CHAPTER XXV I L Mais Post-office peculiarities Rumours Conflagrations.

SUCH was our everyday life in quarters, perspiring freely from seven to five, and then doing as much in the way of exercise as was possible till 7.30, when it got dark, and we had dinner. As regards our food, it was voted that three meals a day was too much for a hot climate, so they were reduced to two; breakfast at eleven, and dinner at 7.30. Soon, however, we began to discover an empty feeling in our interiors between sunrise and eleven, so we had a gentle chota hazri of tea and biscuits at 6.30 a.m., and, to fill up the gap between breakfast and dinner, another slight repast of the same about four ; total, four meals instead of two.

The men had built us a capital straw mess-hut, and the greater part of the day we spent there, playing whist and piquet, and reading the papers, which were by way of coining once a week from