The boy turned his large bright eyes upon Simba’s face, which glowed with honest pride and affection, and then they measured the giant limbs, the tremendous arms, and the broad heaving chest, and to his father’s question propounded another, which rather startled his father:
“Simba is a great strong man, but whom dost thou value more, father—thy son Selim or thy slave Simba?”
“Why, son of mine, what a question! Art thou not the child of my loins, and of my dear Amina? and have I ever failed in my love for thee?”
“Never—no, never, dear father; but Simba has given thy son back again to thee, else had I been dead. Has Simba paid thee full valuation for the purchase-money thou didst pay for him when he was a child?”
“Simba is good; but had I lost thee, I had surely lost all. Thou hast said it, my child. Simba is free, and is no longer a slave of Amer bin Osman.”
“Simba!” cried Selim, “good Simba, do you hear the words of my father? You are a man, and no longer a slave!”
Simba at first did not seem to comprehend the full meaning of the words addressed to him, but as the words of the boy whose life he had saved were repeated to him, a proud smile lit his features, and as he tossed his head back, while his nostrils dilated, he said:
“A slave! It is an ugly word; but Simba, of the Wahuma, of Urundi, was in his own mind never a slave, so the word troubled him. Simba might long ago have been free, had he wished it, but he loved his master, Amer, and Sheikh Amer’s son; so he remained their servant, and while being their servant he never forgot that he was a man. Simba is grateful to Amer and his son Selim, and while he remembers that he is free, Simba will be happy only in remembering also that he is their servant;” saying which, he bent his knee and kissed the right hand of father and son.
“Ah, Simba, my friend!” cried Selim, “I shall call thee friend in future, and thou shalt say ‘thou’ to me, and I ‘thou’ to thee, as my father and I say to each other; and if thou art grateful, Selim has also a heart, and can feel.”
“Then, boys,” said Amer, breaking in upon this interchange of compliments, “to bed, and sleep your sleep out. Let a watch be kept, lest the Wahehe robbers come to avenge the dead dog of a thief, and upon the first appearance of anything suspicious, sound the alarm instantly.”