The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1894-01-27

in the very touch and accent of Imam
Din, and S~trickland's eyebrows went
up.
you talk too much to the police, my
son." he said.
always, about everything" said Ad-
am promptly. '"They say that when I
am an officer I shall know as much as
my father"
God forbid, little one!!"
They say, too, that you are as clever
as Shaitan to know things"
'They say that, do they?' and Strick-
land looked pleased. His pay was small
but he had his reputation, and it was
dear to him.
They say, also-not to me. but to a
other when they eat rice behind the
wall-that in your W heart you es-
TEEN yourself as wise as %Suleinan,
who was cheated by Shaiton."
This time Strickland did not look
pleased. Adam, in all innocence launch
ed into q long story about Suleiman-
bin-1)aoud, who once. out OF vanity.
pitted his wits against Shaitan, and
because God was not on his side Shat
tan sent "a little devil of low CASTE"
as Adam put it, who cheated him ut
Terry, i1Iu put Hill 10 Slilue DelOre
"all the other Rajas."
by Gum" said Strickland, when the
tale was done, and went away, while
Adam took me to task for laughing at
Imam Din'S stories. I did not wonder
that he was called Huzrut Adam,
for he looked old as all time in his
grave childhood. sitting cross-legged.
his Battered little helmet far at the
1>no1s - 1;, hooI hts fr,a{;,<.p,. ~,ar rri,,r
up and down, native fashion, and the
lips.
That May he went up to Dalhousie
with his mother, and in those days
the journey ended in fifty or sixty
miles of uphill travel in a doolic or pal
anuuin along 4 road winding through
the Himalayas. Adam sat in the doo-
lie with his mother, and Strickland
rode and tied with me. Il spare doolie
following. The march began after we
got out of the train at pathankot, in
a hot night among the rice and poppy
fields.
1t was all new to Adam, and he had
opinions to advance-notably about fish
that jumped in a wayside pond. Now
I know" he shouted, how Khuda puts
them there. First he makes them and
then he drops them down. That was a
new one" Then, lifting up his head
to the stars, he cried, "Oh Khuda, do it
again, but slowly, that l, Adam, may
see."
But nothing happened, and the doo-
lie-bearers lit the noisome dipping rag
torches, and Adams eyes shone big in
the dancing light, and we smelt the dry
dust Of the plains that we were leaving
after eleven months hard work.
At stated times the men ceased their
drowsy, granting tune, and sat down
for a smoke. Between the guttering Of
their water pipes we could hear the
cries Of the beasts of the night, and
the wind stirring in the folds of the
mountains ahead. At the changing sta
lions the voice Of Adam the first of
men, would be lifted to rouse the sleep
crs in the huts till the fresh relays Of
bearers sbambled from their cots, and
the relief pony with them.
Then we would reform and 60 on,
and by the time the moon rose, Adam
was asleep, and there was no sound
in the night except the granting of the
men, the husky murmur OF some river
4 thousand feet down in the valley,
and the s%queaking Of S~trickland's sad
die. So we went up from date-palm
to deodar. till the dawn wind came
round a corner all fresh from the o
and we snffed it, I heard Strickland
say: wife, my overcoat. please and
Adam, fretfully. where is Dalhausie
and the cows child?' and then l slept
till Strickland turned me out Of the
warm doolie ut I o'clock, and l stepped
out into all the splendor of a cool Hill
day, the plains sweltering twenty miles
back and three thousand feet below.
Adam walked too, and needs must
ride In front Of me to ask a million
questions and shout at the monkeys.
and clap his hands when the painted
pLeasants bolted across Il road, and
hail every wood-cutter and drover and
pilgrim within sight, till we halted for
breakfast at a staging house. After
breakfast, being a child. he went out
to play with q train-of- bullock-drivers
halted by the roadside and we had to
chase him out of Il native liquor shop,
where he was bargaining with a native
seven-year-old for a mynah in a bamboo
cage.
Said he, wriggling OH my pommel as
we went on again: There We're four
men behosh (nsensible) at the back Of
that house. Wherefore do men grow
behosh from d~rinking?"
ut Is the nature Of the water" I
said, and calling back: "Strick, what's
that grog-shop doing so close to the
road:' It's a temptation to any ones
servants"
Dunno" said a sleepy voice in the
Doodle. "This is Kennedy's district"
'Twasn't here in my time"
Truly the water smells bad" Adam
went on. II smelt it. but I did not get
the mynah even for six The
woman Of the house gave me a love-
gift, that I found, playing near the
veranda."
And what was the gift, Father
ADAM
"A nose-ring for my ayah. Ohe!
Ohe! Look at that camel with the bag
on his nose" A string Of loaded cam
els came cruising around the corner,
as a fleet around a cape.
"Ho, Mauk! Why does not a camel
salaam like IN elephant? His neck is
long enough" Adam cried.
1.-The angel Jibrail made him a fool
as he swayed on top of the led beast,
and laughter ran ali along the line Of
~red-bearded men.
THAT is true" said Adam, and they
laughed again.
At last, in the late afternoon, we
came to Dalhousie, the loveliest of the
hill stations, and separated, Adam hard
ly to be restrained from setting out at
orce to find Victor and the "cow's
child" I found them both, something
to my trouble, next morning. The two
young sinners had a calf on a taut line
just at a sharp turn in the Mall, and
were pretending that he was q Raja's