Kim by Rudyard Kipling (best summer reads of all time TXT) đ
- Author: Rudyard Kipling
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âShe has asked him to be her puro - her clergyman - at Saharunpore, I think. He would not do that on account of his River. She did talk.â
âItâs clear to you, is it? It beats me altogether. âSo going to Benares, where will find address and forward rupees for boy who is apple of eye, and for Almighty Godâs sake execute this education, and your petitioner as in duty bound shall ever awfully pray. Written by Sobrao Satai, Failed Entrance Allahabad University, for Venerable Teshoo Lama the priest of Suchzen looking for a River, address care of Tirthankarsâ Temple, Benares. P. M. -Please note boy is apple of eye, and rupees shall be sent per hoondi three hundred per annum. For God Almightyâs sake.â Now, is that ravinâ lunacy or a business proposition? I ask you, because Iâm fairly at my witsâ end.â
âHe says he will give me three hundred rupees a year? So he will give me them.â
âOh, thatâs the way you look at it, is it?â
âOf course. If he says so!â
The priest whistled; then he addressed Kim as an equal. âI donât believe it; but weâll see. You were goinâ off today to the Military Orphanage at Sanawar, where the Regiment would keep you till you were old enough to enlist. Yeâd be brought up to the Church of England. Bennett arranged for that. On the other hand, if ye go to St Xavierâs yeâll get a better education an - an can have the religion. Dâye see my dilemma? Kim saw nothing save a vision of the lama going south in a train with none to beg for him.
âLike most people, Iâm going to temporize. If your friend sends the money from Benares - Powers of Darkness below, whereâs a street-beggar to raise three hundred rupees? - yeâll go down to Lucknow and Iâll pay your fare, because I canât touch the subscription-money if I intend, as I do, to make ye a Catholic. If he doesnât, yeâll go to the Military Orphanage at the Regimentâs expense. Iâll allow him three daysâ grace, though I donât believe it at all. Even then, if he fails in his payments later on ⊠but itâs beyond me. We can only walk one step at a time in this world, praise God! Anâ they sent Bennett to the Front anâ left me behind. Bennett canât expect everything.â
âOah yess,â said Kim vaguely.
The priest leaned forward. âIâd give a monthâs pay to find whatâs goinâ on inside that little round head of yours.â
âThere is nothing,â said Kim, and scratched it. He was wondering whether Mahbub Ali would send him as much as a whole rupee. Then he could pay the letter-writer and write letters to the lama at Benares. Perhaps Mahbub Ali would visit him next time he came south with horses. Surely he must know that Kimâs delivery of the letter to the officer at Umballa had caused the great war which the men and boys had discussed so loudly over the barrack dinner-tables. But if Mahbub Ali did not know this, it would be very unsafe to tell him so. Mahbub Ali was hard upon boys who knew, or thought they knew, too much.
âWell, till I get further newsâ - Father Victorâs voice interrupted the reverie. âYe can run along now and play with the other boys. Theyâll teach ye something - but I donât think yeâll like it.â
The day dragged to its weary end. When he wished to sleep he was instructed how to fold up his clothes and set out his boots; the other boys deriding. Bugles waked him in the dawn; the schoolmaster caught him after breakfast, thrust a page of meaningless characters under his nose, gave them senseless names and whacked him without reason. Kim meditated poisoning him with opium borrowed from a barrack-sweeper, but reflected that, as they all ate at one table in public (this was peculiarly revolting to Kim, who preferred to turn his back on the world at meals), the stroke might be dangerous. Then he attempted running off to the village where the priest had tried to drug the lama â the village where the old soldier lived. But far-seeing sentries at every exit headed back the little scarlet figure. Trousers and jacket crippled body and mind alike so he abandoned the project and fell back, Oriental-fashion, on time and chance. Three days of torment passed in the big, echoing white rooms. He walked out of afternoons under escort of the drummer-boy, and all he heard from his companions were the few useless words which seemed to make two-thirds of the white manâs abuse. Kim knew and despised them all long ago. The boy resented his silence and lack of interest by beating him, as was only natural. He did not care for any of the bazars which were in bounds. He styled all natives âniggersâ; yet servants and sweepers called him abominable names to his face, and, misled by their deferential attitude, he never understood. This somewhat consoled Kim for the beatings.
