“Now I have told you all these things that you may know how the little children suffer in this country, and how much the people need to be taught about the Lord Jesus, Who loved little children....”
Mrs. Lewis’s estimate of her staying power indicated in the March letter proved to be over-sanguine, and in June she was sent off to England, where she arrived in August, having made a visit to the Cameroons on the voyage. Naturally she was warmly welcomed by many friends and found refreshment and inspiration in the renewal of former associations. Her stay was brief, and in November she sailed for Africa in the ss. Mexican, accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Graham, newly married, and Mr. Walter Stapleton, of whose character she formed a penetrating estimate, wholly justified by his notable, but all too short career. She much enjoyed the voyage and took kindliest interest in the conversations of the two young men, who sharpened their wits by the discussion of high points of doctrine, and essayed to settle minor questions (of course without prejudice and upon adequate data), such as “whether dark girls or fair ones were the pluckiest.”
The voyagers were met by Mr. Lewis and Mr. Weeks at Banana, and received a tumultuous welcome at Underhill, whither Mr. Lewis had been constrained to bring all the girls of the household, having no one to take charge of them in his absence. He also brought Daniel Jones, the one-time squalid, sickly, outcast baby, who in a few months had developed into a sleek, tiny tyrant who imagined that the world was made for him and “wanted to be king of everybody.”
A still more touching welcome awaited Mrs. Lewis at San Salvador. The women were overjoyed by her return. They abandoned their work for the day, and for days to come kept bringing her presents, not “dashes” to be returned, but free gifts, “because they saw plenty joy.”
It was “plenty joy” to Mrs. Lewis also to be in her own home again, which her husband had furbished and improved during her absence, and she looked for another year of work before the long vacation of the proper furlough. But Providence ordered otherwise. Mr. Lewis’s health failed, and within six months they were on their way to England. The following paragraph from the Missionary Herald of July, 1890, may fitly close this chapter:—
“We are thankful to report the arrival of the Rev. Thos. and Mrs. Lewis from San Salvador. For some months past Mr. Lewis has suffered greatly from repeated and severe attacks of bilious fever with strongly marked typhoidal symptoms, which have greatly reduced his strength and rendered an immediate change absolutely needful. For nearly four years Mr. Lewis has been resident on the Congo without change.”
CHAPTER VII
SECOND TERM AT SAN SALVADOR
Mr. Lewis gathered strength during the voyage. Upon arrival in England he was pronounced “much better” and Mrs. Lewis “very well.” A visit to the Parkinsons at Deal and a stay with the Hartlands at Aberystwyth yielded much pleasure to all concerned and went far toward restoring Mr. Lewis to customary vigour. Toward the end of November Mrs. Lewis is busy with her old friends at Camden Road preparing for the Congo Sale and records with evident delight a surprise visit at the schoolroom by Grenfell, who had arrived in England two days earlier. On November 25th the Sale was opened by Mrs. Lewis, Mr. Baynes, the Secretary of the B.M.S., and the Rev. William Brock, of Hampstead, being among her supporters. She spoke in calm, simple, restrained, but intense fashion of her work among the women of San Salvador, and held a large audience in closest and most sympathetic attention.