24 APRIL 



something ; but first waited to turn up my sleeves, 

 not to make myself too unpresentable ; and placed 

 the links, as I always thought, on the verandah 

 table, with keys, letters, etc., till I came back. 

 On my return, no links ! Penelope, respectable 

 and snowy-bearded, said he had not touched them ; 

 and the only person who had come on to the 

 verandah was the little dog and fowl boy, a 

 veritable scamp, if ever there was one ; who once 

 left my fowls two whole days without water. I 

 was grieved at my loss; the links having been 

 given to me by the Burra Sahib. I questioned the 

 imp, who looked like a troll with his one eye, and 

 his one tail of hair hanging from the crown of his 

 head over the most picturesque coloured rags. He 

 answered without a blink in his eye, that he had 

 not taken them. 



"But," I said, "do you know what they are 

 like ? " 



"Oh yes, madam," he said, "I know that they 

 were like little sticks in the middle, and had little 

 round balls at each end." 



That was just it! Dumb bells! But how 

 could he possibly have known what they were like, 



