The government made a profit out of the garden as the surplus of its
products was sold daily for a fixed sum. There were such gardens at all
the stations and Emin exerted himself to supply the natives with seeds
of all kinds and instructions how to plant them so that they might have
the benefit of fruit and vegetables. He explained, however, that the
negroes were so easy-going and childlike by nature that he always had
trouble with them. They cultivated rice, coffee, cotton, and all the
products of Emin’s garden, but in spite of all his admonitions they
would never remember to retain seed corn. So, when the time came for
sowing, appeals for seed were made on all sides and the governor was
kept busy in sending for it. The negro had no anxiety for the coming
day, for “Father Emin” was in Lado. A visit was next made to the drug
department, from which a shaded walk led to the back of the garden,
where there were several cabins for the use of the sick. The walk was a
charming one, as it was shut off from the vegetable garden near by by
hedges of flowers.
They now reached a spot where the walk widened and Dr. Junker uttered an
exclamation of joyous surprise. A lovely picture was before him. Under a
canopy of blue and purple flowers and green vines sat a beautiful
Arabian woman upon cushions rocking a charming child upon her knees. It
was the little Ferida, Emin’s daughter, early bereft of her mother. She
greeted her father with a joyous outcry, took the outstretched hand of
the unknown guest in the most friendly manner, and gazed at him with
indescribably deep, dark, serious eyes. She was a solitary child,
without companions of her own age, without playthings or instruction,
who would have had plenty of companions in Europe. She had to be
carefully protected from the dangers of the tropical world, from snakes
and deadly scorpions, which frequently made their way into the house
through open windows. She could never leave the garden and go down to
the river, for beasts of prey, which they often heard howling not far
away, frequently attacked people and dragged them off. So Ferida had to
stay the whole day with her dark-skinned nurse, a tall woman in a
scarlet undergarment and white loose wrapper, eagerly waiting for the
evening hour when the father would have time to see his darling.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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