HOW I KILLED THE TIGER. 21 



I now began gradually to recuperate; but after 

 another two months I was still in the same para- 

 lysed state. My feet were quite turned up, and 

 it was predicted that if I recovered I should be 

 a cripple. To relieve the intolerable lassitude and 

 tedium that I suffered from I amused myself with 

 carpentry. I got a carpenter to help me, and 

 made a reading apparatus to fix on my bedstead. 

 I then made an invalid couch that is I planned 

 it in my head, and marked out every piece of 

 wood for the guidance of the carpenter. The 

 couch turned into almost everything, even to a 

 most luxurious arm-chair; by the time it was 

 finished, I had sufficiently recovered to be carried 

 out on it into the compound. 1 then made a 

 table to draw over the couch, which enabled me 

 to write, and lastly I made a crutch. I was still 

 almost helpless. I was propped on to my feet, 

 with the crutch under my right arm, and though 

 at first I had no more power to put one foot 

 before another than a baby, by dint of persever- 

 ing day after day the feat was at length accom- 

 plished (Plate 21). I made such rapid progress 

 that a walking stick soon took the place of the 

 crutch (Plate 22). 



As soon as I had sufficiently recovered to take 

 the journey to Calcutta it was decided that I 

 should go home as the wounds did not show any 



D 



