128 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 



CHAPTER X. 



A "PLEASANT VOYAGE." 



I HAD long looked forward with a large stock of 

 anticipated delight to the coming of my u tour" of 

 duty to accompany the detachment annually sent for 

 the protection of the oysters to Aripo, the scene of 

 the pearl fishery, in the northern part of Ceylon ; and 

 tremendously Cleopatra-ish were the ideas my simpli- 

 city had imbibed of the profusion of pearls with which 

 every spare receptacle I possessed was to be loaded on 

 my return to head-quarters. 



How far my expectations were realised may be 

 conjectured, in some measure, by the assurance 

 on my part that rather than undergo such an 

 ordeal again, I would comfortably sit myself down 

 and behold, with the most genuine unconcern, all 

 the oysters that dwell beneath the waters under the 

 earth deliberately walk from their deep sea home, and 

 incontinently cast their pearly treasures into the face 

 of each individual " swine" in Christendom, before I 



