For assisting friends, and defeating enemies also, the service of kings is desirable.  To enter upon it for a mere living makes the thing low indeed.  There must be dogs and elephants; but servants need not be like hungry curs, while their masters are noble.  What say the books?

    ’Give thy Dog the merest mouthful, and he crouches at thy feet,
    Wags his tail, and fawns, and grovels, in his eagerness to eat;
    Bid the Elephant be feeding, and the best of fodder bring;
    Gravely—­after much entreaty—­condescends that mighty king.’

‘Well, well!’ said Karataka; ’the books are nothing to us, who are not councillors.’

‘But we may come to be,’ replied Damanaka; ’men rise, not by chance or nature, but by exertions—­

    ’By their own deeds men go downward, by them men mount upward all,
    Like the diggers of a well, and like the builders of a wall.’

Advancement is slow—­but that is in the nature of things—­

    ’Rushes down the hill the crag, which upward ’twas so hard to roll: 
    So to virtue slowly rises—­so to vice quick sinks the soul.’

‘Very good,’ observed Karataka; ‘but what is all this talk about?’

’Why! don’t you see our Royal Master there, and how he came home without drinking?  I know he has been horribly frightened,’ said Damanaka.

‘How do you know it?’ asked the other.

‘By my perception—­at a glance!’ replied Damanaka; ’and I mean to make out of this occasion that which shall put his Majesty at my disposal,’

‘Now,’ exclaimed Karataka, ’it is thou who art ignorant about service—­

    ’Who speaks unasked, or comes unbid,
    Or counts on favor—­will be chid.’

‘I ignorant about service!’ said Damanaka; ’no, no, my friend, I know the secret of it—­

    ’Wise, modest, constant, ever close at hand,
    Not weighing but obeying all command,
    Such servant by a Monarch’s throne may stand.’

‘In any case, the King often rates thee,’ remarked Karataka, ’for coming to the presence unsummoned.’

‘A dependent,’ replied Damanaka, ’should nevertheless present himself; he must make himself known to the great man, at any risk—­

’Pitiful, that fearing failure, therefore no beginning makes,
Who forswears his daily dinner for the chance of stomach-aches?’

and besides, to be near is at last to be needful;—­is it not said—­

’Nearest to the King is dearest, be thy merit low or high;
Women, creeping plants, and princes, twine round that which groweth
nigh.’

‘Well,’ inquired Karataka, ‘what wilt thou say, being come to him?’

‘First,’ replied Damanaka, ’I will discover if his Majesty is well affected to me.’

‘How do you compass that?’ asked the other.

‘Oh, easily! by a look, a word,’ answered Damanaka; ’and that ascertained, I will proceed to speak what will put him at my disposal.’