Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1878-02-20
AL, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1878

you you must begin right, so you fill up your
plate with 1t. Now the curry. IL looks like
gravy, only pretty thick. Mix it up, and
now for taste. Oh, how it burns Little
Nellie gasps, and puts IL back on her plate.
Charley grabs his tumbler of water. Tom
and the rest of us choke little, but swallow
it down, as the others do, but we don't eat
all there is on our plates. At first il seems
to burn all the way down, like mustard and
cayenne pepper. Ittastes good after all. There
is most delicious flavor TO IL that they say
comes from the cocoanut. You will like it
so well that you will soon get used TO the
pepper and mustard. Here is something TO
go with it. Ceylon apples call them the
banana, or plantain. They are not such
dry, tasteless things as you have seen in
America, that were picked when only half
grown. They are rich and delicious. You
will all like them, and we will always have
them on the table, even if we stay here for
fifty years. But, says Tom, do we not have
any meat 7 Oh yes, here it comes. 1t is
chicken-old hen, | think Tom will say.
Not much like the great fat Brahma fowls
that Tom said came from this country.
The biggest one you could find here is not
half as large as one of Toms Vermont
fowls. And how dry and tough it is But
we can't help that, it is the best we can give
you. Once in great while you may get
piece OF goat mutton, but not often. II
costs too much. No beef? asks Tom. No,
no beef. They have little cows aud oxen,
but their heather Bibles say they are very
sacred animals, and they will not let them
be killed if they can help it. II you should
get piece of one of them you wouldn't call
1T beef, for if mother should boil it all day
long it would not be any better food than
piece of one of Toms Vermont boots But
here come the good things. These are
Mangoes Great big plums, you think, tast-
ing something like plum, and something
like peach You have to learn how to eat
them, for the skin is tough, and they are
clingstones, and just full of Juice Oh what
laugh we had, that first time we tried 10
eat them. Not much like your idea of
missionaries, was it But never mind some
missionaries are human beings. One of the
older missionaries rather stiff, dignified
man, undertook to teach us how to fix
mango. He held it on his plate on one end
and cut it off next to the stone, saving.
" First cut is drawn So" Then he told us
to turn it over. "Take hold of the stone
firmly, so, and then cut, So very carefully,
with your knife, close on the other side of
the how quickly he stopped, and o how
we all shouted when the mango slipped out
OF his fingers, and landed in lady's lap
over on the other side of the table But it
is good, at any rate, and when you see and
taste of the mangoes and pine-apples and
oranges and cocoanuts, you will think you
can live without the beef and pork, and the
sweet yams will be good for potatoes, and
the rice will make so many nice things that
you will not starve.
Dinner is over, and we will just rest. and
look around the house little, till night.
The house is large, built of coral stone, COW
cred over with white plaster. The rooms are
divided with stone walls, the roof covered
with earthen tiles, like tiower-pots with the
bottoms knocked out and then split in two,
lengthwise. The ceiling overhead is only
great palm-leaf mats. The windows are all
open, and most of them are full of iron bars
like prison windows. The rooms are large,
and very high. 1t isn't homelike at all
There is not much furniture in it. No nice
easy chairs, or sofas, like those in our Yer
mont parlors. A large, heavy study table, a
bookcase with close doors, and a few heavy
chairs. That little house in the yard is the
kitchen. 1t is hot enough without fire here,
and mother cannot do the cooking, even if
she would rather try to do it than to pay
man one dollar and eight cents month,
without board, TO do it for us all. He will
do it better than she could too, for there is
no stove in the country, and everything is to
be cooked in great iron kettle. That other
little house is the stable But brother Tom
cannot take care of the pony. His hay is to
be grass roots, dug fresh every day, and his
grain is boiled peas So we must hire boy
to do it, and always go with the pony, to
take care of him. He will cost us another
one dollar and half month.
Now it is night and we must rest. But
stop moment. Hark what is that noise
Cav cav cav" That is familiar
sound, isn't it ? A crow it must be. Yes,
and another, and another. Yes, they will cav
you to sleep, and in the night you'll wake up
and hear them, and in the morning they will
rouse you early.
viii tell you about them, and some other
birds and animals of Ceylon, in our next
letter. But now rest, like one who has come
out to this heather land to try to do some
thing for the dear Saviour.