Then
she picked up Sonny Sahib and held him tighter than he liked. She
had crooned with patient smiles over many of the babalok in her
day, but from beginning to end, never a baba like this. So strong
he was, he could make old Abdul cry out, pulling at his beard, so
sweet-tempered and healthy that he would sleep just where he was
put down, like other babies of Rubbulgurh. Tooni grieved deeply
that she could not give him a bottle, and a coral, and a
perambulator, and often wondered that he consented to thrive
without these things, but the fact remains that he did. He even
allowed himself to be oiled all over occasionally for the good of
his health, which was forbearing in a British baby. And always
when Abdul shook his finger at him and said--
'Gorah pah howdah, hathi pah JEEN!
Jeldi bag-gia, Warren HasTEEN!'[1]
he laughed and crowed as if he quite understood the joke.
[1] 'Howdahs on horses, on elephants JEEN!
He ran away quickly did Warren HasTEEN!'
'Jeen' means 'saddles,' but nobody could make that rhyme! Popular
incident of an English retreat in Hastings' time.
Tooni had no children of her own, and wondered how long it would be
before she and Abdul must go again to Cawnpore to find the baby's
father. There need be no hurry, Tooni thought, as Sonny Sahib
played with the big silver hoops in her ears, and tried to kick
himself over her shoulder.
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