_Monday, 26th July._--I reckoned without my host last night when I rashly permitted Agnes and Kate to cook for me this week at their own request. They made a tremendous fuss about it, but the rice came to table uncooked, and in such a small quantity that my breakfast was spoilt and the coffee was anything but good. However they did their best and I dare say to-morrow they will do all right. They were both wonderfully good, and not only washed up for me but gave my premises a good sweep as well. Poor Agnes, she is hideously lame, but she pretends to the liveliness of a kitten. The fence around the school is rather high and I watched her endeavours to get over with her lameness and her petticoats. She managed better than I expected, but I stood by in readiness to lend her a helping hand in case she fell. She comes back fully impressed with a sense of her importance and dignity after so many years absence, and her friends made a great deal of her. To-day she is off with the other women on some excursion or other, and is fully convinced that she is as active as any of them. Before long no doubt she will fancy herself useful and engaging enough to be the life partner of Tilegi, and to be the faithful companion of his joys and sorrows. She is an intelligent girl, and her long training at Norfolk Island ought to make her useful here. She is perfectly charmed with her home, and she sees very plainly the beneficial results produced by Christianity. When she left, she herself was among the few baptized, now she comes back to the bosom of a Christian community with a good church and school, daily Morning and Evening Prayers, and perfect harmony and good will among all men. She will miss little at home now of what she has grown accustomed to at Norfolk Island, and it must be a pleasant realization to her. The girls, too, with whom she will have daily association are all Christians, and she will be spared the shock and repulsion of heathen women’s talk and actions. Her father has died in the interval, a truly godly man in his life, and a believer at the time of his death.