Upon the old white-bearded folk
Who strive to please the King.
God's mercy is upon the young,
God's wisdom in the baby tongue
That fears not anything.
Now Tods' Mamma was a singularly charming woman, and every one in Simla knew Tods. Most men had saved him from death on occasions. He was beyond his ayah's control altogether, and perilled3 his life daily to find out what would happen if you pulled a Mountain Battery mule's tail. He was an utterly4 fearless young Pagan, about six years old, and the only baby who ever broke the holy calm of the supreme5 Legislative6 Council.
It happened this way: Tods' pet kid got loose, and fled up the hill, off the Boileaugunge Road, Tods after it, until it burst into the Viceregal Lodge7 lawn, then attached to “Peterhoff.” The Council were sitting at the time, and the windows were open because it was warm. The Red Lancer in the porch told Tods to go away; but Tods knew the Red Lancer and most of the Members of Council personally. Moreover, he had firm hold of the kid's collar, and was being dragged all across the flower-beds. “Give my salaam8 to the long Councillor Sahib, and ask him to help me take Moti back!” gasped9 Tods. The Council heard the noise through the open windows; and, after an interval10, was seen the shocking spectacle of a Legal Member and a Lieutenant-Governor helping12, under the direct patronage13 of a Commander-in-Chief and a Viceroy, one small and very dirty boy in a sailor's suit and a tangle14 of brown hair, to coerce15 a lively and rebellious16 kid. They headed it off down the path to the Mall, and Tods went home in triumph and told his Mamma that ALL the Councillor Sahibs had been helping him to catch Moti. Whereat his Mamma smacked17 Tods for interfering18 with the administration of the Empire; but Tods met the Legal Member the next day, and told him in confidence that if the Legal Member ever wanted to catch a goat, he, Tods, would give him all the help in his power. “Thank you, Tods,” said the Legal Member.
Tods was the idol19 of some eighty jhampanis, and half as many saises. He saluted20 them all as “O Brother.” It never entered his head that any living human being could disobey his orders; and he was the buffer21 between the servants and his Mamma's wrath22. The working of that household turned on Tods, who was adored by every one from the dhoby to the dog-boy. Even Futteh Khan, the villainous loafer khit from Mussoorie, shirked risking Tods' displeasure for fear his co-mates should look down on him.
So Tods had honor in the land from Boileaugunge to Chota Simla, and ruled justly according to his lights. Of course, he spoke23 Urdu, but he had also mastered many queer side-speeches like the chotee bolee of the women, and held grave converse24 with shopkeepers and Hill-coolies alike. He was precocious25 for his age, and his mixing with natives had taught him some of the more bitter truths of life; the meanness and the sordidness26 of it. He used, over his bread and milk, to deliver solemn and serious aphorisms27, translated from the vernacular28 into the English, that made his Mamma jump and vow29 that Tods MUST go home next hot weather.
Just when Tods was in the bloom of his power, the Supreme Legislature were hacking30 out a Bill, for the Sub-Montane Tracts31, a revision of the then Act, smaller than the Punjab Land Bill, but affecting a few hundred thousand people none the less. The Legal Member had built, and bolstered32, and embroidered33, and amended34 that Bill, till it looked beautiful on paper. Then the Council began to settle what they called the “minor35 details.” As if any Englishman legislating36 for natives knows enough to know which are the minor and which are the major points, from the native point of view, of any measure! That Bill was a triumph of “safe guarding the interests of the tenant11.” One clause provided that land should not be leased on longer terms than five years at a stretch; because, if the landlord had a tenant bound down for, say, twenty years, he would squeeze the very life out of him. The notion was to keep up a stream of independent cultivators in the Sub-Montane Tracts; and ethnologically and politically the notion was correct. The only drawback was that it was altogether wrong. A native's life in India implies the life of his son. Wherefore, you cannot legislate37 for one generation at a time. You must consider the next from the native point of view. Curiously38 enough, the native now and then, and in Northern India more particularly, hates being over-protected against himself. There was a Naga village once, where they lived on dead AND buried Commissariat mules39.... But that is another story.
For many reasons, to be explained later, the people concerned objected to the Bill. The Native Member in Council knew as much about Punjabis as he knew about Charing40 Cross. He had said in Calcutta that “the Bill was entirely41 in accord with the desires of that large and important class, the cultivators;” and so on, and so on. The Legal Member's knowledge of natives was limited to English-speaking Durbaris, and his own red chaprassis, the Sub-Montane Tracts concerned no one in particular, the Deputy Commissioners42 were a good deal too driven to make representations, and the measure was one which dealt with small landholders only. Nevertheless, the Legal Member prayed that it might be correct, for he was a nervously43 conscientious44 man. He did not know that no man can tell what natives think unless he mixes with them with the varnish45 off. And not always then. But he did the best he knew. And the measure came up to the Supreme Council for the final touches, while Tods patrolled the Burra Simla Bazar in his morning rides, and played with the monkey belonging to Ditta Mull, the bunnia, and listened, as a child listens to all the stray talk about this new freak of the Lat Sahib's.
