V.
Scarcely had Isa Das finished his meal, when some one approached him. The light of sunset had faded away, and Isa Das could not see the face of him who had come, but when he spoke Isa Das knew well the voice of Gunga Ram.
“Dost thou know what hath befallen our companion Ya’kub?” were the first words of Gunga Ram as he seated himself on the ground near Isa Das.
“I have not seen Ya’kub since the morning,” was Isa Das’s reply, “when from Manton Sahib we each received a rupee.”
“Ah, poor Ya’kub!” cried Gunga Ram, but more in mirth than in sorrow. “Did I not warn him and say to him, ‘Thou man without wisdom, spend not all thy money upon one meal!’ His bright rupee has been to him even as a melon under which a centipede lies hidden, that bites the hand of him who gathers the fruit.”
“What is thy meaning?” asked Isa Das.
“Ya’kub hurried off to the bazaar,” Gunga Ram made answer; “and there, to the last pie, he spent his money on buying dainties, the fat and the sweet. And he bought bang also, and he ate to the full, and he drank to the full, till his eyes would not have distinguished the saddle of a horse from the hump of a bullock!”
“Alas, that Ya’kub should thus have cast disgrace on the Christian name!” exclaimed Isa Das with sorrow.
But Gunga Ram neither showed nor felt any regret at the fall of his weaker brother; it was to him rather a cause of mirth.
“Ya’kub became in his drunkenness as one who is mad,” thus Gunga Ram went on with his story. “Ya’kub ran against the bearers of a palki,—rushing fiercely against them as the wild boar rushes through the jungle,—and, behold! in the palki was the Manton Sahib himself!” Gunga Ram laughed till his sides shook as he added, “So poor Ya’kub, of course, was sent to jail. This was the end of his feast! This was the great good which came to him from the rupee given by the Sahib!”
Then Isa Das could not help thinking of the words of the wise Solomon written in the Holy Book,—“The blessing of the Lord it maketh rich, and He addeth no sorrow with it” (Prov. x. 22). Poor Ya’kub had sought no blessing; he had cared but to gratify the lusts of the flesh; and behold sorrow and disgrace had come where he had looked for nothing but joy.
“Thou wilt not thus spend thy rupee, my friend?” he said unto Gunga Ram.
“Spend it, indeed! Why should I spend it at all?” was Gunga Ram’s reply. “No; I do not lightly part with my money,—I gather it up and store it. A pice is but a little coin, but many pice make a rupee, and many rupees a gold mohur; and as the proverb saith truly,—‘By patience the mulberry-leaf becomes satin.’” Gunga Ram lowered his voice and glanced round him suspiciously as he went on,—“Why should I hide a secret from thee which I have already confided to Ya’kub? The Sahib’s coin lies not alone in my bag,—there are now thrice three, which I have saved by care and self-denial; and if things go well with me to the end of the year, I shall have as many rupees saved as I have fingers on these two hands;” and Gunga Ram stretched out his hands as he spoke.
“What avails our having money, if we never spend it?” asked Isa Das. “Hast thou never heard the words of the Lord: ‘Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal’?” (Matt. vi. 19, 20).
Gunga Ram gave a sign of impatience. “Preach not to me, but look to thyself!” he exclaimed. “I wot thou hast not yet parted thyself with the Sahib’s rupee.”
“I have parted with it,” replied Isa Das with a smile.
“Hast thou then been to the bazaar and bought a ring, or a bracelet, or a new kamarband?” asked Gunga Ram.
Isa Das shook his head.
“Or a goat to give milk to thy child?”
Again Isa Das shook his head as he made reply,—“I have bought nothing, O my friend!”
“Then thou hast lost thy rupee?” cried Gunga Ram.
“I have not lost it,” said Isa Das with cheerfulness.
“Thou hast not kept, nor spent, nor lost it; then hast thou been so mad as to give it away to some poor neighbour?” asked Gunga Ram, who would not so much as have given away an anna to his own brother.
“I have given it to One who is rich,” replied Isa Das; and he added to himself,—“to One who for our sakes was yet content to be poor.”
“If thou hast given thy good rupee to one who is rich already, thou hast indeed acted the part of a fool!—unless, indeed, he be likely to repay thee thy money with interest,” said Gunga Ram.
“A hundredfold—a thousandfold,” thought Isa Das, as he lifted up his eyes towards heaven. “It is there that I would lay up my treasure.”