Stevens County tribune., 1879-08-14
The Buried Bungalow.

house, and its garden, gay with flowers
from the tea plantations, the green valley,
the upland pastures, and the dazzling
peaks of the H1malavaS soaring overhead.
There, on fragment of rocK, stood the
well-known, tall form of the planter him.
self, angrily confronting a motely mob
of natives, some tawny, others yellow
skined, and a few nearly black. These,
although they had flung aside hoe and
spade, knew to be the coolies employed
at the prosperous hill station, where such
a scene of confusion had been hitherto
unknown.
"The scoundrels are geing to leave NE,
that's allr' said Mr.. Warren, Curtly; and
at that instant there stepped forward IN
advance of the rest, a gaunt Tibetan, clad
in sheepskins, Who, tremendously and
with perfect gravity, placed on the ground
fragment OF wheaton cake, handful
Of salt, and Iota, or brass drinking-cup
nearly filled with coins, from silver rupees
to copper pieces. Then pointing with a
peeled willow wand that he held in his
hand, to the food and money, thrice he
snapped in twain the slender stick, and
with bent head and downcast mein, stood
I1SI1OAASSS9 uS NdlC11IS w OC
questioned.
What mummery is this!" asked I, in
IN undertone. My intended father-in
law, who knew the people and the coun-
try better than did, shook his hesd.
sit means mischief" he whispered.
Something has terrified the supersti-
tious ours; and see! they renUunce my
bread and salt; return the advance of
wages, and break the wand, in token
that they are my men no more. "You
mean," he added harshly, in the Bengali
dialect, "to desert me, then, Han Go
rain?"
"The Sahib Warren is a good MASTER.
replied the Tibetan, in the same lam
guage. "If we go, it is because the evil
eve has looked upon his threshold, and
the voice that never lies has laid curse
on Yirmi Sou and all that dwell there"
The man spoke slowly and with some
diff -ulty, such as beset those who use
foreign tongue imperfectly mastered; but
he uttered his brief speech with empha-
sis and with a certain dignity of bearing.
Behind him stood the Tibetans and hill
men, sturdy fellows, on whom devolved
the rough work of trenching and dyke
building, while little way off clustered
the dusky coolies from India proper,
their lips tightened over their shining
teeth, and in attitudes expressive of the
most abiect servillty. Clearly tnere was
no stimulent short of physical fear which
would have nerved these crouching clea
lures to disobey the Burra Sahib, or
owner of the plantation, whose lightest
word had been law to his meek subordi-
mates.
''If the Sahib will harken to the coun-
sci of the poor" said the spokesman, af-
ter pause, ''he and his will hasten away
before
But here Mr.. Warren lost patience, and
interrupted the orator, roundly refusing
the whole gang as a pack Of craven
hounds, frightened at their own shadows,
and without spark of manliness to re-
deem them. Were it v orth while, he said,
he could ride over to the nearest magis-
trate and enforce the performance of the
contract, under pain of f1ogging and i'm
prisonmentP but he wanted no half hearts
in his service, so they might go. "You
hear mel" he thundered, silencing Han
Gorain's fresh effort to speak, and the
men skunk away cowed, as Orientals usu-
ally are, by this undoubted assertion OF
authority.
The planter recovered his temper as
soon as the recusant had departed, and
laid his broad hand on my shoulder, say
ing with jolly laugh:
"a lesson, my boy, as to the thorns tina
will lie in your path when you and Edith
live here in my stead, as I hope you'll do
after the gathering-in of the next tea crop
and set-to to feather your nest, as hel
mother and have done. thought bet
ter things, too, of the overseer-that Har
Gorain, who, before some heathen logic
scared him, was a shrewd and reliable
servant. But never mind! Come in
Musgrave, come in! The parson from
Nynee Tai is here already, and you mus
help the bride-expcctant to entertain hin
until dinner time.'
Pretty Edith, who was ON the MORO
to become my wife, smiled away any un
comfortable feelings which the conduc
of Han Gorain and his companions hat
left behind and neither she nor her pa
rents, nor Mr.. Edwards, the clergyman
who had come over expressly to perform
the marriage ceremony, seemed to attac
any importance to the panic among tn
coolies.
at was something" exclaimed Nj
Warren, about Alp Dagh, the Big Noun
tain, at the foot of which we lived, but
have been planter here too long to car
for the prattle of coolies. They are lik
children who talk of the nursery ghos
until they see 1t in every corner. A dt
lightful life / should have led had I bee
creduIous.'
And with that he dismissed the subiec
and the evening passed genially enough
Later on, however, after whispered far,
well to my sweet Edith in the porcl
draped with the glistening leaves and hi
white blossoms of the Indian creeper. a
ter the ride home to my own dwellin
among the hills, and with nv head res
ing on its pillow. vague sense of ins
curitv beset me afresh; and even when
fell asleep my dreams were troubled an
sad, not such as should visit the slumb,
of one on whom the world smiled as
did on me, George Musgrave. The dawl
ing of the new day-my wedding day
however, chased away the clouds fro
my mind. and when mounted nv hor
to ride to Yirmi Sou, attired as a brid
groom should be, my heart was light al
full of happy hope. Edith loved me be