DAVID LIVINGSTONE, THE BELOVED MISSIONARY 305 



The bread was almost always baked in an oven which was a hole 

 in the ground; butter was churned in a jar; candles made in wooden 

 moulds; and soap procured from the ashes of a plant. Livingstone 

 does not forget to pay a tribute to his wife — a valuable helpmeet. He 

 wrote in his first published book: "Married life is all the sweeter 

 when so many comforts emanate directly from the thrifty, striving 

 housewife's hands." 



The first season had passed away successfully at Kolobeng, owing 

 to the irrigation works, but the drought proved too much for their 

 slender source in the second year, and the river Kolobeng shrank to a 

 mere rivulet. During the whole of the second and third years but ten 

 inches of rain fell, and the fourth year was but little better. The river 

 entirely disappeared, and its bed had to be literally mined in order to 

 procure moisture for the more precious fruit-trees. Pasturage for 

 cattle failed, and the cows gave no milk ; the tribe was in a bad way, 

 and became restless again. The restlessness seemed infectious; for 

 Livingstone, w^iose eyes looked ever northward, and who longed for 

 power to disseminate native deacons and schoolmasters among the 

 people of the interior, made up his mind that Kolobeng, too, must be 

 left behind, and that pastures new and more desirable must be sought. 

 If the natives could not live at Kolobeng, it was very evident that' 

 Europeans could not either, and the sooner a new station was selected 

 the better for the tribe among which he w^as living, and the better also 

 for the prosperity of his Gospel preaching. 



In all his plans not one thought occurred of retreating, as he 

 easily might have done, to the colony, and living in comparative ease 

 and perfect security. No ; his eyes were looking fearlessly northward 

 jand his whole soul breathed the one word "Onward!" 



