Kim

she is ne

rsedest qu

wincing,

o lead o

he's hailin

he's buski

e for a shre

comes plucki

Largesse,

hold at

o care fo

ust follo

ishin

gether. Kim came to rest under a tree, but

n. The River

a little? Our River will not run away.

he Stars. He brought me the news yesterday. Having seen th

is broad chest. 'He came by a baz

egging for a new charger, and the Gods know how many

k leave and came swif

never yet ridden in a charge. A good horse is needed there, truly. A good follower an

t accounts in, my father

me, and he brought auspicious news. Ho! Friend of

the war,' returne

fingering his beads,

rought the news bear witness, we brought the news, a

out beggars and jugglers. It was a four-anna piece, and would feed them w

ldier, wheeling his scrawny mount. 'For once in all my

together: the old man sitti

nen trousers slouched across the

d, which is four annas, on those who enter the Road from this side-road? It is the order of th

der for a while, man with a mud head. Think you we came from the nearest pond

senior constable, immensely delighted, as he

collected taxes for a month from those who passed, saying that it was the Sirkar's order. Th

abashed, and Kim hooted

to the lama. 'All earth would have picked thy bones wi

art a spirit, sometimes, or sometimes an

at his side-that indescribable gait of t

itation, but Kim's bright eyes were open wide. This broad, smiling river of life, he considered, was a vast improvement on the cramped and cro

there they met or were overtaken by the gaily dressed crowds of whole villages turning out to some local fair; the women, with their babes on their hips, walking behind the men, the older boys prancing on sticks of sugar-cane, dragging rude brass models of locomotives such as they sell for a halfpenny, or flashing the sun into the eyes of their betters from cheap toy mirrors. One could see at a glance what each had bought; and if there were any doubt it needed only to watch the wives comparing, brown arm against brown arm, the newly purchased dull glass bracelets that come from the North-West. These merry-makers stepped slowly, calling one to the other and stopping to haggle with sweetmeat-sellers, or to make a prayer before one of the wayside shrines-sometimes Hindu, sometimes Mussalman-which the low-caste of both creeds share with beautiful impartiality. A solid line of blue, rising and falling like the back of a caterpillar in haste, would swing up through the quivering dust and trot past to a chorus of quick cackling. That was a gang of changars-the women who have taken all the embankments of all the Northern railways

fter hour, his soul busied elsewhere. But Kim was in the seventh heaven of joy. The Grand Trunk at this point was built on an embankment to guard against winter floods from the foothills, so that one walked, as it were, a little above the country, along a stately corridor, seeing all India spread out to left and right. It was beautiful to behold the many-yoked grain and cotton wagons crawling over the country roads: one could hear their axles, complaining a mile away, coming nearer, till with shouts and yells and bad words they climbed up the steep in

f the South!' said he. 'The air

. 'Bound from life after life. To none of these has th

urely we shall soon come to a parao [a resting-pla

eceive us t

of good folk. Besides' he sunk his vo

food and tobacco, a stack of firewood, a police-station, a well, a horse-trough, a few trees, and, under them, some trampled ground dot

showed that the bats were ready to go out on the night-picket. Swiftly the light gathered itself together, painted for an instant the faces and the cartwheels and the bullocks' horns as red as blood. Then the night fell, changing the touch of the air, drawing a low, even haze, like a gossamer veil of blue, across the face of the country, and bringing out, keen a

small scale. Kim dived into the happy Asiatic disorder which, if yo

akes to build a fire. All about, coming and going round the little flames, men cried for oil, or grain, or sweetmeats, or tobacco, jostling one another while they waited

rcumstances, object to unveiling. After their long seclusion, during which they have always been in business touch with a thousand outside interests, they love the bustle and stir of the open road, the gatherings at the shrines, and the infinite possibilities of gossip with like-minded dowagers. Very often it suits a longsuffering family that a strong-tongued, iron-willed old lady should disport herself about India in this fashion; for certainly pilgrimage is grateful to the Gods. So all

t men made its retinue, and two of the eight were armed with rusty sabres-sure signs that they followed a person of distinction, for the common folk do not bear arms. An incr

a visit-probably to a rich relative, most probably to a son-in-law, who had sent up an escort as a mark of respect. The hillmen would be of her own people-Kulu or Kangra folk. It was quite clear that she was not taking her daughter down to be wedded, or the curtains would have been laced home and the guard would have allow

f the escort to order him away. The lama dropped wearily to the groun

e order was shouted in broken H

said Kim over his shoulder. 'Since when

rilliant sketch of Kim's ped

broke the dung-cake into fit pieces. 'In my c

he curtains put the hillman o

e, my brother, lest we-we, I say-be minded to give a curse o

. The lama suddenly raised his head, bringing his huge tam-o

s it?'

ck to stone. 'I-I-am saved fr

him a priest at last,' wh

ar-brat not well beate

whispered something to the curtain. Th

ght Kim, pretending ne

m-'it-it is requested that the Holy One will do t

at new turn the game had taken, but stood resolute to profit by it. 'Now I will get

of my people will look to

e loftily than ever. 'Holy One,

the South is good-a great and a terr

ok to it that we are well fed when

oryas said somethi

went on severely, addressing the stars. 'He is the most

scious that eyes he could not see were staring at him. One skinny brown fin

s that

e. He comes from far of

e in

pes; he reads nativities. But he does not do this for money. He does it for kindne

rt no h

sent to him from the Stars to sh

ve reverence, but thou art no more a lawful chela than this my finger is the pole of this wagon. Thou art

promptly to match that altered voice. 'I have hear

d?' she snapped, rap

talk in the bazars, which is doubtless a

less of good

more comely of their womenfolk for gain. Down south

ey discuss the mysterious slave-traffics of India. The old lady explained to Kim, in a tense, indignant whisper, precisely what manner and fashion of mali

