The veranda, in addition to serving as the general sitting-room to the
family, acts as a servants' hall. Here at the side not used by the
employers, the servants, when not otherwise engaged, sit on their mats,
mend their clothes, talk and sleep; and it is wonderful how much sleep a
Hindoo can get through in the twenty-four hours. The veranda is his
bedroom as well as sitting-room; here, spreading a mat upon the ground,
and rolling themselves up in a thin rug or blanket from the very top of
their head to their feet, the servants sleep, looking like a number of
mummies ranged against the wall. Out by the stables they have their
quarters, where they cook and eat, and could, if they chose, sleep; but
they prefer the coolness and freshness of the veranda, where, too, they
are ready at hand whenever called. The gardens were all pretty, and well
kept, with broad, shady trees, and great shrubs covered by bright masses
of flower; for Sandynugghur had been a station for many years, and with
plenty of water and a hot sun, vegetation is very rapid.

In two of the large reclining chairs two lads, of fifteen and sixteen
respectively, were lolling idly; they had been reading, for books lay open
in their laps, and they were now engaged in eating bananas, and in talking
to two young ladies, some three years their senior, who were sitting
working beside them.

"You boys will really make yourselves ill if you eat so many bananas."

"It is not that I care for them," said the eldest lad; "they are tasteless
things, and a good apple is worth a hundred of them; but one must do
something, and I am too lazy to go on with this Hindoo grammar; besides, a
fellow can't work when you girls come out here and talk to him."