Pioneers and Founders: or, Recent Workers in the Mission fieldYonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
History
Pioneers and Founders: or, Recent Workers in the Mission field
Yonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
Missionaries
Unluckily, too, Mr. Martyn in his politeness suddenly recollected that
Mrs. Sherwood had expressed a liking for certain mutton patties, and
ordered them to be brought, in a bachelor's entire oblivion whether any
mutton was procurable otherwise than by killing a sheep: and the delay
forced the guests to continue to sit on the platform in the dark, with
the voices and languages making too great a Babel for the night-enjoyment
sometimes so valued, when Mr. Martyn would show Mrs. Sherwood our own
Pole Star just above the horizon, or watch the new moon "looking like a
ball of ebony in a silver cup." At last the patties were ready, and Mr.
Martyn handed Mrs. Sherwood to a seat by him at the top of the table,
while Sabat perched himself cross-legged upon a chair at the bottom.
The good chaplain's simplicity seems to have been a great amusement to
the Sherwoods. Late one evening he quietly observed, "The coolie does
not come with my money: I was thinking this morning how rich I should be,
and now I should not wonder in the least if he has run off and taken my
treasure with him." Thereupon it turned out that, not having drawn his
pay for some time, he had sent a note to the collector at Cawnpore,
asking that the amount should be forwarded by the bearer, a common
coolie. It was all paid in silver, tied up in cotton bags, and no one
expected that he would ever see it; however, the coolie arrived safely
with it a little later. Another time, when each household had ordered a
pineapple cheese, it was observed that the fissures in the two were
marvellously similar; and at last it was discovered that the servants,
though paid for two cheeses, made one do duty for both, appearing in turn
at the two tables, which was the easier as Mr. Martyn supped on limes and
other fruits, and only produced his cheese when the Sherwoods came to
supper. He heeded little but his immediate thoughts, and, when he drove
out in his gig, went on with his disquisitions on language and
pronunciation, utterly unheeding what his horse was about.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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