Mary Slessor of Calabar: Pioneer Missionary | Page 4

to these days, and
incidents would flash into memory that half amused and half shamed
her. Some of her escapades she would describe with whimsical zest,
and trivial as they were they served to show that, even then, her native
wit and resource were always ready to hand. But very early the Change
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 out to begin to earn a livelihood. In the textile works of Messrs.
Baxter Brothers & Company she became what was known as a
half-timer, one who wrought half the day and went to the school in
connection with the works the other half. When she was put on full
time she attended the school held at night. Shortly afterward she
entered Rashiewell factory to learn weaving under the supervision of
her mother. After trying the conditions in two other works she returned,
about the age of fourteen, to Baxter's, where she soon became an expert
and well-paid worker. Her designation was a "weaver" or "factory girl,"
not a "mill- girl," this term locally being restricted to spinners in the
mills. When she handed her first earnings to her mother the latter wept
over them, and put them away as too sacred to use. But her wage was
indispensable for the support of the home, and eventually she became
its chief mainstay.
Life in the great factory in which she was but a unit amongst thousands
was hard and monotonous. The hours of the workers were from six
A.M. to six P.M., with one hour for breakfast and one for dinner. Mary
was stationed in a room or shed, which has very much the same

appearance to-day. Now as then the belts are whirring, the looms are
moving, the girls are handling the shuttles, and the air is filled with a
din so continuous and intense that speech is well-nigh impossible.
Mary had to be up every morning at five o'clock, as she helped in the
work of the home before going out, while similar duties claimed her at
night. Though naturally bright and refined in disposition she was at this
time almost wholly uneducated. From the factory schools she had
brought only a meagre knowledge of reading and arithmetic, and she
had read little save the books obtained from the library of the Sunday
School. But her mind was opening, she was becoming conscious of the
outer world and all its interests and wonders, and she was eager to
know and understand. In order to study she began to steal time from
sleep. She carried a book with her to the mill, and, like David
Livingstone at Blantyre, laid it on the loom and glanced at it in her free
moments. So anxious was she to learn that she read on her way to and
from the factory. It was not a royal road, that thoroughfare of grim
streets, but it led her into many a shining region.
Her only source of outside interest was the Church. From the Sunday
School she passed into the Bible Class, where her attendance was never
perfunctory, for she enjoyed the teaching and extracted all she could