"Jacky!" said Mrs. Warner sternly.
Jacky rolled his eyes and said nothing. Possibly from his point of view, there was nothing to say.
"No baccy for you this week," said his mistress. "I tell boss, too; very like he send you back alonga camp."
"No, missis—I not go back alonga camp!" cried Jacky. "I be good boy!"
"Then you not steal again! I give you one chance," said Mrs. Warner. "Now you go work in garden."
Jacky withdrew, crestfallen, and Mrs. Warner proceeded to deal with each native in turn, giving instructions, seeing, where necessary, to the weighing out of supplies; and, so far as possible, guarding against any chances of household matters going wrong.
"Of course, they do go wrong," she remarked, as the last lubra left the verandah. "No matter how careful one may be there is always to be taken into consideration the airy nature of the black. You can't count on them; however contented and docile they may sometimes seem, they will always yield to the merest impulse—to steal anything that takes their fancy, to drop any job they may be at, generally at the most inconvenient moment, or to clear out altogether to the tribe. I have known my best housemaid leave a room half-scrubbed, bucket and brush in the middle of the floor, and be found up to her armpits in the lagoon looking for lily pods!"
"It must lend great variety to housekeeping," said Mrs. Lester, laughing.
"It does. Of course, it's funny enough—one is always laughing at them—but it can be rather awful as well. I had some bad times before I got Mrs. Macleay as second in command." Her eye fell on her daughter. "Oh, there you are, Merle. Take Dick round the place—Mrs. Lester and I are having a morning indoors."
"All right," said Merle.