t their fate,
When all at once cried little Bell,
"Stupidity I hate!
I see the reason very well,
We quite forgot the bait!"

VII

Too true! the dough lay there untouch'd
Among the grass and mould;
And now 'twas time they home should go,
As chimes distinctly told;
Moreover rain came on, and so
They only caught a cold!

E. Oxenford.

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A WALK IN COLOMBO.

Colombo, as most of my readers will remember, is in Ceylon, that
beautiful island lying to the south of India.

You would think the people very funny, seeing them for the first time.
The man in the picture, who is walking with the little English girl, is
a Hindu, and probably you have often seen pictures like him. Nearly all
the servants and laborers in Colombo are Hindus from Madras, but the
natives of the island are called Cingalese, and are very different in
every way.

The men wear their hair in a big knob at the back like a woman, and on
the top of that is fastened a comb, shaped like a half-circle, with the
ends pointed to the face. The whole costume is a mixture of native and
English fashions. The usual hat is a little round felt one, such as you
may see any day on boys at home, and which you have perhaps yourself.
The next garment is also what you might expect to see on a man; that is,
a cloth coat, or rather shooting-jacket; but after that comes a long
flowing skirt, which you certainly would not see on any man or boy at
home. The Cingalese men bestow a good deal of attention on this skirt.
Poorer people have it made in white or blue calico, but others use very
handsome India stuffs, which must have cost a lot of money.

The heat in Colombo is very great, and the roads are very dusty. No
wonder the people often feel hot and tired, and are very glad to lie
down and take a little sleep when they can. They also cool themselves by
standing in some pools near the town. The cattle do the same, and you
can just see the heads of the buffaloes and of the men above the level
of the water. They stand that way for an hour or two, perfectly still;
but the little children who go in keep jumping about and splashing each
other.

You may see in this picture the fruit shops in the native quarter of the
town, and bunches of bananas or plantains hanging up. Other shops sell
grain, which the people chiefly live upon. It is nothing unusual to see
the