Page:Malabari, Behramji M. - Gujarat and the Gujaratis (1882).djvu/235

Rh are starving; give us to eat." The Collector gave them respectable berths under him, asking them to learn soon to qualify themselves for the posts. When Shett Jamál heard of this he ran up to the Collector, took his turban off his head, put it at the Sáhib's feet, unclasped his Khán Báhádur medal, and said, with tears in his eyes, "Sir, you made me Khán Báhádur; this great honour has given me a chair beside Queen Victoria; the sun smiles on me, the moon courts my smile: all this I owe to you. Now take away this honour and kill me. My ábru is all gone, and you, my own patron, have done this by making clerks of my sons. Oh! oh! Why did I live to see this day? What will the Queen say to this? Oh! oh! ungrateful sons! wicked wife! I would kill them all."

"You old brute," replied the infuriated Collector, "you old, vicious, stinking brute! Had I known you were a drivelling idiot like this! Talking of Queen and sun and moon, when you have no more sense than my stable-boy! Here, remove this man; take him to the Magistrate; let him be bound over to keep peace towards his