Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/140

114 sionaries do not live like the heathen, returning to Christian lands, spread reports often as foolish as they are false. Even our predecessor in Royapooram, though the very last person chargeable with caring for show or luxury, did not escape the imputation of self-indulgence. An American sea-captain, after dining with him, looking out from the verandah on the blooming flower-beds, exclaimed, “Ah! this is the way the modern St. Pauls live!” Would such persons be better satisfied were they to find the missionary seated on the floor of a mud hovel, and eating with his fingers from an earthen pot, in true Hindu style?

Housekeeping in India is in many respects a different thing from housekeeping in America. The activity and laboriousness habitual to dwellers in a temperate climate cannot be maintained by them when in a tropical country. New-comers are not commonly willing to believe this. Full of the vigour of their home constitution, and with the ardour of youth, they are slow to believe the "old Indians." They are tempted to waste on matters of minor importance the strength that should be husbanded for work that cannot be done by others. The Hindu can cook, wash, iron, and run on