One day while seeking a little rest, I heard my schoolgirls eagerly shouting: “Mem Sahib, Mem Sahib, where are you? Do come quick and buy us a baby. It’s a poor little starving baby, just skin and bones. Its mamma is dead, and its father cannot buy it milk, so has brought it to see if you want to buy it. O, do please let us take it! We will take care of it and never complain.”
Eskimo Boy
“Well, bring my topee, and I’ll go and see it,” I said. They took me a little way down the road, and there, sitting on a few old rags, was one of the most emaciated babies I ever saw. It was shivering with the cold, for its only clothing was a string about its waist. It could hardly hold up its little head. The father saw a chance to make a little money, so asked five rupees for it. I told him he should be thankful that we would take his child and care for it. He hung his head in shame, and said, “Take it, only let me come to see it occasionally.”
Since the death of the mother, they had fed this poor child on opium to still its cries for food, so that the father could work in the fields. This is a common practice in India. It was pitiful to hear her feeble cries when she came out from under the effects of the opium; but by constant and careful nursing, she has now grown to be a strong, healthy child, and is the sunshine of our school. All the girls love her dearly, and uncomplainingly leave their play at any time to care for her. We have named the baby “Moonie,” which means “beautiful child.”
Jagadishpur Mission, India
Little Russian
Little Maid, India
Our Santali Girls' School, India—Baby Moonie Sitting in the Foreground
