REMOVING TIMBER. 
no lime, staling the lire was out, no limje Wijs hiu’iit, 
and no one was to be seen at the kilif,'^no, not even 
the responsible burner. The wages of fifty men for 
one day lost, and, what was even more valuable, 
their work, besides the stoppage of work entailed 
upon all the artificers. Well, there is some timber 
ready at all events; the sawyers have reported “that 
beam” which we have been punishing them for as 
done. So the next day the coolies are despatched 
into the jungle for the piece ' of timber. In order to 
ease them in its transport, they slide it down a steep 
grass hill, where it caught on a rock, and broke 
into three pieces, and of course was utterly useless 
for the purpose required, notwithstanding which, 
the gang of coolies, under directions from the kan- 
gani, was divided into three, each carrying a piece of 
broken timber, which they triumphantly deposited 
in front of the timber shed. Another day’s work lost! 
The piece of timber was of no use whatever. 
Instructions were forthwith sent to the sawyers, 
who had a hut in the jungle, to saw another beam, 
with all expedition, the same as the one broken. 
The manager returned with the intelligence that 
there were no sawyers to be found, only a boy in 
the hut, in charge, who said they had gone to Kandy 
on some private business, and he did not know when 
they would be back. They had received an advance 
of ten pounds the day before, and it was just as 
likely, far more likely than otherwise, that they 
would never comeback at ail. However, thej’^ did, 
contrary to all expectation, and in course of time 
the missing beam was supplied. At last the roof 
was got on, always a great affair, for then the w^ork 
can be gone about in all weather. It was felt, and 
nice tin spouts were put up to take off the run 
of water. It came on to rain, the felt leaked, and 
the spouts got choked up, and then were worse than 
useless ; the water soaked into the walls, the plaster 
almost before it was well dried peeled and fell off, the 
constant leakage threatened to destroy the whole house. 
So the felt was all taken off, and a good coating of thatch 
put on ; but thatch is a heavy roof, and the rafter 
were light, being made to support only liglit felt. 
The rafters bent, cracked, gave away, and the w^hole 
roof had to be removed. The bungalow floor began 
to shake on being walked over, until one day the 
foot of the owner suddenly went through it, throw- 
ing him clean down on the floor, and spraining his 
ankle. ^ The floor then underwent a thorough in- 
spection, and beams, joints, planking, etc., w^ere found 
to be all in a rotten state of decay. The bulk of 
K 
