in the magazine they published asking for a practical carpenter who was
willing to go to Calabar. Mr. Charles Ovens saw the notice.

"This is God's call to me," he said. "I have wanted to be a missionary ever
since I was a little boy. I could not study to be a minister. I learned to
be a carpenter. Now I can be a carpenter for God. I can build mission
houses and churches and while I build I can tell the people about my
Saviour."

It was in May, 1889, that Mr. Ovens started for Calabar. In Duke Town he
found a native helper and the two of them went to Ekenge. Mary was very
glad to have him come. He was a very jolly man. He sang at his
work. Everyone liked him and the natives gladly helped him in building the
houses.

For a long time Mary had been trying to get the chiefs of Okoyong to trade
with the traders on the coast. They would not listen. Now she invited them
to her new house. She showed them the things she had and how useful they
were. The chiefs looked at the door and windows. They liked them. The women
looked at the clothes and at the sewing machine. They liked them. They
looked at the clock on the mantel. They liked it, too.

"We will trade with coast people," said Chief Edem.

Mary wrote to the traders and invited them to Okoyong. She told them to
bring dishes, dress goods, mirrors, clocks, and the like to trade for
ivory, oil, and bananas and other things in the jungle.

"It is too dangerous to come up-country," answered the traders. "We are
afraid the native guards on the jungle paths will kill us."