cared to the last degree, and
abjectly anxious to please if it does not entail too much exertion.
He is, as it were, apprenticed to us for three years. We are bound to
feed and clothe and doctor him, and he is to work for us, in his own
lazy fashion, for small wages. The first time Jack broke a plate his
terror and despair were quite edifying to behold. Madame called him
a "maladroit" on the spot. Jack learned this word, and after his work
was over seated himself gravely on the ground with the fragments of
the plate, which he tried to join together, but gave up the attempt at
last, announcing in his own tongue that it was "dead." After a little
consideration he said slowly, several times, "Maldraw, ja," and hit
himself a good thump at each "ja." _Now_, I grieve to say, Jack
breaks plates, dishes and cups with a perfectly easy and unembarrassed
conscience, and is already far too civilized to care in the least for
his misfortunes in that line. Whenever a fowl is killed--and I came
upon Jack slowly putting one to death the other day with a pair of
nail-scissors--he possesses himself of a small store of feathers,
which he wears tastefully placed over his left ear. A gay ribbon, worn
like a bandeau across the forehead, is what he really loves. Jack
is very proud of a tawdry ribbon of many colors with a golden ground
which I found for him the other day, only he never can make up his
mind where to wear it; and I often come upon him sitting in the shade
with the ribbon in his hands, gravely considering the question.

The Pickle and plague of the establishment, however, is the boy Tom,
a grinning young savage fresh from his kraal, up to any amount
of mischief, who in an evil hour has been engaged as the baby's
body-servant. I cannot trust him with the child out of my sight for a
moment, for he "snuffs" enormously, and smokes coarse tobacco out of
a cow's horn, and is anxious to teach the baby both these
accomplishments. Tom wears his snuff-box--which is a brass cylinder
a couple of inches long--in either ear impartially, there being huge
slits in the cartilage for the purpose, and the baby never rests till
he gets possession of it and sneezes himself nearly into fits. Tom
likes nursing Baby immensely, and croons to him in a strange buzzing
way which lulls him to sleep invariably. He is very anxious, however,
to acquire some words of English, and I was much startled the other
day to hear in the verandah my own voice saying, "What