‘‘DINNEE EEADY, SAE.” 
^‘Boy, bring candles, and dinner,” and, as tlie candles 
appear, the coolies whose pay was all shortj and who had 
not been a single day absent, disappear, and you are 
alone and at peace. But candles ! whatever made us 
make such a mistake as this, for whoever beard of or 
saw candles, thirty years ago ! It was a lamp, and a 
very original one too — a tumbler half filled with water, 
oil on the top, and a floating wick, but, as the progress 
of civilization and luxury advanced, the tumbler began 
to give way. When purchasing some stores at Venn, 
Preston & Co.’s, in Kandy, we were induced to invest 
in a pair of lamp burners, and stands, grand stands 
they were, for these times, in fact, we were often in 
fear of our periya burai coming in, after they were lit, 
and that he would accuse us of extravagance, and living 
in such a style as was not warranted on a salary of 
£4 3s. 4d. per month. The stands were made of wood, 
slightly turned at the bottom, and painted a bright red, 
and well do we recollect even yet, how grand we thought 
our homely table looked, after having discarded the 
tumbler lamp, and brought in the lamp burner, on the 
red stand ; but our pride was soon to have a fail, and as 
is generally the case, resulting from a fall, either of 
oneself, or something, or somebody else. The wooden 
lamp stands, as all old planters know, and for that part 
of it young ones too, that is to say if they are still in 
use, are very light, and the burner on the top, filled 
with water, and oil floating on its top, make them what 
can be termed “top-heavy,” so that any unusually 
strong knock against the table, coming into contact 
with a dish, on laying or removing dinner, is very apt 
to upset it. Kow how often do we see it happen, when 
people go in for luxuries, which are beyond their means 
and station, it often results in anything but a happy 
result. At that time, we had no right to go in for the 
luxury of wooden lamp stands, painted red; the act 
recoiled on the actor and was its own punishment. 
Punctually at seven o’clock “ Dinner ready, sar,” was 
the announcement ; and there were the two curry 
dishes, standing on the dirty tablecloth, with, as usual, 
one at the top, or covers broken, which loss, as before 
stated, was always supplied by an inverted soup plate, 
if you had a soup plate, which just as frequently as 
not, indeed more frequently, jou^jhad not ; then, in this 
case, a plate on the cover of your broken soup tureen, 
which, in a moment of extravagant folly, Venn & Co. 
had persuaded you to buy, answered the purpose. 
The boy very smart would bustle round the table, 
and in a wink, as they say, off would go the covers 
off the curry dishes, in performing which action the boy 
would knock against the corner of ‘‘the table, the red 
