Page:On the Coromandel Coast.djvu/189



Let us realise that death watches like a tiger to seize us unawares, sickness pursues us like a relentless enemy, earthly joys are like a leaky vessel from which water trickles ceaselessly until it is empty.- SLOKA.

feature about life in India is the rapidity with which the Government official uproots himself and his family from one station and settles down in another. He considers himself fortunate if he has a few weeks' notice of the change; sometimes only ten days' warning is given. In that time he has to hand over charge to a successor arid take up his new work.

The servants are adepts at carrying out the details of the move. "With a good staff of coolies the butler or head 'boy' gets the furniture into position. The cook busies himself with his pots and pans in the kitchen. The ayah packs and unpacks the house linen. Though the bungalow may have been empty at sunrise, by dinner-time the master will be sitting down in comparative comfort to a five-course meal. It did not take long to establish ourselves in one of the houses of the cantonment situated conveniently near the church.

The cantonment is about three miles south of the rock, and stands on ground that is slightly higher than the site of the town. It was laid out (1805) after the district had been taken over by the Company from the Nawab of the Carnatic. There was nothing further to