so they kill both to be sure of getting the right one."
"That must be stopped," said Mary. "I will fight it as long as I live. I will never give up. Jesus loves twins just as much as other children. The natives must learn that. They must learn that G.o.d said, "Thou shalt not kill." I"ll teach them."
Mary made many friends, not only among the children whom she taught, but also among the grown-up natives. One day she heard a chief speaking to his people about G.o.d and His love. He was a Christian. Mary thought that he made a very fine talk. She could tell he was very sincere. He talked so that everyone could understand him.
"Who is that chief?" asked Mary of the man standing next to her.
"That is King Eyo Honesty VII," said the man.
"King Eyo Honesty? I must talk to him."
As soon as she could, Mary went up to the chief.
"King Eyo Honesty," said Mary, "I am Mary Slessor. Many years ago the missionaries told my mother about you. They told her what a fine Christian you were. She told us. She will be very happy when I tell her that I have met you."
"I am very happy to have met you," said King Eyo Honesty. "Perhaps I could write a letter to your mother and tell her how happy I am that I have met you. I would tell her how happy I am that her daughter has come to teach my people about G.o.d."
"Mother would be very happy, I know, to get a letter from you."
For many years the African chief and Mary"s Scottish mother wrote letters to one another.
Every day when school was over, Mary went to visit the natives in their homes. She would tell them about Jesus and how He loved them. She told them Jesus wanted to save them. She told them that Jesus had paid for their sins by dying for them. If they loved and trusted in Jesus, He would take their sins away.
One Sunday morning as she was walking through the village, she saw one of the old men who came to church all the time sitting at the door of his mud house. He looked very sad.
"Ekpo," said Mary, "why aren"t you on your way to G.o.d"s house? Mr. Anderson will be looking for you. He will miss you."
"If your heart were sad, would you go any place?" asked Ekpo.
"But why is your heart sad?"
"My son, my only son, is dead. Even now he is buried in the house."
"Ekpo, let me tell you a story," said Mary. "A long time ago there were two sisters. They had a brother. They loved him very much. They loved him like you loved your son. He became sick. The two sisters sent a messenger to Jesus to tell Him. When Jesus came, the brother was dead. Martha, the one sister, said to Jesus, "Lord, if You had been here my brother would not have died. I know that even now G.o.d will give You whatever You ask Him."
"Jesus said, "Your brother will get up from the grave."
"Martha said, "I know that he will get up from the grave in the resurrection at the last day when all the dead shall come out of their graves."
"Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, even though he dies, he will live. Whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.""
"Did the brother get up from the grave?"
"Yes, Jesus went to the grave and said, "Lazarus, come out," and Lazarus did. But, Ekpo, later Lazarus died again. Then his body stayed in the grave, but his soul was with G.o.d. He was happy. All Christians are happy with G.o.d. Your son was a Christian, wasn"t he?"
"Oh, yes, Ma, he was," said Ekpo"s wife, who had come to the door while Mary was talking.
"Then don"t you see, G.o.d has taken him. He is with G.o.d. He is happy. If you believe in Jesus, then some day you, too, will be with G.o.d and will see your son again."
"Well," said Ekpo, "if G.o.d has taken him, it is not so bad."
"Come, then," said Mary, "let"s go to G.o.d"s house and thank Him that your son was a Christian and is now with G.o.d in Heaven."
Mary knew there was a great deal to do. There were so many people who did not know about Jesus. There were so many who were terribly mean and cruel. But Mary knew that with the Lord on her side she would not lose in the fight against sin and wickedness. Every day she would tell the natives about Jesus. Every day she would show them their sins and the Saviour.
For three years Mary worked hard. Then she became sick. It was the terrible coast fever. Sometimes she was so sick, she did not know what was happening. She was very tired. She wished that she could see her mother and sisters.
"Calabar needs a brave heart and a strong body," said Mary. "I don"t have much of a brave heart, but I often feel the need of it when I am sick and lonely."
"Mary, you must go home to Scotland and rest," said Mammy Anderson, "then you will get well from the fever. You will never get well here."
"That"s true, Mammy," said Mary, "but you know that I cannot leave my field of work was until the Board of Missions says I may."
"That"s right, but you have a furlough coming. I do hope we hear from the Board soon."