CEYLON COCOA ESTATE 207 



CHAPTER XV 



December 28th. — Christmas has come, and 

 gone. Not the snowy, blustering Christmas of 

 northern latitudes, but a showery misty imitation, 

 which is the best substitute Ceylon in the N. E. 

 Monsoon can provide. Christmas Day this 

 year, being on a Sunday, I decided to have my 

 little party on Christmas Eve. We were all 

 up betimes decorating the bungalow ; the 

 arched doorways and windows were outlined 

 with fronds (some 3^ feet long) of the giant 

 polipody fern, which grows abundantly in the 

 gullies on the Estate ; huge palm branches were 

 fixed on the bare colour washed walls of the 

 dining-room, whilst here and there bunches of 

 red croton gave the suggestion of scarlet holly ; 

 the drawing-room decorations consisted entirely 

 of sprays of bamboo, and bouquets of roses. 

 The verandah, as usual, was full of pot plants, 

 giant yams, caladiums, lilies, maiden- hair ferns 

 of many varieties, and large pots of single pink 

 balsam ; so that the general effect of the 



