The courier-index., 1920-03-19
A CHRISTMAS IN
 DARKEST AFRICA
REV. GEO. M'KEE, SON OF CHAS- MKEE OF THIS CITY, WRITES ABOUT HOLIDAY cELEBRA- TON IN BELGIAN CONGO.

Chas Mckee, president of the Lee
 County National Bank, recently re-
 ceived two letters from his son,
 Rev. Geo. Mckee, who is a Presby-
 terian missionary in Belgian Con- 20, Agrica. One of the letters was written on December 23 and the other on December '25, Christmas day. Some of the interesting ex- tract from the letter of December 23, follow:
 sI saw nice fat duck being dressed this afternoon and I rather think shall meet him again on
 December 20. I cannot feel very enthusiastic about Christmas. 1t
 never seems like it out here to me.
 1 went down to my watermelon
 patch today and brought up three
 small ones, one of which had been
 nibbled on the end by a goat and was spoiled am still working on
 my house. We are hanging the doors now. They were made at Fuebo and carried through the
 rain and sunshine for 200 miles, so I find they are a bit warped, but still look pretty good. Am work ing on the kitchen and plastering on the inside of the big house, and aI- so farming bit-planting onions,
 Irish potatoes and watermelons. |
 intend to plant two or three acres
 in cotton if 1 can get some good seed from the states. They have an 'agronome' at Kahinda now and he is looking after the cotton busi- ness. They say it will do well in this district but it is so far from any transport. The railroad will pass two days march from here and should cause some immigration and colonizing here whenever it is com pleted. This country down here seems to be an ideal place for col onizing. It is high, level and very fertile, we'll adapted to cattle rais- ing and cultivation by tractor. My |six cocoanuts are growing rapidly also five date palms, coffee, lime, lemon and grapefruit trees. The
 Brazil nuts are also doing nicely. l now want some olive, prune, al- mond, English and other California and American fruits and nuts. We have two Logan berry bushes that are just going over the top of ev- erything. Also queer kind of small fruit called cape gooseberry,' tasting something like our own gooseberry. It is very prolific and is good eaten raw, stewed or made into jam or pie"
 In the letter written on Christ mas day Mir. Mckee says, in part:
 Christmas day! and now it is over. Elizabeth has at last taken her little hilarious self to bed and at last to sleep. She has had such good time today, and seemed to enjoy every moment of it, from the moment when she awakened and crept over to her stocking and cried, 'Oh, dollie, dollie, dollie,' in tones of ecstacy. Clean up to bed time she has been supremely happy Her Christmas this year was certainly a tame affair--a doll which came last year in the Christmas box from Martha and which was kept on pur- pose, a pair of round pointed scis- sors for cutting up paper dolls, some marbles, two paper-covered picture books and some colored CfdyOHo. put tHcnt III Htf AfifIStfu8S stocking were plenty. We had breakfast after Elizabeth got thru her stocking. then to church where we all made an offer ing, special Christmas offering
 Elsie, Elizabeth and I gave two female goats and one half grown male and we led these down and tied them outside the church door We had chosen five men, one of whom was a little boy, to make short talks as to their reason for being thankful. since our annual Christmas service is partly thanks giving service. had, in announe- ing this service several Sundays ago, minated that we should b. thankful for our preservation from the flu, SO every last one of the five men appointed to give thanks made the burden of his talk on our escape from the flu with an added word or two on personal restoration to health from other ailments on the part of several of them"