78 HUNTING IN THE JUNGLE. 



natural gluttony, and once when he had been called upon 

 for this service he was still gorging himself with the 

 rarest grapes as he brought in his master's fruit-dish 

 filled with pineapples and bananas from which he had 

 stolen them. Sometimes, indeed, when he was not being 

 watched, he would walk off with the whole dish, hiding 

 it in his bamboo hut that had been built for him in the 

 court-yard, and coming back into the dining-room, now 

 and then licking his chops over some of his plunder. 

 This ceased to be amusing when, instead of taking native 

 fruits that could be easily replaced, he stole a magnificent 

 basket of apples and pears that had been sent his master 

 from France for a dinner party. The loss was not discov- 

 ered till the day after the fruit's arrival, when only an 

 empty basket remained in the hut to prove the thief. 

 I suffered myself from the rascal's gluttony, in a way 

 which did his cleverness so much credit that I must 

 tell it. I was in the habit of taking every morning at 

 daybreak a cup of very strong black coffee and a sand- 

 wich, which my own favorite man always laid on a table 

 at the head of my bed, and then turning over for another 

 nap in the cool of the morning, which, in that climate, 

 follows the oppressive heat of the night. I always heard 

 m}'- faithful Thursday, who was still with me, come in 

 and leave the cup where I could reach it, and I had 

 become so used to the operation that, without opening 

 my eyes, I would after a little while stretch out my 

 hand mechanically and get the fragrant draught, almost 



