THE DOCTOR’S WIFE AND HER WORK. SERVANTS 63 
causes ; first, the strict division of duties among the 
native servants, and, second, their unreliability. We 
have to keep, as is customary, three servants ; a boy, 
a cook, and a washerman. To assign the work of the 
last-named to either the boy or the cook, as is often 
done in small households, is impossible in our case, on 
account of the extra washing which comes to the 
house from the hospital. Apart from this, a moderately 
good European maid could do the whole of the work 
quite well by herself. The cook does nothing but the 
cooking, the washerman the washing and ironing, and 
the boy looks after the rooms and the fowls. Each of 
them, as soon as he has finished his own work, goes off 
to rest ! So we have to do ourselves whatever work 
there is which does not belong to either of their strictly 
defined departments. Women servants are not to be 
had out here. Mrs. Christol has as nursemaid for 
her eighteen months old baby girl a native boy of 
fourteen, M’Buru by name. 
Then, again, all one’s servants, even the best of them, 
are so unreliable that they must not be exposed to the 
slightest temptation. This means that they must never 
be left alone in the house. All the time they are at 
work there my wife must be there too, and anything 
that might be attractive to their dishonesty must be 
kept locked up. Each morning the cook is given 
exactly what is to be prepared for our meals, so much 
rice, fat, and potato ; in the kitchen he keeps just a 
small supply of salt, flour, and spice, and if he forgets 
anything, my wife will have to go up the hill again to 
the house from the hospital in order to give it out to 
him. 
That one can never leave them alone in a room. 
