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dhobis and sweepers, not long ago at Hampton Court flung chupatties to an admiring English crowd, passed as Indian princes, so did the worthy MacTavish sail under false colours. But that was not his fault.

who the two "dandies," for the bearing of which they were kept up. "For," thought I, "it will be much better in every way for Miss Eileen and Masters Charles and John to walk, even to run, to school or elsewhere than to be invariably carried wherever they go." I thereby effected at once a saving in the domestic exchequer equal to about onethird the total income.

I am idle, with much leisure for observation and reflection, and it occurs to me that the O'Hara establishment is, for the income of one hundred rupees a-month,-i.e., between six and seven pounds,-something large.

It consists of the following: Three children, three dogs, and a parrot-all very noisy and unpleasant; nine servants, three ponies, and some poultry. All the above dwell in a tinroofed shanty, the windows of which are usually closed, for the O'Hara chest is very delicate. I repeat that for one hundred rupees a-month-Mr O'Hara is a Government servant, and though his salary does not figure in Whitaker,' we all know what it is to an anna-his ménage is something large.

In the abundance of my idleness, and in the ignorance of my heart, I even calculated to what extent I might, by wellconsidered retrenchments, ease Mr O'Hara's financial straits. I at once put down the children, who were uncomely, unhealthy, unmannered. But again I introduced them into the budget, for I saw that, with all their shortcomings, they were dearly beloved of Mrs O'Hara; and I wanted to be practical. But I erased the three ponies, and also four of the servants and

Like all truly great financial reformers, I found, however, that my path was beset with obstacles. Here was one, and I fear quite an insuperable one: for Mrs O'Hara was under the impression that her offspring were legless, and could never walk anywhere. She never told me so, but her acts spoke for her. To have argued with her would have been about as useful as poulticing a mahogany table-leg for imaginary toothache. I had therefore, very unwillingly, to reintroduce ponies and servants into the estimates.

The children fully shared their mother's hallucinations, and were never seen in anything but recumbent positions, or during transport by bipeds or quadrupeds. For myself, having seen on several occasions Master Charles kick his valet's shins, and Master John Miss Eileen's, Miss Eileen's long black-stockinged legs being the most conspicuous things about her, I had no doubt whatever that, for their colour, which was a delicate coffee and milk, the young gentlemen had quite strong limbs, and that the young lady's, to judge by appearances, were of a particu

larly tough and fibrous kind. Then the dandy-bearers turned out not to be private retainers to the O'Haras at all, but servants of the establishment of which I was a temporary fixture, appropriated by the O'Hara to his own proper uses. And the ponies grazed on our flower-beds and lawn, and the poultry on our kitchen-garden, -so they cost nothing.

As to Carlo, most pestilent of retrievers, and the other two mongrels, I know not how they were maintained; but I more than suspect that it was by a nefarious composition with our chef, and not at the O'Haras' charges at all. And this was the greater pity, because the dogs barked all night, to the grievous discomfort of many sick men besides the would-be framer of the O'Hara budget; while by day the parrot's continual screams vied with Mrs O'Hara's scoldings.

Then the children were always ailing. Still full of hope to accomplish some good, I prescribed for them simple homely remedies as follows: more air, more exercise, much more discipline and less petting, and occasional-not too occasional -severe beatings to Charlee and Johnnee. I am not a mother myself, nor ever shall be, but I feel sure that my remedies would have been far more effectual than the gallons of drugs that were ever finding their way down the throats of the O'Hara young.

But then again Mrs O'Hara, who was a woman of some force of character, had made herself a permanent honorary member

of our well-stocked dispensary, and she had, so to speak, the run of her teeth there.

Thus it will be seen quite plainly that the O'Haras can make one hundred rupees amonth go a great deal farther than you or I can.

