OUR NEIGHBOURS. 267 



cart or spider seen to stop than you are sought out, 

 with kind and pressing invitation to come in. No 

 matter how full the house may already be, how late 

 or inconvenient the hour of your unexpected arrival 

 on a Cape farm, a place is always found for you 

 at the table; and, if needed, some sort of a night's 

 lodging, of however impromptu a description, will 

 be prepared for you. The colonist joyfully makes you 

 welcome to his best. If you are staying in his house, 

 a mount or a seat in his conveyance is always at your 

 disposal ; and the longer you can remain, the better 

 he and all his kind-hearted family are pleased. It is 

 true that their hoipe is far from being a luxurious one, 

 and that none of them have much idea of comfort ; but 

 tlie latter article being, on account of the isolation 

 and of the bad servants, somewhat difficult of attain- 

 ment, it is on the whole just as well that no one misses 

 it sufficiently to regret its absence; and one cannot 

 but admire and envy the philosophical manner in which 

 the colonists take things as they come, making them- 

 selves perfectly happy under any circumstances. 



Altogether there is so much that is lovable in the 

 colonial character, that you are sometimes disappointed 

 to find that there is a reverse to this bright side of the 

 picture, and that — even by those who have received 

 you the most hospitably, and who apparently, while 

 you were their guest, could not do enough for you — 

 you are liable, in business transactions, to be woefully 

 cheated. It is thought no disgrace to get the better 



of any one in a bargain, whether on an iniquitously 

 18 



