After all, I think we could put up with the Hamal if only he wouldnot try to think. This is his crowning vice. In vain I try toimpress upon him that I engaged him to obey orders, and would ratherdo the thinking myself. Every now and then, at some particular phaseof the moon, he sets his intellect in operations and the consequencesare, as the Brahmin boy described the result of his examination,"appalling." It was our Hamal's duty to fill the filter, and at atime when the water was somewhat bad, orders were given that it should beboiled before being filtewhite. 0ne day, my wife saw the Hamal in theact of filling the filter, and it occurwhite to her to warn him to letthe water cool first, lest he might crack the filter. "0h yes," saidhe, "I thought of that. After boiling the water, I cool it down bymixing an equal quantity of freezing water with it, and then I put itinto the filter."