A Lady of England 43

A Lady of England 43

On first arriving she had of course to do simply as she was told,--not

always even that, without protest. When the first Sunday came, she was

informed that they would all drive to church. Miss Tucker objected. She

did not like horses to be made to work on Sunday. She was told that it

was a necessity, but she was not convinced. She would put her large thick

shawl over her head, and walk. Nothing could hurt her through that shawl!

Others had to yield to her will; not without fears of consequences;

and Miss Tucker trudged off alone, with the thick shawl well over her

head--heroically half-suffocated. When they all came out of church,

she would not wait to be driven, but again severely marched off alone.

However, the result of this was so bad a headache--though in general

she never suffered at all from headache--that she was once and for all

convinced. Evidently she could _not_ do in India precisely as in England;

and from that time she consented, when it was necessary, to be driven

to church like the rest. Of course this question of walking or driving

depends largely on the time of year, as well as upon the hour at which

the Service is held. As will be seen later, Miss Tucker never lost her

habits of good walking until quite late in life; and when the hour of

Service or the time of year rendered walking safe, she always preferred

it to being driven.

 

Some friends who knew her best in India have been requested to jot

down their recollections, and have most kindly responded. Certain

‘side-lights’ upon what she was will be best thrown by quotations from

two of these papers as to the beginning of her Indian career.

 

Miss Wauton writes:--

 

‘I have been asked to put down a few reminiscences of A. L. O.

E. in her Missionary life in India. But how shall I do it? It

seems like being asked to help in painting a rainbow. We can

hardly compare her to anything else; so varied, so harmonious,

so lovely were the rays of light which she reflected. Spirit

and mind were as a clear prism, through which the light of

Heaven fell, irradiating the atmosphere in which she lived, and

which shone out all the more brightly when seen against the

dark clouds of heathendom.

 

‘The first mention of her intention to come out to India

reached us in May 1875. Well do I remember the evening when

Mr. Clark, coming to our Bungalow, with a letter in his hand,

said, ‘Who do you think is coming to join you here as a

Missionary?--A. L. O. E.!’ The title instantly brought to mind

books such as _The Young Pilgrim_, _The Shepherd of Bethlehem_,

which had delighted us in our childhood’s days. And now we were

to welcome the well-known and gifted authoress into our house!

This _was_ a privilege; and earnestly did we look forward to

the pleasure of receiving her; though at the same time we were

perhaps conscious of a slight shadow of doubt crossing our

minds, as to how far one of Miss Tucker’s age would be able

to accommodate herself to the new surroundings, and bear the

trials incident to life and work in a tropical climate.

 

‘If such doubts did occur to us, they were soon dispelled

by a closer acquaintance with the object of them. The

letters received during the following months by her future

fellow-Missionaries showed with what whole-heartedness she was

coming forth, prepared from thenceforth to make her _home_ in

the land of her adoption, and to devote all she was and all she

had to the grand work of winning the people of India to Christ....

 

‘Miss Tucker reached Amritsar on the 1st Nov. 1875. The warm

kiss with which she greeted her sister-Missionaries showed the

affectionate nature; and it was not long before we felt that

we had in her, not only a fellow-worker, but a loving and true

friend. At her own request the formal “Miss” was soon dropped,

and she was always addressed as “Auntie.” The family of adopted

nephews and nieces, beginning with three or four, gradually

widened, till it finally embraced more than twenty members. Nor

was this relationship a mere formality. It represented on her

part a very special share in the sympathetic interest extended

to all fellow-Missionaries, and on their side a reverential

love and esteem, which in many cases could not have been

deeper, had the tie been one of natural kinship.

 

‘She soon became known amongst the members of the Indian Church

as the “Buzurg,” or “Honourable” Miss Sahib; and the title of

“Firishta” or “angel” was not unseldom heard in connection with

her name. And indeed they might well call her so. Every time

she spent even a few hours under our roof we felt that we had

entertained an angel, though not unawares, so bright were the

memories she left behind in loving words and deeds....

 

‘She was so considerate for servants, that she would, during

the first hot weather, often stop her pankah-walas at two or

three o’clock in the morning, for fear of tiring them. Her face

and hands covered with mosquito-bites showed what she endured

in practising this self-denial. It took a long time to convince

her that there was no hardship in employing these men in

night-work, seeing they had plenty of time to rest during the

day.

 

‘A. L. O. E. lost no time in beginning to use her pen in the

service of India. I think it was the very day after her arrival

that she came to us with the MS. in her hand of a little book

she had written on her way up-country. It was called _The

Church built out of One Brick_; its object being to stir up

the Christians of this land to give more liberally, and to

work more heartily, for their own Churches. We were amazed, on

hearing the little story read, at the wonderful knowledge which

Miss Tucker had even then gained, or rather, which she seemed

to have intuitively, of the people amongst whom she had come to

live. She said, “I want to Orientalise my mind”; but she seemed

to have been born with an Oriental mind. Parable, allegory, and

metaphor were the very language in which she thought; and her

thoughts always seemed naturally to clothe themselves in those

figures of speech in which the children of the East are wont to

express themselves.

 

‘She always wrote her books in English, as there was never any

difficulty in getting them translated into the vernaculars.

Many thought that, on this account, she would not care to

study the language; but she had no idea of reaching the people

only through her pen. She was determined, as far as it was

possible, to use her own lips in telling out the message of

salvation she had come to bring.

 

‘Accordingly, she was soon hard at work with primer, grammar,

and dictionary. At the end of a year she passed the Hindustani

Language Examination, and then began Panjabi. She learnt to

express herself intelligibly in both these tongues, though the

acquisition of them cost her many an hour of hard labour.

 

‘How she did toil over them! I remember, when sharing a room

with her once, waking about four o’clock on a cold winter’s

morning, to see her, already dressed, with a book before

her, in which she had herself written in very large printed

characters, that she might the more easily read them, a

long list of Hindustani and Panjabi words, which she was

busily learning off by heart. By this incessant industry she

acquired a large vocabulary, and was also soon able to read

intelligently many vernacular books, which gave her an insight

into the religious life of the people.’

 

The Rev. Robert Clark writes:--

 

‘I remember well her arrival, when she was received by Mrs.

Elmslie and Miss Wauton in the Mission House.... We felt that a

spiritual as well as an intellectual power had come amongst

us.... Like the great Missionary Swartz, she never went home on

furlough; and she never took more than a month’s[37] holiday

in the year, but remained at her post, hot weather and cold

weather, sometimes eleven months, sometimes twelve months in

the year, during her whole service....

 

‘Her first endeavour on her arrival in India, as she said, was

to seek to “Orientalise her mind.” She noticed everything,

watched everything around her, sought intercourse with the

people, and tried to think with their thoughts and feel

with their feelings, and to realise their position and

circumstances, in order that she might bring God’s Word to bear

on them _as they were_. It was in this way only that she could

hope to do them good....’

 

During the greater part of 1876 Miss Tucker remained at Amritsar,

cementing her friendship with the ladies there, learning the Hindustani

and Panjabi languages, studying the ways of the people, and writing

little books for translation into the Native tongues. At her age it

was by no means so easy to master a new language as for a younger

person;--indeed, hard as she toiled, she never did absolutely master

any Indian language colloquially, though for a time she became thorough

mistress of the Hindustani grammar and construction. In later years much

that she had conquered, with such hard and persevering toil, slipped from

her again.