118 JULY 



in from the country. So too much rain is quite as 

 inconvenient as not enough. We all hope and 

 pray that just sufficient may fall this year to induce 

 a plentiful harvest, that a famine may be averted, 

 for once, from the ox-like, patient, suffering, rural 

 population. Towns do not feel the pinch of famine 

 as the country does. The inhabitants of this city 

 are mostly earning good wages, and there is food 

 enough for all here ; though it becomes dearer, it 

 simply means that a plainer diet must be indulged 

 in for a time. Eice and dall, instead of curry and 

 sweetmeats. The only article for ourselves that 

 becomes really higher in price, is the food for the 

 horses, oats and gram ; though the famine, when 

 there is one, is generally made the excuse for an 

 attempt to raise the price of every single thing we 

 eat, whether imported from Europe or not. 



On the 1st, after breakfast, I found Penelope in 

 perihelion again. I had forgotten all about him 

 during his dark side. I took one piece of work, 

 and gave him another exactly similar, and I raced 

 him. Mine was done much sooner, and quite as 

 well. 



" Penelope," I said, " why can not you do that 



