"At Kolobeng, she managed all the household affairs by native servants
of her own training, made bread, butter, and all the clothes of the
family; taught her children most carefully; kept also an infant and
sewing school--by far the most popular and best attended we had. It was
a fine sight to see her day by day walking a quarter of a mile to the
town, no matter how broiling hot the sun, to impart instruction to the
heathen Bakwains. Ma-Robert's name is known through all that country,
and 1800 miles beyond.... A brave, good woman was she. All my hopes of
giving her one day a quiet home, for which we both had many a sore
longing, are now dashed to the ground. She is, I trust, through divine
mercy, in peace in the home of the blest.... She spoke feelingly of your
kindness to her, and also of the kind reception she received from Miss
Burdett Coutts. Please give that lady and Mrs. Brown the sad
intelligence of her death."
The reply of Mrs. Moffat to her son-in-law's letter was touching and
beautiful. "I do thank you for the detail you have given us of the
circumstances of the last days and hours of our lamented and beloved
Mary, our first-born, over whom our fond hearts first beat with parental
affection!" She recounts the mercies that were mingled with the
trial--though Mary could not be called _eminently_ pious, she had the
root of the matter in her, and though the voyage of her life had been a
trying and stormy one, she had not become a wreck.
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