Meanwhile the three children are being loaded up preparatory to starting for school. This is a long business, giving ample time for reflection on the attitude of the half-caste employer towards his wholly black servant. I can only suppose that the latter will stand more from, and work better for, a person approaching his own colour than he will from the sahib pure and simple. For the manner of these children towards their attendants, to put it mildly, grates. Masters Charlie and Johnnie address them as if they were dogs, not unfrequently giving them an entirely wanton taste of the whip of which they themselves are so inexpressibly in need; while the lady-like Miss Eileen, who affects genteel mincing airs, can spit out abuse as only a native can-voluble, shrill, and pauseless. And yet the slaves work as I have never seen natives work, knocking off only on Mrs O'Hara's abrupt order, given at mid-day, "Now, go and eat."

Johnnie having been torn from his parent's capacious lap, and a handkerchief having been tightly adjusted round Charlie's throat-a sore throat being his present ailment-the twain are assisted on to their ponies and start. I look down

on the tops of their enormous pith hats as they pass under my verandah, and note that Master Charles cuts his attendant playfully across the face with his whip. Mrs O'Hara beams fondly on her darlings from the doorstep, and so they pass away. Miss Eileen is next packed into her dandy. In addition to her large hat she carries a very lady-like sunshade, calls one of the bearers "son of an owl," and wears gloves.

Thus do I see the last of the young O'Haras, but not for the day, dear me, no! For are they not back by 11 A.M.? And that is only on those occasions when they are well enough to go to school at all. This for one or other of them is not more than on three days out of six. On the remainder, one or more will complain to Momma of abdominal pains, high temperature, or chest, and Momma says, "No, darling, you shall not go to school to-day," and summons medical aid very shrilly; and the children spend a day in the garden agreeable to themselves, but tiresome to everyone else.

"Good morning, sir," says the cheerful voice of Mr Phelps who is making his morning round, collecting bulletins. "Ah, sir, I expect it was more than that," he replies, when I solemnly assure him that he had not made the morphia dose strong enough, and that it had only procured me three hours of sleep. He is very sceptical, is Mr Phelps, but otherwise the best of good fellows, and in immediate charge of one of the

most troublesome patients he has ever had. Yet I have never fathomed his patience. He acts as my private wire, and I tap him when I want to know, as nervous patients will, what is going to happen. And although his information is not always true, yet it is vastly comforting, for it is all given with the kindly wish to allay apprehensions.

"Now," say I, "I can tell you what he's going to do this morning, Mr Phelps. He's going to use the lancet. I saw him open the case-the pocket-case-yesterday, and after fiddling with it for a bit he said to himself, 'No, we'll let it settle down a bit.' Now tell me if he isn't going to use the lancet this morning?" To which Mr Phelps reassuringly replies, "Why, bless you! no, sir. He'll go on with the That's only a

fomentations. habit Dr X has of fingering the lancets."

This is most reassuring. Familiarity with lancets never did breed contempt for them. Mr Phelps I shall always remember with affection and gratitude. He and his class see all the seamy side of their profession. No social status or military rank for the likes of them. Theirs the small pay, hard work, and the humdrum routine of doctoring uninteresting kinds of patients full of wiles or unattractive diseases. What wonder, then, if they become a little callous!

Yet my Mr Phelps had lost none of the milk of human kindness. No one more down than he on the malingerer or

more sharp in detecting him. No one more solicitous for the real cases, and withal as gentle as a woman, and as tolerant and patient of a nervous invalid's apprehensions. "What we want, sir," and this was his only complaint of a service which might supply a score or more "What we want, sir, is a godfather: our service has no one to look after its interests. Now, if we only had a godfather!" I sincerely trust, for Mr Phelps' sake alone, that a suitable sponsor may be found; better still, that his dream of happiness may be fulfilled and that a fairy godmother may furnish him with the paltry sum of money-I forget the exact amount-to enable him to realise his dearest wish, that of qualifying as a dental surgeon and buying a large practice in Calcutta. That came out when we amusing ourselves by stating what we should do if we came into a fortune.

were

Then breakfast. Item, the tea is flavoured with soup, because our establishment has no "feeders," and the teapot has to be used for soup, and vice versa. We are short of quite a number of things in our establishment. But there is plenty of Red Tape. At soup - time the acting feeder will be flavoured with tea.

