FOOD FOR FERNS 95 



started off with a man astride on the topmost 

 pinnacle, with a crowbar to dig holes in it, and 

 another on the ledge of the roof adjoining, to 

 demolish the side, I began to get nervous, and I 

 took my umbrella and fled me into the garden. How- 

 ever the whole thing did not crumble down that 

 day, nor for many. It was the toughest masonry 

 possible, built by Prince Furrukh Shah's ancestors, 

 of the house of the Eajah of Mysore in the century 

 before the last ! Some of the walls are 4 feet thick, 

 and this enabled the old house to survive the un- 

 pleasant twists it received. Now, as old concrete 

 roofing is about the most agreeable sustenance to 

 ferns in general, I resolved to appropriate a good 

 deal of it and have it conveyed to the south end of 

 the garden, where the high wall at the back and 

 the trees overhead would give all the shade required 

 for ferns. It would partly hide the old wall, and 

 would give something more interesting to look at. 

 As for growing ! The ferns would simply leap ! 

 The whole city being under repair all at once, and 

 every possible coolie engaged by the builders, I 

 started operations with the individual whose busi- 

 ness it was, for twelve shillings a month, to waggle 



