X. THE MISSION 
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store of dried fish for the school children, and discovers 
one morning that it is all a mass of worms and good for 
nothing ! It all depends on the Head whether the 
mission station does its work cheaply and successfully, 
or expensively and unsuccessfully. 
On one of our stations, for example, there had been 
for several years a succession of Heads who knew but 
little about land cultivation, and had not pruned the 
coffee bushes properly. They had let them grow so 
tall that they no longer produced what they ought to 
have done, and ladders had to be used to gather 
the crop. Then it was necessary to cut them off just 
above the ground, and it will be years before they have 
produced new shoots which bear a normal crop. 
Another of the Head’s duties is to investigate the not 
infrequent cases of theft, in which matter he has more 
opportunity than he likes for developing whatever 
detective talent he may possess. He has also to 
straighten out all the disputes between the coloured 
inhabitants of the settlement, and in this he must 
never show any impatience. For hours together he 
must listen attentively to their barren argumentations, 
since otherwise he is not the upright judge according 
to their notions. If canoes come from another station 
he must entertain and feed the rowers. If the steamer’s 
siren sounds, he must be off with canoes to the landing 
place to take charge of the mail and the cases of goods. 
Again, it may happen that there has been too small 
a supply of foodstuffs brought in on a market day ; 
this means that canoes must be sent off to the more 
distant villages to secure what is needed. The expedi- 
tion may take two or three days ; what work is to be 
left undone because of it ? And then the canoes may 
