came. An old widow, living in a room in the back lands, used to watch
the children running about the doors, and in her anxiety for their
welfare sought to gather some of the girls together and talk to them,
young as they were, about the matters that concerned their souls. One
afternoon in winter they had come out of the cold and darkness into the
glow of her fire, and were sitting listening to her description of the
dangers that beset all who neglected salvation.

"Do ye see that fire?" she exclaimed suddenly. "If ye were to put your
hand into the lowes it would be gey sair. It would burn ye. But if ye
dinna repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ your soul will burn
in the lowin' bleezin' fire for ever and ever!"

The words went like arrows to Mary's heart; she could not get the
vision of eternal torment out of her mind: it banished sleep, and she
came to the conclusion that it would be best for her to make her peace
with God. She "repented and believed." It was hell-fire that drove her
into the Kingdom, she would sometimes say. But once there she found it
to be a Kingdom of love and tenderness and mercy, and never throughout
her career did she seek to bring any one into it, as she had come, by
the process of shock and fear.




II. IN THE WEAVING-SHED

The time came when Mrs. Slessor herself was compelled to enter one of
the factories in order to maintain the home, and many of the cares and
worries of a household fell upon Mary. But at eleven she, too, was sent