Part 15 (1/2)

Then they had their first quarrel, in the course of which, be it ads For instance, she suggested that the real reason he wished to go abroad was because he was so unpopular with his brother clergymen at home, and especially with his superiors, to who lectures and reproofs

It ended, of course, in her being crushed as flat as is a broken-winged butterfly that coarden roller He stood up and towered over her

”Dorcas,” he said, ”do what you will Stay here if you wish, and enjoy your money and your luxuries I sail on the first of next month for Africa Because you are weak, do I cease to be strong?”

”I think not,” she replied, sobbing, and gave in

So they sailed, first class--this was a concession, for he had intended to go third--but without a nurse; on that point he stood firm

”You must learn to look after your own children,” he said, a remark at which she made a little face that meant more than he knew

II

The career of Mr and Mrs Bull during the next eight years calls for but little comment Partly because Tabitha was delicate at first and must be within reach of doctors, they lived for the most part at various coast cities in Africa, where Tho languages which he learned to speak with considerable perfection, though Dorcas never did, and acquainting hihly with the local conditions in so far as they affectedelse, not even in the history of the natives, or their peculiar forms of culture, since for the most part they have a secret culture of their own All that was done with, he said, a turned page of the black and barbarous past; it was his business to write new things upon a new sheet Perhaps it was for this reason that Thomas Bull never really came to understand or enter into the heart of a Zulu, or a Basuto, or a Swahili, or indeed of any dark-skinned man, woman, or child To hi, desperate and disagreeable sinners who must be saved, and he set to work to save theh her vocabulary was still extreot on much better with them

”You know, Thomas,” she would say, ”they have all sorts of fine ideas which we don't understand, and are not so bad in their way, only you must find out what their way is”

”I have found out,” he said grimly; ”it is a very evil way, the way of destruction I wish you would not irl who tells me a lie once out of every three times she opens her mouth”

For the rest Dorcas was fairly comfortable, as with their means she was always able to have a nice house in whatever town they ive tennis parties and even little lunches and dinners, that is if her husband chanced to be away, as often he was visiting up-country districts, or taking the duty there for another missionary as sick or on leave Indeed, in these conditions she came to like Africa fairly well, for she was a chilly little thing who loved its aoodmen, to whom her helplessness and rather forlorn little face appealed

The women, too, liked her, for she was kindly and always ready to help in case of poverty or other distresses Luckily, in a way, she was her own mistress, since her fortune cae settlements; moreover, it was in the hands of trustees, so that the principal could not be alienated Therefore she had her own account and her own cheque-book and used her spare money as she liked More than one poor h her bounty they once again looked upon the shores of England or were able to send a sick child hoood deeds Dorcas never talked, least of all to her husband If he suspected them, after one encounter upon soth and purpose, he had the sense to res went on for years, not unhappily on the whole, for as they rolled by the child Tabitha grew acclih Dorcas loved her husband as all wives should, obeying hinise that he and she were very differently constituted Of course, she knew that he was infinitely her superior, and indeed that of htness, his fixity of purpose and his devouring energy and believed his

Still, to tell the truth, which she often confessed with penitence upon her knees, on the whole she felt happier, or at any ratehis occasional absences to which allusion has been e in hu called ”worldly”

It only reirl Tabitha, a name she shortened into Tabbie, was her constant joy, especially as she had no other children Tabbie was a bright, fair-haired little thing, clever, too, with resource and a will of her own, an improved edition of herself, but in every way utterly unlike her father, a fact that secretly annoyed him Everybody loved Tabitha, and Tabitha loved everybody, not excepting the natives, who adored her Between the Kaffirs and Tabitha there was so natural bond of syth came the blow

It happened thus Not far frouely known as Portuguese Territory, was a certain tribe of mixed Zulu and Basuto blood ere called the Ama-Sisa, that is, the People of the Sisa Now ”Sisa” in the Zulu tongue has a peculiarwhich may be translated as ”Sent Away” It is said that they acquired this nas when they exercised do large herds of the royal cattle to be looked after by these people, or in their own idiolish of stock that are entrusted to another to graze at a distance froave another reason In the territory of this tribe was a certain spot of which we shall hear s were in the habit of causing offenders against their law or customs to be executed Such also, like the cattle, were ”sent away,”

and from one of these two causes, whichever it inally derived its nae tribe, perhaps there were three hundred and fifty heads of fa under two thousand souls in all, descendants, probably, of a , industrious Basuto stock on to which had been grafted a certain number of the dominant, warlike Zulus who perhaps had killed out the men and possessed themselves of the Basuto wo this small people there were two strains, one of the bellicose type, who practically reressive Basuto sta these Sisas missionaries had been at work for a number of years, with results that on the whole were satisfactory More than half of them had been baptised and were Christians of a sort; a church had been built; a riculture had been introduced, and theto sex Recently, however, trouble had arisen over the old question of polygamy The missionaries would not tolerate more than one wife, while the Zulu section of the tribe insisted upon the old prerogative of plurallike actual fighting, in the course of which the church and the school were burnt, also the missionary's house Because of these troubles this excellent man was forced to ca a chill, died suddenly of heart-failure following rheumatic fever just after he had moved into his new habitation, which consisted of solorified native huts

Subsequently to these events there came a petition from the chief of the tribe, a man called Kosa, whose name probably derived from the Zulu word Koos, which means chief or captain, addressed to the Church authorities and asking that a new Teacher ht be sent to take the place of him who had died, also to rebuild the church and the school If this were not done, said the ers, the tribe would relapse into heathenism, since the Zulu and anti-Christian party headed by an old witch-doctor, naround

This was an appeal that could not be neglected, since hitherto the Sisa had been a spot of light in a dark place, aspeoples, ere of the old Zulu stock, reht went out the chances were that they would continue to be so, whereas if it went on burning another result reat fire may come Therefore earnest search was made for a suitable person to deal with so difficult and delicate a situation, with the result that the lot fell upon the Rev Thomas Bull

Once his name was mentioned, it was acclaimed by all He was the very man, they said, bold, deterh it need scarcely be explained that he hated Jesuits as a cat does mustard), one who blessed with this world's goods would ask no pay, but on the contrary would perhaps contribute a handso of the church This, it may be explained, as the Mission itself scarcely possessed a spare penny hich to bless itself, was a point that could not be overlooked

So Thomas was sent for and offered the post, after its difficulties and drawbacks had been fairly but diplomatically explained to him He did not hesitate a minute, or at any rate fivethat his call had co for which he had been seeking Up in that secluded spot in Portuguese Territory he would, he reflected, be entirely on his own, a sort of little bishop with no one to interfere with hi, which in ions he found he could not do Here a set of older gentle to their experience of natives, continually put a spoke into his wheel, bringing his boldest plans to naught There it would be different