Luebo, Nov. 1, 1921
Dear Mother & Daddy,
Here we are at the beginning of another month. The months have surely been slipping away. Of course, the months don't have the same significance to us out here as they do there, for Christmas and Thanksgiving don't hold such a place. The epoches that stand out in our year are the unusual and unexpected events. Perhaps the Annual Mission Meeting is our most important event, and this is to be held the latter part of this month. We have representatives from all the other stations; then the Meeting is not always held at Luebo. It will probably be held at Lusambo next year.
We had quite an exciting event to take place here yesterday. Last Friday night a leopard was shot by a trap which Mr. Cleveland set with a gun, at our farm which is about three miles from our station. He had fixed a gun in the trap so that he would be shot by stepping on the trigger. It went off and evidently struck him, for they could see where he dragged himself away from the trap. So Saturday afternoon, Cleveland went down with some men to hunt for him. He came upon him suddenly, and the leopard made a charge for him but failed to attack him. However, they did not hunt him anymore that day. So yesterday several of us went down to hunt for him and after quite a bit of searching, we found him dead from the wound which the gun in the trap inflicted. While Cleveland had a narrow escape on Saturday when the leopard made for him, it was the fact that he was mortally wounded that saved Cleveland from a struggle with him, for the leopard must have been near death at the time Cleveland saw him. So we got him and brought him up to the station, and the natives certainly made a racket over him. Unfortunately, he had been dead so long that a good part of his skin is bad, the wound having decayed and the skin is bad on both of his lower limbs. The natives have all kinds of superstitions in connection with leopards, and some of them wouldn't dare to touch the dead leopard for fear some calamity would befall them. Some believe that a leopard is the departed spirit of some man.
I don't know whether we have ever told you that the city of Luebo has a banking institution, "The Bank of Congo Belge," of course, a Belgian bank. This is quite a help to us in our finances. One of the bankers is very fond of tennis and comes over quite often to play tennis with us, and we return the visit over to the other side of the bank (for it is situated on the other side of the river.) Last week, Dorothy and I had two of them over to tea. However, as they do not speak much English, Dorothy didn't have very much fun talking to them. Another banker who left recently spoke very good English, and we liked him very much; we had him and his colleague over to dinner one evening just before he left.
Up until a few weeks ago, the floor of our kitchen was brick, and as they were rather soft, they wore very much, making it very difficult to keep it clean. A few weeks ago we had a cement floor put in, which makes it easy to keep spick and span. Then we had shelves put into the walls for cupboards, etc., so that now we have nothing resting on the floor under which dust and dirt can collect. This certainly has made it much easier for Dorothy to have the kitchen properly cleaned. And with our new stove, about which we have written you, we have a right neat appearing kitchen--which is saying a great deal out in this country, for you can imagine how hard it would be to keep a kitchen with a dirt floor looking tidy.
Our chickens, the little chicks, have not been doing so well, or rather we are not able to raise but a very small per cent. However, we are still pegging away with them, and get quite a lot of pleasure from them. Our pigeons are doing only moderately, but we are going to build a better house for them, and hope to be having plenty of them to eat within six or eight months. Our two little monkeys are still lively, and playful and frisky.
We are expecting some letters from you any day, as it has been sometime since the last mail and a boat is due soon.
Goodbye.
With love,
B.M.
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