* * * * *
But only three wise men went down to cantonments that Christmas morning, bringing the child with them; for Kunder, wiser perhaps, or less wise, felt that his new virtue was better away from the proximity of the jewels he had left tied up ready in a bundle; so, seizing his opportunity, he slipped like a water-snake into the tangle of floods and was seen no more.
* * * * *
"And after all," said Boy's mother, softly, "Christmas did take care of itself!"
"Yes!" answered the Colonel, quietly. "We all brought our offerings--gold and frankincense and myrrh."
[SURÂBHI]
A FAMINE TALE
She was only a cow, but she was all things, wife and child, earth and heaven, to old Gopâl, the Brahmin who owned her.
And, apart from his estimation, she had value. Connoisseurs in the village, as they looked over the low mud wall which separated the slip of open courtyard, ten feet by six, where there was just room for a crazy four-legged string bed between Surâbhi's manger and the door, would nod and say she must have been a good cow when young; but when that was only God knew!
Whereupon Gopâl would raise his shaven head with its faint frosting of silver hair from Surâbhi's silver flank, as he squatted holding a brass lotah in one hand, milking with the other, and smile scornfully.