'Not when the woman is well-looking and above all charitable to the hungry.' 'A beggar's answer,' said the Sikh, laughing.

'Thou hast brought it on thyself, sister!' Kim's hands were crooked in supplication.
'And whither goest thou ?' said the woman, handing him the half of a cake from a greasy package.
'Even to Benares.' 'Jugglers belike ?' the young soldier suggested.

'Have ye any tricks to pass the time?
Why does not that yellow man answer ?' 'Because,' said Kim stoutly, 'he is holy, and thinks upon matters hidden from thee.' 'That may be well.

We of the Ludhiana Sikhs'-- he rolled it out sonorously--'do not trouble our heads with doctrine.

We fight.' 'My sister's brother's son is naik [corporal] in that regiment,' said the Sikh craftsman quietly.