They left the village within half an hour, and no application was ever made to me for arrears of wages. Of course they spread false reports about me and my treatment of workmen. This led to a long delay before I could get carpenters to come from the capital to work for me; but, at last, I was so fortunate as to secure a little man who had something almost akin to genius for carpentry. He worked for me at various times for twenty-eight years. My troubles with these men were thus a blessing in disguise. Without them I should never have found my born carpenter Andrìantàvy. He was one of the pastors of a very small church in the neighbourhood of the capital, and a most trustworthy man. The Sabbath services were always the most helpful, whether at Fìhàonana or out in the district, as one had a sense of freedom and the feeling that nothing was being neglected in order that they might be held. The conduct of my bricklayers, and the want of carpenters for several weeks, ran me far too near the end of the dry season with my manse unroofed. Had the rains come on while it was roofless, my ceilings would have been brought down and the walls greatly damaged. As it was, we only escaped by two hours; for the thatching was finished at four o’clock, and at six we had the first rains of the season. In order to accomplish this, however, I had to hire forty men, and give up all other work to superintend them and see that the thatching was properly carried through under my own eye. Church and manse building, even in the mission field, is very prosaic work, with little of the rainbow of romance about it, but it has to be done. In our case it was a most serious undertaking, for we were 100 miles from the ‘forest,’ and all the wood had to be brought the whole distance, with the exception of some twenty miles, on the shoulders of men from there. The building of our manse was perhaps a more serious affair than it ought to have been. In addition to all the difficulties of the situation, I, in common with most missionaries, knew nothing about house-building. I had never had to do with the building of a house in my life, except a rabbit-hutch, when I was a lad, to which an old tea-chest lent itself. I knew a little about some branches of practical mechanics. This was of more use to me than much other knowledge to acquire which I had spent a good deal of time, and not a little ‘midnight oil’; but of house-building I was wholly ignorant. In the circumstances I had just to buckle to and make the best of things. If a man only does this he will be astonished to find what he may accomplish under God’s blessing.