ry spot. All that is needed when a strap breaks, is that each
ploughman should have an awl and a leather-cutter to stitch the
leather. How is it with us in our country? If leather breaks, we
farmers say that leather is unclean, and we go back from the fields
into the village to the village cobbler that he may mend it. Unclean?
Do not we handle that same thing with the leather on it after it has
been repaired? Do we not even drink water all day with the very hand
that has sweated into the leather? Meantime, we have surely lost an
hour or two in coming and going from the fields." [_He will understand_
that. _He chatters like a monkey when the men waste time. But the
village cobbler will be very angry with me!_] "The people of
Franceville are astonished to learn that all our land is full of dogs
which do no work--not even to keep the cattle out of the tilled fields.
Among the French, both men and women and little children occupy
themselves with work at all times on the land. The children wear no
jewelry, but they are more beautiful than I can say. It is a country
where the women are not veiled. Their marriage is at their own choice,
and takes place between their twentieth and twenty-fifth year. They
seldom quarrel or shout out. They do not pilfer from each other. They
do not tell lies at all. When calamity overtakes them there is no
ceremonial of grief such as tearing the hair or the like. They swallow
it down and endure silently. Doubtless, this is the fruit of learning
in youth."

[_Now we will have a word for our Guru at home. He is a very holy man.
Write this carefully, Sahib._] "It is said that the French worship
idols. I have spoken of this with my old lady and her _guru_ [priest].
It is _not_ true in any way. There are certainly images in their
shrines and _deotas_ [local gods] to whom they present petitions as we
do in our home affairs, but the prayer of the heart goes to the God
Himself. I have been assured this by the old priests. All the young
priests are fighting in the war. The French men uncover the head but do
not take off the shoes at prayer. They do not speak of their religion
to strangers, and they do not go about to make converts. The old priest
in the village where I was billeted so long, said that all roads, at
such times as these, return to God." [_Our Guru at home says that
himself; so he cannot be surprised if there are others who think it._]
"The old priest gave me a little medal which he wished me