All our personal intercourse has been of the good-natured sort.

It is the communications to the boys, by three men who are our protectors, or rather spies, that is disagreeable; I won't let them bring those fellows near me.
_10th February, 1867._--He came early in the morning, and I showed that I had no blanket, and he took the old one, and said that the affair was ended.

A long misunderstanding would have been avoided, had Abraham told me fully what the chief said at first.
_16th February, 1867._--The chief offered me a cow for a piece of red serge, and after a deal of talk and Chitapangwa swearing that no demand would be made after the bargain was concluded, I gave the serge, a cloth, and a few beads for a good fat cow.

The serge was two fathoms, a portion of that which Miss Coutts gave me when leaving England in 1858.
The chief is not so bad, as the boys are so cowardly.

They assume a chirping, piping tone of voice in speaking to him, and do not say what at last has to be said, because in their cringing souls they believe they know what should be said better than I do.