Page 60 - Unseen Hands by Nona Freeman

Unseen Hands
rified by the grotesque bodies of the lepers and by the wildness of the woods, Erkenesh often prayed to die.
With never a free moment, Erkenesh, swinging the axe withallher inadequatemight, chopped wood. She car ried water; she fetched grain and vegetables from the dis tant market; she cleaned, washed, and cooked. Her guard
ians constantly berated her for laziness and offered no helping hand with any task.
Relatives passing by on business stopped to see her and reported her grievous condition to her parents. Her devout father felt that he could not break his vow and bring her home, but he visited her. Grief almost overcame
himto see her wretched state, and with tears he begged the missionaries to treat her kindly and to send her to school, promising to pay all expenses.
After her seventh birthday, her master sent her to the S.I.M. school not far away with the conditions that all her work must be done as before and that she could not do any school work at home. This meant that she had
to complete her assignments on the way to school, miss ingthe first period. Her teachers reproached her as irre sponsible, not knowing her living conditions. In discouragement one day she drank poisonous ink, hop
ing to die. It did not even make her sick.
While in the fourth grade and only ten years old,
Erkenesh received a letter from a health assistant ask ing her to marry him. Without thought she said yes, but ran from himwhen he tried to talk to her. She tossed away
the letters he wrote; students found them and spread the story, and other young men wrote her proposals of marriage.
Apprehensive that she would be abducted according 58