TOO MUCH or A GOOD THING. 
r~ ~ 
'‘The coffee is on fire ! ” shouts Mr. Brown, but what 
can he or any man do ? They are all nearly choked and 
blinded with smoke. They cannot even see where the 
fire is, or rather fires, for they seem spreading in every 
direction. His bungalow and lines, both thatched with 
grass, are not far off. What if a spark should fall upon 
them ! A dozen coolies are ordered up to sit on the ridge- 
pole of the bungalow with buckets of water, and green 
branches of tr^ es, and the same on the top of the lines. 
Mr. Brown, with a wet silt handkerchif fastened over 
his face, is seen here and there and everywhere, gliding 
about amoiiM^t the smoke. Wherever a spark falls, 
‘.oolies with mamoties (large hoes) dig down into the 
ground for damp earth which they heap on the top 
of the incipient fire. But all along the belt, the cof- 
fee is on fire, no doubt about that, and it is spread- 
ing, and gaining sti'en^th and force. Great present 
sacrifices have sometimes to be made in order to gain 
or obtain ai^y important final result. This axiom passed 
through Mr. B'*own’s mind, and such are the vagaries 
and flights ol the mind even under very grave and 
important events, that he actually remembered how he 
had paid Mr. Solomons’ account by selling his gun! 
He send« down to the store for two dozen good sharp 
billhooks. Twenty-fou)’ men, each with a billliook, 
and not an inch of elotb of any sort about their bodies, 
literally naked to the skin, are ordered to stand by and 
cut a line through the coffee ti ees, thirty or forty feet 
broad. This is done, and the cut trees carried away. 
Brooms are now made of the branches of tlie, coffee 
trees, tied tight together. This line is swept clear 
and eh‘an of all leaves and dr 3 ^ wood, as clean as a 
pavement. Not a hit too soon. On comes the fire in 
the coffee, greedily sucking np and catching everything 
combustible; slowly but surely scorching every coffee 
tree that it passes by. It reaches the line cut through 
the coffre ; it has no more fuel or food. Gradually it 
dies out, or at all events is now easily put out, but 
the w hole atmosphere is a dense mass of smoke, hang- 
ing here and tliere and everywhere ; nothing can be seen, 
so that some idea can be had of the amount of damage 
done. 
^ There can, however, be no manner of doubt but that 
Mr. Wildgoose has had a good burn, and that Mr. 
Brown has been well burnt. He judged it necessary 
to advise Messrs. A. B. 0. & Co , of what had hap« 
pened, who duly informed him to appoint some dis- 
interested party to asses the da-nage done, and report 
the same to themselves. And as, even in the 
jungles of Ceylon, disinterested parties are always easily 
to be found where there is a fee to be attached to 
their disinterested opinion, this was not a difficu/t 
