"I know; but I am going to try."
"Oh, sir, then I will come with you."
"No, Kachi. You will suffer too much. Go back to your father and mother, now that you have the opportunity."
"No, sir; where you go, I will go. Small men never suffer. If they do, it does not matter. Only great men's sufferings are worth noticing. If you suffer, I will suffer. I will come."
Kachi's philosophy touched me. He meant what he said. I decided to take him.
This was a piece of luck. Kachi Ram had five bosom friends among the young Shoka coolies. In the evenings in camp they often joined in weird love-songs, in memory of the fair maids of their hearts whom they had left behind, on the other side of the Himahlyas.
Kachi hurried away in a state of great excitement. He was back in a few minutes.
"How many coolies will you take, sir?"
"None will come."