They Came
Into Miss Slessor's Yard In The Evening, And Sat Chatting Over The
Day's Shopping, Etc., And Casually Mentioned In The Way Of
Conversation That They Had Heard The Child Crying, And That It Was
Rather Remarkable It Should Be Still Alive.
Needless to say, Miss
Slessor was off, and had that waif home.
It was truly in an awful
state, but just alive. In a marvellous way it had been left by
leopards and snakes, with which this bit of forest abounds, and,
more marvellous still, the driver ants had not scented it. Other
ants had considerably eaten into it one way and another; nose, eyes,
etc., were swarming with them and flies; the cartilage of the nose
and part of the upper lip had been absolutely eaten into, but in
spite of this she is now one of the prettiest black children I have
ever seen, which is saying a good deal, for negro children are very
pretty with their round faces, their large mouths not yet coarsened
by heavy lips, their beautifully shaped flat little ears, and their
immense melancholy deer-like eyes, and above these charms they
possess that of being fairly quiet. This child is not an object of
terror, like the twin children; it was just thrown away because no
one would be bothered to rear it, but when Miss Slessor had had all
the trouble of it the natives had no objection to pet and play with
it, calling it "the child of wonder," because of its survival.
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