When we left on furlough the same men, and a dozen of others, carried my wife, our children, and myself to the coast, some 300 miles away from their own homes! They were among the last with whom I shook hands as I stepped into the boat. They were a lot of fine fellows, who carried me thousands of miles, did many a good day’s work for me, and many a kindness; but they had just gone a little stupid for the time, and needed to be shown their folly, and how their principles cut both ways, and then they came to their senses again. Once, while I was away up in the capital, my wife slipped and fell from top to bottom of the stairs. She was lifted by the servants, carried upstairs, and laid on her bed. About midnight she felt as if she was about to be ill, and, in her then delicate condition, she feared what the consequences might be if she really took ill while by herself, and so sent to the village to inform Razàka of her state, and ask him to send to the capital to call me home. He sent off two men at midnight for me. When the news reached me in the capital, I called my bearers, told them what had happened, how Madama was, and that we must start off home at once. They said, ‘We can’t reach Fìhàonana to-night, sir, with only eight bearers. ‘Well,’ I answered, ‘get other four, or even other eight; but we must get to Fìhàonana by dark.’ We started with sixteen bearers, ran the whole forty miles, and did the journey in seven hours! Twelve of the bearers broke down, and had to be left at villages on the way, to come on next day, and the four bearers who carried me in were Fìhàonana men. I gave all double pay and a present, and these four an extra present. It was the quickest journey I had ever taken, and yet it was the longest; for I feared what awaited me at the end--possibly a dead wife and child. Through God’s goodness I found her better than she was when she sent for me. She had lain where she had been placed for thirty-two hours, which probably saved her.