Kim by Rudyard Kipling
page 61 of 426 (14%)
page 61 of 426 (14%)
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green field, as was promised me.'
'What knowledge hast thou of thy birth-hour?' the priest asked, swelling with importance. 'Between first and second cockcrow of the first night in May.' 'Of what year?' 'I do not know; but upon the hour that I cried first fell the great earthquake in Srinagar which is in Kashmir.' This Kim had from the woman who took care of him, and she again from Kimball O'Hara. The earthquake had been felt in India, and for long stood a leading date in the Punjab. 'Ai!' said a woman excitedly. This seemed to make Kim's supernatural origin more certain. "Was not such an one's daughter born then -' 'And her mother bore her husband four sons in four years all likely boys,' cried the cultivator's wife, sitting outside the circle in the shadow. 'None reared in the knowledge,' said the family priest, 'forget how the planets stood in their Houses upon that night.' He began to draw in the dust of the courtyard. 'At least thou hast good claim to a half of the House of the Bull. How runs thy prophecy?' 'Upon a day,' said Kim, delighted at the sensation he was creating, 'I shall be made great by means of a Red Bull on a |
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