HAPPINESS AND THE PUESUIT OF IT. 
bags with some of his memoranda, he has found the 
rice ! All satisfactory so far, but what is the 
use of finding the rice, if he does not also find the 
carts ? He walks round the huge pile of bags, 
and sees, sound asleep in a snug quiet corner, 
^‘the man in charge. ” He catches hold of the fel- 
low, lugs him out, and commences a searching in- 
quiry. • ‘ Where are the cartmen ? Where are the carts 
“ The man in charge” quite loses his presence of 
mind, and becomes so confused at the unexpected ap* 
pearance of this high official, that — that — he actually 
tells him the truth ! ‘ ‘ Cartmen stored up the rice 
here, and gone back to Colombo to engage other loads,” 
and of course to obtain in ready cash another heaA^y 
advance on the hire. Our contractor is equal to the 
difficulty, looks about, and engages some other empty 
carts, to load and take on the rice, returns to Colombo, 
and informs his employers that he had found the 
carts, cattle all sick and unable to move but that he 
had forwarded the rice by other carts, free of all 
extra charges. But, just as frequently as otherwise, 
perhaps more so, the contractor would find the carts, 
but not the rice. He would meet a string of empty 
carts coming rattling down the Kadugannawa Pass, and 
recognize the features of the drivers, crying out, as 
they attempt to pass in hope of not being known. 
Baba Appu ! Hitapan, Where are you going 
to ? Going the wrong way ? And where is the rice ’C 
Baba Appu, seeing he was fairly in for it, would 
pull up, put on a bold face, and say, what could be ex- 
pected, he had received so little money in advance, that 
it was not sufficient to pay for cattle-food and tolls, sc 
that he was obliged to leave the loads in a cattle shed at 
Peradeniya, return to Colombo for a fresh load to 
Kandy, so that the advance he hoped to receive on the 
latter would enable him to take on the former to its 
destination. But the contractor would order him to> 
turn back with him, and he would manage it all. On 
reaching Peradeniya, and the shed where the rice was 
reported to have been stored, not a single bag was td) 
be seen ! “ Now, you rascal,” says the contractor, 
“where is the rice?” But Baba Appu falls down on 
his knees, weeps bitterly, and says, he is a ruined man : 
some passing empty carts must have loaded the rice, 
run off with it, stolen it. But the contractor has no 
compassion, collars the poor fellow ; stripping off his- 
cloth, he finds concealed, in proximity to a concealed 
portion of the body, a large sum of money, being the 
amount he had received for the rice, which had beeii 
sold in Kandy. When contractors went off on these 
expeditions they always took some trustworthy fol- 
lowers with them, to be ready in time of need, so the 
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