86 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 



hours, and to have discovered the characteristics of a 

 temperament that, found beneath a few heaped-up- 

 logs of wood, the roof of a native hut, or not unfre- 

 quently the branches of a banyan tree, a more wel- 

 come resting-place (particularly if indulged with the 

 screeching serenade of a herd of elephants), than 

 any luxurious establishment which his position in 

 Ceylon would easily have enabled him to have in- 

 dulged in ; and no less singular was it, that, living as 

 he did, he should have retained such a uniform suavity 

 of manners and disposition that distinguished him 

 above all other men I ever knew. 



The former were, I may almost say, ladylike : nor 

 even was this extreme polish (although utterly devoid 

 of foppishness) the least tarnished when in the depths 

 of the jungle to what it was when called into play 

 in the drawing-room, and so richly was the cream 

 of human kindness instilled into his disposition, that 

 I really believe he would have been glad to have 

 begged an attacking elephant's pardon should he have 

 happened by any mischance to have put him to a mo- 

 ment's more additional pain than necessary. 



Moreover, being one of those persons who never 

 could make an enemy, with the general, the sub, and 

 the private, Tom Rogers was universally admired, 

 beloved, and almost worshipped. 



The opinion of him entertained by the elephants 

 might have been in a directly inverse ratio. 



His habitation was unique, particularly his dining- 



