church about eleven o'clock. We were received with
expressions of great joy. Mrs. Manoela was so happy over our coming
that she embraced us in true Brazilian style. We were shown into our
room, where we refreshed ourselves by brushing off the dust and
bathing. How spick and span clean was everything in that room, even to
the dirt floor!

Before we had completed our ablutions, the good woman of the house
called Maddox out and asked what she could cook for me. She thought I
could not eat Brazilian dishes. He told her, to her great relief, that
I could eat anything he could. Quite right he was, too, for we had been
traveling all the morning on the sustenance furnished by a cup of
coffee which we had taken at the Rio station a little before six
o'clock. We were in possession of an appetite by this time that would
have raised very few questions about any article of food.

Soon we were seated at the breakfast table, which was placed in the
church room with benches around it for seats. I was honored by being
placed at one end of the table. What a meal it was! Not only had Mrs.
Manoela taxed her own larder, but the other members, who by this time
had arrived in large numbers, had brought in many good things. I cannot
tell what the dishes were, for the reason that I do not know. It is
sufficient to say that every one was good--perhaps our appetite helped
out our appreciation of some of them. There were as many as eight
dishes the like of which I had never tasted before. How do you suppose
I managed it when they served some delicious cane molasses, and,
instead of bread to go with it, they served cream cheese? I asked
Maddox how I should work this combination. He replied by cutting up his
cheese into his plate of molasses and eating the mixture. I did the
same thing, and I bear testimony that it was fine. By the time the
breakfast was concluded, I had scored a point with our good friends,
for they thought that a stranger who could render such a good account
of himself at a Brazilian breakfast must be very much like themselves.
(Let us explain about Brazilian meals: They take coffee in the early
morning. Bread and butter is served with the coffee. Breakfast, which
is a very substantial meal, is served about eleven o'clock. Dinner,
which is the chief meal of the day, is served about five o'clock in the
afternoon. At bedtime light refreshments are served, which are often
substantial enough to make another meal).

After breakfast