A WELCOME VISITOR. 57 



strolled down to the gate to meet the new comer. 



It proved to be Dr. S , a regimental surgeon, 



who, after twenty years' active service with his 

 regiment in different parts of India, had obtained 

 a year's leave of absence in order to recruit his 

 health, or rather, as he said, " to exhale some of 

 the superfluous caloric he had imbibed during that 

 period." Although previously unacquainted we 

 soon became friends, and, as our tastes appeared to 

 assimilate, before breakfast was finished it was 

 decided that he should join me in my shooting and 

 exploring trips among the mountains. He proved 

 to be an excellent companion and very well in- 

 formed upon most matters, being perfectly ac- 

 quainted with the use of barometers and other 

 instruments for ascertaining altitudes, which at a 

 future day proved very useful. At Dehra I was to 

 meet an old school-chum, from whom I had last 

 parted on board one of Green's Indiamen at 

 Gravesend more than a dozen years before, when 

 he was for the first time about to join his regiment, 

 in which he was now a captain. Never was there 

 a stancher friend, a merrier companion, or a better 



