es. She did not weep nor wail at
the death or the sickness but accepted the dispensation. During the
time I was in her house, she ministered to me to such an extent that I
cannot adequately describe her kindness. Of her own free-will she
washed my clothes, arranged my bed, and polished my boots daily for
three months. She washed down my bedroom daily with hot water, having
herself heated it. Each morning she prepared me a tray with bread,
butter, milk and coffee. When we had to leave that village that old
lady wept on my shoulder. It is strange that I had never seen her weep
for her dead son, but she wept for me. Moreover, at parting she would
have had me take a _fi-farang_ [five franc] note for expenses on the
road." [_What a woman! What a woman! I had never believed such women
existed in this Black Age._]

"If there be any doubt of the quality or the colour of the carpet, ask
for an audience of the Doctor Linley Sahib if he be still in Amritsar.
He knows carpets. Tell him all I have written concerning this old
lady--may God keep her and her remaining household!--and he will
advise. I do not know the Doctor Sahib, but this he will overlook in
war-time. If the carpet is even fifty rupees, I can securely pay out of
the monies which our lands owe me. She is an old lady. It must be soft
to her feet, and not inclined to slide upon the wooden floor. She is
well-born and educated." [_And now we will begin to enlighten him and
the elders!_]

"We must cause our children to be educated in the future. That is the
opinion of all the Regiment, for by education, even women accomplish
marvels, like the women of Franceville. Get the boys and girls taught
to read and write well. Here teaching is by Government order. The men
go to the war daily. It is the women who do all the work at home,
having been well taught in their childhood. We have only yoked one
buffalo to the plough up till now. It is now time to yoke up the
milch-buffaloes. Tell the village elders this and exercise influence."
[_Write that down strongly, Sahib. We who have seen Franceville_ all
_know it is true._]

"But as to cultivation. The methods in Franceville are good. All tools
are of iron. They do not break. A man keeps the tools he needs for his
work and his repairs in his house under his own hand. He has not to go
back to the village a mile away if anything breaks. We never thought,
as these people do, that all repairs to tools and ploughs can be done
on the ve