LITTLE TOBRAH
[Footnote: Copyright, 1891, by MACMILLAN & Co.]
'Prisoner's head did not reach to the top of the dock,' as the Englishnewspapers say. This case, however, was not reported because nobodycared by so much as a hempen rope for the life or death of LittleTobrah. The assessors in the red court-house sat upon him all throughthe long hot afternoon, and whenever they asked him a questionhe salaamed and whined. Their verdict was that the evidence wasinconclusive, and the Judge concurred. It was true that the dead bodyof Little Tobrah's sister had been found at the bottom of the well, andLittle Tobrah was the only human being within a half mile radius at thetime; but the child might have fallen in by accident. Therefore LittleTobrah was acquitted, and told to go where he pleased. This permissionwas not so generous as it sounds, for he had nowhere to go to, nothingin particular to eat, and nothing whatever to wear.
He trotted into the court-compound, and sat upon the well-kerb,wondering whether an unsuccessful dive into the black water below wouldend in a forced voyage across the other Black Water. A groom put downan emptied nose-bag on the bricks, and Little Tobrah, being hungry, sethimself to scrape out what wet grain the horse had overlooked.
'O Thief--and but newly set free from the terror of the Law! Comealong!' said the groom, and Little Tobrah was led by the ear to a largeand fat Englishman, who heard the tale of the theft.
'Hah!' said the Englishman three times (only he said a stronger word).'Put him into the net and take him home.' So Little Tobrah was throwninto the net of the cart, and, nothing doubting that he should bestuck like a pig, was driven to the Englishman's house. 'Hah!' said theEnglishman as before. 'Wet grain, by Jove! Feed the little beggar, someof you, and we'll make a riding-boy of him! See? Wet grain, good Lord!'
'Give an account of yourself,' said the Head of the Grooms, to LittleTobrah after the meal had been eaten, and the servants lay at ease intheir quarters behind the house. 'You are not of the groom caste, unlessit be for the stomach's sake. How came you into the court, and why?Answer, little devil's spawn!'
'There was not enough to eat,' said Little Tobrah calmly. 'This is agood place.'
'Talk straight talk,' said the Head Groom, 'or I will make you clean outthe stable of that large red stallion who bites like a camel.'
'We be Telis, oil-pressers,' said Little Tobrah, scratching his toes inthe dust. 'We were Telis--my father, my mother, my brother, the elder byfour years, myself, and the sister.'
'She who was found dead in the well?' said one who had heard somethingof the trial.
'Even so,' said Little Tobrah gravely. 'She who was found dead in thewell. It befel upon a time, which is not in my memory, that the sicknesscame to the village where our oil-press stood, and first my sister wassmitten as to her eyes, and went without sight, for it was mata--thesmallpox. Thereafter, my father and my mother died of that samesickness, so we were alone--my brother who had twelve years, I who hadeight, and the sister who could not see. Yet were there the bullock andthe oil-press remaining, and we made shift to press the oil as before.But Surjun Dass, the grain-seller, cheated us in his dealings; and itwas always a stubborn bullock to drive. We put marigold flowers for theGods upon the neck of the bullock, and upon the great grinding-beam thatrose through the roof; but we gained nothing thereby, and Surjun Dasswas a hard man.'
'Bapri-bap,' muttered the grooms' wives, 'to cheat a child so! But WEknow what the bunnia-folk are, sisters.'
'The press was an old press, and we were not strong men--my brother andI; nor could we fix the neck of the beam firmly in the shackle.'
'Nay, indeed,' said the gorgeously-clad wife of the Head Groom, joiningthe circle. 'That is a strong man's work. When I was a maid in myfather's house----'
'Peace, woman,' said the Head Groom. 'Go on, boy.'
'It is nothing,' said Little Tobrah. 'The big beam tore down the roofupon a day which is not in my memory, and with the roof fell much of thehinder wall, and both together upon our bullock, whose back was broken.Thus we had neither home, nor press, nor bullock--my brother, myself,and the sister who was blind. We went crying away from that place,hand-in-hand, across the fields; and our money was seven annas and sixpie. There was a famine in the land. I do not know the name of the land.So, on a night when we were sleeping, my brother took the five annasthat remained to us and ran away. I do not know whither he went. Thecurse of my father be upon him. But I and the sister begged food inthe villages, and there was none to give. Only all men said--"Go to theEnglishmen and they will give." I did not know what the Englishmen were;but they said that they were white, living in tents. I went forward; butI cannot say whither I went, and there was no more food for myself orthe sister. And upon a hot night, she weeping and calling for food, wecame to a well, and I bade her sit upon the kerb, and thrust her in,for, in truth, she could not see; and it is better to die than tostarve.'
'Ai! Ahi!' wailed the grooms' wives in chorus; 'he thrust her in, for itis better to die than to starve!'
'I would have thrown myself in also, but that she was not dead andcalled to me from the bottom of the well, and I was afraid and ran. Andone came out of the crops saying that I had killed her and defiled thewell, and they took me before an Englishman, white and terrible, livingin a tent, and me he sent here. But there were no witnesses, and it isbetter to die than to starve. She, furthermore, could not see with hereyes, and was but a little child.'
'Was but a little child,' echoed the Head Groom's wife. 'But who artthou, weak as a fowl and small as a day-old colt, what art THOU?'
'I who was empty am now full,' said Little Tobrah, stretching himselfupon the dust. 'And I would sleep.'
The groom's wife spread a cloth over him while Little Tobrah slept thesleep of the just.