CHAPTER XVII.
a.d. 1846, 1847.
It was ever a leading desire of Mr. Groves’s heart, and one in which his sons fully participated, not to present to God that which cost him nothing ; and by every means to make “the gospel of Christ without charge.” (1 Cor. ix, 18.) This was the chief source of that energy in labour which was now displayed; and earnest were the efforts to retrieve the losses which had been sustained, so as to pay all their due and to carry the work of God independently of help from others.
Rice fields and extensive cocoa-nut plantations succeeded the mulberry trees, which were no longer needed; but Mr. Groves ceased to cultivate the land himself, letting it out on favourable terms both to Christian and heathen cultivators, called in India ryots, who thus earned an honest maintenance, and were brought under Christian instruction. Mr. Groves’s faithful servant, Hannai, superintended the planting of the cocoa-nut trees and other work on the farm: she also, under Mr. Groves’s direction, let out the land; and when, at the close of 1845, and in 1846, the purchase and shipment of raw sugar, produced in the vicinity, seemed to offer her master an opportunity of speedily recovering his losses, it was she who acted as buyer. For a time all appeared to prosper, and in February 1847, Mrs. Groves went
