"What do you think, John? ... Let’s get up and walk on to the garden gates, ... what do you think my Uncle Pardew is going to give us as a wedding present? A harmonium! Won’t that be nice? I shall take it out with me, and then when you teach the people to sing hymns—only you mustn’t teach them Ann Jamblin’s—I can play the accompaniments. And in the evenings when you are tired I shall try to play something that will soothe you. I have never tried the harmonium yet, but while you are away I mean to practise. It’s just like playing the piano, only you have to keep working the pedals with your feet, like a sewing-machine. Uncle Pardew would just as soon give us a piano, but I told him what you said about the climate being bad for them. So he settled that a harmonium would do better. I wonder what other wedding presents we shall get? I can tell to a certainty what your mother will give us." "What?" "Why, a very large Bible, bound in shiny brown leather like those in the waiting-rooms at railway stations, with a blue ribbon marker; and a dozen silver spoons. Six large and six small. I know she doesn’t consider me worthy of the spoons, but she is bound by custom. When she was married _her_ mother-in-law gave _her_ spoons.... And your father will give us a dinner-service and a gross of Sparkling Cider..." "I hope to goodness he doesn’t. The cost of transporting it up-country would be quite beyond my means. I shall tell him..." "And _my_ father," continued Lucy, "is going to give me a gold watch and chain. And mother, my own sweet little mother—what do you think she’s been working at, John?" "Can’t say, I’m sure." "Why, _all_ the house linen.... Sheets, pillow-cases, tablecloths, napkins, and such like. She has been getting them ready ever since I was first engaged.... John! You must be _very_ kind to me in Africa." "_Kind_ to you? Why, of course! Do you suppose I should be anything else?"