Page:Works of Tagore from the Modern Review, 1909-24 Segment 1.pdf/113

Rh little sari was stuffed with almonds and raisins, the gift of her visitor. "Why did you give her those?" I said, and taking out an eight-anna bit, I handed it to him. The man accepted the money without demur, and slipped it into his pocket.

Alas, on my return, an hour later, I found that unfortunate coin had made twice its own worth of trouble! For the Cabuliwallah had given it to Mini, and her Mother catching sight of the bright round object, had pounced on the child with, "Where did you get that eight-anna bit?"

"The Cabuliwallah gave it me", said Mini cheerfully.

"The Cabuliwallah gave it you!" cried her Mother much shocked, "Oh Mini! how could you take it from him?"

I, entering at the moment, saved her from the impending disaster, and proceeded to make my own enquiries.

It was not the first or second time, I found, that the two had met. The Cabuliwallah had overcome the child's first terror by a judicious bribery of nuts and almonds, and the two were now great friends.

They had a succession of quaint jokes which afforded them much amusement. Seated in front of him, looking down on his gigantic frame in all her tiny dignity, Mini's face would ripple over with laughter, and she would begin, "O Cabuliwallah, Cabuliwallah, what have you got in your bag?"

And he would reply, in the nasal accents of the mountaineer, "An Elephant!" Not much cause for merriment, perhaps, but how they both enjoyed the witticism! And for me, this child's talk with a grown-up man had always in it something strangely fascinating.

Then the Cabuliwallah, not to be behindhand, would begin in his turn, "Well, little one, and when are you going to the father-in-law's house?"

Now most small Bengali maidens have heard long ago about the father-in-law's house, only we being a little new-fangled, had kept these things from our child, and Mini at this question must have been a trifle bewildered. But she would not show it, and with ready tact replied, "Are you going there?"

Amongst men of the Cabuliwallah's class, however, it is well-known that the words father-in-law's house have a double meaning. It is a euphemism for jail, the place where we are so well cared for, at no expense to ourselves. In this sense would the sturdy pedlar take my daughter's question. "Ah!" he would say, shaking his fist at an invisible policeman, "I will thrash my father-in-law!" Hearing this, and picturing the poor discomforted relative, Mini would go off into peals of laughter, in which her formidable friend would join.

These were autumn mornings,—the very time of year when kings of old would go forth to conquest,—and I never stirring from my little corner in Calcutta, would let my mind wander over the whole world. At the very name of another country my heart would go out to it, and at the sight of a foreigner in the streets I would fall to weaving a network of dreams,—the mountains, the glens, and the forests of his distant home, with his cottage in its setting, and the free and independent life of distant wilds. Perhaps all the more because I lead such a vegetable existence that a call to travel would fall upon me like a thunderbolt, do the scenes of travel conjure themselves up before me, and pass and repass in my imagination. In the presence of this Cabuliwallah I was immediately transported to the foot of arid mountain-peaks with narrow little defiles twisting in and out amongst their towering heights. I could see the string of camels bearing the merchandise, and the company of turbaned merchants,—carrying some of them queer old firearms, and some of them spears,—journeying downward towards the plains. I could see—but at some such point Mini's Mother would intervene, imploring me to "beware of that man."

Mini's Mother is unfortunately a very timid individual. Whenever she hears a noise in the street, or sees people coming towards the house, she always jumps to the conclusion that they are either thieves, or drunkards, or snakes, or tigers, or malaria or cockroaches, or caterpillars, or an English sailor. Even after all these years of experience she is not able to overcome this terror. So she was full of doubts about the Cabuliwallah, and used to beg me to keep a watchful eye on him.

I tried to laugh her fear gently away,