THE MOTE A XT) THE BEAM AGAIN. 281 



will not make the stranger wish to enter, if he has any 

 nose, or any dislike of vermin. The group at the door, 

 meanwhile, will do anything but invite him to enter ; and 

 he wdll ride on, with something like a sigh at wdiat man 

 might be, and what he is. 



Doubtless, there are great excuses for the inmates. A 

 house in this climate is only needed for a sleeping or loung- 

 ing place. The cooking is carried on between a few stones 

 in the garden ; the w^ashing at the neighbouring brook. ISTo 

 store-rooms are needed, where there is no wdnter, and every- 

 thing grows fresh and fresh, save the saltfish, which can be 

 easily kept and I understand usually is kept underneath 

 the bed. As for separate bedrooms for boys and girls, 

 and all those decencies and moralities for wdiich those wdio 

 build model cottages strive, and wath good cause of such 

 things none dream. But it is not so very long ago that 

 the British Isles were not perfect in such matters; some 

 think that they are not quite perfect yet. So we will take 

 the beam out of our ow^n eye, before we try to take the mote 

 from the Negro's. The latter, how^ever, no man can do. For 

 the Xegro, being a freeholder and the owner of his own 

 cottage, must take the mote out of his own eye, having 

 no landlord to build cottages for him ; in the meanwhile, 

 however, the less said about his lodging the better. 



In the villages, how^ever, in Maraval, for instance, y 



