Tue Lire HISTORY OF AN EasT INDIAN. 139 
craft. Like his parents he too inherits the philosophical 
strain. As the slow—to him—years of childhood creep 
by he hears wondrous tales of India and he wonders why 
his sapient parents ever left a country where commodi- 
ties are so plentiful and rupees so scarce, to come to one 
where if the latter be more plentiful he cannot but think 
the former correspondingly difficult to procure. His 
parents frequently talk of the time when they will return 
to India, but he observes, as time slips by, and another 
and yet another cow is added to those for which his 
father pays agistment fees, and still more gold coins } 
adorn his mother’s breast, that the anticipatory pleasures 
this theme were wont to afford pale somewhat in the 
light of the aétual prosperity and increasing comfort and 
importance of their present position. But, for many 
years “country” is a wonderful dream, gorgeous and 
grand in faét and possibility to RAMPERSAUD. By and 
by it is to him what Jack the Giant Killer and Alice in 
Wonderland are to our own children. 
When too old to be left with the granny at the créche, 
RAMPERSAUD Spends most of his time playing about the 
negro— yard. At tip-cat in its creole form, at marbles 
and at cricket—also in its creole form—he is an adept. 
His eye is true, his aim certain, and his every motion 
swift and deft. The only boys to beat him in these 
qualities are the Chinese, The black boys are no match 
~ tall) 
for him in subtlety or skill but they have twice the staying , 
power. Hence the strong tendencies of race are called I 
into existence and the onlooker who has read East Indian, 
history may see many a famous episode re-enaéted on a| 
small scale among the boys at play. 
On one occasion his parents took him to town. Perched 
52 
