with anger and exertion. For, nothing ruffles
a Madrasee more, than to shout Boy in vain.

Ramasami may be taken as the generic
name of the Madras Boy; just as Jeames is
that of the London footman. There are
Pronasamis, Chimasamis, Appasamis, Autonis,
Lazaruses, Gabriels, and a host of other
names, hut these are seldom used or even
known by masters and mistresses. It is as a
bachelor's factotum that Ramasami is seen
to the best advantage. If his master's salary
be small, Uamasami will manage his house,
wait at table, black his boots, take care of his
clothes, sew on his buttons—in short do the
work of half a dozen servants—and will smoke
only a few of master's cheroots, and will cheat
him only a little. As his master's salary increases
Ramasami takes care that more servants
shall be engaged, and that the expenses shall
increase; he smokes more of his master's cheroots,
and cheats him a little more. But he is
generally so willing, so handy, and after all
cheats so discreetly, that a Madras Boy is generally
acknowledged to be the best bachelor's
servant in India. In a family where his accounts
are carefully examined by the mistress daily,
where there are plenty of servants under him,
when he is not kept up to the mark as regards
fire and cool soda, when he is not liable to be
called on unexpectedly in the dead of night to
prepare hot grilled bones and cool beer, then
he generally degenerates into a fat, lazy, comnonplace
butler.

In many ways all Boys are strangely alike,
as if they were all members of one family, or
had all been brought up together. This is particularly
noticeable in their English, which is of
the " pigeon" kind, but much better than that
of the Chinese. The use of the present participle
and the word only is a marked peculiarity.
"What master saying that only I doing" conveys
to you Ramasami's intention of acting
according to your order. The word " done" is
also invariably used as an auxiliary to express
the completion of an act. " Boy, have you done
that?''—" Done do, sir." The simple perfect,
when used by Ramasami, can never be trusted
as having its proper grammatical force. Ask
the Boy whether the brandy is gone, and if he
says " Yes, sir, gone," should you find ten
minutes afterwards that it is not gone, you must
not look upon this as a great departure from
truth. But if you ask him, " Has the brandy
done go?" and he says " Yes, sir, done go,"
then, if it have not really gone, you are justified
in calling him what David in his haste called
all men. Some Boys have adopted, as pets of
their own, particular English words; one of the
first Boys the writer had in the country, had
so adopted the word " about." He had originally
been a cook-boy in a regiment, and having
learnt slang and the use of his fists, he constantly
aired both accomplishments when he
had differences of opinion with the other servants
or bazaar-men. One day he was brought
to his master, guarded by two police peons
with guns, and a third with a drawn sword,
who declared that the Boy had nearly killed a
man. The Boy was asked what he had to say
for himself? His reply was to the effect that
he had quarrelled with the man, but had only
slanged him, and that somebody else had done
the beating: which he expressed thus: " I only
jaw about; 'nother man lick about." But the
schoolmaster is abroad in India, as elsewhere,
and it seems likely that before long the Boy
will speak English as correctly as the ordinary
run of servants at home. It cannot be long
before bells will be introduced into the houses
of Europeans in India, and they will sound the
death-knell of the cry, " Boy!"

FATAL ZERO.
A DIARY KEPT AT HOMBURG: A SHORT SERIAL STORY.

CHAPTER V.

MONDAY.— I am not sorry I adopted
that resolution of forswearing the Kursaal,
its reading-rooms, &c., though I did see
Mr. Lewis, the clergyman of the English
chapel, going in and sitting down, and
reading his Galignani. Can he know what
he is doing? He is on the spot, a resident,
and it is, as it were, in his parish; at all
events it is his concern. I even saw him
enter from the colonnade, go up the steps
into the great tavern entrance and pass
through. He was looking for some one.
Still, if I were to refine on the matter, this
garden where I am now, is theirs, kept by
their gardeners. This very seat on which
I sit, was paid for by them. What do you
say, Dora? Send me some little bit of
casuistry to help me over the matter ....

What scenes I do see, even so far off as
I am now; hints, as it were, of a whole
history. Thus have I come in late to a
theatre, and, standing in the box lobby,
have peeped in through the little glass
window in the door. That glimpse has
a strange mystery, from the fact of all
having been worked up to a point. The
situation seems changed, while we who
look are in quite another region—a long
way behind, as it were. I have noticed a
fair-haired youth with a gold " pinch- nose,"
and who is certainly not more than twenty,
and on his arm is a charming little French
girl of seventeen, round and rosy, and
dressed in the most piquant way imaginable.
I soon found out that they are just
married, not further back than a month.
They were supremely happy, like cliildren
running from one thing to another, and
enjoying everything with a charming happiness
and animation. He wore a straw-
coloured silk coat and white hat. She, a
most coquettish little hat and a pink and
white short dress. On the first day I had