Ch. 13: Naboth - Page 2

looking up.

Seven weeks later the Government took up a plot of ground for a Chief
Court close to the end of my compound, and employed nearly four hundred
coolies on the foundations. Naboth bought a blue and white striped
blanket, a brass lamp-stand, and a small boy, to cope with the rush of
trade, which was tremendous.

Five days later he bought a huge, fat, red-backed account-book, and a
glass inkstand. Thus I saw that the coolies had been getting into his
debt, and that commerce was increasing on legitimate lines of credit.
Also I saw that the one basket had grown into three, and that Naboth had
backed and hacked into the shrubbery, and made himself a nice little
clearing for the proper display of the basket, the blanket, the books,
and the boy.

One week and five days later he had built a mud fire-place in the
clearing, and the fat account-book was overflowing. He said that God
created few Englishmen of my kind, and that I was the incarnation of all
human virtues. He offered me some of his sweets as tribute, and by
accepting these I acknowledged him as my feudatory under the skirt of my
protection.

Three weeks later I noticed that the boy was in the habit of cooking
Naboth's mid-day meal for him, and Naboth was beginning to grow a
stomach. He had hacked away more of my shrubbery and owned another and a
fatter account-book.

Eleven weeks later Naboth had eaten his way nearly through that
shrubbery, and there was a reed hut with a bedstead outside it, standing
in the little glade that he had eroded. Two dogs and a baby slept on the
bedstead. So I fancied Naboth had taken a wife. He said that he had, by
my favour, done this thing, and that I was several times finer than
Krishna. Six weeks and two days later a mud wall had grown up at the
back of the hut. There were fowls in front and it smelt a little. The
Municipal Secretary said that a cess-pool was forming in the public road
from the drainage of my compound, and that I must take steps to clear it
away. I spoke to Naboth. He said I was Lord Paramount of his earthly
concerns, and the garden was all my own property, and sent me some more
sweets in a second-hand duster.

Two months later a coolie bricklayer was killed in a scuffle that took
place opposite Naboth's Vineyard. The Inspector of Police said it was a
serious case; went into my servants' quarters; insulted my butler's
wife, and wanted to arrest my butler. The curious thing about the murder
was that most of the coolies were drunk at the time. Naboth pointed out
that my name was a strong shield between him and his enemies, and he
expected that another baby would be born to him shortly.

Four months later the hut was ALL mud walls, very solidly built, and