"Is the hut along the main highway?"
"It is some way back from the village, where there can be no danger to any of them. I shall urge the ladies to go there."
"They will not need much urging."
By the time it was light all the parties were awake, and they warmly greeted Luchman, whose escape from Wana Affghar was hardly less striking than their own.
When he explained about the hut they were glad to act upon his invitation, for it can be understood how acceptable such accommodations are to persons whose experience is like theirs.
The mud house was occupied by a man, his wife and two children, all of whom thought themselves highly honored by receiving such visitors beneath their roof. The simple people had never before been spoken to by a foreign lady.
The dwelling was a tidy one with two rooms. It was made of sun dried bricks, thatched with corn stalks, but to the refugees it was a palace, after their toil and sufferings. The low caste of the native permitted him to supply them with food and entertainment. From the neighboring well he drew the water for bathing, while his wife ground the grain in a hand mill, and soon supplied her guests with chuppaties and a kind of grain porridge known as dalbhat. This simple food, eaten in safety, was delicious and nourishing.
The furniture of the house consisted of a charpoy or native bedstead and some cooking utensils. Outside, under the shade of a mango tree, was another charpoy, which was used for a seat during the day.
While our friends were seated on the ground, eating their simple meal, the housewife stood over them with a dried palm leaf, which she used deftly as a fan, thus enabling her visitors to eat in comfort. Having been accustomed in their own home to the huge punkahs, suspended from the ceiling and kept going day and night during the burning season, and having undergone such misery on the way to this primitive hut, it can well be understood how grateful the service of the housewife was to the weary fugitives.
The ladies spent as much of the day in slumber as they could, for they expected to travel during the entire night. Dr. Avery tumbled into the charpoy under the tree outside, but tumbled out again when he found that a venomous serpent had pre-empted it.