Though we had a glazed door to our hut, the gloominess of the weather, and the obscurity caused by the vast boughs of the tree, made night come on early.

We then lighted a candle, fixed in a gourd on the table, round which we were all assembled.

The good mother laboured with her needle, mending the clothes; I wrote my journal, which Ernest copied, as he wrote a beautiful hand; while Fritz and Jack taught their young brother to read and write, or amused themselves with drawing the animals or plants they had been struck with.

We read the lessons from the Bible in turns, and concluded the evening with devotion.

We then retired to rest, content with ourselves and with our innocent and peaceful life.