Over My Shoulder

Chapter 7—Last Days in Battle Creek

How eagerly Mabel and I looked forward to our monthly mail-chats with Papa! He was so interested in everything that interested us. He wanted to know about the kittens and the garden and the sweet peas, and the little blind boy I was reading to on Sunday mornings. He hoped the mother bird that was making her nest in the basket we hung on the back porch would complete it and that Mabel and I would be so gentle that she would always feel safe when near us. Would I send him that difficult problem in fractions that I wrote about? He would like to see whether he could work it. OMS 63.1

Father said that he was sending us a stamp album and an envelope of foreign stamps to paste into it. He hoped we wouldn’t waste any more time on the “funny language” we were inventing, because he was afraid it would ruin our pronunciation. He told us all about his third-class passage on a steamer going to New Zealand so we wouldn’t worry about him any more. He said that often there were as many as thirty or forty passengers in one room; but the rooms were large and clean, and the passengers had pleasant times talking together. OMS 63.2

Mabel and I were intrigued with the idea that things were “upside down” in Australia. Someone had told us that certain birds in that country had their feathers pointing toward their heads, and that cherries grew with the pits on the outside. Father wrote about a small tree bearing fruit that resembled a cherry, but with the meat on the inside and a hard stonelike shell on the outside. He also said that in some parts of the country there were birds that looked as if their feathers had been rubbed the wrong way. OMS 63.3

One day Papa’s monthly letter told of gifts that would soon arrive. “I sent a message to each of you by Miss Grattidge,” he wrote, “and a little parcel for each.” (Miss Grattidge was traveling to Battle Creek to take the nurse’s course at the Sanitarium.) “The round parcel is for Ella,” he wrote. The package contained the egg of a large Australian bird called the emu. It was nearly as large as an ostrich egg. On the egg was a picture, not painted, but engraved, showing two emu birds out on the plains, and a black man, a native Australian, creeping up to spear the birds. The emus were clumsy-looking fellows, but the shell of the egg was remarkable. It had three distinct layers, each of a different color. The outside layer was black. Inside this was a layer of blue, then one of pure white. The carving in these three colors was very pretty. OMS 63.4

Mabel’s parcel contained the tail of a lyre bird, a large, beautiful tail, the shape of a lyre or harp. Father explained that these birds were funny fellows. The male bird would get up on a little mound of sand and go through all kinds of antics to show off his beautiful feathers, while his mate admired him. The bird was not proud of his plain head, so he hid it under his wing and then peeked through his wing to see if he was receiving his due amount of admiration. OMS 64.1

The new curios were placed on a mantel, alongside some others that had been sent us from the church school children on Pitcairn Island. Hattie Andre was teaching there, and she had taught her pupils to make oil paintings of birds and flowers and scenery on large shells that they picked up along the seashore. The children had sent them to our father by the missionaries on the ship Pitcairn. He had passed them on to us. OMS 64.2

In time our home became a gathering place for young people who came from Australia to receive missionary training at Battle Creek Sanitarium and College. One evening our guests noticed a wedding bell hanging in our bay window. Suddenly there was a lull in the chatter. Mr. Brandstater and Miss Grattidge had taken their places under the bell. Elder Tenny arose with solemn dignity and began plying the couple with serious questions. Their bashful “I do’s” climaxed the evening’s entertainment, and everybody was happy. OMS 64.3

The socials held in our modest home on Kendall Street were simple affairs, with no extravagant outlay of money for entertainment or refreshments. I do remember that at one of the gatherings Mary served ice cream and home-baked cake. A report of the matter reached our father in Australia, with a criticism from a student in the school of health at the Sanitarium. Father wrote Mary that he was greatly pleased with the socials she was conducting for our friends, but for the sake of setting a good example, and upholding Dr. Kellogg in the reforms he was endeavoring to establish in healthful living, perhaps it would be better not to serve ice cream again. OMS 64.4

