OUR SERVANTS. 195 



hens, etc. As many despairing sighs as ever fluttered 

 the inky pages of a school lesson-book were breathed 



over this stout volume. T , who, after living for 



years in rougher places than the Karroo, has acquired 

 considerable experience and is a capital cook, helped me 

 out of many a difficulty ; and in time I learned to be a 

 tolerably good general servant — which you must be 

 yourself, if you are ever to do any good with Kaffirs 

 or Hottentots. But it was a pity that, when young, 

 instead of many of the things learned at school, I did 

 not acquire what would at this time have made me 

 more independent of servants. 



Why is not a knowledge of cooking and house- 

 keeping made a part of every English girl's education ? 

 Then, in the event of a colonial life being one day her 

 lot, she is to some extent prepared to encounter the 

 difficulties of that life ; while, even if she should marry 

 a millionaire, and be waited on hand and foot for the 

 rest of her days, she is none the worse for possessing 

 the knowledofe of how thino^s ouo^ht to be done in her 

 house — indeed, every woman who orders a dinner 

 should know somethinor of how it is to be cooked. 



Nancy, our first native servant, was also the best we 

 ever had ; always bright and good-tempered, and sing- 

 ing over her work in a really charming voice. On the 

 whole she was far more intelligent than most of her 

 race ; and we were really sorry when the equestrian 

 family party carried her from our sight, never to 

 return. Then came a succession of " cautions," each 

 worse than her predecessor ; and between them all 



