'My Stars do not concern themselves with thy cattle.' 'Nay, but she is very sick,' a woman struck in.

'My man is a buffalo, or he would have chosen his words better.

Tell me if she recover ?' Had Kim been at all an ordinary boy, he would have carried on the play; but one does not know Lahore city, and least of all the fakirs by the Taksali Gate, for thirteen years without also knowing human nature.
The priest looked at him sideways, something bitterly--a dry and blighting smile.
'Is there no priest, then, in the village?
I thought I had seen a great one even now,' cried Kim.
'Ay--but--' the woman began.
'But thou and thy husband hoped to get the cow cured for a handful of thanks.' The shot told: they were notoriously the closest-fisted couple in the village.

'It is not well to cheat the temples.

Give a young calf to thine own priest, and, unless thy Gods are angry past recall, she will give milk within a month.' 'A master-beggar art thou,' purred the priest approvingly.