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permanently in the sickened air, still their noise came to us from afar.
    "You are a queer being," Kunthi said, her brows flaring away from her eyes. "Are you not glad that our village is no longer a clump of huts but a small town? Soon there will be shops and tea stalls, and even a bioscope, such as I have been to before I was married. You will see."
    "No doubt I will," I said. "It will not gladden me. Already my children hold their noses when they go by, and all is shouting and disturbance and crowds wherever you go. Even the birds have forgotten to sing, or else their calls are lost to us."
    "You are a village girl," said Kunthi, and there were shadows of contempt moving behind her eyes. "You do not understand."
    If I was a village girl, Kali and Janaki were too, and had no taste for the intruders; but after awhile Janaki confessed that at least she now knew what to do with her sons, for the land could not take them all; and as for Kali, well, she had always been fond of an audience for her stories. So they were reconciled and threw the past away with both hands that they might be the readier to grasp the present, while I stood by in pain, envying such easy reconciliation and clutching in my own two hands the memory of the past, and accounting it a treasure.
    I think the end of my daughter's carefree days began with the tannery. She had been used to come and go with her brothers, and they went whither they wished. Then one day, with many a meaningful wink, Kali told us that it was time we looked to our daughter.
    "She is maturing fast," she said. "Do you not see the eyes of the young men lighting on her? If you are not careful you will not find it easy to get her a husband."
    "My daughter is no wanton," Nathan replied. "Not only men but women look at her, for she is beautiful."
    "She is that," Kali said handsomely. "Therefore look to her even more closely." There was no subduing Kali, as I well knew.
    Thereafter, although we did not admit it to each other, we were more careful of Ira. Poor child, she was bewildered by the many injunctions we laid upon her, and the curtailing of her freedom tried her sorely, though not a word of complaint came from her.

     

    CHAPTER V

    IN all the years of our tenancy we never saw the Zemindar who owned our land. Sivaji acted for him, and being a kindly, humane man we counted ourselves lucky. Unlike some, he did not extract payment in kind to the last grain; he allowed us to keep the gleanings; he did not demand from us bribes of food or money; nor did he claim for himself the dung from the fields, which he might easily have done, stipulating only that Kali and I should gather our share on different days to avoid arguments. This way we got fairly equal quantities and there was no bad blood between us.
    One morning, so early that the dew still jewelled the grass and the clamour of the tannery had not yet begun, I went out on my errand. It was as well to go out early, otherwise you could never tell how much had already been taken by urchins, for dung was easy to sell and commanded a good price. Several times before, I had seen boys on the land and had chased them from it, but without succeeding in getting hold of their loot.
    That morning there were a lot of pickings; I soon filled the small basket I had with me. As I bent down for the last handful I became aware that someone was watching me.
    It was Kenny, thinner than when I had last seen him, but how could I ever forget him? Leaving my basket, I ran to him, dirty hands and all, with a glad welcoming heart.
    "My lord, my benefactor," I cried. "Many a time I have longed to see you. Now at last you come," and I bent down to kiss his feet, shod as they were in leather shoes. He withdrew them quickly and told me to get up.
    "I am not a benefactor," he said, "nor a lord. What ails you?"
    "You are my benefactor," I said stoutly. "Have I not five sons to prove it?"
    "Am I to blame for your excesses?" said he, grimacing, but his eyes were alight