EXPERIENCES OF MR. STALE. 
favour was just wiiat they all do when reduced to 
a last resource, to extremities. The tide began to flow 
in a flood of tears ! and the roaring noise made by 
that tide was a caution to suspicious husbands and 
Jealous lovers. As it ebbed and flowed, the sound 
reached the ears of master, who became very unsettled ; 
There they are,’^ says ho, *‘at it again ; what a pest 
those women are.” Before the words were well out 
of his mouth, Minatchi, with a loud yell, is prostrate 
at his feet, sobbing and panting, as if her dear little 
heart would burst, ‘‘Dear me!” exclaims master, 
“how very dreadful, what is to be done?” And he 
gazes in mute astonishment at the mass of heaving red 
cloth at his feet, then raises his eyes, and sees standing 
a little way off the suspicious husband or jealous lover 
looking extremely foolish and uncomfortable. Calling 
him, he is sternly asked to give an account of himself, 
what he has done j and the whole story is told. Mas- 
ter now reproves the man very sharply, for it is 
always the man who comes in for a “good wigging” 
— tells him he is a green-eyed monster, tells him all 
the truth about the marigolds, how Minatchi had 
come and asked him, in a very polite and lady- like 
manner, if she might take some pu (flowers) out of 
the garden, to which he had responded, “Most cer- 
tainly.” But if these rows were to ga on, he would 
allow no more. The man replied, he knew what master 
said was quite true ; it was not that ; it was the crushed 
state of the necklace that made him angry. How 
did it all become crushed in this way ? But Minatchi, 
emboldened by the presence of master, now fires up, 
and says, “ Karuppai was washing rice, and she said 
to me, ‘Minatchi just hold my child for a little,’ 
which of course, I did; the dear little pet 
was very lively, and pulled away at the flowers, 
pulled them all to pieces, off my neck, out of my 
ears, and seemed so pleased that I never hindered 
him, and shortly after, this Kalada (ass) comes up, 
and says, ‘ Oh, Minatchi, what have you been 
doing,’ &c? and then he beats me.” Here the tide 
began to flow again “appa-a-a-a,” and the man comes 
up, tells her not to cry, and he will never do so any 
more ; but the softer he becomes, the more and the 
louder the lady sobs, until master, now out of all 
patience, makes a rush at them. “ Out of this with you, 
away you go, you pests, and see you do not come 
here any more to gather marigolds.” So the couple 
depart, the woman sobbing and uttering low wails, 
the man, with his arm round her waist gently sup- 
porting her, whispering, “ Darling, darling, don’t cry.^^ 
The darling allows her head to sink on his shoulder, 
and in this very affectionate posture they disappear 
