[Amal in Bed]

Amal
Can’t I go near the window to-day, Uncle? Would the doctor mind that too?

Madhav
Yes, darling, you see you’ve made yourself worse squatting there day after day.

Amal
Oh, no, I don’t know if it’s made me more ill, but I always feel well when I’m there.

Madhav
No, you don’t; you squat there and make friends with the whole lot of people round here, old and young, as if they are holding a fair right under my eaves — flesh and blood won’t stand that strain. Just see — your face is quite pale.

Amal
Uncle, I fear my fakir’ll pass and not see me by the window.

Madhav
Your fakir, whoever’s that?

Amal
He comes and chats to me of the many lands where he’s been. I love to hear him.

Madhav
How’s that? I don’t know of any fakirs.

Amal
This is about the time he comes in. I beg of you, by your dear feet, ask him in for a moment to talk to me here.

[Gaffer enters in a Fakir’s Guise]

Amal
There you are. Come here, Fakir, by my bedside.

Madhav
Upon my word, but this is —

Gaffer [Winking hard]
I am the fakir.

Madhav
It beats my reckoning what you’re not.

Amal
Where have you been this time, Fakir?

Fakir
To the Isle of Parrots. I am just back.

Madhav
The Parrots’ Isle!

Fakir
Is it so very astonishing? Am I like you, man? A journey doesn’t cost a thing. I tramp just where I like.

Amal [Clapping]
How jolly for you! Remember your promise to take me with you as your follower when I’m well.

Fakir
Of course, and I’ll teach you such secrets too of travelling that nothing in sea or forest or mountain can bar your way.

Madhav
What’s all this rigmarole?

Gaffer
Amal, my dear, I bow to nothing in sea or mountain; but if the doctor joins in with this uncle of yours, then I with all my magic must own myself beaten.

Amal
No. Uncle shan’t tell the doctor. And I promise to lie quiet; but the day I am well, off I go with the Fakir and nothing in sea or mountain or torrent shall stand in my way.

Madhav
Fie, dear child, don’t keep on harping upon going! It makes me so sad to hear you talk so.

Amal
Tell me, Fakir, what the Parrots’ Isle is like.

Gaffer
It’s a land of wonders; it’s a haunt of birds. There’s no man; and they neither speak nor walk, they simply sing and they fly.

Amal
How glorious! And it’s by some sea?

Gaffer
Of course. It’s on the sea.

Amal
And green hills are there?

Gaffer
Indeed, they live among the green hills; and in the time of the sunset when there is a red glow on the hillside, all the birds with their green wings flock back to their nests.

Amal
And there are waterfalls!

Gaffer
Dear me, of course; you don’t have a hill without its waterfalls. Oh, it’s like molten diamonds; and, my dear, what dances they have! Don’t they make the pebbles sing as they rush over them to the sea? No devil of a doctor can stop them for a moment. The birds looked upon me as nothing but a man, quite a trifling creature without wings and they would have nothing to do with me. Were it not so I would build a small cabin for myself among their crowd of nests and pass my days counting the sea waves.

Amal
How I wish I were a bird! Then —

Gaffer
But that would have been a bit of a job; I hear you’ve fixed up with the dairyman to be a hawker of curds when you grow up; I’m afraid such business won’t flourish among birds; you might land yourself into serious loss.

Madhav
Really this is too much. Between you two I shall turn crazy. Now, I’m off.

Amal
Has the dairyman been, Uncle?

Madhav
And why shouldn’t he? He won’t bother his head running errands for your pet fakir, in and out among the nests in his Parrots’ Isle. But he has left a jar of curd for you saying that he is rather busy with his niece’s wedding in the village, and he has got to order a band at Kamlipara.

Amal
But he is going to marry me to his little niece.

Gaffer
Dear me, we are in a fix now.

Amal
He said she would find me a lovely little bride with a pair of pearl drops in her ears and dressed in a lovely red saree; and in the morning she would milk with her own hands the black cow and feed me with warm milk with foam on it from a brand new earthen cruse; and in the evenings she would carry the lamp round the cow-house, and then come and sit by me to tell me tales of Champa and his six brothers.

Gaffer
How delicious! The prospect tempts even me, a hermit! But never mind, dear, about this wedding. Let it be. I tell you when you wed there’ll be no lack of nieces in his household.

Madhav
Shut up! This is more than I can stand.

[Exit]

Amal
Fakir, now that Uncle’s off, just tell me, has the King sent me a letter to the Post Office?

Gaffer
I gather that his letter has already started; but it’s still on the way.

Amal
On the way? Where is it? Is it on that road winding through the trees which you can follow to the end of the forest when the sky is quite clear after rain?

Gaffer
That’s so. You know all about it already.

Amal
I do, everything.

Gaffer
So I see, but how?

Amal
I can’t say; but it’s quite clear to me. I fancy I’ve seen it often in days long gone by. How long ago I can’t tell. Do you know when? I can see it all: there, the King’s postman coming down the hillside alone, a lantern in his left hand and on his back a bag of letters; climbing down for ever so long, for days and nights, and where at the foot of the mountain the waterfall becomes a stream he takes to the footpath on the bank and walks on through the rye; then comes the sugarcane field and he disappears into the narrow lane cutting through the tall stems of sugarcanes; then he reaches the open meadow where the cricket chirps and where there is not a single man to be seen, only the snipe wagging their tails and poking at the mud with their bills. I can feel him coming nearer and nearer and my heart becomes glad.

