Maltby Genealogy

American Lineage

"obedience on her children, for said she, "Obedience that is not cheerful is not obedience."

For three years encouraging, cheering messages came to the ex- iled daughter from the mother, then six weeks of anxious waiting, the silence. Her last message was, "I am going Home, tell Etta when she comes, to bring many sheaves with her."

When the father bade his little daughter, as he fondly called her, "Good Bye," he said, "I think I shall see you again" and after six years he clasped her to his heart, and at the age of 82, he made long journeys with her visiting all his children in their distant homes.

It was a bright September day in the year 1870, that the good steamship sailed out of New York harbor with twenty missionaries on board. Fourteen days later the wide ocean had separated them from the land of their fathers. A five hours railroad ride through "Eden" -like England brought them to the wonderfully interesting city of London and a week amid its interesting sights and scenes gave zest and refreshment to the weary travelers.

Soon after arriving in Constantinople the startling news came to the new missionary that Miss Norcross, with whom she was to be associated, had suddenly sickened and died, that the school without a head was waiting for her to fill the vacancy. Words fail to ex- press the disappointment of that hour. Good Dr. Riggs and Mrs. Riggs by their sympathy helped and encouraged the inexperienced missionary to realize that the "Strength" of her life would not fail her.

Mr. Bond came from Bulgaria to accompany her to her field of labor. At that time Bulgaria was a country very little known and her subjected people almost unheard of. Much in the beautifully situated city of Constantinople seemed strange and weird but on near- ing her destination everything put on a new interest for her.

A night on the choppy waves of the Black Sea brought the trav- elers to the port of Borgas in Bulgaria. A rude boat received the passengers and a dangerous climb up a ladder some twenty or thirty feet landed them on a platform filled with queer looking people, in dress and manner, who gazed at the foreigners as though they thought them arrivals from some other planet. There is now a fine harbor in the place of that rude landing.

The missionary was hastened through the crowd to the tehan, where a floorless room opened to them, furnitureless, except for a stool and a straw mat in a corner. The curious villagers not satis- fied with their inspection of the stranger on the street, filled the door and one paneless window with their eager faces. The first evening amid the jargon of a strange language and an almost sleep- less night upon the straw matting will not soon be effaced from her memory. The morning found her seated in a springless, seatless wagon drawn by one horse. Mr. Bond rode upon his own horse and after a long day's ride, they came to a city where they were to spend the night and there she met a mother with her bright-faced daughter who had been in the mission school and received from them a cordial wel- come in an unknown tongue. This made the stranger feel at home and gave her a very favorable impression of the down-trodden and oppres- sed people whom she had come to teach.

The evening of the third day they reached Eski Zaghra, the home of the mission school at that time. The missionary carriage with the

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