CHEQUERED CAREER OF A GARMENT. 149 



his utmost to please us, and is always ready to turn his 

 hand to any odd job out of his special calling, of which 

 he is such a thorough master ; and as he can even skin 

 birds well, we hope later on to make him of use in this 

 way. 



Bob, Emanuel's right-hand man, and like himself a 

 Maltese, appears never happy unless busily employed for 

 one or other of us, and from morning to night is at work. 

 He finds great scope for his intellect in mending our 

 tattered garments for us until we cast them off, and then, 

 by a special display of ingenuity in patchwork, he is 

 able to transfer them to his own most limited wardrobe. 

 A pair of trousers has quite an interesting career, for 

 when Bob can no longer with anything like decency wear 

 his master's present, he transfers the remains to Ibrahim, 

 who, with his black skin, is not so , particular about 

 sundry holes ; but a time comes when even he thinks he 

 must discard them, and then the old soldier, with more 

 mind than body, is sure to find some part of them use- 

 ful to cover his lean shanks. Ibrahim has proved the 

 greatest surprise, for he made a very bad start in conse- 

 quence of Mr. Cohen having prejudiced us against him 

 by giving him a very bad character after he heard we 

 had engaged him, and so much so that we almost left 

 him behind, until the happy thought occurred to us that 

 perhaps Mr. Cohen's opinion was influenced by his desire 

 that we should engage his bright specimen of a servant, 



