EARLY REMINISCENCES
do, dancing war dances on the roof of the house, if by chance a ladder was left within their reach; and generally on their first appearance on promotion to the dining-room, going off into suppressed giggles, to be summarily dragged out and cuffed by the older servants into a proper sense of decorum. When a little later we took them travelling in India, if their railway carriage doors were locked, they climbed through the windows as a matter of course, or perhaps were found on the engine hobnobbing with the driver and anxious to know what made the fire devil go.
Sikhim was a place where we had to be entirely self-supporting, so cattle had to be bought in order to have our own dairy for milk, butter and cheese, a flock of sheep for the supply of mutton, a poultry-yard, an oven built and baker engaged to bake bread, a blacksmith taught to shoe the ponies, who otherwise would have to take a four days’ walk to Darjeeling every time their shoes wanted renewing, and even our own silversmith, who, though he may in one way have been a luxury, was again almost a necessity, as he had to make various other things in metals as well as to mend all the numberless small things which were always getting broken. Stores had to be carried on coolies from Darjeeling or Siliguri, sixty or seventy miles, and this meant large supplies being arranged for beforehand, as transport often broke down, or bad slips occurred on the road, and we had to be prepared for all emergencies and to supplement other folks’ commissariat. Some funny episodes occurred in those far-away, early days. On one occasion, Captain and Mrs. P., belonging to the detachment stationed in Gangtak, came to the Residency to beg for some addition to their monotonous fare, and finding no one at home, went round to the open but barred storeroom window and proceeded with great skill to fish out a tin of provisions. They succeeded with much difficulty in getting hold of a Huntley and Palmer’s biscuit tin, but imagine their feelings when they found it was an empty box.
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