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 knowledge of how things ought to be done in her 

 house indeed, every woman who orders a dinner 

 should know something 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 



