“THREE MONTHS’ HARD LABOUR/ 
day ; ha even insinuated that master had sent him down 
to the bazar and then filled his box with the clothes in 
order to put him in jail ! What an unfortunate man he 
w^as : everything was against him ; no one would believe 
him. But it would not do. The constable took him up 
to the Nuwara Eliya Court, where we appeared next 
day, with the witnesses, and the sentence w^as, “ Three 
months’ hard labour, and imprisonment,” far too light 
a sentence for breach of trust of one in a responsible 
position, which very probably also involved the opening 
of lock-fast places. 
Some have said to the writer, “ What a fertile im- 
ag nation you must have to concoct all these little stories, 
for it is quite impossible you can remember all these 
little incidents after such along lapse of time.” But 
we would just appeal to those of our readers of the 
same age, or even older, if it is not the case, that 
while many, perhaps important, events in their lives, 
which happened ten ora dozen years ago, are quite 
forgotten, those that happened in early manhood and 
life never are. How often do we hear old people de- 
light in telling tales of their early days, which they do 
with minute vividness, while what happened yesterday 
is quite forgotten ! The mind and meu:ory on our first 
start in life is like a sheet of white paper : it takes on 
and retains the first impression, which no after crossing 
can eradicate ; on being first launched forth into the 
world, all is novel, all is new, it is stamped there and 
there it remains. Hence the importance of early and 
correct training. If this is done, however far one may 
wander from the right way, there is not only a good 
hope, but a fair prospect, of his return, when he comeg 
to himself ; and so, it is not only your first sweetheart 
(if you have had more than one), jmur first pound note, 
and your first servant, that you remember, but also the 
first of everything, that is if it eventually leads to any 
important act, or position in life. Per ya Karuppen may 
be even alive still on some of the estates, like his first 
master a grey-headed man. If be is asked “ Who 
was your first master ?” and shakes his head doubt- 
fully, sits down on his legs, and rests his face on his 
knees, say, “ VVhy, your master was baptizt'd a periya 
durai. He was a P. D. 'before he ever came to Ceylon, 
and is a P. D. yet.” A light will break over his withered 
face, as he murmurs “ P. D. Millie.” 
CHAPTER XXIX 
On the Staff. 
Is this expression, so very common a one in olden 
times, now become obsolete?^ We have not heard it 
•It is still the delicate euphemism for being “out 
of a berth/’ — E d. 
