260 
COFFEE. 
way back owing to the slipperiness, so Madame 
has had days of severe fever as a result of the 
fatigue. 
Coffee grows abundantly in the island, and 
is of excellent quality. We are kept in supply 
by our friends, whose lavish use of it we have 
learned to copy. Ere the light has come, I am 
calling to our boy to make fire and get water 
boiling, and with the first streaks of day the 
aroma of this delicious beverage spreads over the 
verandah, wdiere we enjoy it and watch the sun 
rise. As it is often 10 a.m. ere we have break- 
fast, we eat biscuit and butter with it. My 
thermometer is the butter ; it is occasionally 
quite stiff, and if I have not noticed H.'s read- 
ing from his thermometer, or guessed the tem- 
perature from the fresh atmosphere, I could tell 
it from the butter-tin. 
I must not fail to tell you what real benefit I 
derive from having with me here a small petro- 
leum stove. Any of the same form we do not 
see in England, but they are in use in every 
household in the Dutch Indies. A lady can thus 
herself prepare any European delicacy she 
wishes for, — an effort not to be attempted over 
a hot fireplace. They are so neat as to be an 
ornament to a side-table in the dining-hall, and 
