Interlopers and Interloping. 127 



4. It often happens that successful young Assist- 

 ants club together and, with no immediate prospect 

 of promotion where they are, amalgamate their slender 

 savings and hie them forth to build. With unas- 

 suming modesty they refrain from the rude shock 

 of unequal contest with their seniors, and betake 

 themselves to tracts where indigo is comparatively 

 unknown, or where only one or two pioneers have 

 preceded them. Here land is cheap and a perpe- 

 tual lease easily obtained. True, tlie soil is chur- 

 lish, and yields but niggard crops even to the frugal 

 ryot. What then ? It shall be improved, they think, 

 with better treatment and a liberal application 

 oi'seet or indigo refuse. It is a wide unclaimed 

 country this, to which they have got. Have they 

 not been obedient sons of mother Association, cheer- 

 fully refraining from any act which could render 

 them arraignable as interlopers ? The nearest work- 

 ing factory is good 26 miles away : surely no inter- 

 ference is to be expected or warranted here They 

 will take a modest little perpetual lease on this high 

 spot in the chief village on this opportune little river 

 which never dries up they are told, and does not 

 call for any Saran canal schemes to ensure a supply 

 of water for mahai. Perhaps it may be a little 

 feverish ; but then, they are pioneers, and endurance 

 is the first article of the pioneer's faith. They will 



