girls whom she finds congregated there. There is no doubt, also, that the games of marbles, with which the small fry of male water-carriers occupy themselves till the claims of first-comers to the well have been satisfied, are protracted to a much greater length than any outsiders would consider necessary.
A curious anecdote, that illustrated both the scarcity of water and the distance that people sometimes walk to fetch it, was told me by a friend. In making a long journey, to a remote part of the colony, night had overtaken her party before reaching any watering-place that was known to them, and, with the prospect of many hours of thirst, more wearisome to bear because shared with her by her child, she was sitting sadly in her tent door when there suddenly emerged from the trees a woman and girl carrying each a bucket. My friend had come so far without meeting a living soul that this unexpected apparition, in the dim light, of two persons going about their ordinary business made her scream with surprise, and perhaps she mentally compared the incident to that of an angel's visit when the strangers showed her a spring at no great distance, whither they were on their way to fetch water, having already walked two miles from their own home.
It is not always the absolute non-existence of water near a person's own dwelling that necessitates so much labour, since often, in digging a well for the supply of the house, only salt springs are found at first, and in this case drinking water, at all events, has to be procured from elsewhere, either in perpetuity or until better luck attends the well-sinker.
One of my friends told me that for some time she and
