OUR COUNTRY LIFE 



The upstairs porch had no roof but otherwise was 

 well adapted to our plan, facing full south, open on 

 three sides and protected by the house on the north. 

 We sent down to the village for two folding cots and 

 mosquito netting; then to the garden for eight tall 

 bamboo stakes, and with staples and tapes made frames 

 which could be quickly lifted from the cots in case of 

 need. On this frame we fastened full curtains of the 

 net and put a plain piece double for the roof. 

 Pushing the heads of the cots close to the house, one 

 on either side of the gable, under eaves which pro- 

 jected nearly three feet over us although some six feet 

 above us, we snugly tucked the full curtains under 

 the mattress, and thus protected against nocturnal in- 

 sects, not to mention bats, we composed ourselves to 

 .slumber. 



At least that is what we were supposed to do. But 

 the night was too wonderful for me, the air a gentle 

 caress, warm, yet full of refreshment, and the stillness 

 was unearthly; for the crickets and locusts had not yet 

 begun their lullabies. Overhead arched the celestial 



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