In Afric’s Forest and Jungle 
nified apology to me and also to assure the con¬ 
verts that he meant them no harm. 
About noon while 1 was walking the piazza, 
he entered the gate with some attendants and, 
coming into the piazza, threw one of his arms 
across my shoulder and walked up and down 
with me for sometime, talking about the hard 
time he was having on account of the war, his 
friendship for the white people who had lived in 
that house, and the way he had protected them in 
all their troubles. He then hinted that some re¬ 
turn for all this kindness on his part would be 
proper and acceptable. On this new tack, the 
wily old diplomat completely captured me, and 
if it had been in my power, I would have given 
him anything in reason. But I had nothing to 
lend or give away without taking the bread out 
of the children’s mouths, and when I succeeded 
in convincing him of this fact, he went away 
seemingly satisfied. 
A short time after this, however, the old fox 
made me feel his displeasure in a case of litiga¬ 
tion before him. One of the converts was guar¬ 
dian for his little niece and, with the mother’s con¬ 
sent, gave me the child to educate. 1 did not 
accept the trust until the guarantees were given 
which the native law provides, that the child 
256 
