at the head of his flocks, while at his knee ran small naked Cupids.
But she laughed--William, in a slate-coloured blouse, laughed
consumedly till Scott, putting the best face he could upon the
matter, halted his armies and bade her admire the kindergarten. It
was an unseemly sight, but the proprieties had been left ages ago,
with the tea-party at Amritsar Station, fifteen hundred miles to the
northward.

'They are coming on nicely,' said William. 'We've only
five-and-twenty here now. The women are beginning to take them away
again.'

'Are you in charge of the babies, then?'

'Yes--Mrs. Jim and I. We didn't think of goats, though. We've been
trying condensed milk and water.'

'Any losses?'

'More than I care to think of,' said William, with a shudder. 'And
you?'

Scott said nothing. There had been many little burials along his
route--many mothers who had wept when they did not find again the
children they had trusted to the care of the Government.

Then Hawkins came out carrying a razor, at which Scott looked
hungrily, for he had a beard that he did not love. And when they
sat down to dinner in the tent he told his tale in few words, as it
might have been an official report. Mrs. Jim snuffled from time to