at least a dozen articles a week. The two or three-article man
he should refuse. He had called, he said, to solicit the custom of the
Boys' Home. We were able to give him, readily enough, a qualified
promise of support, and from that day to this we have heard no more of
the modern laundry.

There is no more valuable asset in rural India than a good well. Hence
many landowners begin to sink one. But with the propensity to begin
and not to finish, there are multitudes of unfinished, and therefore
useless, wells. There is a wide stretch of land between the Mission
field at Yerandawana and the low range of hills on which the boys are
so fond of rambling. It is only water which is wanted to make this
tract productive. Dependent as it now is on the uncertain rainfall of
the monsoon, an occasional and ragged crop, which often never comes
into ear, is all that it ever produces. More often than not the
farmers who own the property do not think it worth the labour and
expense of cultivation. Two attempts have been made to sink wells, and
both have been abandoned for years. In the case of one of these wells
at least, water had actually been reached, and if they had gone down a
little deeper there was every probability of an adequate supply. But
abandoned schemes are hardly ever taken up again, and these two wells
will remain unfinished to the end of time.

A near neighbour, whom we will call Shunker, determined to sink a
well. He discoursed to me at great length on the advantage of being
independent of the canal water for the irrigation of his land. He
also described the powerful pump, worked by a windmill, which would
supersede the old-fashioned method of raising water by means of
bullocks.

The sinking of the well commenced with great energy. Shunker remained
on the spot the whole day in order to see that the men did not idle.
Friends and neighbours came and sat around and advised, and speculated
how soon they would reach water. Shunker was confident that a depth of
15 feet would be sufficient. The ground, however, was very hard, and
the men soon reached solid rock and blasting became necessary. Shunker
was full of importance over this, and before an explosion took place
rushed up and down the road in great excitement, warning travellers to
halt. His interest in the well continued until the commencement of the
rainy season obliged him to knock off for a while.

But when the time came to resume operations Shunker's zeal had b