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30 Sir Henry) Ricketts, on a public occasion at a later date, 'that a fair, handsome young fellow, full of life and full of ability, came and joined me as an Assistant in Cuttack. We had boy judges in those days, as well as boy magistrates; and he joined me' (Mr. Ricketts was at that time Judge of Cuttack) 'as my Assistant. I am afraid I cannot say what he learned there from the acting Judge; but I recollect that we lived happily together for a few months, when he left me to go as an Assistant to Haidarábád.' The friendship thus formed in his first district with Sir Henry Ricketts was one which throughout life never failed his young Assistant. To their first district, where they were sent as lads on commencing Indian life, many, like him, look back throughout their career with an affection which no subsequent scene can share. There, unless they were singularly unfortunate, they first met from their seniors with that welcome and that generous hospitality which is still characteristic of India. It was then that they first tasted independence, and were entrusted with public responsibilities. Their first experience of an Indian cold weather, and of Indian sport, is probably linked with the marshes, the jungles, or the ravines of their first district. From that time they began to study the character of the people among whom their lives were to be passed, to gain some insight into their points of view, to acquire sympathy with them in their trials and struggles.

As the shadows of evening steal upon them in later years, many turn with peculiar tenderness to the