Kim Rudyard Kipling (web ebook reader .TXT) đ
- Author: Rudyard Kipling
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âBut what harm? I was afraid. It was just. I am not a hillman; and I loved thee for thy new strength.â
âMore than once I rememberââ âhe rested his cheek dolefully on his handâ ââI sought thy praise and the hakimâs for the mere strength of my legs. Thus evil followed evil till the cup was full. Just is the Wheel! All Hind for three years did me all honour. From the Fountain of Wisdom in the Wonder House toââ âhe smiledâ ââa little child playing by a big gunâ âthe world prepared my road. And why?â
âBecause we loved thee. It is only the fever of the blow. I myself am still sick and shaken.â
âNo! It was because I was upon the Wayâ âtuned as are si-nen60 to the purpose of the Law. I departed from that ordinance. The tune was broken: followed the punishment. In my own Hills, on the edge of my own country, in the very place of my evil desire, comes the buffetâ âhere!â (He touched his brow.) âAs a novice is beaten when he misplaces the cups, so am I beaten, who was Abbot of Such-zen. No word, look you, but a blow, chela.â
âBut the Sahibs did not know thee, Holy One?â
âWe were well matched. Ignorance and Lust met Ignorance and Lust upon the road, and they begat Anger. The blow was a sign to me, who am no better than a strayed yak, that my place is not here. Who can read the Cause of an act is halfway to Freedom! âBack to the path,â says the Blow. âThe Hills are not for thee. Thou canst not choose Freedom and go in bondage to the delight of life.âââ
âWould we had never met that cursed Russian!â
âOur Lord Himself cannot make the Wheel swing backward. And for my merit that I had acquired I gain yet another sign.â He put his hand in his bosom, and drew forth the Wheel of Life. âLook! I considered this after I had meditated. There remains untorn by the idolater no more than the breadth of my fingernail.â
âI see.â
âSo much, then, is the span of my life in this body. I have served the Wheel all my days. Now the Wheel serves me. But for the merit I have acquired in guiding thee upon the Way, there would have been added to me yet another life ere I had found my River. Is it plain, chela?â
Kim stared at the brutally disfigured chart. From left to right diagonally the rent ranâ âfrom the Eleventh House where Desire gives birth to the Child (as it is drawn by Tibetans)â âacross the human and animal worlds, to the Fifth Houseâ âthe empty House of the Senses. The logic was unanswerable.
âBefore our Lord won Enlightenmentââ âthe lama folded all away with reverenceâ ââHe was tempted. I too have been tempted, but it is finished. The Arrow fell in the Plainsâ ânot in the Hills. Therefore, what make we here?â
âShall we at least wait for the hakim?â
âI know how long I shall live in this body. What can a hakim do?â
âBut thou art all sick and shaken. Thou canst not walk.â
âHow can I be sick if I see Freedom?â He rose unsteadily to his feet.
âThen I must get food from the village. Oh, the weary Road!â Kim felt that he too needed rest.
âThat is lawful. Let us eat and go. The Arrow fell in the Plainsâ ââ ⊠but I yielded to Desire. Make ready, chela.â
Kim turned to the woman with the turquoise headgear who had been idly pitching pebbles over the cliff. She smiled very kindly.
âI found him like a strayed buffalo in a cornfieldâ âthe Babu; snorting and sneezing with cold. He was so hungry that he forgot his dignity and gave me sweet words. The Sahibs have nothing.â She flung out an empty palm. âOne is very sick about the stomach. Thy work?â
Kim nodded, with a bright eye.
âI spoke to the Bengali firstâ âand to the people of a nearby village after. The Sahibs will be given food as they need itâ ânor will the people ask money. The plunder is already distributed. The Babu makes lying speeches to the Sahibs. Why does he not leave them?â
âOut of the greatness of his heart.â
âWas never a Bengali yet had one bigger than a dried walnut. But it is no matterâ ââ ⊠Now as to walnuts. After service comes reward. I have said the village is thine.â
âIt is my loss,â Kim began. âEven now I had planned desirable things in my heart whichââ âthere is no need to go through the compliments proper to these occasions. He sighed deeplyâ ââ ⊠âBut my master, led by a visionâ ââ
âHuh! What can old eyes see except a full begging-bowl?â
ââ âturns from this village to the Plains again.â
âBid him stay.â
Kim shook his head. âI know my Holy One, and his rage if he be crossed,â he replied impressively. âHis curses shake the Hills.â
âPity they did not save him from a broken head! I heard that thou wast the tiger-hearted one who smote the Sahib. Let him dream a little longer. Stay!â
âHillwoman,â said Kim, with austerity that could not harden the outlines of his young oval face, âthese matters are too high for thee.â
âThe Gods be good to us! Since when have men and women been other than men
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