OUR SERVANTS. 183 



bitterly of the unsatisfactory parlour-maid, or are 

 pathetic over the iniquities of the cook who has just 

 sent up a faultless little dinner. When any one, thus 

 blissfully unconscious of what a really bad servant is, 

 appeals to the lady colonist for sympathy, the unfeeling 

 reply of the latter not unfrequently is : " You should 

 try South African servants ! " And instantly, before 

 the mind's eye of that lady colonist, there arises a 

 retrospective vision of the average " coloured help " of 

 Cape farms ; that yellow Hottentot or dark-skinned 

 Kaffir, attired in a scanty and ragged cotton dress ; 

 her woolly head surmounted by a battered and not 

 always over-clean kappje (sun-bonnet), or tied up in a 

 red and yellow handkerchief of the loudest pattern, 

 twisted into an ugly little tight turban. She stands, in 

 the bright morning sunshine, against a background of 

 dirty dishes and uncleaned saucepans, left neglected 

 since last evening's meal ; and of the comfort and 

 advantage to herself of cleaning which before the 

 adhering remnants of contents have dried and hardened 

 it is absolutely impossible to convince her. Dogs, fowls, 

 turkeys, and little pigs, in company with all the pet 

 animals of the family and an occasional young ostrich, 

 are kindly acting the part of scavengers on her unswept 

 kitchen floor ; where they are habitues, her wasteful- 

 ness and untidiness affording them so good a livin^ 

 that they have grown bold, and, refusing to get out of 

 your way, get under your feet and trip you up at every 

 turn if you are rash enough to enter the dirty domain 

 of their protectress. The latter, like some malevolent 



