Free A Garland of Marigolds by Isobel Chace

face.
    “ There ’ s a stream over there. When the monsoons come the banks burst and wash everything away. In the hot weather it just forms tanks for the local buffaloes to wallow in. It ’ s not much help. ”
    I looked at the deep cracks in the dry earth where the wheat was struggling to live.
    “ It might be, ” I said.
    Camilla didn ’ t want to walk across the baked field to have a look at this rather doubtful water supply.
    “ I ’ ll wait here with Joe, ” she said prettily. “ It ’ s too hot for all of us to drag around. ”
    I expected Joseph to say that he would come with me , but he didn ’ t. He gave Camilla a shy little smile and shrugged his shoulders.
    “ Whatever the ladies command of me! ” he said with mock gallantry.
    Somehow I didn ’ t have the heart to insist that he come with me. I pulled my hat farther over my eyes and went off alone. It was farther than I thought. The wheat straggled on for several acres, most of it looking little better than the average seeding grass. An intervals I took samples of the earth, sealing them into separate envelopes and marking them so that I would know where they came from. At intervals I pulled up one of the plants and examined the root carefully. Some of them wer e badly eaten by insects, a few suffered from root diseases, but the vast majority were dry and brittle from lack of water. I broke a couple of straws and looked at them gloomily. I was beginning to wonder if I had the necessary knowledge and experience to make a go of these crops.
    When I reached the stream it was so sluggish that the water hardly moved at all. A few buffalo were immersed in their tanks, sharing the brown waters with one of the women from the village who was busy washing both herself and her family ’ s laundry. I waved to her and she waded to the bank to return my greeting more formally.
    “ Namaste, ” she said.
    I placed the palms of my hands together. “ Namaste, ” I replied.
    I sat on the dusty bank and watched the woman as she went back to her work, banging the clothes against a large flat stone that effectually blocked up most of the trickling stream. After a while she laid the garments out in the sun to bleach and dry.
    I bade her a tentative farewell and made my way back across the field. I could see Joseph and Camilla sitting side by side in the jeep, intent on their conversation. They were in no hurry for me to return, I thought dryly, and wondered why I should resent the young man ’ s interest in Gideon ’ s sister. It struck me forcibly that two years was a very long time and I had no security that Timothy would come home to me.
    By the time I had come up to them they had got out of the jeep and walked the last few yards to meet me.
    “ This heat! ” Camilla exclaimed. “ Aren ’ t you completely exhausted? ”
    I smiled, a little amused. It would be a fine thing if I couldn ’ t complete a single day ’ s work, having come all this way!
    “ It ’ s certainly hot, ” I agreed.
    Joseph flapped his shirt against his chest and grinned at the two of us. “ Where now? ” he asked.
    “ The next field, ” I retorted.
    It was much the same story wherever we went. Neglect and drought vied with each other as the main cause of the poverty of the crops. On the whole I thought drought won. Even such water as there was was not reaching the plants, and here lay my first and most immediate problem. Gideon hadn ’ t said anything, but I thought that our funds were probably pretty tight. It was possible that the government helped a little, but the sort of irrigation scheme I had in mind was expensive even by European standards.
    On our way home Joseph and I tried to rally the thoroughly bored Camilla.
    “ You can help me fix the other jeep after lunch, ” Joseph offered, very much in the manner of a small boy offering to share one of his best toys.
    “ I shall be lying flat on my back trying to get cool, ” Camilla retorted. She saw Joseph ’ s face fall