for courtesy prevails in both offices, and an emissary from either is well received in the camp of the enemy. The subordinates know that the editors shake hands when they meet -nay, that they dine with each other sometimes-and they, therefore, regard it as their duty to emulate this fraternal feeling.

The extra duty imposed upon the editor, however, by the arrival of the English mail did not end here. Leading articles were to be written on colonial topics of interest-speculations were to be indulged in of good or evil fortune, and hopes raised or warnings reiterated in consequence. Files of papers were to be searched for articles referred to in the Monthly Times, which merely gleaned the chief items of news for us, and directed us to the rest. Columns of the London daily papers were to be run carefully over with the fingers, pencil in hand, to extract a few lines from some debate, relative to Ceylon-how Mr. Stick had laid a petition from the coffeeplanters upon the table of the house, and had then resumed his seat-how Mr. Stick had said nothing, or, if he did, how, what he said. was inaudible in the reporters' gallery. Such

a notice served for the foundation of an indignant comment, as to the way in which colonial affairs were neglected by the British parliament a comment palatable to men, with irritated feelings, who had lost their fortunes in an artificial undertaking, fostered by one set of legal enactments, and overthrown by another.

Nor was the period of the departure of the English mail less bustling and noisy in our little office; we, too, had our Overland Summary to dispatch to subscribers in England, containing the editorials which we most prized -the local items considered of most importance-the commercial, the domestic, and the shipping news. A busy and a bustling time. that in which this Summary was "got out;" for whilst, on the one hand, we did not wish "to go to press" a moment too soon, we must not, on the other, run a risk of losing the mail. This Summary was, for the most part, ordered by English residents in the island to be sent to their European friends-some minute-typed domestic occurrence or shipping announcement, intended to catch the eye of friends and relations left behind in the loved

"home"-a few lines, to the rest of the world nothing, to the little circle for which they were intended of the utmost interest and importance. Not a paper published anywhere but contains many such notices, brief records of the joys and sorrows of a few, unheeded or unread by the many!

CHAPTER II.

THE EDITOR'S HOLIDAY.

My previous residence in the jungle had made me passionately fond of jungle sports. The chase of the elephant, the leopard, the elk, and the deer, were physical excitements craved earnestly for, amidst the mental wear and tear of editorial life; nor was I altogether excluded from such.

At the time of which I write, Captain Lister, of the Ceylon Rifles, was one of the finest sportsmen in the island; and having made acquaintance, nay, contracted a friendship with him, during my residence in the forest, I maintained that acquaintanceship and friendship uninterrupted during the period of my

editorial labours. When a friend, whose discretion might be relied upon, could be procured for the purpose, and induced to look after the details of the office; when no English mail was expected to arrive or depart for some time—no stirring news anticipated; I would leave the requisite amount of leading articles in the hands of the aforesaid convenient friend, and start for the jungle, to enjoy a few days' sport with Captain Lister. The Herald was published on Tuesdays and Fridays, so that, starting early on a fine moonlight Tuesday night from Colombo on my own steed, with two fresh horses, hired or borrowed, at convenient stages on the road, and a pony awaiting me from the estate in Kandy, I could reach Ruminacudde by midday on Wednesday—not without laborious exertion, not without having undertaken and accomplished a long and harassing ride; but my apprenticeship in the jungle had fitted me for such work.

Casting, then, proofs and broadsheets, editorial squabbles, and complaining correspondents, to the winds on such occasions, I gave Uncle Toby (my black Arab) the rein, rode merrily through the intricate covered-ways