Indeed why, with their ample means, should they be
condemned to perpetual exile in these barbarous places? Was there not
plenty of work to be done at home, where they might make friends and
live decently?
Putting herself and her own wishes aside, this existence was not fair to
Tabitha, who, as she saw, watching her with a mother's eye, was becoming
impregnated with the native atmosphere. She who ought to be at a
Christian school now talked more Zulu than she did English, and was
beginning to look at things from the Zulu point of view and to use their
idioms and metaphors even when speaking her own tongue. She had become
a kind of little chieftainess among these folk, also, Christian and
heathen alike. Indeed, now most of them spoke of her as the Maiden
_Inkosikazi_, or Chieftainess, and accepted her slightest wish or order
as law, which was by no means the case where Dorcas herself and even
Thomas were concerned.
In fact, one or twice they had been driven to make a request through
the child, notably upon an important occasion that had to do with the
transport-riding of their furniture, to avoid its being left for a
couple of months on the farther side of a flooded river. The details
do not matter, but what happened was that when Tabitha intervened
that which had been declared to be impossible proved possible, and the
furniture arrived with wonderful celerity.
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