'
'But that is not enough to maintain you and your family?'
'No; but he only requires my services for half the day, and during
the other half I work with others to get enough for them.'
'And when do you expect to pay off your debt?'
'God only knows; if I exert myself, and keep a good "niyat" (pure
mind or intentions), he will enable me or my children to do so some
day or other. In the meantime he has my five bighas of land in
mortgage, and I serve him in the cultivation.'
'But under those misfortunes, you could surely venture to demand
something from the proprietors of the other fifteen bighas for the
water of your well?'
'Never, sir; it would be said all over the country that such an one
sold God's water for his neighbours' fields, and I should be ashamed
to show my face. Though poor, and obliged to work hard, and serve
others, I have still too much pride for that.'
'How many bullocks are required for the tillage of these twenty
bighas watered from your well?'
'These eight bullocks do all the work; they are dear now. This was
purchased the other day on the death of the old one, for twenty-six
rupees.
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