One day there was a dinner-party, at the house of Tods' Mamma, and the Legal Member came. Tods was in bed, but he kept awake till he heard the bursts of laughter from the men over the coffee. Then he paddled out in his little red flannel46 dressing-gown and his night-suit, and took refuge by the side of his father, knowing that he would not be sent back. “See the miseries47 of having a family!” said Tods' father, giving Tods three prunes48, some water in a glass that had been used for claret, and telling him to sit still. Tods sucked the prunes slowly, knowing that he would have to go when they were finished, and sipped49 the pink water like a man of the world, as he listened to the conversation. Presently, the Legal Member, talking “shop,” to the Head of a Department, mentioned his Bill by its full name—“The Sub-Montane Tracts Ryotwari Revised Enactment50.” Tods caught the one native word, and lifting up his small voice said:—“Oh, I know ALL about that! Has it been murramutted yet, Councillor Sahib?”
“How much?” said the Legal Member.
“Murramutted—mended.—Put theek, you know—made nice to please Ditta Mull!”
The Legal Member left his place and moved up next to Tods.
“What do you know about Ryotwari, little man?” he said.
“I'm not a little man, I'm Tods, and I know ALL about it. Ditta Mull, and Choga Lall, and Amir Nath, and—oh, lakhs of my friends tell me about it in the bazars when I talk to them.”
“Oh, they do—do they? What do they say, Tods?”
Tods tucked his feet under his red flannel dressing-gown and said:—“I must fink.”
The Legal Member waited patiently. Then Tods, with infinite compassion51:
“You don't speak my talk, do you, Councillor Sahib?”
“No; I am sorry to say I do not,” said the Legal Member.
“Very well,” said Tods. “I must fink in English.”
He spent a minute putting his ideas in order, and began very slowly, translating in his mind from the vernacular to English, as many Anglo-Indian children do. You must remember that the Legal Member helped him on by questions when he halted, for Tods was not equal to the sustained flight of oratory52 that follows.
“Ditta Mull says:—'This thing is the talk of a child, and was made up by fools.' But I don't think you are a fool, Councillor Sahib,” said Todds, hastily. “You caught my goat. This is what Ditta Mull says:—'I am not a fool, and why should the Sirkar say I am a child? I can see if the land is good and if the landlord is good. If I am a fool, the sin is upon my own head. For five years I take my ground for which I have saved money, and a wife I take too, and a little son is born.' Ditta Mull has one daughter now, but he SAYS he will have a son, soon. And he says: 'At the end of five years, by this new bundobust, I must go. If I do not go, I must get fresh seals and takkus-stamps on the papers, perhaps in the middle of the harvest, and to go to the law-courts once is wisdom, but to go twice is Jehannum.' That is QUITE true,” explained Tods, gravely. “All my friends say so. And Ditta Mull says:—'Always fresh takkus and paying money to vakils and chaprassis and law-courts every five years or else the landlord makes me go. Why do I want to go? Am I fool? If I am a fool and do not know, after forty years, good land when I see it, let me die! But if the new bundobust says for FIFTEEN years, then it is good and wise. My little son is a man, and I am burnt, and he takes the ground or another ground, paying only once for the takkus-stamps on the papers, and his little son is born, and at the end of fifteen years is a man too. But what profit is there in five years and fresh papers? Nothing but dikh, trouble, dikh. We are not young men who take these lands, but old ones—not jais, but tradesmen with a little money—and for fifteen years we shall have peace. Nor are we children that the Sirkar should treat us so.”
Here Tods stopped short, for the whole table were listening. The Legal Member said to Tods: “Is that all?”
“All I can remember,” said Tods. “But you should see Ditta Mull's big monkey. It's just like a Councillor Sahib.”
“Tods! Go to bed,” said his father.
Tods gathered up his dressing-gown tail and departed.
The Legal Member brought his hand down on the table with a crash—“By Jove!” said the Legal Member, “I believe the boy is right. The short tenure53 IS the weak point.”
He left early, thinking over what Tods had said. Now, it was obviously impossible for the Legal Member to play with a bunnia's monkey, by way of getting understanding; but he did better. He made inquiries54, always bearing in mind the fact that the real native—not the hybrid55, University-trained mule—is as timid as a colt, and, little by little, he coaxed56 some of the men whom the measure concerned most intimately to give in their views, which squared very closely with Tods' evidence.
So the Bill was amended in that clause; and the Legal Member was filled with an uneasy suspicion that Native Members represent very little except the Orders they carry on their bosoms57. But he put the thought from him as illiberal58. He was a most Liberal Man.
