MAEEIAGE. 
of his book. Mr. Big ijave orders to Mr. Small, who 
in his turn gave orders to the head kangani ; the 
latter gave orders to the junior kangatdes, who j^ave 
instructions lo the coolies. Then, if a»iy thing was not 
done, what a trouble it vras to find out the defaulter. 
It was nobody’s fault, every one had told another ; 
as it was evident some victim must be found, it was 
generallv so ne of the most ignorant, know-nothing, 
do-nothing amongst the coolie?, who did not even 
understand what he had been told, so how could he 
do it? He was reported to the master as the tellow 
who had been at the bottom of all this, and was 
told that for his punishment he had been marked off 
in the check^roil three days absent. Perhaps he was 
not paid for three or four months, and the wh-de 
circumstances were forgotten. Pie declared he had not 
been three days absent, but the m ister said he had, 
or wdiy wordd it- have been so marked. 
One Saturday night, when Mr. Brown closed his 
check- roll and declared another week’s work done, 
Jones, who had been sitting waiting until he was 
through, suddenly exclaimed : Brown, why don’t 
you get married ? ” 
CHAPTER X, 
Bachelorhood vs. Married Life. 
Mr. Brown made no reply, in fact never looked up, 
but again opened his ch^ck-roll, and seemed to be 
very busy. But it would not do : he rose up and weni 
away, saying he must look for his “ Ready Reckoner.” 
How Mr. Jones could easily have said ; “Why, it’s 
on the table at your elbow,” but he did n’t. He saw 
at once he had touched a wrong chord, and was sorry 
for what he had said, but how Wcis -he to know that 
such a very trivial, conamonplace expi^ession, was 
going to vex his friend in this way ? In those times, 
proprietors and agents, to write mildly, did not fancy 
married superintendents. They were under various 
impressions on this subject. They thought the mar- 
ried man did not work as the single. That if the 
day was hot the lady would say t My dear, don’t 
go out in this sun ; wait till it gets cooler.” If it 
was rain : *‘You will catch cold, ague, fever, or 
some other dire ailment ; stay in the house until it is 
fair, it will soon clear up.” If the day was cool and 
cloudy, and neither of tiiese excuses would answer, 
she would fall on another resource, more irresisti- 
ble than those stated, It req_ujr,ed to be^ a 
