earn that the treasures of this world are of no account.
Therefore is my philosophy to-day greater than your own. You wear costly
robes, I the loin cloth of the beggar. Kooch perwani; for when death
comes, we are equals. There is no pocket to a shroud."

VI. THE TIGER OF THE PATHANS

TOLD BY THE AFGHAN GENERAL

"In my case the philosophy of life is of the simplest," remarked the
Afghan general. "I neither crave the wealth of the prince, nor do I
inflict upon myself the mortifications of the ascetic. For the one rich
robes and the sceptre, for the other a loin cloth and a begging-bowl;
but for me the good sword that commands respect from my enemies,
confidence from my friends, and my due share of the good things of
existence. In this frame of mind I find the full measure of joy in each
day that passes."

He smiled the smile of the man contented with the world and with
himself, but there was the light of proud determination in his eyes that
belied the mere sybarite.

"Then for you the greatest good consists in the happiness you can snatch
from the passing hour," suggested the magistrate.

"That is so," concurred the soldier, "if to the word happiness you give
the right interpretation. To me the performance of one's present duty is
the only real thing that brings contentment. And duty need not always be
stern and forbidding; to laugh and play and be merry may, at the proper
time and in the proper circumstances, be a duty both to ourselves and
to others. When one lives philosophically for the present, he takes men
in all their moods and life in all its phases. The past is counted as
dead and to be forgotten, except for the experience gained to guide the
doing of the things that lie now to one's hand. The future is unseen,
but is none the less determined by our deeds, words, and thoughts of the
passing moment, each one of which, be it remembered, whether deed or
rash word, or unspoken thought, has consequences that are eternal."

"So for the man whose mind is thus attuned," again interposed the
magistrate, "the present becomes all supreme, shaped by the past,
shaping the future."

"Which means that destiny never degenerates into mere blind and helpless
fatalism," responded the Afghan. "To do the right now suffices to give
absolute trust in God for the hereafter. That is the key of destiny, and
each man holds it in his own keeping."

"A simple religion," smiled the Rajput.

"And therefore the best. It is t