Ch. 9: Little Tobrah

'Prisoner's head did not reach to the top of the dock,' as the English
newspapers say. This case, however, was not reported because nobody
cared by so much as a hempen rope for the life or death of Little
Tobrah. The assessors in the red court-house sat upon him all through
the long hot afternoon, and whenever they asked him a question he
salaamed and whined. Their verdict was that the evidence was
inconclusive, and the Judge concurred. It was true that the dead body of
Little Tobrah's sister had been found at the bottom of the well, and
Little Tobrah was the only human being within a half mile radius at the
time; but the child might have fallen in by accident. Therefore Little
Tobrah was acquitted, and told to go where he pleased. This permission
was not so generous as it sounds, for he had nowhere to go to, nothing
in particular to eat, and nothing whatever to wear.

He trotted into the court-compound, and sat upon the well-kerb,
wondering whether an unsuccessful dive into the black water below would
end in a forced voyage across the other Black Water. A groom put down an
emptied nose-bag on the bricks, and Little Tobrah, being hungry, set
himself to scrape out what wet grain the horse had overlooked.

'O Thief--and but newly set free from the terror of the Law! Come
along!' said the groom, and Little Tobrah was led by the ear to a large
and fat Englishman, who heard the tale of the theft.

'Hah!' said the Englishman three times (only he said a stronger word).
'Put him into the net and take him home.' So Little Tobrah was thrown
into the net of the cart, and, nothing doubting that he should be stuck
like a pig, was driven to the Englishman's house. 'Hah!' said the
Englishman as before. 'Wet grain, by Jove! Feed the little beggar, some
of you, and we'll make a riding-boy of him! See? Wet grain, good Lord!'

'Give an account of yourself,' said the Head of the Grooms, to Little
Tobrah after the meal had been eaten, and the servants lay at ease in
their quarters behind the house. 'You are not of the groom caste, unless
it be for the stomach's sake. How came you into the court, and why?
Answer, little devil's spawn!'

'There was not enough to eat,' said Little Tobrah calmly. 'This is a
good place.'

'Talk straight talk,' said the Head Groom, 'or I will make you clean out
the stable of that large red stallion who bites like a camel.'

'We be Telis, oil-pressers,' said Little Tobrah, scratching his toes in
the dust. 'We were Telis--my father, my mother, my brother, the elder by
four years, myself, and the sister.'

'She who was found dead in the well?' said one who had heard something
of the trial.

'Even so,' said Little Tobrah gravely. 'She who was found dead in the