On the morning of the fourth day a judgement overtook that drummer. They had gone out together towards Umballa racecourse. He returned alone, weeping, with news that young OâHara, to whom he had been doing nothing in particular, had hailed a scarlet-bearded nigger on horseback; that the nigger had then and there laid into him with a peculiarly adhesive quirt, picked up young OâHara, and borne him off at full gallop. These tidings came to Father Victor, and he drew down his long upper lip. He was already sufficiently startled by a letter from the Temple of the Tirthankars at Benares, enclosing a native bankerâs note of hand for three hundred rupees, and an amazing prayer to âAlmighty Godâ. The lama would have been more annoyed than the priest had he known how the bazar letter-writer had translated his phrase âto acquire merit.â
âPowers of Darkness below!â Father Victor fumbled with the note. âAnâ now heâs off with another of his peep-oâ-day friends. I donât know whether it will be a greater relief to me to get him back or to have him lost. Heâs beyond my comprehension. How the Divil - yes, heâs the man I mean -can a street-beggar raise money to educate white boys?â
Three miles off, on Umballa racecourse, Mahbub Ali, reining a grey Kabuli stallion with Kim in front of him, was saying:
âBut, Little Friend of all the World, there is my honour and reputation to be considered. All the officer-Sahibs in all the regiments, and all Umballa, know Mahbub Ali. Men saw me pick thee up and chastise that boy. We are seen now from far across this plain. How can I take thee away, or account for thy disappearing if I set thee down and let thee run off into the crops? They would put me in jail. Be patient. Once a Sahib, always a Sahib. When thou art a man - who knows? - thou wilt be grateful to Mahbub Ali.â
âTake me beyond their sentries where I can change this red. Give me money and I will go to Benares and be with my lama again. I do not want to be a Sahib, and remember I did deliver that message.â
The stallion bounded wildly. Mahbub Ali had incautiously driven home the sharp-edged stirrup. (He was not the new sort of fluent horsedealer who wears English boots and spurs.) Kim drew his own conclusions from that betrayal.
âThat was a small matter. It lay on the straight road to Benares. I and the Sahib have by this time forgotten it. I send so many letters and messages to men who ask questions about horses, I cannot well remember one from the other. Was it some matter of a bay mare that Peters Sahib wished the pedigree of?â
Kim saw the trap at once. If he had said âbay mareâ Mahbub would have known by his very readiness to fall in with the amendment that the boy suspected something. Kim replied therefore:
âBay mare. No. I do not forget my messages thus. It was a white stallion.â
âAy, so it was. A white Arab stallion. But thou didst write âbay mareâ to me.â
âWho cares to tell truth to a letter-writer?â Kim answered, feeling Mahbubâs palm on his heart.
âHi! Mahbub, you old villain, pull up!â cried a voice, and an Englishman raced alongside on a little polo-pony. âIâve been chasing you half over the country. That Kabuli of yours can go. For sale, I suppose?â
âI have some young stuff coming on made by Heaven for the delicate and difficult polo-game. He has no equal. He - â
âPlays polo and waits at table. Yes. We know all that. What the deuce have you got there?â
âA. boy,â said Mahbub gravely. âHe was being beaten by another boy. His father was once a white soldier in the big war. The boy was a child in Lahore city. He played with my horses when he was a babe. Now I think they will make him a soldier. He has been newly caught by his fatherâs Regiment that went up to the war last week. But I do not think he wants to be a soldier. I take him for a ride. Tell me where thy barracks are and I will set thee there.â
âLet me go. I can find the barracks alone.â
âAnd if thou runnest away who will say it is not my fault?â
âHeâll run back to his dinner. Where has he to run to?â the Englishman asked.
âHe was born in the land. He has friends. He goes where he chooses. He is a chabuk sawai [a sharp chap]. It needs only to change his clothing, and in a twinkling he would be a lowcaste Hindu boy.â
âThe deuce he would!â The Englishman looked critically at the boy as Mahbub headed towards the barracks. Kim ground his teeth. Mahbub was mocking him, as faithless Afghans will; for he went on:
âThey will send him to a school and put heavy boots on his feet and swaddle him in these clothes. Then he will forget all he knows. Now, which of the barracks is thine?â
Kim pointed - he could not speak - to Father Victorâs wing, all staring white near by.
âPerhaps he will make a good soldier,â said Mahbub reflectively.
âHe will make a good orderly at least. I sent him to deliver a message once from Lahore. A message concerning the pedigree of a white stallion.â
Here was deadly insult on deadlier injury - and the Sahib to whom he had so craftily given that war-waking letter heard it all. Kim beheld Mahbub Ali frying in flame for his treachery, but for himself he saw one long grey vista of barracks, schools, and barracks again. He gazed imploringly
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