g with the Bombay regiment which starts
tomorrow, and shall travel through Central India to Surat. There I
shall leave them in the Concan, and cross the Ghauts to Jooneer,
and pay a visit to Soyera, Ramdass, and Sufder, and see them all
comfortably settled; and then go down to Bombay. So we shall both
have plenty of time to think it over."

Accordingly the next morning Harry, after saying goodbye to all his
friends, started. The journey to Surat was nearly seven hundred
miles, and was accomplished without incident. On their arrival at
Jowaur, they ascended the Ghaut to Trimbuck, and then rode to
Jooneer, and another half hour took them to the farm.

Harry was received with delight by its occupants. It was six years
since he had parted from his old nurse at Bombay, and he had
greatly changed since then. He was now a tall and powerfully-built
man.

"And so you are already a major, as was your dear father!" she
said, after the first greetings were over. "It seems to me but a
short time since you were an infant in my arms. But what brings you
here?"

"There is going to be a general peace for some time, Soyera; and I
have had enough of fighting, and am on my way home to England,
where I hope to learn something about my father's and mother's
families. I have three years' leave, and as I am as rich as I could
desire to be, possibly I may return here no more."

"I shall grieve, Harry; but it is natural for you to do so, and I
shall feel happy in the thought that you have become all your
parents could have wished, and that I have been the means, in some
way, of bringing this about."

"In all ways, Soyera. I owe not only my life, but all that I am, to
you. Had you been without friends, I would have taken you to
England. But happily you are among your own people, and have now
been living with your good brother and his wife for four-and-twenty
years; and I can leave you, knowing that you are perfectly
comfortable and happy.

"Have you any desire to better your condition, Ramdass? I owe you,
too, so much that it would greatly please me to be able, in some
way, to show that I am grateful for the shelter you gave me for so
many years."

"There is nothing," Ramdass said. "I have all that I can desire.
Had I more, I should have greater cares. Those who are rich here
are not the best off, for it is they who are squeezed when our
lords have need of money. My sons will divide my land when I die,
and my daughter is already marr