The youngest, Ephy, is the brightest child for three years old that
I ever saw, but absolutely crazy about horses and mules. He talks
of little else, and is constantly asking me to draw horses on his
slate. He is a merry, audacious little creature, but came in this
evening quite subdued. The sun was setting gloriously behind the
forest-covered slopes, flooding the violet distances with a haze of
gold, and, in a low voice, he said, "I've seen God."
There is the usual Chinese cook, who cooks and waits and looks good-
natured, and of course has his own horse, and his wife, a most
minute Chinese woman, comes in and attends to the rooms and to Mrs.
A., and sews and mends. She wears her native dress--a large, stiff,
flat cane hat, like a tray, fastened firmly on or to her head; a
scanty loose frock of blue denim down to her knees, wide trousers of
the same down to her ancles, and slippers. Her hair is knotted up;
she always wears silver armlets, and would not be seen without the
hat for anything. There is not a bell in this or any house on the
islands, and the bother of servants is hardly known, for the
Chinamen do their work like automatons, and disappear at sunset. In
a land where there are no carpets, no fires, no dust, no hot water
needed, no windows to open and shut--for they are always open--no
further service is really required.
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