236 HOME LIFE ON AN OSTRICH FARAf. 



— that of the acrid chicory with which it has been 

 bountifully doctored — it might be taken for weak tea. 

 And yet there is no better "pick-me-up" after a long walk 

 or tiring day's work, nothing more warming and com- 

 forting on a cold day, than a cup of really good coffee. 

 Such, for instance, as you get in any of the numerons 

 Arab caf^ in Algiers ; a tiny cup of which, hardly 

 larger than an egg-cup, does you more good than a 

 glass of port wine. Indeed, wherever coffee is really 

 well made — as in France and Spain — it does exten- 

 sively take the place of intoxicating drinks; and it 

 would be a good thing if in England, and especially 

 among our poorer classes, this splendidly nutritious 

 substance — food no less than drink — were as much 

 used as it is abroad. The coffee-house where well-made, 

 unadulterated coffee might be obtained would be a 

 formidable rival to the gin-palace. As it is, however, 

 the art of making coffee — if ever possessed at all in 

 England — ^has been so completely lost that the increas- 

 ing disuse of the beverage is no matter of surprise. 



Angora milk is excellent with coffee, but, though abun- 

 dant at times, it is hardly to be obtained at all during 

 droughts; and for months you have to be contented 

 with Swiss milk. The Boers and Kaffirs think fresh, 

 sweet milk very unwholesome ; a Dutchwoman never 

 gives her child anything but sour milk to drink, and 

 the Kaffirs always keep their milk in large gourds 

 which have the property of rapidly turning it sour. 



