The first two dolls that arrived in Toro met with a very mixed welcome; the children howled and fled in terror, but their mothers showed a most profound admiration for them. At first they held the doll very gingerly, but finding that nothing happened to either one or the other, and the doll still smiled at them like the Cheshire cat, they became great friends, and begged that they might borrow it for a few days to play with.
Whether it was the large circulation that those two dolls got, or the gradually increasing confidence of the Toro children in the white ladies, the fact remains that in a few months all childish prejudice had disappeared, and often a little voice was heard asking for “a child that causes play.” When this was known in England, over one hundred dolls were sent to me from two working parties. I never saw such a wonderful doll show as they made. They were all displayed on our verandah, and the house was literally besieged with men, women, and children for some days.
A bride, beautifully dressed in white satin and kid shoes, who even in her wedding attire cried “mamma” and “papa,” was sent to little Princess Ruth, but the report reached me that King Kasagama had constituted himself guardian, and kept it locked up in his study for slack moments!
Apolo, our faithful native deacon--confirmed bachelor--asked me in secret if men ever played with dolls, and beamed with satisfaction as he most triumphantly carried one off, peacefully sleeping.
The others were given out to the little girls who had been most regular at the school, and were noted for having come with clean faces and bodies.
When the boys saw that the dolls were only given to girls, some borrowed their sisters’ garments to try and appear eligible! I did not know till then they were versed in such cunning! It was so pretty to watch the joy and even playfulness that those dolls brought into the lives of so many little ones who had scarcely known what this meant till then. Christianity has completely revolutionized child-life in Toro.
Rev. F. E. Lund, of Wuhu, tells this incident in connection with a visit to the out-station at Nanking:
“On going back to the school about ten o’clock at night I found in a dark corner on the street a poor boy, half frozen to death. His piteous groaning attracted my attention. His legs were already numbed and his feet swollen and covered with chilblains which made him quite unable to move. He told me he had been driven out from his home a few days ago, as his father and younger brother were on the point of starvation. His mother died last year in the famine. I knew that it was up to me to save him. There was no one else to do it. The cold night would have finished him. So I had him carried to our school, where we gave him a warm bath and put him into new wadded clothes. During the night he was in great pain and delirious, but in the morning he seemed hale and hearty, and proved to be a most straightforward and clever little man. He is ten years old, but very small for his age. It was most interesting to see how heartily our Chinese neighbors endorsed this little bit of charity. One gave me $2.00 to help pay for the clothes. Another brought two pairs of socks. Some one sent a hat, and an innkeeper sent bedding. If we only had a trade school to put such boys in, we could do a little work along this line and it would certainly meet with the approval of the best class, who would be sure to give substantial help. At any rate, it would be a work that the best Chinese would appreciate and understand.” (_Spirit of Missions_, April, 1913.)