“Not a bad idea, to have it handy. I could not get at it if it were packed amongst other luggage on a mule, and I shall be wanting it every minute.”
Io was an indulgent sister. She gave the cloth and patient attention besides, and with the assistance of the darzi (tailor) the bag was made. Thud insisted on its being bound with red braid, also drawn from Io’s stores, with strong strings of red ribbon to fasten it on securely. The lad looked at his “specimen case,” as he called it, with pride: it was to be the nucleus of the museum which in his mind’s eye he already beheld—a museum with portico and pillars, containing the valuable collection of Thucydides Thorn, with some eight or ten mysterious capitals after his name.
Thud appeared to be too busy even to go to church on the following Sunday. Notwithstanding Io’s expostulations, she had to leave him to write labels and affix them on his specimen case.
CHAPTER XIV.
A DISCOVERY.
Monday came. The huge bulk of the elephant, with its howdah outside, darkened the veranda; servants were busy lading mules; there were boxes of provisions, the small tent, trunks, knapsacks, cooking vessels, and many other et cætera to be packed, the weight duly apportioned, and the ropes securely fastened. To start on a camping expedition in Siam is a very different thing indeed from going on a railway journey in England. Foresight is required, readiness of resource, and a large amount of patience; no necessary article must be forgotten, no possible contingency overlooked.
Io, who had completed her packing arrangements, sat in the drawing-room writing her letters for the English mail, to have them sent off before she should start. Every now and then she laid down her pen, that she might run to the veranda to see how the packing was progressing. The novelty and bustle of the scene were to the youthful Englishwoman somewhat amusing.
Io was just finishing her despatch when Oscar enteredthe room, with his little packet of letters in his hand.
“Is your letter to your mother ready?” said he. “We had better send off our budget to the post before we start.”
Io folded up her large sheet in the then approved style (envelopes are a modern invention; paste wafers, now a thing of the past, were in common use then, when the more formal wax seal was not required). As lucifer matches were unknown, sealing was a more troublesome operation in those days than in the reign of our gracious Queen.