ted and began to grow!'

'Wheat does when it gets a fair chance,' said the bunniah.

'Yes; and the next thing we knew was that there was a crop of wheat on
that horse's back as big as anything you ever saw in a hundred-acre
field, and we had to hire twenty men to reap it!'

'One generally has to hire extra hands for reaping,' said the bunniah.

'And we got four hundred maunds of wheat off that mare's back!'
continued the farmer.

'A good crop!' murmured the bunniah.

'And your father,' said the farmer, 'a poor wretch, with hardly enough
to keep body and soul together--(the bunniah snorted, but was
silent)--came to my father, and he said, putting his hands together as
humble as could be----'

The bunniah here flashed a furious glance at his companion, but bit
his lips and held his peace.

'"I haven't tasted food for a week. Oh! great master, let me have the
loan of sixteen maunds of wheat from your store, and I will repay
you."'

'"Certainly, neighbour," answered my father; "take what you need, and
repay it as you can."'

'Well?' demanded the bunniah with fury in his eye.

'Well, he took the wheat away with him,' replied the farmer; 'but he
never repaid it, and it's a debt to this day. Sometimes I wonder
whether I shall not go to law about it.'

Then the bunniah began running his thumb quickly up and down the
fingers of his right hand, and his lips moved in quick calculation.

'What is the matter?' asked the farmer.

'The wheat is the cheaper; I'll pay you for the wheat,' said the
bunniah, with the calmness of despair, as he remembered that by his
own arrangement he was bound to give the farmer a hundred rupees.

And to this day they say in those parts, when a man owes a debt: 'Give
me the money; or, if not that, give me at least the wheat.'

(This is from oral tradition.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Grain merchant and banker, and generally a very greedy man.

_JACKAL OR TIGER?_

One hot night, in Hindustan, a king and queen lay awake in the palace
in the midst of the city. Every now and then a faint air blew through
the lattice, and they hoped they were going to sleep, but they never
did. Presently they became more broad awake than ever at the sound of
a howl outside the palace.

'Listen to that tiger!' remarked the king.

'Tiger?' replied the queen. 'How should there be a tiger inside the
city? It was only a jackal.'

'I tell you it was a tiger,' said the king.

'And I tell you that you we