The Story of the Wood That Talked

In order to get up to date on the new Murphree baby’s name-sake, I’m reading the book “Kin of the Cannibals – The Story of John G Paton”.
I’m towards the end of the book when John marries his second wife, Margaret, and moves to a safer island in the New Hebrides, Aniwa.
I had this huge backflash of a story that I remember from when I was little. I believe it was on an Uncle Charlie record or Children’s Bible Hour or something. I can totally hear this story in my head as I’m reading it in the book.
John was building his mission home and some of the natives were helping him. While they were building, John ran out of a few of the supplies he needed and so he picked up a piece of wood and wrote a note on it. Then he called one of the natives who he was working with and gave him the piece of wood and told him that he needed him to bring the wood to his wife so she could send more supplies. The native asked him what he wanted to tell his wife but John said the wood would tell her what he needed. The man could not believe that John’s wife could know what John would want, but he took the wood and left for John’s current house.
As he walked, the native kept thinking “how can wood talk”. He could not figure how the wood would tell Margaret what she needed.
When he got to Margaret, he gave her the wood, she read what was written on it, and then collected all the things John needed and gave them to the man. He could not believe it! The wood had talked to John’s wife and had told her what John wanted!
He ran back to John with the items and asked him how the wood could talk!
John then told him how he had written words on the wood that Margaret read and then knew what John wanted. He ended up using it as an opportunity to tell the native how he could teach him to read his own words and then he could read a book from God and he could hear God talking from the book.
Its totally a cool story in the respect that I remember it so well from when I was younger – I can hear the “natives” voice and everything.
It’s a cool story – period!