52 EVERYDAY LIFE ON A 



and indeed all vegetables and flowers that want 

 thinning. 



To go to a domestic detail, I have been very 

 busy this morning in converting a pair of strong 

 boots into walking shoes, by cutting the uppers 

 away to the fourth button, and then binding 

 the shoe. Boots are far too hot to wear, and 

 the roads are so rough and stony (at all events 

 on Raneetotem) that the destruction to shoes is 

 terrible. I have worn out two pairs in a 

 month. When the nearest shoemaker is sixteen 

 miles away one has to set one's wits to work, 

 and I feel quite proud of my success as a 

 disciple of St. Crispin. 



My kitchen garden is proceeding apace, it is 

 a plot of ground of about 20 ft by 30 ft — fenced 

 in by a rough pallisade of rubber branches ; 

 across this, bamboo battens are tied with a kind 

 of creeper called "jungle rope," and then 

 branches and twigs are inserted and interlaced. 

 Cut boughs of rubber have a knack of 

 sprouting, so we hope these may do so, and 

 make the place a little less ugly. The gate is 

 of a very primitive kind, but answers its 

 purpose well — two uprights of bamboo with 

 little cross-pieces tied to it in the form of a 

 ladder. I intend sowing English seeds, 

 cabbage, lettuce, radishes, beans, carrots, 

 turnips, tomatoes, &c, also some good melons 

 and cucumbers, and — I feel rather shy of 



