eech in the dawn.'

'The lead-bullocks! Hai! Look to the lead-bullocks!' They were
backing and wheeling as a grain-cart's axle caught them by the horns.
'Son of an owl, where dost thou go?' This to the grinning carter.

'Ai! Yai! Yai! That within there is the Queen of Delhi going to pray
for a son,' the man called back over his high load. 'Room for the
Queen of Delhi and her Prime Minister the grey monkey climbing up his
own sword!' Another cart loaded with bark for a down-country tannery
followed close behind, and its driver added a few compliments as the
ruth-bullocks backed and backed again.

From behind the shaking curtains came one volley of invective. It did
not last long, but in kind and quality, in blistering, biting
appropriateness, it was beyond anything that even Kim had heard. He
could see the carter's bare chest collapse with amazement, as the man
salaamed reverently to the voice, leaped from the pole, and helped the
escort haul their volcano on to the main road. Here the voice told him
truthfully what sort of wife he had wedded, and what she was doing in
his absence.

'Oh, shabash!' murmured Kim, unable to contain himself, as the man
slunk away.

'Well done, indeed? It is a shame and a scandal that a poor woman may
not go to make prayer to her Gods except she be jostled and insulted by
all the refuse of Hindustan--that she must eat gali [abuse] as men eat
ghi. But I have yet a wag left to my tongue--a word or two well spoken
that serves the occasion. And still am I without my tobacco! Who is
the one-eyed and luckless son of shame that has not yet prepared my
pipe?'

It was hastily thrust in by a hillman, and a trickle of thick smoke
from each corner of the curtains showed that peace was restored.

If Kim had walked proudly the day before, disciple of a holy man, today
he paced with tenfold pride in the train of a semi-royal procession,
with a recognized place under the patronage of an old lady of charming
manners and infinite resource. The escort, their heads tied up
native-fashion, fell in on either side the cart, shuffling enormous
clouds of dust.

The lama and Kim walked a little to one side; Kim chewing his stick of
sugarcane, and making way for no one under the status of a priest.
They could hear the old lady's tongue clack as steadily as a
rice-husker. She bade the escort tell her what was going on on the
road; and so soon as they were clear of the parao she flung back th