BOATMEN ASHORE.
The boats were of a pattern different from any the boys had yet seen. They were sharp at the ends, rising out of the water at an angle of forty-five degrees, and the most of them had the bow and stern exactly alike. A house of woven palm-leaves and with a thatched roof was built over the centre of each boat, partly for protection to the cargo and partly as a sleeping-place for the crew in bad weather. The sails were of coarse cloth or matting, and when a boat was in motion the ends of the cords that controlled the position of the sail were held by a man who sat near the steersman. Some of the boats had railings around the roof, to keep the men from falling overboard, while others were without that protection. It is dangerous to fall into the river, as the crocodiles are numerous, and have a fondness for breakfasting on a slightly-dressed Hindoo.
COOKING BREAKFAST.
As they passed the town of Arrah the Doctor called the attention of the boys to a wonderful defence that was made by a few Europeans and fifty Sikh soldiers during the Mutiny of 1857. As the rebels advanced, the party, numbering less than sixty, took refuge in a storehouse, and for a week they successfully defended themselves against more than 3000 sepoys, who were armed with muskets and two small cannon. A steady fire was kept up night and day, and it is a remarkable fact that not a man of the defending party was killed, and only one seriously wounded. At the end of the week the rebels were driven away by a column of troops from Calcutta. Near this town the river has changed its course; it formerly flowed in front of Arrah, but is now twelve miles away from it.
While they were riding along in the train the boys proposed, with the approval of Doctor Bronson, to write a history of India. "We will not make a long one," said Frank, "but enough to let those who read our letters know something about the country and what it has been."
"Yes," responded Fred, "and we'll divide the work, as we did in the case of Marco Polo and of Cochin-China."
"An excellent plan," the Doctor suggested: "one of you may tell about India under its native rulers, and the other can write of the conquest by England and the sepoy rebellion. You will thus avoid conflicting with each other's accounts."
Then the youths held a consultation, and agreed upon the division of labor. We shall see by-and-by what was the result.