Dorcas, however, stuck to her point, and enforced
it by a domestic example, adding that the creatures which in polite
society are called "bed-pests," that haunted the straw of the huts,
tormented her while Tabitha never had so much as a single bite.
The end of it was that the matter of mission-house _versus_ huts was
referred to the Bishop for his opinion. As the teeth of his Lordship
were chattering with ague resulting, he knew full well, from the fever
he had contracted in the said huts, Dorcas found in him a most valuable
ally. He agreed that a mission-house ought to be built before the school
or anything else, and suggested that it should be placed in a higher
and better situation, above the mists that rose from the river and the
height to which mosquitoes fly.
Bowing to the judgment of his superior, which really he heard with
gratitude, although in his zeal and unselfishness he would have
postponed his own comfort and that of his family till other duties had
been fulfilled, Thomas replied that he knew only one such place which
would be near enough to the Chief's town. It was on the koppie itself,
about fifty feet above the level of and overhanging the river, where he
had noted there was always a breeze, even on the hottest day, since the
conformation of this hill seemed to induce an unceasing draught of air.
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