MISSION SCHOOLS 
163 
come back empty, so that a similar expedition has to be 
made in another direction ! 
What a terribly unromantic business life for one who 
came out to preach the religion of Jesus ! If he had not 
to conduct the morning and evening services in the 
schoolroom and to preach on Sundays, the Head could 
almost forget that he was a missionary at all ! But it is 
just by means of the Christian sympathy and gentleness 
that he shows in all this everyday business that he 
exercises his greatest influence ; whatever level of 
spirituality the community reaches is due to nothing 
so much as to the success of its Head in this matter 
of — Preaching without Words. 
A word now about the schools. A school to which 
children come for instruction while they live at home 
is impossible here because of the distances ; there are 
villages, for example, attached to the Lambarene 
Station, which are sixty or seventy miles away from it. 
The children must therefore live on the station, and the 
parents bring them in October and take them away in 
July when the big fishing expeditions begin. In return 
for the cost of their living the children, both boys and 
girls, do some sort of work, and their day is arranged 
very much as follows : From 7 to 9 in the morning they 
are at work cutting down grass and bush, for the defence 
of the station against invasion by the forest is in the 
main their task. When they have done all the clearing 
that is necessary at one end of the settlement they can 
always go to some other part where the undergrowth 
will have shot up again as it was before. From 9 to 10 
is a rest hour, during which they breakfast ; from 
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