The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-07-04

|
would have to go when they were finished.
and slipped the pink water like man Of
| the world, as he listened to the converse
ton. Presently the legal member, talking
| "shop" TO tie head of department, men
tened his bill by its full naEc-"The Sub
Montana Tracts Ryotwari Revised Enact
ment." Tods caught the one native word
and, lifting up his small voice, said:
| "Oh, l know all about that! Has it been
murramutted yet, counciil:x sahib."
'How muchs" said the segal member.
| "Nurramutted-nend Put theek, you
| know-Inade nice to please Ditta MullW
The legal member left his place ard
| moved up next TO Tods.
"What do you know about Ryotwari,
little MANI" he said
Pm not little man, I'm Tods, and I
known llabout it. Ditta Null and Choga
Lall and Amir Nath and-oh, lakhs OF
my friends tell me about it in the bazars
when l talk to them"
"Oh, they do, do they9 What do they
say, Tods:"
Tods tucked his feet under his red fan
mel dressing gown and said: II must fink. :"
The legal member waited patiently.
Then Tods, with infinite compassion:
you don't speak my talk, do you, coun-
cillor sahib?"
mo; am sorry to say I do not" said the
legal member.
VERY well, said Tods, ~ must fink in
English"
He spent minute putting his ideas in
order and began very slowly, translating
in his mind from the vernacular to En-
glish, as many Anglo-Indian children do.
You must remember that the legal mem
Der helped him on by questions when he
halted, for Tods was not equal to the sus-
tanned flight Of osa.>ory that follows.
''Ditta Null satza This thing is the talk
of child, and ssas made up by fools
But l don't thinkyou are fool councillor
sahib," said Tods hastily. you caught
my goat. This is what Ditta Null Gays: I
am not fool, and why should the Sirkar
say l am child? l can see if the land is
good and if the landlord is good. Ii 1 am
fool the sin is upon my own head. For
i've years | take my ground for which l
have saved money, and a wife l take too,
and little son is born Ditta Null has
one daughter now, but he says he will
have a son soon. And he says: AT the
end Of five years, by this new bundobust, l
must go. If l do not go 1 must get fresh
seals and takkus stamps on the papers,
perhaps in the middle of the harvest, and
to go to the law courts once is wisdom,
but to go twice is Jehannum.' That
is quite true" explained Tods gravely.
"A1 my friends say SO. And Ditta
Null says: Always fresh takkus and
paying money to yakils and chaprassis and
law courts every five years, or else the land
lord makes me go. Why do l want to go?
Am I a fool? If I am fool and do not
know after forty years good land when l
see it let me die! But if the new bundobust
says for fifteen years, that it is good and
wise. My little son is g man, and am
burnt, and he takes the ground or another
ground, paying only once for the takkus
stamps on the papers, and his little son is
born, and at the end of fifteen years is a
man too. But what profits is there in five
years and fresh papers? Nothing but dikh,
trouble, dikh. We are not young men who
take these lands, but old ones-not jats,
but tradesmen with a little mOney-and
for fifteen years we shall have peace. Nor
are we children that the sirkar should treat
us so. :"
Here Tods stopped short, for the whole
table were listening The legal member
said to Tods: rs that all?'
"AIl I can remember" said Tods. 'fBut
you should see Ditta MulPs big monkey.
It's just like councillor sahib.'
'Tods! Go to bed, said his father.
Tods gathered up his dressing gown tail
and departed.
The legal member brought his hand
down on the table with a crash-'By
Jovep' said the legal member, 81 believe
I,o how g to,,,ro = 81,
weak point"
He left early, thinking over what Tods
had said Now it was obviously impossi-
bic for the legal member to play with a
bunnia's monkey, by way of getting I'M
derstanding; but he did better. He made
inquiries, always bearing in mind the fact
that the real native-not the hybrid, uni
versity trained mulc-is as timid as a colt,
and, little by little, he coaxed some Of the
men whom the measure concerned most in
timately to give in their views, which
squared very closely with TOds' evidence.
So the bill was amended il that clause,
and the legal member was filed with an
uneasy suspicion that native members rep
resent very little except the orders they
carry in their bosoms. But he put the
thought from him as iliberal He was a
liberal man.
After time the news spread through
the bazars that Tods had got the bill re
cast in the tenure clause, and if Tods'
mamma had not interfered Tods would
have made himself sick on the baskets Of
fruit and pistachio nuts and Cabuh grapes
and almonds that crowded the verandah.
TIL he went home Tools ranked some few
degrees before the viceroy in popular esti-
nation. But for the little life of him Tods /
could not understand why.
In the legal members private paper box |
still lies the rough draft OF the Sub-Mon- !
tame Tracts Ryotwari Revised Enactment:
and opposite the twcnty-second clause,
penciled in blue chalk and signed by the |
legal member, are the words ''Tods' |
Amendment. "CRudyard Kipping.