And now I shall tell you a wonderful true story about a buffalo and a boy.
CHAPTER VIII
The Buffalo and the Boy
In a village there were many tame buffaloes, and among them thirty bull buffaloes. The little boys of the village took charge of them every day. The smartest boy among them was called Gulab. He was six years of age.
Gulab knew quite well each of the thirty bull buffaloes, and was a friend of each. Sometimes he alone had charge of them, and took them out to graze and to wallow. That was because his father was the herdsman.
The buffaloes loved Gulab, and they did exactly as he told them to do. When he was going to take them to the fields, he would just stamp his little bare foot and call out to them "Stand in rows!" And the huge animals would stand in rows, one line behind another.
Then Gulab would come around to the side, and see if each line was straight. If the line was not quite straight, and a buffalo happened to be standing too much this way or that, Gulab would walk up to the buffalo and spank him on the jaw. Then the buffalo would move into line, exactly as Gulab wanted him to do. Or, if a buffalo happened to be standing too far behind, Gulab would come around to the back and twist the buffalo's tail, and the buffalo would move up into line.
Then, when the whole herd was in the right order, Gulab would come to the front of the herd, and walk up to the biggest bull.