ately
there were no large mirrors in the house. These birds look very pretty
perching in the trees, and this one became tame enough to be trusted out
of doors, but they are bad inmates.

We had also a chicken-yard for Alan's amusement, and great were our
difficulties in preserving the nests from rats, who ate the eggs. If we
placed the nests on a high shelf, these creatures managed to shove the
eggs out of the nests so that they fell broken on the floor all ready
for their supper. At last we circumvented them by slinging the nests by
long rattans from the roof.

At five o'clock another short service took place in church. In the
evening we read aloud to one another, while the rest sewed or drew.

This tranquil, even monotonous life was very much to my taste in my
husband's absence, but after a few weeks it was disturbed by sad trials.
First, the chaplain had a sunstroke, and fell out with the climate, the
place, and some members of our little society; so he went to Singapore,
and from thence to England. When we were recovering from this blow, and
had again settled down into our usual ways, a worse trial befell me.

One morning Miss J---- did not appear at early breakfast, and little
Mary, who waited upon her in her room, said she was sound asleep and did
not wake when she opened the shutters. I thought nothing of it at first,
for Miss J---- sometimes sat up late at night; but an hour afterwards, I
went into her room and looked at her. Her breathing was so laboured I
thought she was in a fit; and first I tried to put leeches on her
temples, but they would not bite, and we resolved to carry her into the
fresh breeze in the verandah, for the air of the room seemed laden with
something close and stifling. When I threw back the covering of the bed,
I perceived that the veins of both arms had been cut, and a few drops
of blood stained her night-dress; also there was a small empty bottle in
the bed with "Laudanum" on its label. The terrible truth was
evident--she had taken poison and tried to bleed herself to death!
Probably the action of the laudanum prevented any flow of blood, yet the
few drops may have relieved the brain. The horror of this discovery
nearly deprived me of my senses; but there was no time for
lamentation--she was not dead, thank God, and all our efforts must be
used to restore her to life. We were very ignorant, but we did all we
could think of. There was no doctor to apply to, only the chemist who
serve