“So! your daughter and her husband, the young kitmudgar,[8] they that were married last year.  Good! let us exalt our horn, let us glorify ourselves; for is it not written, ’By a son a man shall obtain victory over all people; by a son’s son he shall enjoy immortality; and by a son’s son’s son he shall reach the solar abodes’?  Verily it is pleasant to have a boy-butcha in the house,—­the heir and lord.  So we will even make merry to-day; to-day we will take holiday.  Let the buttons wait, and the beard go awry; send the barber away, and tell the tailor to come to-morrow; for one day Sahib, the master of earth, abdicates in favor of Puttro, the ‘Deliverer from Hell,’ the true king for every pious Hindoo.  And here are some rupees to buy him a happy horoscope with, and to pay the gooroo[9] for a good strong charm, warranted to avert the Evil Eye.”

“Ah!  Master’s bountiful favor too much compassion have,—­too much pitiful munif—­”

“That’s all right, old man.  Salaam now; and good luck to the baby.”

Now here, thought I, is a chance to observe my pagan at home, under the most favorable circumstances.  Karlee will devote the occasion to the domestic felicities; he will spread holiday fare, and there will be neighborly congratulations, and a hospitable relaxation in the family of the orthodox heathen rigor.  I will make a “surprise party” of myself, and on the recommendation of a string of corals for the new butcha I’ll catch him in the very dishabille of his Hindooism.  And I did.

* * * * *

I had often heard that Karlee lived well, and that his household enjoyed substantial comfort in a degree notably superior to the general circumstances of his class.  With eminent intelligence and devotion he had served for more than forty years various American gentlemen residing in Calcutta, by whom, in his neat-handedness, he was esteemed a sort of he-Phillis; and for his housewifely dusting of books and furniture, his orderly keeping of drawers and trunks, his sharp eye to punkas and mosquito-nets, and his exacting discipline of sweepers and messengers, barbers, tailors, and washermen, he had been rewarded with generous buksheesh over and above his stipulated, wages, which were liberal; so that among bhearers he was distinguished for respectability, by income as well as influence, and represented the best society.  Between his own savings and those of his wife,—­who, as an ayah, or nurse, in an English family high in the Civil Service, was extravagantly prized for her fidelity, skill, and patience,—­Karlee had laid up a little fortune of ten thousand rupees; but that was partly by dint of a clever speculation now and then in curiosities and choice presents, which he disposed of among those of his American or English patrons who happened to be homeward bound.  As it is not permitted to a bhearer to engage directly in trade, these neat little transactions were in all cases shrewdly managed by