At 10 A.M. sharp the light step of the Tormentor is heard round the corner, followed instantly by the appearance of his cheerful waistcoat. I do not mean that he is stout, merely that his waistcoats-he has many are of the most cheerful varieties. So, indeed,

are his silk-knitted ties; so, indeed, is his spick-and-span turn-out generally.

Though I well know what his advent portends, yet it is always welcome. He is tactful, and does not at once proceed to strip and roll up his sleeves, but preludes his painful operations with a few minutes' cheerful conversation, lightly touching on the topics of the hour, and on the social events of our little world. When he has done this he has finished his pipe, and when he has finished his pipe his coat comes off and he "starts in."

I may as well skip the next half-hour and the record of all that occurs therein, from the words "And now let's have a look at it" to "Well, I'm afraid I have hurt you a bit, but the pain 'll soon go"; and his myrmidons disappear, together with basins, hot water, bandages, not forgetting the devilish little black leather case containing the lancets and probes. That part of the day is well over.

To-day is Wednesday, the weekly handicap-day for the fleet of tiny raters that adorn the lake, and the gun which has just been fired is the "get ready." The homeward-turning buoy is quite close under my verandah; and presently, after the usual manoeuvrings, which will be amply described in marine language in our weekly issue, 'The Lake Hurricane,' the second gun releases the flotilla of white butterflies which have been jostling one another at the farther end of the lake.

Colonel X-the sound of the gun draws him from his stool

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Ah! These salts!

In fact, Wednesday was always a red - letter day with me. With luck and frequent calms the race would last most of the forenoon, while with more luck and squalls there was always more than & chance of one of the boats

(in the office hard by)-dashes and his complexion - loving into the verandah. "Field- affinity, and in this breeze, she glasses?" "Yes, here's 8 would have saved by fifteen, pair!" and the old salt has not two, minutes!" them in an instant glued to his lee and weather peepers. "No, no longer owner, he ejaculates. "No time; too much dashed office work; had to sell her, the little jewel; last year's 'crack' she was-and would be this year if that duffer knew how to Ah! you lubber, you keep her full! keep her full, man, for goodness sake!" The lubber, best part of a mile away, is in blissful ignorance of these exhortations. From this distance only his large hat can be discerned above the gunwale of the little jewel, while his complement of two hands is represented by a scarlet sunshade amidships and a black bullet head farther forward.

The former owner, holding the glasses still to his eyes, continues-"And if he hasn't got a woman aboard! a woman with a damnation parasol blanketing half his canvas! Oh man! man! you're not worthy the Billow!"—and dashing the glasses from his harrowed countenance, he bounds away once more to his office stool.

I, however, have more leisure, and can follow the race to the bitter end. The Billow, despite her lubberly owner and the woman with the blankety parasol, not only comes in first but saves her time. This intelligence I communicate in a pencilled bulletin to Colonel X, wondering in what manner he will take it. His answer runs "Thanks; without that fool

joining the great company of craft that already paved the bottom of the lake, and of watching the salvage operations that followed. Charlie and Johnnie had returned from school an hour since, and having rested a little were now at play. Charlie, reclining in a chair, was lobbing stones (and would continue to do so till called in to eat and sleep) on to the corrugated iron roof of his dwelling, for the pure delight of hearing them roll clanging down the slope. This pastime is immensely annoying to everyone but Charlie, and his attendant-one is always on duty-supplies him constantly with stones. Johnnie, dear innocent, has a little rook-rifle. Recumbent he will discharge it at intervals of sixty seconds for quite long periods, at birds for choice, his own retainers and poultry only from necessity. The pellet makes a nasty "phut" as it hurtles through the trees, and my walnut, with all its thick foliage, affords only cover from view; and Johnnie, should the fancy take him, might use me as a nice fixed target. I must therefore keep on the right side of Johnnie. To Mrs O'Hara I dare not

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