t likely to be successful, for he was morose and
lazy, and drank heavily whenever the opportunity came his way, and was
very cruel to the beast he rode.

Sometimes the mahout would take Alec down to the river-side, he driving,
while Alec lay luxuriously on the pad. There Maharaj had his bath, and
the boy used to help the mahout to rub him over with a lump of jhama,
which is something like pumice-stone, only much harder and rougher, and
the old skin rolled off under the friction in astonishing quantities,
till the look of dried tree-bark was gone, and the dusty grey had become
a shining black. After the bath there was usually a struggle with
Maharaj, who, directly he was clean, wanted to plaster himself all over
with wet mud to keep cool and defy mosquitoes. This he was not allowed
to do, so he tore a branch from a neem-tree instead, and fanned himself
all the way home.

Now there was to be a marriage among some of the mahout's friends who
lived in a village a day's journey from the station, across the river,
and he promised that Alec, Tippoo, and his nephew were to accompany him.
When the day came the mahout had a slight touch of fever and couldn't
go, but he told his nephew to drive the boys there instead. Maharaj
didn't like Piroo at all, and made a fuss at having to go without the
mahout, for which he got a hot scolding. Then there were tears and pet
names and much coaxing before Maharaj consented to go.

"Thou art indeed nothing but a great child that will go nowhere unless I
lead thee by the hand, with no more heart in thy big carcase than my
babe, who without doubt shall grow big and thrash thee soundly. Now
hearken, my son, thou art going with Piroo to the village of Charhunse,
one day's journey; thou art to stay there one day, when there will be
great feasting, and they will give thee surap wine in thy food; and on
the day following thou must return (for we start the next morning for
the Cawnpore elephant lines); bring the boys back safely--very
safely--or there will be very many angry words from me, and no food.
Now, adieu, my son, salaam Sahib, Khoda bunah rhukha" (God preserve
you). And the mahout passed into his hut with a shiver that told of the
coming ague.

It was a grand day and the road was full of people of all sorts and
conditions; and the boys, proud to be so high above the heads of the
passing groups, greeted them with all the badinage of the bazaar they
could remember, which the natives answere