Then a letter
arrived from Rob which turned the current of their thoughts. It was his
first letter from India, and the boys looked at the foreign stamps and
paper, as if it were the greatest rarity on earth.
"MY DEAR MASTER ROY:
"I write to tell you we are safely here
and I am quite well as I hope you are. It is
very hot, but we don't do much work in the
middle of the day and I like the place. I wish
you could see the flowers and the black men
and the funny houses and the colored dresses
of the people. I am getting on, I hope, and
my sergeant told me the other day I might
get the stripe soon if I liked. I will keep a
lookout as you told me for Master Dudley's
father, but they say India is a bigger place
than England, which I don't believe, for we're
the grandest nation in the world, and the biggest
and the best, all of us in the barrack-room
agree to that. I saw a scorpion to-day
which pinches when it catches you and draws
the blood awful. There is a mountain battery
with us now, and they use mules instead of
horses, the hills are higher than those at home
and it's hard work going up. There is not
any fighting yet, but I am ready for it when
it comes, and will do my duty to the Queen
and you.
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