The Story of Sonny Sahib by Sara Jeannette Duncan
page 6 of 71 (08%)
page 6 of 71 (08%)
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the table-waiter, her husband, crouched under a wall, and told him
all that she knew and feared. But Abdul, having heard no guns for nearly an hour and a half, was inclined to be very brave, and said that without doubt they should all get safely to Allahabad; and there, when the memsahib was better, they would find the captain- sahib again, and he would give them many rupees backsheesh for being faithful to her. 'The memsahib will never be better,' said Tooni, sorrowfully; 'her rice is finished in the earth. The memsahib will die.' She agreed to go to the ghat, though, and went back into the hut to wait for the ox-cart while Abdul cooked a meal on the powder- blackened ground with the last of the millet, and gave thanks to Allah. There was no room for Tooni to ride when they started. She walked alongside carrying the baby and its little bundle of clothes. There was nothing else to carry, and that was fortunate, for the cart in which the memsahib lay was too full of sick and wounded to hold anything more. In Tooni's pocket a little black book swung to and fro; it was the memsahib's book; and in the beginning of the firing, before the fever came, Tooni had seen the memsahib reading it long and often. They had not been killed in consequence, Tooni thought; there must be a protecting charm in the little black book; so she slipped it into her pocket. They left the looking-glass behind. The ox-cart passed out creaking, in its turn, beyond the earthworks of the English encampment into the city, where the mutinous natives |
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