s priest is new. The Sahib in the Wonder House has
talked to him like a brother. O my mother, fill me this bowl. He
waits.'

'That bowl indeed! That cow-bellied basket! Thou hast as much grace
as the holy bull of Shiv. He has taken the best of a basket of onions
already, this morn; and forsooth, I must fill thy bowl. He comes here
again.'

The huge, mouse-coloured Brahmini bull of the ward was shouldering his
way through the many-coloured crowd, a stolen plantain hanging out of
his mouth. He headed straight for the shop, well knowing his
privileges as a sacred beast, lowered his head, and puffed heavily
along the line of baskets ere making his choice. Up flew Kim's hard
little heel and caught him on his moist blue nose. He snorted
indignantly, and walked away across the tram-rails, his hump quivering
with rage.

'See! I have saved more than the bowl will cost thrice over. Now,
mother, a little rice and some dried fish atop--yes, and some vegetable
curry.'

A growl came out of the back of the shop, where a man lay.

'He drove away the bull,' said the woman in an undertone. 'It is good
to give to the poor.' She took the bowl and returned it full of hot
rice.

'But my yogi is not a cow,' said Kim gravely, making a hole with his
fingers in the top of the mound. 'A little curry is good, and a fried
cake, and a morsel of conserve would please him, I think.'

'It is a hole as big as thy head,' said the woman fretfully. But she
filled it, none the less, with good, steaming vegetable curry, clapped
a fried cake atop, and a morsel of clarified butter on the cake, dabbed
a lump of sour tamarind conserve at the side; and Kim looked at the
load lovingly.

'That is good. When I am in the bazar the bull shall not come to this
house. He is a bold beggar-man.'

'And thou?' laughed the woman. 'But speak well of bulls. Hast thou
not told me that some day a Red Bull will come out of a field to help
thee? Now hold all straight and ask for the holy man's blessing upon
me. Perhaps, too, he knows a cure for my daughter's sore eyes. Ask.
him that also, O thou Little Friend of all the World.'

But Kim had danced off ere the end of the sentence, dodging pariah dogs
and hungry acquaintances.

'Thus do we beg who know the way of it,' said he proudly to the lama,
who opened his eyes at the contents of the bowl. 'Eat now and--I will
eat with thee. Ohe, bhisti!' he called to the water-carrier, sluicing
the cro