2 THE OUT-STATION ; OR, 



holds about as apt a similitude to the glorious reality, 

 as a pauper at a parish Union door to a Peri at the 

 gates of Paradise. 



Let me proceed, therefore, in the first place, to 

 attempt the operation of a " dissolving view" on the 

 aforesaid mental daguerreotype ; and if a change does 

 not come over the ideas of my " compagnon tfaven- 

 ture" as we ramble together through the splendid 

 mountain scenery of Ceylon, it must either be attri- 

 buted to a deficiency in the descriptive faculties of 

 the operator, or the obtuse and unimaginative tem- 

 perament of the worthy reader's self. 



To keep perturbed nigger spirits in proper awe and 

 subjection to her Majesty, and " those in authority 

 under her," for the consideration of " five shillings and 

 threepence" per diem, and to trust to Providence and 

 a double-barrel for one's daily bread, during two entire 

 years of mortal existence, is an event not reserved for 

 the 01 TroXXot of creation ; wherefore, having lately 

 undergone the ordeal with considerable credit to her 

 Majesty's service (although never actually congra- 

 tulated on such an event by the Horse Guards), I will 

 generously share the benefit of rny experience with the 

 reader, and doffing for the nonce the " regulation 

 harness," invite him to spend a month with me in the 

 jungle, undertaking to find him in unlimited 'rack 

 punch, and in cheroots grown under my own tillage, 

 and manufactured on my own gun-case ; and should 

 he decline to add his own contribution to the pea- 