After a time the news spread through the bazars that Tods had got the Bill recast in the tenure clause, and if Tods' Mamma had not interfered59, Tods would have made himself sick on the baskets of fruit and pistachio nuts and Cabuli grapes and almonds that crowded the verandah. Till he went Home, Tods ranked some few degrees before the Viceroy in popular estimation. But for the little life of him Tods could not understand why.
In the Legal Member's private-paper-box still lies the rough draft of the Sub-Montane Tracts Ryotwari Revised Enactment; and, opposite the twenty-second clause, pencilled in blue chalk, and signed by the Legal Member, are the words “Tods' Amendment60.”
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1
yoke
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| n.轭；支配；v.给...上轭，连接，使成配偶 | |
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2
parable
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| n.寓言，比喻 | |
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perilled
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| 置…于危险中（peril的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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4
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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5
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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6
legislative
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| n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的 | |
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7
lodge
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| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
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8
salaam
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| n.额手之礼，问安，敬礼；v.行额手礼 | |
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9
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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10
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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11
tenant
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| n.承租人；房客；佃户；v.租借，租用 | |
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12
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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13
patronage
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| n.赞助，支援，援助；光顾，捧场 | |
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14
tangle
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| n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱 | |
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15
coerce
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| v.强迫，压制 | |
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16
rebellious
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| adj.造反的，反抗的，难控制的 | |
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17
smacked
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| 拍，打，掴( smack的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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18
interfering
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| adj. 妨碍的 动词interfere的现在分词 | |
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19
idol
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| n.偶像，红人，宠儿 | |
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20
saluted
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| v.欢迎，致敬( salute的过去式和过去分词 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
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21
buffer
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| n.起缓冲作用的人(或物)，缓冲器；vt.缓冲 | |
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22
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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23
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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24
converse
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| vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反 | |
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25
precocious
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| adj.早熟的；较早显出的 | |
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26
sordidness
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| n.肮脏；污秽；卑鄙；可耻 | |
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27
aphorisms
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| 格言，警句( aphorism的名词复数 ) | |
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28
vernacular
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| adj.地方的，用地方语写成的；n.白话；行话；本国语；动植物的俗名 | |
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29
vow
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| n.誓(言)，誓约；v.起誓，立誓 | |
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30
hacking
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| n.非法访问计算机系统和数据库的活动 | |
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31
tracts
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| 大片土地( tract的名词复数 )； 地带； （体内的）道； （尤指宣扬宗教、伦理或政治的）短文 | |
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32
bolstered
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| v.支持( bolster的过去式和过去分词 )；支撑；给予必要的支持；援助 | |
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33
embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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34
Amended
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| adj. 修正的 动词amend的过去式和过去分词 | |
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35
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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36
legislating
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| v.立法，制定法律( legislate的现在分词 ) | |
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37
legislate
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| vt.制定法律；n.法规，律例；立法 | |
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38
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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39
mules
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| 骡( mule的名词复数 )； 拖鞋； 顽固的人； 越境运毒者 | |
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40
charing
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| n.炭化v.把…烧成炭，把…烧焦( char的现在分词 )；烧成炭，烧焦；做杂役女佣 | |
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41
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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42
commissioners
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| n.专员( commissioner的名词复数 )；长官；委员；政府部门的长官 | |
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43
nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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44
conscientious
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| adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的 | |
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45
varnish
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| n.清漆；v.上清漆；粉饰 | |
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46
flannel
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| n.法兰绒；法兰绒衣服 | |
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47
miseries
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| n.痛苦( misery的名词复数 )；痛苦的事；穷困；常发牢骚的人 | |
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48
prunes
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| n.西梅脯，西梅干( prune的名词复数 )v.修剪（树木等）( prune的第三人称单数 )；精简某事物，除去某事物多余的部分 | |
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49
sipped
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| v.小口喝，呷，抿( sip的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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50
enactment
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| n.演出，担任…角色；制订，通过 | |
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51
compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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52
oratory
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| n.演讲术；词藻华丽的言辞 | |
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53
tenure
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| n.终身职位；任期；(土地)保有权，保有期 | |
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54
inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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55
hybrid
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| n.(动，植）杂种，混合物 | |
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56
coaxed
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| v.哄，用好话劝说( coax的过去式和过去分词 )；巧言骗取；哄劝，劝诱 | |
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57
bosoms
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| 胸部( bosom的名词复数 )； 胸怀； 女衣胸部（或胸襟）； 和爱护自己的人在一起的情形 | |
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58
illiberal
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| adj.气量狭小的，吝啬的 | |
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59
interfered
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| v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 )；调停；妨碍；干涉 | |
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60
amendment
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| n.改正，修正，改善，修正案 | |
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