, as the Eye of Beauty has said,

gotten word. 'Forty years ago that might have been said, and not without truth. Ay. thirty years ago. But it is the fault

nation, 'I am even what the Great Queen says I am; but none the less

Teacher of the Law-to come

. I thought it was

a petition. Does t

and salaamed profoundly. The old lady recognized that, as t

disciple. When he has eat

led forefinger shook itself at him reproving

he well knew, that few could resist. 'Is-is there any need of a son in thy family? Speak f

another laugh. 'Believe me, now and again, we women, O priest, think of

three are better still.' Kim quoted the proverb wit

se down-country Brahmins are utterly useless. I sent gift

ontempt, 'they prophesied!' A prof

was to him I put the matter, and behold in the due time all came about as I desired. The Brahmin in the house of the father of my daughter's son has since said that it was through

her g

irruped the old lady. '

had waked, and, simply as a child bewi

found the lama already surrounded by dishes of food, the hil

?' They finished the meal in silence, each turned a little fr

s and high-born widow of a Hill Rajah on pilgrimage, she says, to Buddha Gay. She

?' The lama dipped dee

anced in his head as he blew the rank smoke through his nostrils and stretch

life, and disciples not a few. But to none among men, if so be thou art woman-born, has my h

olent yellow face wrinkle by wrinkle. 'It is less than three days since

e service. Maybe'-he smiled-'I freed thee from a trap; or, having caught thee o

om the mouths of many whom the English would not consider imaginative. 'Now, as rega

ama. 'But at least she is from the Hills.

ds of his yellow clothing slashed with black in the light of the parao fires precisely as a knotted tree-trunk is slashed with the shadows of the low sun, addressed a tinsel and lacquered ruth which burned like a many-coloured jewel in the same uncertain light. The patterns on the gold-worked curtains ran up and down, melting and reforming as the folds shook and quivered to the night wind; and when the talk grew more earnest the jewelled forefinger snapped out little sparks of light b

lked behind him with a wadded cotton-qu

n,' thought Kim. 'None the less, but fo

by joint, like a slow camel. 'The world is full of charity to tho

?' Kim rolled up i

tales which she had heard from devil-serving priests who pretend to follow the Way. So

thoughtful, conciliatory tone of

ly that we should go with her to Buddh Gaya; her road being ou

nd

h legends, but this great truth of my River she had never heard. Such are the priests of the lower

nd

f matters that were profitable; she desiring only that

hink of anything save chi

hat we in any way depart from our Search if so be we accompany

sharp whisper to one of the Ooryas a few

ore, among the fruit gard

d the lama. 'So far, at l

,' said the Oorya, i

Brahmin.' Kim breathed the proverb imperson

unted and he

go with he

nd try all the rivers that the road overpasses. She de

s old lady had recovered from her natural awe of a lama h

'The husbands of the talkative have a great reward hereafter.'

ndia was awake, and Kim was in the middle of it, more awake and more excited than anyone, chewing on a twig that he would presently use as a toothbrush; for he borrowed right- and left-handedly from all the customs of the country he knew and loved. There was no need to worry about food-no need to spend a cowrie at the crowded stalls. He was the disciple of a holy man annexed by a strong-willed old lady. All things would be prepared for them, and when they were respectfully invited so to do they would sit and eat. For the rest-Kim giggled here as he clean

her ill-omened mouth,' cried an Oorya, tying up his shapeless bundles

king and wheeling as a grain-cart's axle caught them by the horns.

for the Queen of Delhi and her Prime Minister the grey monkey climbing up his own sword!' Another cart loaded with bark for a d

nything that even Kim had heard. He could see the carter's bare chest collapse with amazement, as the man salaamed reverently to the voice, leaped from the pole, an

m, unable to contain himse

all the refuse of Hindustan-that she must eat gali [abuse] as men eat ghi. But I have yet a wag left to my tongue-a word or two well spoken

trickle of thick smoke from each corner of

emi-royal procession, with a recognized place under the patronage of an old lady of charming manners and infinite resou

tongue clack as steadily as a rice-husker. She bade the escort tell her what was going on on the road; and so soon as they were clear of the parao she flung back the c

uniformed, an Englishman, trotted by on a tired horse, and, see

in the zenanas? Suppose an Englishman c

ne own mother has no nose? Why

ew up his hand with the gesture of a man

tue aside?' She withdrew all

he called it a Moon of Paradise, a Disturber of Integrity, and

ts; but the police-wallahs are the worst. Hai, my son, thou hast never l

mother. Keep thy beauty under a shade-O

rom Europe, suckled by white women and learning our tongues from books, are worse than the pestilence. They do harm to Kings.' Then she told a long, long tale to the world at large, of an ig

est. Personally, he believed in Brahmins, though, like all natives, he was acutely aware of their cunning and their greed. Still, when Brahmins but irritated with begging demands the mother of his master's wife, and when she sent them away so angry that they cursed the whole retinue (which was the real reason of the second off-side bullock going lame, and of the pole breaking the night before), he was prepared to accept any priest of any other denomination in or out of India. To this Kim assented with wise nods, an

uxurious smoke. The old lady had retreated behind her curtains, but mixed most freely in the talk, her servants arguing with and contradicting her as servants do throughout the East. She compared the cool and the pines of the Kangra and Kulu hills with the