JOSIAH _^_.=. 



**Josiah, tell me what happened," said I. He said, "Mas- 

 ter, when you went away this thing happened and at first 

 we were mystified. But when they realized that this had 

 been done by the orders of the big master of Nairobi, my 

 followers were furious, but what could they do? Said 

 they, 'This is Shauri ya Escali' — the business of govern- 

 ment, and as you had gone away, there was nobody to tell 

 their trouble to. And now they have gone 'for bush' and 

 they will not do another thing like this for love." 



All this time I had been thinking hard what to say, and 

 how to meet this unexpected situation. I could not let 

 down a brother oflEicer however short-sighted his action 

 may have been and immediately replied, "Josiah, don't be 

 foolish. Don't you see this is the right place for the tennis 

 court? I ought to have made it before I went away. 



"It may have been all right for you to come here with 

 the Watu wa Miti, when I was here, but this new master 

 can't have you coming around every evening so near his 

 camp." It was hard for me to control myself in the face 

 of this bitter disappointment, for I acutely felt what it 

 must have been for those simple folk, who, out of the 

 goodness of their hearts, in response to my appeal had 

 come round evening by evening to expend their labour 

 of love in tree-planting. I was conscious that Josiah with 

 that natural intuition so strongly developed in the 

 primitive African, was reading me like a book and was 

 sharing with me the same intense regret and remorse. 

 Back of all this I felt a silent challenge coming from 

 this fine young chief, who had willingly devoted so much 



49 



