f the afternoon
of the previous day it may have registered 90 deg. in the shade, and a
drop of 40 deg. is keenly felt. In January 1911, without any warning, the
temperature one night actually dropped to below freezing, and a film
of ice was found in a plate which had been left out all night, to the
great astonishment of the boys, and much damage was done to fruit
blossom and crops.

The Indian deals with cold in quite a different way to those who have
been brought up in northern countries. If you give him a comforter,
very little of it goes round his neck, but he wraps his head up in it
so that only his eyes and nose are visible, and if his head is warm he
does not seem to mind much about the rest of his frame, especially his
legs, which are generally bare. But instead of trying to counteract
cold by exertion, he delivers himself up to the miseries of the
situation. Clad in his scanty linen garments he crouches, and mopes,
and shivers, and waits for the sun to rise and warm him. Masons and
carpenters and labourers may be seen sitting round about the house
which they are building, waiting to get warm, and until that process
has been satisfactorily completed they will not touch a tool, however
late it may be.

You ask Felix, the boy who sweeps the bungalow, why he has not done
it, and he replies, "I was cold." You say, "You will sweep it as soon
as you are warm?" He says, "Of course." And there is nothing more to
be said, because it is an understood thing that a cold Indian cannot
work. His delight in a fire is intense. People collect leaves and
rubbish and make fires by the roadside, or even in the streets, and
crowds gather round and sit almost into the blaze, so that it is a
wonder that they are not scorched. Their only regret is that the
materials for the bonfire are generally so insufficient.

The joy of sitting in the sun to get warm, which the Indian can do
with impunity, is denied to the Englishman. He must treat the sun with
respect from the time it rises till the time it sets, and even on a
cloudy day the same caution is necessary. This does not mean that it
is unsafe to go out in the sun. It only means that no one should step
out, even for a few moments, without first putting on his sun-hat.
This is a complete safeguard if it is made of real pith of sufficient
thickness, and with a brim wide enough to protect the forehead and the
back of the head and neck. This kind of sun-tope is very light, but in
other r