The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-04-28
Caught TN a Quicksand.

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The grip of famine was over the
land. All through June, July, anG
August, the ought-to-be wet months
no rain had fallen in Upper India
The crops has not grown up, and the
people were starving. In India, when
the rains fail, much the same state oi
things occurs as that from which We
read in the book of Genesis of Jacob
and his sons suffering. There are such
millions of people, very, very poor, al.
most all living on grain and grain-food,
with little or no meat.
So it was O very sad camp life that
Robbie and his parents started on that
October. His father was magistrate,
and all the cold weather he had to move
about all over his district, and look af-
ter the people generally. This camp
life, this moving nearly every day to a
new green. shady grove, Bobby always
looked forward to. But this was
to be his last in tents. Robbie was
growing too old to be kept with safety
out in India any longer. Next month
he was to be sent home across the
seas to grandmamma.
So altogether it was rather a sad
camping out. The country looked 80
wretched, all bare and parched, and
the people in the villages too miserable
for words. They were more like skele.
tons than human beings, and as they
wore hardly any clothes, you could al
most see their bones coming through
their skin. 1t made Bobbie feel quite
miserable to meet them.
One day he sat eating his breakfast
outside the tent, under the shadow of a
big mongo tree, when some little half
naked children came slowly'wandering
across from the native village Of mud
huts near by, such wretched-looking
little objects, their faces all big black
eyes, there legs and arms all bones.
There were three of them-two tiny
toddlers and an elder boy. They stood
at little distance and watched Bobbie
eat his nice break fast with a ravenous
look like starving animals. Yet they
were patient and dumb, they did not
cry and beg. Bobbie could not stand
their mute appeal. Jumped off his
chair and ran toward them with all his
food piled on the plate. The little
ones hardly realized what he meant;
but the elder boy snatched the plate
eagerly. Robbie thought he was going
to eat it all himself. But no. This
good little elder brother turned to the
others with it. They grabbed it like
hungry puppies, and not till they had
eaten it nearly all did he touch a NOR
sci himself.
1t the evening, at Bobbie's supper
time, the children, emboldened by their
success, drew near again and the same
performance was repeated.
"Oh, Bobbie!" said bis mother, "It's
all very we'll, remember we cannot
possible feed all the children who are
starving around"
Just this one lot, mother,n pleaded
Bobbie. "We move away from here
tomorrow. And he is such kind lit
tie brotherW
At breakfast time next day they
crept up again. But their brother was
not with them. A man, evidently
their father, brought them, and then
stood alta distance, and they toddled
up to Bobbie alone, holding out their
hands beseechingly.
ASK him wherethe big boy is"
said Bobbie to his mother, standing
near.
The father shook his head and began
to weep.
''The boy died in the night. He was
too weak for want of food to live. Half
the village has died these last few
weeks. But his highness the little
sahib (merning Bobbie,) has spared
me these only two of my children who
are left me by feeding them. For to-
morrow the Government opens the re-
lief work near the great city, and I go
to wor k and get money to buy food"
Mother this time made no demur.
With her own hands she fed the starv-
ing miles, and the father himself was
not forgotten.
Months passed by. Bobbie was far
away in England with grandmamma,
when his parents once more came and
camped by the mango grove. There
was once again comparative plenty
among such inhabitants of the village
as were left. The Government had
been building a bridge over the great
river and making road and there had
been money earned, and money meant
food.
There was more money to be earned
that day by day villagers, too; for, the
magistrate had news of a tiger afoot in
thegreat thick jungle across the stream.
So he got up shooting party. He
sent for his friends, the other European
officials of the district, to come with
their elephants, and ordered out all the
villagers to come and beat jungle.
At early dawn next the shooting
party set out. On each elephant rode
asportsman, but on the last, along with
her husband, rode Bobbie's mother,