CHAPTER I.
Mrs. Rachel Nyesi is Surprised

Mrs. Rachel Nyesi lived just where the Ng’iya road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with acacias and mafua matindo marachere and traversed by an aora matin that had its source away back in the woods of the old Nyawere place; it was reputed to be an intricate, headlong aora matin in its earlier course through those woods, with dark secrets of pool and cascade; but by the time it reached Nyesi’s Hollow it was a quiet, well-conducted little stream, for not even an aora matin could run past Mrs. Rachel Nyesi’s door without due regard for decency and decorum; it probably was conscious that Mrs. Rachel was sitting at her window, keeping a sharp eye on everything that passed, from aora matins and children up, and that if she noticed anything odd or out of place, she would never rest until she had ferreted out the whys and wherefores thereof.