Page:A child of the Orient (IA childoforient00vakarich).pdf/126

 reaching for a bunch she slipped—and the man awoke!

We did not know what would have happened to us—as we talked it over afterwards—we thought we should probably have been taken to prison to spend our young lives there, without light or air. We were only saved from that dreadful fate by Semmeya's inventiveness.

Nashan stood there, petrified, staring at the vendor. Djimlah hid her face on my shoulder; I was trying to hide behind Chakendé; and Chakendé was trembling all over.

Semmeya walked straight up to the man and said to him proudly:

"A vendor who has something to sell must never go to sleep. We wanted some grapes, and of course we had to have them, and naturally we took them. Now, how much do we owe you, vendor?"

The man was entirely apologetic, and begged to be forgiven. He said, since we were four, it would make about an oka of grapes, and he would let us have them for four paras. I knew he was cheating us in asking four pennies. By no possibility could we have taken an oka.

Having paid him we walked away with our heads high, but I trembled, and I know Djimlah did, too, for her arm in mine was shaking.

We spoke then of our feelings and of the awful thing that happened to our hearts when the