CEYLON COCOA ESTATE 81 



animals especially elephants, who infested 

 the wayside jungle. Their clothes are tucked 

 up as high as decency will allow, so that no 

 artificial impediment may interfere with their 

 speed. And really it is wonderful with 

 what regularity they perform their daily task. 



26th. — The bookman has repeated his 

 visit very quickly this time, but he had nothing 

 very new, or interesting. Certain books 

 appear over and over again ; such as M Vanity 

 Fair," " Pickwick " and some of Charles 

 Reade's, also " Midshipman Easy," and 

 books of Mayne Reid's. However, we 

 managed to get a story by John Strange 

 Winter, and another by Florence Warden, 

 and as we gave two new books of a new 

 edition, had only to pay a few cents for the 

 exchange. 



To-day another most useful itinerant has 

 turned up. A chair-mender. He brings 

 with him a bundle of cane, sits down in the 

 verandah, and in a trice all your chairs are 

 mended. It is quite wonderful with what 

 dexterity and deftness he plies the cane 

 backwards and forwards, doing his work 

 with the utmost neatness and exactitude. 

 He reseated two chairs for seventy-five cents, 

 which, considering the distance he has to come 

 to this out-of-the-way Estate, no one can 

 think exorbitant. 



