alians to produce something better than their
"dampers", is to make a good fire on a level piece of ground, and,
when the ground is thoroughly heated, place the dough in a small,
short-handled frying-pan, or simply on the hot ashes; invert any sort of
metal pot over it, draw the ashes around, and then make a small fire
on the top. Dough, mixed with a little leaven from a former baking, and
allowed to stand an hour or two in the sun, will by this process become
excellent bread.

We made our own butter, a jar serving as a churn; and our own candles
by means of moulds; and soap was procured from the ashes of the plant
salsola, or from wood-ashes, which in Africa contain so little alkaline
matter that the boiling of successive leys has to be continued for
a month or six weeks before the fat is saponified. There is not much
hardship in being almost entirely dependent on ourselves; there is
something of the feeling which must have animated Alexander Selkirk on
seeing conveniences springing up before him from his own ingenuity; and
married life is all the sweeter when so many comforts emanate directly
from the thrifty striving housewife's hands.

To some it may appear quite a romantic mode of life; it is one of active
benevolence, such as the good may enjoy at home. Take a single day as
a sample of the whole. We rose early, because, however hot the day may
have been, the evening, night, and morning at Kolobeng were deliciously
refreshing; cool is not the word, where you have neither an increase of
cold nor heat to desire, and where you can sit out till midnight with no
fear of coughs or rheumatism. After family worship and breakfast between
six and seven, we went to keep school for all who would attend--men,
women, and children being all invited. School over at eleven o'clock,
while the missionary's wife was occupied in domestic matters, the
missionary himself had some manual labor as a smith, carpenter, or
gardener, according to whatever was needed for ourselves or for the
people; if for the latter, they worked for us in the garden, or at some
other employment; skilled labor was thus exchanged for the unskilled.
After dinner and an hour's rest, the wife attended her infant-school,
which the young, who were left by their parents entirely to their own
caprice, liked amazingly, and generally mustered a hundred strong; or
she varied that with a sewing-school, having classes of girls to learn
the art; this, too, was equally well