An amusing story comes from India. It concerns a distinguished officer who was constantly embracing some new hobby, much to the disgust of his brother officers, and to the annoyance of the soldiers on whom the hobbies frequently involved extra duty. His latest fad was amateur gardening. One day he was strolling past the officers' quarters, when he saw a couple of soldiers busily raking a lot of gravel-stones over a patch of earth.
"Ah, men, I'm glad to see you taking an interest in gardening. It's a very nice occupation."
One of the men, not knowing him by sight, replied: "Nice, is it? Umph! That's all you know. We wouldn't be hiding this earth with gravel if we didn't have an old fool of a General that's mad on gardening. Here we are scraping these stones about in case he should pass this way and want to grow cabbages on the bit of earth underneath."
Here is an enjoyable little bit of history that has descended to us. It seems that some hundred and fifty years ago the natives of one of the Scilly Islands boasted a library which consisted of but one book. It was the pride and delight of the people, and went from hand to hand until its pages, from perpetual thumbing and handling, grew utterly worthless. This alarmed the proud natives, and a meeting of the dignitaries was held to decide upon the purchase of a new library, this time of more than one book. Long and loud they argued, and the matter was nearly approaching a disastrous crisis when a deputation of townspeople, desiring to have a voice in the matter, waited upon the dignitaries. Again the discussion waxed furious, and the ultimate result was the following resolution:
Resolved. On the next fine day, weather permitting communication with the mainland, an order be transmitted to Penzance for another copy of History of Doctor Faustus.
Then the meeting joyously broke up.