ans.

There is the house, upper story. Our weak point is of course the sides
AB, AH; so we propose to place half our garrison in the space HGFD and
half in the opposite corner, BB'CD. We shall communicate through the
interior, there is a water-tank in the angle C, my mother and Austin are
to go in the loft. The holding of only these two corners and deserting
the corner C' is for economy and communication, two doors being in the
sides GF and CD; so that any one in the corner C' could only communicate
or be reinforced by exposure. Besides we are short of mattresses.
Garrison: R. L. S., Lloyd, Fanny, King, Ratke--doubtful, he may
go--Emma, Mary, Belle; weapons: eight revolvers and a shot gun, and
swords galore; but we're pretty far gone when we come to the swords. It
has been rather a lark arranging; but I find it a bore to write, and I
doubt it will be cruel stale to read about, when all's over and done, as
it will be ere this goes, I fancy: far more ere it reaches you.

_Date unknown._--Well, nothing as yet, though I don't swear by it yet.
There has been a lot of trouble, and there still is a lot of doubt as to
the future; and those who sit in the chief seats, who are all excellent,
pleasant creatures, are not, perhaps, the most wise of mankind. They
actually proposed to kidnap and deport Mataafa; a scheme which would
have loosed the avalanche at once. But some human being interfered and
choked off this pleasing scheme. You ask me in yours just received, what
will become of us if it comes to a war? Well, if it is a war of the old
sort, nothing. It will mean a little bother, and a great deal of theft,
and more amusement. But if it comes to the massacre lark, I can only
answer with the Bell of Old Bow. You are to understand that, in my
reading of the native character, every day that passes is a solid gain.
They put in the time public speaking; so wear out their energy, develop
points of difference and exacerbate internal ill-feeling. Consequently,
I feel less apprehension of difficulty now, by about a hundredfold. All
that I stick to, is that if war begins, there are ten chances to one we
shall have it bad. The natives have been scurvily used by all the white
powers without exception; and they labour under the belief, of which
they can't be cured, that they defeated Germany. This makes an awkward
complication.

I was extremely vexed to hear you were ill again. I hope you are better.
'Tis a long time we have known each ot