COFFEE DOWN THE STREAM. 
ally puts on his coat, stockings, and shoes, having an 
innate perception that his presence is required at the 
store without delay ; he steps out into the verandah, 
and, under the full conviction that something is wrong, 
he asks, “What .26* wrong?” If nothing had been 
wrong, these coolies would not have been there. He 
would never have dreamed of going out, and asking 
“ What is right ?” — or, “ Of course you have come to 
tell me that everything is all right.” The question 
is briefly answered, ‘ ‘ The cistern has burst during 
the night, and the cofiee is all down the stream !” 
Our practical planting friends will have a very good 
idea how this happened, but, for the benefit of others, 
we will explain. The receiving cistern was twelve 
feet long, and from three to four feet deep, bottom 
and sides constructed of planks two inches or two 
and a half in thickness, fastened with nails on per- 
pendicular small wooden posts. Owing to the work 
having been behind-hand, this cistern was put into 
immediate use, as soon as it was finished. Now, 
newly pulped, unwashed cofifee, with all the gum or 
saccharine matter on it, is a heavy dead weight, and 
the pressure on the sides of the cistern is very great, 
so great, that often, on well-tried, well-seasoned ones, 
the side planks may be observed swayed out, as if 
ready to give way, and require some temporary sup- 
port to keep them ail right. Under this explanation, 
it can easily be conceiVed what the effect would 
likely be in having a newly constructed cistern, all 
at once, for the first time in use, filled up to the 
very top, chokeful, with this coffee. The planking 
had not time to swell out, and settle down in its 
grooves and niches, the newly- driven nails were not 
rusted, or hardened in their position. The dead weight 
and pressure from within sw^ayed out the planks, these 
in their turn acted as a lever on the newly-driven 
nails, which slightly gave way. This merely tended 
to increase the bulging out of the side planks, until 
they burst asunder, then the slimy unwashed coffee 
smoothly glided out, if we may use the expression, 
seeking its way down, wherever that down led, just 
on the same principle as the bursting of water from 
a reservoir, only that the action and motion of the 
unwashed coffee had not nearly the same velocity. 
It is an old saying, “ Misfortunes never come alone,” 
they follow each other in natural succession, as the 
waves of the sea, the real truth being, that one, the 
original, if not promptly and speedily checked, causes 
the other, and this other another, and so on. Thus, 
the bursting of the receiving cistern was caused by a 
small nail getting between the chop and the cylinder : 
an original act so small and trifling, that had it been 
