where she has a large and attentive audience.

In the poorest part she comes upon a group of men selling rum. At the
sight of the "white Ma" they put the stuff away and beg her to stay.
They are quiet until she denounces the sale of the liquor; then one
interrupts:

"What for white man bring them rum suppose them rum no be good? He be
god-man bring the rum--then what for god-man talk so?"

What can she answer?

It is a vile fluid this trade spirit, yet the country is deluged with
it, and it leaves behind it disaster and demoralisation and ruined
homes. Mary feels bitter against the civilised countries that seek
profit from the moral devastation of humanity.

She cannot answer the man.

A husband brings his woebegone wife who has lost five children. Can
"Ma" not give her some medicine? She again speaks of the resurrection.
A crowd gathers and listens breathlessly. When she says that even the
twin-children are safe with God, and that they will yet confront their
murderers, the people start, shrug their shoulders, and with looks of
terror slink one by one away.

She visits many of the hovels, which are little better than ruins.
Pools of filth send out pestilential odours. There is starvation in
every pinched face and misery in every sunken eye. Covered with sores
the inmates lie huddled together and clamour only for food. One old