Page:A Study in Colour - Augusta Zelia Fraser.pdf/27

16 Suddenly she heard a gay "Marning, Missus."

She looked around, and there, on the other side of the red pinquin spears, she saw a flash of crimson.

A tall, well-made brown girl was standing at the door of one of the low palm-thatched huts.

She nodded and smiled again and again. Her white teeth glittered in the morning light.

She was a handsome creature in her own style, and she seemed to know it. A pure blooded Sambo, her soft, smooth skin was of the tint of a well-ripened hazelnut. Her dress was straight and long, and of bright red calico, and her well-poised head was tied with a check handkerchief, in which the same hue predominated. She wore a blue bead necklace round her throat. Taking her as a whole, she matched the tall flamboyant tree very well, and her presence gave the final touch of colour to the picture. "Marning, Missus," she called once more, and the Missus accordingly stopped, and they had some conversation.

On the Missus admiring her red dress, she laughed again, and all the other coloured women, who had paused to listen to their talk, laughed shrilly too.