house-tops?'

'Nay, Sahib, nay,' said the child, burrowing its face into Gobind's
beard, and twisting uneasily. 'There was a holiday to-day among the
schools, and I do not always fly kites. I play ker-li-kit like the
rest.'

Cricket is the national game among the schoolboys of the Punjab, from
the naked hedge-school children, who use an old kerosene-tin for wicket,
to the B.A.'s of the University, who compete for the Championship belt.

'Thou play kerlikit! Thou art half the height of the bat!' I said.

The child nodded resolutely. 'Yea, I DO play. PERLAYBALL OW-AT! RAN,
RAN, RAN! I know it all.'

'But thou must not forget with all this to pray to the Gods according to
custom,' said Gobind, who did not altogether approve of cricket and
western innovations.

'I do not forget,' said the child in a hushed voice.

'Also to give reverence to thy teacher, and'--Gobind's voice softened--'
to abstain from pulling holy men by the beard, little badling. Eh, eh,
eh?'

The child's face was altogether hidden in the great white beard, and it
began to whimper till Gobind soothed it as children are soothed all the
world over, with the promise of a story.