so redolent of balmy odors, that one is fairly
bewildered with the superabundance of sweets. Of course we were
nothing loath to tarry a few weeks on this fairy isle, and we gladly
availed ourselves of the opportunity thus afforded to enrich our
herbariums and sketchbooks with new specimens by making occasional
excursions to the jungles, and now and then a picnic to some of the
thirty smaller islands that surround Singapore. But as the foreign
tourist in those enervating tropical regions is not slow to acquire
the Oriental love of ease and inveterate aversion to fatigue even in
pleasure-seeking, we usually left our Mussulman comprador to seek out
objects of interest and report to us beforehand, thus saving us from
the weariness of many a bootless expedition, and catering to the
precise tastes and desires of each of us in the way of adding to our
treasures.

On the morning in question Abdallah had just brought in the invariable
morning coffee, served in the purest and tiniest of porcelain cups;
and while we listlessly sipped the fragrant Mocha he seemed scanning
our faces with more than usual interest, evidently expecting just such
a question as I had asked. What a picture he was as he stood there
in flowing robes and huge turban, with his jet black moustache and
bronze-brown complexion, one small hand placed over the heart in token
of his absolute devotion to the foreign sahibs, and his lithe, supple
form leaning forward in the most obsequious attitude imaginable! His
answer was characteristic:

"Well, Madam Sahib, I find much beautiful flower, but not all where
lady sahib can go, unless she can ride in sampan. Some roads too small
for palanquin, and lady sahib's satin slipper must not be soiled with
dust or mud. But I engage one big sampan with six men to pull, and, if
the foreign sahibs all please, we make one grand picnic to Pulo Nanas
(Pineapple Island) and Pulo Panjan. They can ride first to where boat
is waiting, visit Pulo Nanas, take breakfast under orange tree, see
much fine fruit trees, and then go to Pulo Panjan, where I gave orders
for dinner to be served for the sahibs."

"But pray tell us who is to serve it," laughingly responded one of our
party. "Are we to have monkeys or wild squirrels for caterers? It must
be one or the other, as I am sure I have been informed that neither of
those islands are inhabited by human beings."

"No man there, true, sahib," was our Mussulman's ready rejoinder.
"But I sen