The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1900-11-20

secretariat, which is very bad for the
live-. O,heiss are bitten with mania
for district work, Ghuznivide coins or
Persian poetry, while some, who come
of farmers stock, find that the smell of
the earth after the rains gets into their
blood and calls them to 'sdevelop the
resources of the province. These men
are enthusiasts. Pinecoffin belonged to
their class. He knew great many facts
bearing on the cost of bullocks and
temporary wells, and opium scrapers,
and what happens if you burn too much
rubbish on field in the hope of en-
riching used up soil. Nafferton watched
him and thought about the horse Naf-
ferton said, ''See me chase that boy till
he drops!' I said, "You can't get your
knife into an assistant commissioner. >
Nafferton told me that did not under
stand the administration of the prov
ince.
Our government is rather peculiar
1t gushes on the agricultural and gen
eral information side, and will supply
a moderately respectable man with all
sorts of economic statistics if he
speaks to ii. prettily. For instance, you
are interested in gold washing in the
sands of the Sutlej. You pull the string
and find that it wakes up half dozen
departments and finally communicates.
say, with friend of yours in the tele-
graph, who once wrote some notes OH
the customs of the gold washers when
he was on construction work in their
part of the empire. He may or may not
be pleased at being ordered to write out
everything he knows for your benefit
This depends on his temperament. The
bigger man you are the more informa-
ton and the greater trouble can you
raise
Nafferton was not a big man. but he
had the reputation of being very ''ear-
nest. An earnest man can do much
with government There was an ear
nest man once who nearly wrecked :
but all India knows that story
Nafferton cast about for peg where
on to hang his earnestness and for a
string that would communicate with
Pinecoffin He found both They We're
Pig, Naffarton became an earnest in
quirer after Pig. He informed the gov
eminent that he had scheme whereby
a very large percentage of the British
army in India could be fed, at very
large saving on Pig Then he limited
that Pinecofin might supply him with
| the varied information necessary to
the proper inception of the scheme So
| the government wrote on the back of
the letter, Instruct Mr.. Pinecoffin to
| furnish Mr.. Naffertcn with any infor
nation in his power. >
| Nafferton had not the faintest inter-
est in Pig, but he knew that Pinecoffin
would honnce into the trap Pinecoffin
was delighted at being consulted about
| Pig The Indian Pig is not exactly an
important factor in agricultural life,
but Naferton explained to Pinecoffin
that there was room for improvement.
You may think that there is not
much to be evolved from Pig. 1t all de-
ponds on how you set to work. Pinecof-
fin, being civilian and wishing to do
| things thoroughly. began with an essay
on the Primitive Pig, the Mythology Of
the Pig and the Dravidian Pig. Naf-
ferton filed that information-27 FOOLS
cap sheets-and wanted to know about
the distribution of the Pig in the Pun
jab and how it stood the plains in the
hot weather From this point onward
remember that am giving you only
the barest outlines of the affair-the
guy ropes. as it were, of the web that
4 Natferton spun round Pinecofin.
Pinecoffin made colored Pig popu-
| lation map, and collected observations
on the comparative longevity of Pig (a)
in the submontane tracts of the Hima-
layas and (b) in the Rechna Doab Naf-
ferton filed that and asked what sort of
people looked after Pig. This started an
chronological excursus on swineherds and
drew from Pinecoffin long tables show
ing the proportion per 1000 of the
caste in the Derajat Nafferton filed
that bundle and explained that the fig
ures which he wanted referred to the
Cis-Sutlej states, where he understood
that Pigs were very fine and large and
where he proposed to start Piggery
By this time. government had quite for
gotten their instructions to Mr.. Pine
coffin. They were like the gentlemen in
Keats poem who turned we'll oiled
wheels to skin other people. But Pine
coffin was just entering into the spirit
Of the Pig hunt, as Nafferton well knew
he would do He had fair amount of
work of his own to clear away. but he
sat up of nights reducing Pig to five
places of decimals for the honor of his
service. He was not going to appear
ignorant of so easy subject as Pig.
Then government sent him on special
duty to Kohat, to inquire into" the
big, seven foot, iron shod spades of that
district. People had been killing each
other with those peaceful tools, and gov
eminent wished to know whether a
modified form of agricultural nipple
ment could not. tentatively and as a
temporary measure. be introduced
among the agricultural population with
out needlessly or unduly exacerbating
the existing religious sentiments Of the
peasantry.
Between those spades and Nafferton' g