-like at living; and even now I haven't
altered my opinion of them in general, for the great burst of frenzied
passion that run through so many of them was just like a child's
uncontrolled rage.

Things were not long in settling down to the regular life: there was a
little drill of a morning, and then, the rest of the day, the heat to
fight with, which seemed to take all the moisture out of our bodies, and
make us long for night.

I did not get put on as sentry once at the colonel's quarters, but I
heard a little now and then from Mrs Bantem, who used to wash some of
Mrs Maine's fine things, the black women doing everything else; and
she'd often have a good grumble about "her fine ladyship," as she called
her, and she'd pity her children. She used to pick up a good deal of
information, though, and, taking a deal of interest as I did in Miss
Ross, I got to know that it seemed to be quite a settled thing between
her and Captain Dyer; and Bantem, who got took on now as Lieutenant
Leigh's servant, used to tell his wife about how black those two were
one towards the other.

And so the time went on in a quiet sleepy way, the men getting lazier
every day. There was nothing to stir us, only now and then we'd have a
good laugh at Measles, who'd get one of his nasty fits on, and swear at
all the officers round, saying he was as good as any of them, and that
if he had his rights he would have been made an officer before then.
Harry Lant, too, used to do his bit to make time pass away a little less
dull, singing, telling stories, or getting up to some of his pranks with
old _Nabob_, the elephant, making Chunder, the mahout, more mad than
ever, for, no matter what he did or said, only let Harry make a sort of
queer noise of his, and just like a great flesh-mountain, that elephant
would come. It didn't matter who was in the way: regiment at drill,
officer, rajah, anybody, old _Nabob_ would come straight away to Harry,
holding out his trunk for fruit, or putting it in Harry's breast, where
he'd find some bread or biscuit; and then the great brute would smooth
him all over with his trunk, in a way that used to make Mrs Bantem say,
that perhaps, after all, the natives weren't such fools as they looked,
and that what they said about dead people going into animals' bodies
might be true after all, for, if that great overgrown beast hadn't a
soul of its own, and couldn't think, she didn't know nothing, so now
then!

STORY ONE, C