The Flower of Forgiveness Part 28

Quick! quick!"

Simple enough, yet in its very simplicity lay their only chance of escape. A string-woven bed buoyed up with the bundles of reeds cut ready for re-thatching, and on this frail raft four people--nay five!

for first of all with jealous care Nuttia placed her beloved Sirdar Begum in safety, wrapping her up in the clothes she discarded in favour of free nakedness.

Quick! Quick! if the rising ground is to be gained and the levels beyond forded ere the water is too deep! Moti and a companion yoked by plough-ropes to the bed, wade knee-deep, hock-deep, into the stream, and now with the old, cheerful cry Nuttia, clinging to their tails and so guiding them, urges the beasts deeper still. The stream swirls past holding them with it, though they breast it bravely. A log, long stranded in some shallow, dances past, shaving the raft by an inch.

Then an alligator, swept from its moorings and casting eyes on Nuttia's brown legs, makes the beasts plunge madly. A rope breaks,--the churned water sweeps over the women,--the end is near,--when another frantic struggle leaves Moti alone to her task. The high childish voice calling on her favourite's courage rises again and again; but the others, cowed into silence, clutch together with hid faces, till a fresh plunge loosens their tongues once more. It is Moti finding foothold, and they are safe--so far.

"Quick! _Mai_ Jewun," cries Nuttia, as her companions stand looking fearfully over the waste of shallows before them. She knows from the narrowness of the ridge they have reached that time is precious. "We must wade while we can, saving Moti for the streams. Take up the baby, and I--"

Her hands, busy on the bed, stilled themselves,--her face grew grey,--she turned on them like a fury. "Sirdar Begum! I put her there--where is Sirdar Begum?"

"That bed-leg!" shrilled the mother, tucking up her petticoats for greater freedom. "There was no room, and Heart's Delight was cold. Bah!

wood floats."

"_Hull-lal-lal-a lalla la!_" The herdsman's cry was the only answer.

Moti has faced the flood again, but this time with a light load, for the baby nestling amid Nuttia's clothes is the only occupant of the frail raft.

"My son! My son! Light of mine eyes! Core of my heart! Come back! Come back!"

But the little black head drifting down stream behind the big one never turned from its set purpose. Wood floated, and so might babies. Why not?

Why not, indeed! But, as a matter of fact, _Mai_ Jewun was right. A dilapidated bed-leg was picked up on a sand-bank miles away when the floods subsided; and Moti joined the herd next day to chew the cud of her reflections contentedly. But the village Legacy and Heart's Delight remained somewhere seeking for something,--that something, doubtless, which had turned the bed-leg into Sirdar Begum.

FOOTNOTES

[Footnote 1: Head of a religious community.]

[Footnote 2: Name of Vishnu.]

[Footnote 3: Runjeet Singh never enlisted a man who, in counting up to thirty, said _puch-is_ for five and twenty, but those who said _punj-is_ were pa.s.sed. In other words, the _patois_ was made a test of whether the recruit belonged to the Trans-Sutlej tribes or the Cis-Sutlej.]

[Footnote 4: _Bunniah_, a merchant. _Bunniah-ji_ signifies, as Shakespeare would have said, Sir Merchant.]

[Footnote 5: _Zemindar-ji_, Sir Squire.]

[Footnote 6: _Baba_, as a term of familiarity, is applied indifferently to young and old.]

[Footnote 7: _Purohit_, a spiritual teacher, a sage, answering in some respects to the Red Indian's medicine-man.]

[Footnote 8: Snakes are said to be attracted by the scent of blood, as they are undoubtedly by that of milk.]

[Footnote 9: With faith.]

[Footnote 10: Priest.]

[Footnote 11: Lit. Father. Baba is constantly used to a religious teacher.]

[Footnote 12: Lit. _rice and lentil_. A catchword for native food.]

[Footnote 13: A fact.]

[Footnote 14: The Sikh bible.]

[Footnote 15: Lit. stick-bearer, but applied always to wandering devotees who tramp the country living on alms.]

[Footnote 16: Roast chicken.]

[Footnote 17: The Sikh Commonwealth.]

[Footnote 18: A Mohammedan preacher.]

[Footnote 19: "G.o.d Almighty and his prophet Mohammed;" a brief confession of faith.]

[Footnote 20: The veil worn by secluded women.]

[Footnote 21: Unleavened cakes and mince-meat b.a.l.l.s.]

[Footnote 22: The Creed.]

[Footnote 23: The Hindu Venus; Durga in another form.]

[Footnote 24: In India the cow will not give milk if separated from her calf.]

[Footnote 25: Stuffed.]

[Footnote 26: Literally _bakee_, or extra; but _Barker sahib_ is a perennial jest with both master and man, answering to the English Mr.

Manners.]

[Footnote 27: t.i.tle of honour equivalent to our "mistress."]

[Footnote 28: Rose.]

[Footnote 29: The usual pilgrim's cry.]

[Footnote 30: A t.i.tle of courtesy equivalent to our mistress.]

END.