He had no business in my room, of course; but was so deeply absorbed in his discoveries that he never noticed me in the doorway.  I stepped into the room and startled him nearly into a fit.  He sat down on the ground with a gasp.  His eyes opened, and his mouth followed suit.  I knew what was coming, and fled, followed by a long, dry howl which reached the servants’ quarters far more quickly than any command of mine had ever done.  In ten seconds Imam Din was in the dining-room.  Then despairing sobs arose, and I returned to find Imam Din admonishing the small sinner who was using most of his shirt as a handkerchief.

‘This boy,’ said Imam Din judicially, ’is a budmash—­a big budmash.  He will, without doubt, go to the jail-khana, for his behaviour.’  Renewed yells from the penitent, and an elaborate apology to myself from Imam Din.

Tell the baby,’ said I, ’that the Sahib is not angry, and take him away.’  Imam Din conveyed my forgiveness to the offender, who had now gathered all his shirt round his neck, stringwise, and the yell subsided into a sob.  The two set off for the door.  ‘His name,’ said Imam Din, as though the name were part of the crime, ’is Muhammad Din, and he is a budmash.’  Freed from present danger, Muhammad Din turned round in his father’s arms, and said gravely, ’It is true that my name is Muhammad Din, Tahib, but I am not a budmash.  I am a man!’

From that day dated my acquaintance with Muhammad Din.  Never again did he come into my dining-room, but on the neutral ground of the garden we greeted each other with much state, though our conversation was confined to ‘Talaam, Tahib’ from his side, and ’Salaam, Muhammad Din’ from mine.  Daily on my return from office, the little white shirt and the fat little body used to rise from the shade of the creeper-covered trellis where they had been hid; and daily I checked my horse here, that my salutation might not be slurred over or given unseemly.

Muhammad Din never had any companions.  He used to trot about the compound, in and out of the castor-oil bushes, on mysterious errands of his own.  One day I stumbled upon some of his handiwork far down the grounds.  He had half buried the polo-ball in dust, and stuck six shrivelled old marigold flowers in a circle round it.  Outside that circle again was a rude square, traced out in bits of red brick alternating with fragments of broken china; the whole bounded by a little bank of dust.  The water-man from the well-curb put in a plea for the small architect, saying that it was only the play of a baby and did not much disfigure my garden.