142 TROPIC DAYS 



to her conquered. She had no other redeeming quaUty. 

 In a certam sense she was fearsome; she required un- 

 remitting attention and care; her whimpering fits, in 

 beast-Uke monotone, shook the nerve of the most patient 

 of her attendants. She was a charge to keep and foster, 

 and the duty was performed with devotion, whicli took 

 Httle concern for self-sacrifice. Before many months 

 had passed Soosie had been transformed into a fat 

 roly-poly with a perpetual smile and gurgles of satisfac- 

 tion, which even vocalised sleep. 



All this happened years ago. In infancy Soosie had 

 been informally adopted. She was now a bright, 

 sensible, slender girl, whose full, melting eyes pleaded 

 for inevitable facial defects, and whose complexion was 

 very greatly at fault. She grew up more averse from 

 the manners and moods of her mother than those of us 

 who better understand the differences of race. To her 

 a black was more abhorrent than a snake. She loathed 

 the sight of those who came about the place, and would 

 not defile herself by touching the cleanest — kind-hearted 

 "Wethera," who had so nearly interred her, and to 

 whom she was as a princess; "Wethera," who was wont 

 to saj'^, " That fella Tchoosie, too flash. Close up me 

 bin tchuck'm away. Boss he bin catch'm." 



Soosie evaded all possible reference to her kin, and 

 when others spoke in sympathetic terms would say: 

 "How can j'ou bear to think of those horrible people 

 who live in dirt and only half dressed in the bush ? I 

 love the scrub, and but for them would like to wander 

 in it all day. I dare not while they are about, for some 

 day one of them might touch me, and I would never 

 feel clean again." 



We often wondered at the irreconcilable attitude 

 which Soosie (she was always "Miss Soosie" to all but 

 members of the household) adopted to her own race, for 



