Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-01-16
THE UNDERTAKERS.
BY RUDYARD KIPLISG.
copyright, 1894, by Bachelor, johnson q
Bacheller1
Continued from yesterday.

The jacl1al WINGED. though he was full
three seasons old, but you cannot re-
sent an insult from a person with a
beal yard long, and the power OF
driving it like a javelin. The adjutant
was a most notorious coward, but the
jackal was worse.
1--WE must live before we can learn, y
said the inugger, and there is this to
say. Little jackals are very common,
child. but such I muggar as am is not
common. For all that am not proud,
since pride is destruction; but take
notice. ii is fate, and against his fate nc
one who swiTus or walks or runs should
say anything at all. am well con
tented with fate. With good luck, q
keen eye. and the custom OF consider
ing whether Il creek or baclwater
has al outlet to it ere You ascend,
much may be done"
Once | heard that even the Pro
tector of the Poor made q mistake"
said the jacl1al viciously.
True; but there my fate helped me.
It was before | had come to my full
growth-before the last famine but
three (by the Right and Left OF Gunga,
how full the streams used to be in
those days9. Yes, was young and nm
thinking, and when the food came
who so pleased as |? A little made me
very happy then. The village was deep
in flood. and | swan above the ghaut
and went far inland, up TO the rice
fields, and they were deepin good mud.
| remember also pair of bracelets
glass they were, and troubled me not
q little) that found that evening. Yes,
glass bracelets; and, if my memory
serves me well, shoe. | should have
shaken off both shoes, but | was
hungry learned better later. Yes.
And so fed and rested me: but when
was ready to go to the river again the
food had fallen, and I walked through
the mud of the main street. Who but
I? Came out all my people, priests
and women and children. and looked
IpOn them with bencvOlence. The
mud is not a good place to fight in.
said boat1an: Get axes and kill him,
for he is the 1ugger Of the ford Not
90, said the Brahmin. Look, he is
lririn" tie food before him, He is
the Go3li9g Of the village Then they
tlraw many flowers at ne, and by
happy thought one led goat across the
-O&d."
"lIow good-how very good is goat"
said the jac!sal.
/, ,-.f,nr, TO- =
in tbs water more than likely to hide 4
aross-shurtd hook. Eat that goat l
accepted. and went down to thc ghaut
in great honor. Later, my fate sent
me the boatrlan who had desired to
cut of my tail with an AK. His boat
grounded upon an old shoal which You
wo,;lu not remombar."
we are not all jacl:als here" said
the adjutant. WAS it the shoal made
whore the stone boats sank in the year
of the great drought-a long shoal that
lasted three tloods?'
There were two" said the mugger-
IAN upper and lower shoal."
"Ay, f-rrot. A channel divided
them, and later dried up again" said
the adiuiant, who prided himself on
his memory.
"On the l0wcy shoal my well wisher's
craft grounded. lie was sleeping in
the bows. and. ff-awallc, lcapcd over
to his waist-no, it was no more than
to his llHees-to push OF. His empty
boat went on and touched again below
the next reach. as the river ran then.
followed, because l knew men would
come out 70 drag it ashore"
and did they do 500" said the iackal.
little awe-stricken. This was hunt
ilg on i scale that impressed him.
There and lower down they did. I
went no further, bat that gave me
three in one day-well-fed manjis( boat
mem ALL and, except in the case Of the
last then | was carelcssl, never a cry
to warn those on the bank
"Ah. noble sport, But what clever
ness and great Judgment it requires"
said the jacbal.
Not clcvcrness, child, but thought
A little thought in life is like salt upon
rice, as the boatmen say, and | have
thought deeply always. The gavial,
my .ousin, the fish-eater, has told me
how hard it Is for aim TO follow the
fish and how one fish differs from the
other, and how he must know them all,
both together and apart. say that is
wisdom; but, on the other hand, my
cousin the gavial lives among his peo-
pie. My people do not swim in com
panics with their mouths ont of the
water, as Rcwa docs; nor do they con-
stantly rise to the surface of the water,
and turn over on their sides. like Mohoo
and little Chapta. nor do they gather
in shoals after food, like Batchua and
Chilwa."
"All are very good eating" said the
adj,,tant, Gathering his bcall.
80 my cousin says, and makes
great TODD over hunting them, but
they do not climb the banks to escape
his sharp nose. Ny people are other
wise. Their life is on the land, in the
houses, among the cattle. | must know
what they do and what they are about
to do, and, adding the sail TO the trunk,
as the saying is. | make up the whole
elephant. Is there n green branch ana
an iron ring hanging over doorway?
The old mugger knows that boy has
been born in that house, and must some