CAMEES’ TE/CKS. 
Ills appetite is gone. The next morning, on getting up, 
the first thing that met the astonished sight of Mr, 
Brown were the carters standing in the verandah. 
What,” says he, “not off yet ? What is wanted now f* 
Their reply to this query is ; “A bag of coffee short : 
in arranging the bags in our carts we found one was 
deficient.” -Mow Mr. Brown had counted all the bags 
in the store himself two or three times over, and he 
was quite certain they were correct. The head kan- 
gani had also counted at the carts, and pronounced 
them all right. He swallowed a cup of hot tea that 
scalded his throat, left the piece of roti (rice bread) un- 
tasted, muste ed the men, called the roll, and de- 
spatched them all to their various works. “Now,” says 
he to the eartmen, “ come on : I am going down to 
the carts to unload the coffee and have the bags all 
counted,” So off they go. The half of the loads are 
taken out of the carts, and counted, the other half 
counted in the carts, and so on, all right, until, on 
reckoning the contents -of the las% Mr. Brown sud- 
denly paused in a thoughtful manner : there evidently 
was a bag short. To make perfectly cer lain, he went 
into the cart ; he groped all about, gave a bundle of 
paddy straw lying in the back corner a kick with his 
foot, and lo, underneath this bundle was the miss- 
ing bag. This was pointed out to the astonished cart- 
men, whom he began to abuse. They in their turn 
abused each other, and all their female relations : 
it was nobody’s faulb. But Mr. Brown seemed to 
have some doubts on the subject, and told them to 
be off ; they were a pack of scoundrels. 
'ibe question is. Did the eartmen beli^^ve there was 
a bag short, or was this a trick in order- to procure an 
-extra bag ? It ever will remain a mystery ^ the former 
•supposition is possible, but the latter the more prob- 
able. In due course the -coffee w;ts delivered in 
'Colombo twenty -four bushels short, or about two per 
cent on ibe originai measurement. 
Messrs. A. B. C, .& Co. advise Mr. Brown that the 
cariers have complained bitterly of being deta ned on, 
the estate, thatfihey had no rice for th mselves, or food 
for their bullocks, ^nd that instead of getting th<> 
cash they were promised, payable on the estate, they 
wevt‘ given a slip of paper for which nobody v oiiid 
give them cash (the said sbp of paper had be* n 
dul^ endorsed and cash-d): they were obliged 
to sell souieof the coffee to pay tod.«, and pr('VTde 
food for tlicmselves and caitle. They further advise 
him, that, in event of any further complaints of this 
description, they will be under the unpleasant necessi- 
ty of dispel sing with his se vices. Poor Mr. Brown : 
Le lad v ciked haid and OLue his best, none under- 
E 
