MEN AND WOMEN. 
no doubt you would soon prefer the comfort there^. 
as infinitely better than the muddy dirty pool.” 
But Wildgoose would not admit this. “What stuff 
and nonsense. You may just as well say, that in 
course of time the pai'tridge would become quite 
reconciled to the muddy pool. No, no, every man 
and woman has separate and distinct natural likings, 
that will crop up occasionally, check them as you 
like. You may think they are killed. No, they are 
not ; it requires little, very little, to make them 
sprout again. I don’t refer to had habits. They can 
be eradicated. What I refer to, is natural disposi- 
tions. ” 
Jones kept very quiet during all this discussion. 
At last he gave his opinion, thus: — “ Every man and 
woman has natural instincts, natural likings and 
dislikes, and Nature intends, or at all events intended, 
that these should be acted upon, within the bounds 
of prudence and propriety. If peo]Dle would lead 
more, of a natural life, and less of an artificial, these 
mutual likings would soon mature into something 
unore promising. I speak with reference to the old 
•country, although, even here, this sort of thing is 
creeping in fast, a dread of what people will say 
about you. Not that I object to this feeling in a 
moderate way, for it keeps those in check who are 
deficient in principle, but why carry it to such ex- 
tremes ? Why should people of fixed character and 
position be afraid of what their neighbours will say 
about them ? One is very apt to come to the con- 
clusion that those very sensitive people have some,, 
or have had some, now partially forgotten cause, why 
they should be afraid of the tongues of others, afraid 
least a word or sentence might reveal some just cause 
of talk.” 
Brown said : — “ This may be true v/ith regard to 
men. A man wdio cares not a straw for what x^eople 
SPvy about him is either an upright good fellow, or 
a great blackguard ; but what about the women ? ” 
Jones replied : — “ Oh, let them alone, let them fight 
it out aniQiigst themselves ; they are able enough to 
do it, so long as men don’t interfere.” 
CHAPTER XI. 
The Fire-stick amokgst the Coffee. — Mu. Wildgoose 
IN “the Blues.” — What Proier Cultivation 
WTLL make of an Estate. 
About the beginning of March, after a month of hot 
scorching weather, at morning muster the coolies on 
the “ Peela Tottam ” estate were informed tli at Wild- 
goose Durai was going to ^^et fire to his felled forest,. 
