They reached Colombo on the evening after leaving Newera-Ellia, and returned to their old quarters in the hotel. In the morning, while the Doctor was busy with plans for their departure, the boys read and corrected their letter, and at the suggestion of Frank a postscript was added, giving a brief account of the return journey, and closing with a description of the visitors that were just then calling on them.
A MORNING CALLER.
"Our visitors are very numerous," said the letter, "and their names are crows. They are all through the room, and they stand on the blinds and the window-sills, and watch their chances when we are breakfasting to steal something from our plates. One of them just now came down and took away a cracker from a plate that was on the table where we are writing, and it is not unusual for them to seize the bread you have in your fingers. They are a little shy of strangers, but not much; and as for the waiters in the hotel, they don't mind them at all. They are never harmed by anybody, and consequently it is not surprising that they are so tame.
"There are many insect visitors, but we have grown so accustomed to their presence that we do not mind them until they actually crawl over us. They are worse in the evening than by daylight, as the lamps and candles attract them; they do not wait for an introduction, but make themselves at home as though everything belonged to them."
EVENING VISITORS.