igo HOME LIFE ON AN OSTRICH FARM. 



kitchen and laundry departments. The art of bed- 

 making has to be taught, with much patience and 

 perseverance, to each successive untutored savage ; 

 who — if she has not come straight from some bee-hive- 

 shaped liut where beds are totally unknown — has lived 

 in a Boer's house where, when it is thought worth while 

 to make the beds at all (by no means an every-day 

 business) it is never done till the evening, when it is 

 just time to return to them — and then is not done in a 

 manner which at all accords with English ideas. In 

 the morning, each portion of the room and each article 

 of furniture which requires cleaning or dusting must 

 be separately and individually pointed out to your 

 handmaiden ; the corner where you do not specially tell 

 her to sweep, and the table or bookshelf which you for- 

 get to commend to the attentions of her feather-brush, 

 being invariably left untouched. It is the same with 

 all the rest of her work ; you have long ago found it 

 impossible to make her understand a thing once for all, 

 or to establish any sort of regular routine. She needs 

 to be daily reminded of each daily duty, or it is not 

 done. And then, unless under constant supervision, 

 most wearying to her mistress, it is sure to be done 

 wrong. Of course she never thinks of reminding you 

 of anything, but is only too delighted if you iiave for- 

 gotten it. If, through some unlucky oversight, you 

 have not told her to put the joint into the oven and the 

 potatoes on the fire, the chances are that both will be 

 found uncooked when the dinner-hour arrives. And 

 even when all is ready to be served up, you must 



