A QUEER VISITOR. 
estates ; he knew everything that was going on on his 
own ; knew occurrences that would have been better, 
infinitely better, had he not known them — in fact 
his propensity for cooiy news became a sort of craze. 
On visiting a neighbour on a Saturday evening, the 
next morning he would be up early, and down about 
the store or lines, talking with the coolies ; he would 
find out all about their pay, rice, &c., and perhaps 
give a quiet hint that the estate where he was gave 
better. He would question them and find out all about 
their private family matters; in fact, what did he not 
find out? When this, after a time, became known, 
Mr. Jimson received very few invitations ; and eventu- 
ally none at all, but he would not take a hint. He 
invited himself, and went, asked or not, until at last 
a neighbour whom he constantly visited on a Saturday 
evening to stay over Sunday, on seeing his head 
hopping lip and down amongst the coffee trees, on the 
path to the bungiilow, would run out by the back- 
door, and hurriedly tell his servant, he was off to his 
next neighbour to dine and sleep. Just then Mr. 
Jimson would step in in front and receive the in- 
formation : “ Master gone and not coming back till 
to-morrow,” but Mr. Jimson did not take the quiet 
hint to be gone also. Oh ! no, be was not going. He 
was going to dine, “ anything would do for him,” 
he would stay all night, and perhaps the master vvonld 
be '>ack before he left to-morrow evening. So his 
dinner was served, and, having nobody to talk to, he 
retired early to bed, took his absent host’s bedroom 
and bed, as they were larger and more comfortable 
than the small stranger’s room, with its little camp 
bed. He was an early riser, and, although it is Sunday, 
was up before six, bawling out for coffee and toast ; 
much to the disgust of the inhabitants of the kitchen, 
who, naturally enough, in the absence of their master, 
hoped to have had an extra hour’s rest. Our 
visitor, having ffiiished his morning coffee, began 
to suspect he would have a rather dull day, so 
he goes into the office and inspects the check-roll, 
and at a brief glance is aware of the number of coolies 
on the estate, the rates of pay, and charges for rice, 
(&c., all of which he makes a mental note of. Hav- 
ing received this small whet to his curiosity he ex- 
amines the pigeon-holes, looks over the duplicate cart- 
notes, and notes the hire of rice and coffee. Really 
he IS obtaining a great deal of information. He now 
observes a bunch of keys on a corner of the office 
table. The host had departed so suddenly the evening 
before, he had forgotten to put them in his pocket ; 
he takes them up and tries a drawer, which gives 
way, and discloses to his admiring eyes lots of private 
