They stood by these watching what was going on with quick interest, answering questions that were put to them with frank smiles and laughter.

Being dressed in heavy sheepskin outer coats to keep out the cold, no one guessed that they were other than they seemed, poor travellers' children, until at the end of a long row of picketed horses at the further end of the courtyard, Akbar saw Horse-chestnut, Foster-father's pony.

Now Foster-father had only had time to tie the poor beast head and heel, so there the honest creature stood, looking very dejected, with emptiness before it, while the troopers' horses beside him were enjoying great bundles of green grass.

The little fellow flushed up in a moment; he called loudly to a man who stood near: "Ho! slave there! bring my pony grass--dost hear?
and be quick!" The man laughed.

"Alah!" he said; "whose son be you to give orders that fashion ?" "Whose son ?" echoed the child passionately.