v WHAT COFFEE-PLANTING CAN DO 85 



life, madam ! the life ! What's a brandy-and-water-and- 

 cigar life when compared to roaming the wild forests 

 far and wide ? It takes capital to set one going, but in 

 five years you are repaid, and from that date money 

 tumbles into the bank in a style unknown to any but 

 the race of coffee -planters. Depend on it, it's the 

 way to finish your days, if you have any left to finish, 1 ff 

 happily, in a snug old home, with a cheery little wife, 

 in some corner of foggy ould Ireland." 



To HIS MOTHER. 



" OOTACAMUND. 



Back again from my solitary expedition versus the 

 ibex. I have had desperate weather and desperate 

 luck, so much so that the combined forces for the 

 first time proved too much for the rough hunter, and 

 drove him into the settlement for rest and shelter. 

 One evening, on returning to my little tent, dead 

 tired with the tremendously trying ground I had 

 been hunting over from before dawn, wet through 

 from head to foot by the most terrific storm (one 

 of the harbingers of the monsoon) that regularly 

 darkened the air, and turned every ibex path into a 

 running brook, and every brook into a rushing cataract, 

 through every one of which we had to wade, holding 

 the rifles over our heads, disheartened by bad luck 

 in fact, undergoing one of the worst of the many trials 

 a sportsman's life entails I was cheered up by the 

 appearance of a well-known and right truly welcome 

 handwriting lying on my old camp table. I am 

 so glad to find that my yarns don't weary you 

 all. I would indeed be sorry if I thought none of 

 you took any interest in the wild scenes I am now 

 revelling in. Oh ! the joy, the real true pleasure, to 

 be far away from the haunts of men, and wander far 



