By ram and Ghopal. 



105 



"Then,' said Byram, "if the white ants 

 have been a century covering the surface of 

 this forest two inches deep with their drop- 

 pings, how long do you suppose it would 

 take them to cover the forest floor to a 

 depth of two or three feet?" 



" I don't know," said Ghopal, meditatively, 

 "may be a thousand, years, may be four or 

 five thousand years or more." 



"Well, allow that the white ants have 

 built up the upper two feet of the soil with 

 their droppings in the last five thousand 

 years. What sort of crops do you suppose 

 men could raise in the sub-soil if all the top 

 two feet of soil were removed ?" 



"But," said Ghopal, "if the white ants 

 had not been there the timber would have 

 rotted and made soil." 



"Not so," said Byram, you can grow 

 nothing in rotten wood except worthless 

 fungi, but unless the wood is covered up by 

 the soil it will not remain, it crumbles away 

 to nothing, just as if it were burnt in the 

 fire. Nothing goes back to the earth except 

 the ashes which the tree took from it in 

 growing; all that it got from the air goes 

 back to air, unless some living creature eats 

 it. Now which makes the best manure for 

 crops any way," asked Byram, "animal or 

 vegetable refuse ? " 



"Animal refuse, most assuredly," said 

 Ghopal. 



"Then," said Byram, "try to estimate the 

 services rendered to man by creatures that 

 from the foundation of the world have been 

 busy converting every particle of timber 

 that dies into good animal manure, mixing 

 it with soil, or burying it beneath the sur- 

 face. Do you suppose man could ever 

 have raised crops upon the bare sub-soil; do 

 you suppose man could have existed unless 

 the white ants and other small creatures had 

 prepared the earth for his necessities?" 



"You present the matter in a new light," 

 said Ghopal gravely. " I will meditate on 

 it; but it is now time to set out on our 

 journey." 



The high road was soon gained and 

 Ghopal plodded along sturdily, but no 

 more with the light springy step of the 

 morning. Then he had great hopes that 

 he would win the three rupees in Byram's 

 girdle, but now these hopes had vanished. 

 The top soil to a considerable depth was 

 certainly made by white ants, that was clear 

 enough, and what appeared equally clear 

 was that neither man nor beast could live 

 on earth if that soil were removed. The 

 journey was long and weary, Byram ap- 

 peared to grow heavier at every mile, and 

 at times Ghopal asked himself whether it 

 would not be wiser to return to the pot- 

 tery. 



But after reaching the Serai, and eating 

 a hearty supper of bajree bread and milk^ 

 and soothing himself with his hookah, his 

 spirits revived. 



"I have lost the first throw," said he, 

 "but it will go hard with me if I don't put 

 him into a corner before many days are 

 over. But who would have thought that 

 those wretched little white ants were so 

 useful to man ? Who would have dreamed 

 that they make the soil we live on?" 



"You do not claim the money, I sup- 

 pose," said Byram, before he lay down for 

 the night. 



At this the travelers in the Serai laughed 

 merrily, for although Ghopal felt his dis- 

 comfiture too sorely to discuss the matter, 

 his contract with Byram was the news of 

 the day, and had provoked general discus- 

 sion. 



"No, Byram," said Gophal, "I too am a 

 man of understanding, and know when the 

 facts are against me. I gave judgment on 

 the facts which had come under my ex- 

 perience ; on those facts my judgment 

 was sound. In the light of fresh facts I 

 reserve my judgment and admit that your 

 little white ants deserve a place among 

 the gods. Still, I would have thought 

 better of them if they had spared my 

 slippers." 