In one of Papa’s letters he told of visiting the ship Pitcairn when it docked for repairs at Napier, New Zealand, and of making a voyage along the New Zealand coast with the missionaries on board. OMS 65.1

He wrote of a visit he made in company with Dr. Merritt Kellogg to the famous hot springs and hot lakes of New Zealand. There they watched the Maoris cook food in steam holes in the ground. The air was heavy with sulphurous fumes. Jets of steam rose from the ground on every side, and the guide warned sightseers to be careful where they stepped. Father and Dr. Kellogg saw two beautiful geysers shooting their crystal waters high into the air. Fascinated, they watched the water fall in glittering, rainbow-tinted spangles of indescribable beauty. OMS 65.2

The group passed hot gushing geysers and boiling pools of black mud. At times there were loud boomings under their feet like the discharge of cannon; then up through the clear water of the river would rise a black, seething, viscous-looking column of mud. Things would quiet down; then in another minute the banging would begin again. The native people believed that in those grumbling, spluttering hot mud pools supper was being cooked for giants who had their abode beneath the mountains. OMS 65.3

At the hotel where Papa and Dr. Kellogg lodged that night they were entertained with tales of frightening events that took place during the night of the eruption in 1886, events that created this weird wonderland. OMS 65.4

On another occasion, while Papa and Grandma were spending a few days at the home of Joseph Hare at Kaeo, north New Zealand, they experienced a severe storm. The rain was so heavy that water poured down in torrents from the mountain slopes, carrying with it huge logs, parts of buildings, and scores of drowning sheep and cattle. The water rose until it was within sixteen inches of the floor of the house. In spite of all this excitement, however, Grandma was able to hold many meetings. OMS 65.5

Sometimes Mabel and I would ask Mary to read Father’s letters over several times. They were interesting, but we wondered why he didn’t say something about coming home or about our going to Australia. Would our family always be separated? OMS 65.6

Then one day the long-looked-for letter arrived. Papa wrote that Grandma’s work was not finished in Australia. Since they would probably remain there for several more years, he was arranging for us girls to go to him. After a moment of silence, we clapped our hands and danced for joy. OMS 66.1

“But let us finish reading the letter,” said Mary. So she read on. In the letter Father told us a story we had never heard before. A few days before our mother’s death she had called him to her bedside and told him that she hoped that after she was laid to rest he would find a good Christian woman whom he could love and who would help him make a home for himself and for his two little girls. Now at last he had found her. Her name was Ethel May Lacey, and she had been a Bible instructor. When Cousin May Walling had to return to America, May had come to care for Grandma and her large family. She had consented to be our mother, and he knew we would love her as he did. Now we could have a home all our own and be a happy little family again. OMS 66.2

When Mary finished reading that letter Mabel and I were in tears. It was Mabel who spoke. OMS 66.3

“Mary, why can’t you be our mother instead of that other lady way over there?” OMS 66.4

Then Mary’s secret came out. She couldn’t marry our papa even if he wanted her to. She had promised Elder George Tripp that she would marry him and help start a mission school in Africa. Also, she would be caring for his son, George, whose mother was dead and who needed a mamma just as much as we did. OMS 66.5

Then Mary made us a proposition. If we would work and study hard and learn how to be good missionaries, in a few years she would send for us to come to Africa and help her teach the boys and girls in the mission school. That partially assuaged our grief, for we could look forward to seeing our dear Mary again. OMS 66.6

And so it came about that in a few weeks Mabel and I said goodbye to Mary and our other friends in Battle Creek, and began a journey that would take us halfway round the world. OMS 66.7

We made the long train trip to San Francisco in the care of Elder and Mrs. F. J. Hutchins, who were returning to their mission field in the Bay Islands. In San Francisco they turned us over to Elder and Mrs. E. R. Palmer, who were on their way to Australia. Elder Palmer was going out to organize the colporteur work in the Australasian Mission Field, and would see that we reached there safe and sound. OMS 66.8