We had long felt the necessity of building larger houses, and had thought of various plans. Turf houses were suggested, but none of us had ever seen turf in this country. Bricks were next spoken of. But Dr. Macklin, learning that the earth of the ant-hills could be used for mortar, proposed to build with stone, and Mr. Buchanan in a very short time reared the walls of the first stone house that had been seen in this region. Its erection gave the mission a new standing altogether. The natives had been of opinion that in a short time we should become tired of them and go away like our predecessors. But when they saw that we no longer built _masakasa_, as they said the “Magomero Mission had also done,” they reasoned that we gave more promise of a permanent stay. Besides, the white people had children on whom many hopes were placed. Kapeni’s sister paid Mrs. Macdonald a visit of compliment on the birth of her son, and asked to see the white baby. She brought with her a little girl of about six years, and made some hints to the effect that she would like a marriage with the white people! She said the young Scotchman was a Yao child, and I replied that I had little doubt he would soon speak Yao. When asked whether she would leave the little girl for school, she said she would attend school with “_him_”! The natives, although afraid that their own children would not learn to read, never admitted the same doubts regarding the white child, who had the medicine of its fathers. By the end of this half-year I was able to converse with the natives sufficiently well to profit by their instructions in the language. From morning till noon and from noon till night, I kept noting down native words wherever I heard them, and I hired special teachers besides. Having realised from the beginning that the first work of a Missionary was to acquire the language of his people, I was daily discovering that the best way of mastering an unwritten tongue was to note down native tales. By this time I could write as follows:— “I am glad that I have advanced so far in the language as to have overcome the mere drudgery part. I now pay special attention to the idioms. From twelve noon till two every day I have a man engaged to give me stories, for which I pay him in handkerchiefs, needles, or soap. I write down these tales to dictation, and occasionally in shorthand. I believe that in a little I shall be able to utilise phonography in this language for private use, and thus save much time. The tense-sequence is more simple than I at first thought; the natives have a device like what Hebrew grammar has called the Waw consecutive. Thus, when they speak of the past, they put the first verb in the past indicative, while the rest of the verbs in the series are infinitives.