Crimson hibiscus, creepers, oleanders, and all sorts. A
man is best known by his actions, and Mine Host best understood by his
kindly thoughtfulness.
The store was soon full to overflowing, and so was our one room, for
everything ordered for the house had arrived - rolls of calico heavy and
unbleached, mosquito netting, blue matting for the floors, washstand
ware, cups and saucers, and dozens of smaller necessities piled in every
corner of the room.
"There won't be many idle hands round these parts for a while," a
traveller said, looking round the congested room, and he was right, for
having no sewing machine, a gigantic hand-sewing contract was to be
faced. The ceilings of both rooms were to be calico, and a dozen or so of
seams were to be oversewn for that, the strips of matting were to be
joined together and bound into squares, and after that a herculean task
undertaken: the making of a huge mosquito-netted dining-room, large
enough to enclose the table and chairs, so as to ensure our meals in
comfort - for the flies, like the poor, were to be with us always.
This net was to be nearly ten feet square and twelve high, with a calico
roof of its own drawn taut to the ceiling of the room, and walls of
mosquito netting, weighted at the foot with a deep fold of calico, and
falling from ceiling to floor, with a wide double overlapping curtain for
a doorway. Imagine an immense four-poster bed-net, ten by ten by twelve,
swung taut within a larger room, and a fair idea of the dining-net will
have been formed. A room within a room, and within the inner room we
hoped to find a paradise at mealtime in comparison to the purgatory of
the last few months.
But the sewing did not end at that. The lubras' methods of washing had
proved most disastrous to my meagre wardrobe; and the resources of the
homestead were taxed to the utmost to provide sufficient patching
material to keep the missus even decently clothed.
"Wait for the waggons," the Maluka sang cheerily every time he found me
hunting in the store (unbleached calico or mosquito netting being
unsuitable for patching).
Cheon openly disapproved of this state of affairs, and was inclined to
blame the Maluka. A good husband usually provides his wife with
sufficient clothing, he insinuated; but when he heard that further
supplies were on the bullock waggons, he apologised, and as he waddled
about kept one ear cocked to catch the first sound of the bullock bells.
"Bullocky jump four miles," he informed us; from which we inferred that
the sound of the bells would travel four miles.