Gaffer
My eyes aren’t young; but you make me see all the same.

Amal
Say, Fakir, do you know the King who has this Post Office?

Gaffer
I do; I go to him for my alms every day.

Amal
Good! When I get well, I must have my alms too from him, mayn’t I?

Gaffer
You won’t need to ask, my dear, he’ll give it to you of his own accord.

Amal
No, I would go to his gate and cry, “Victory to thee, King!” and dancing to the tabor’s sound, ask for alms. Won’t it be nice?

Gaffer
It would be splendid, and if you’re with me, I shall have my full share. But what’ll you ask?

Amal
I shall say, “Make me your postman, that I may go about lantern in hand, delivering your letters from door to door. Don’t let me stay at home all day!

Gaffer
What is there to be sad for, my child, even were you to stay at home?

Amal
It isn’t sad. When they shut me in here first I felt the day was so long. Since the King’s Post Office I like it more and more being indoors, and as I think I shall get a letter one day, I feel quite happy and then I don’t mind being quiet and alone. I wonder if I shall make out what’ll be in the King’s letter?

Gaffer
Even if you didn’t wouldn’t it be enough if it just bore your name?

[Madhav enters]

Madhav
Have you any idea of the trouble you’ve got me into, between you two?

Gaffer
What’s the matter?

Madhav
I hear you’ve let it get rumored about that the King has planted his office here to send messages to both of you.

Gaffer
Well, what about it?

Madhav
Our headman Panchanan has had it told to the King anonymously.

Gaffer
Aren’t we aware that everything reaches the Bang’s ears?

Madhav
Then why don’t you look out? Why take the King’s name in vain? You’ll bring me to ruin if you do.

Amal
Say, Fakir, will the King be cross?

Gaffer
Cross, nonsense! And with a child like you and a fakir such as I am. Let’s see if the King be angry, and then won’t I give him a piece of my mind.

Amal
Say, Fakir, I’ve been feeling a sort of darkness coming over my eyes since the morning. Everything seems like a dream. I long to be quiet. I don’t feel like talking at all. Won’t the King’s letter come? Suppose this room melts away all on a sudden, suppose —

Gaffer [Fanning Amal]
The letter’s sure to come to-day, my boy.

[Doctor enters]

Doctor
And how do you feel to-day?

Amal
Feel awfully well to-day, Doctor. All pain seems to have left me.

Doctor [Aside to Madhav]
Don’t quite like the look of that smile. Bad sign that, his feeling well! Chakradhan has observed —

Madhav
For goodness sake, Doctor, leave Chakradhan alone. Tell me what’s going to happen?

Doctor
Can’t hold him in much longer, I fear! I warned you before — this looks like a fresh exposure.

Madhav
No, I’ve used the utmost care, never let him out of doors; and the windows have been shut almost all the time.

Doctor
There’s a peculiar quality in the air to-day. As I came in I found a fearful draught through your front door. That’s most hurtful. Better lock it at once. Would it matter if this kept your visitors off for two or three days? If someone happens to call unexpectedly there’s the back door. You had better shut this window as well, it’s letting in the sunset rays only to keep the patient awake.

Madhav
Amal has shut his eyes. I expect he is sleeping. His face tells me — Oh, Doctor, I bring in a child who is a stranger and love him as my own, and now I suppose I must lose him!

Doctor
What’s that? There’s your headman sailing in! What a bother! I must be going, brother. You had better stir about and see to the doors being properly fastened. I will send on a strong dose directly I get home. Try it on him it may save him at last, if he can be saved at all.

[Exeunt Madhav and Doctor.]

[The Headman enters]

Headman
Hello, urchin! —

Gaffer [Rising hastily]
‘Sh, be quiet.

Amal
No, Fakir, did you think I was asleep? I wasn’t. I can hear every-thing; yes, and voices far away. I feel that mother and father are sitting by my pillow and speaking to me.

[Madhav enters]

Headman
I say, Madhav, I hear you hobnob with bigwigs nowadays.

Madhav
Spare me your jests, Headman, we are but common people.

Headman
But your child here is expecting a letter from the King.

Madhav
Don’t you take any notice of him, a mere foolish boy!

Headman
Indeed, why not! It’ll beat the King hard to find a better family! Don’t you see why the King plants his new Post Office right before your window? Why there’s a letter for you from the King, urchin.

Amal [Starting up]
Indeed, really!

Headman
How can it be false? You’re the King’s chum. Here’s your letter [showing a blank slip of paper]. Ha, ha, ha! This is the letter.

Amal
Please don’t mock me. Say, Fakir, is it so?

Gaffer
Yes, my dear. I as Fakir tell you it is his letter.

Amal
How is it I can’t see? It all looks so blank to me. What is there in the letter, Mr. Headman?

Headman
The King says, “I am calling on you shortly; you had better arrange puffed rice offerings for me. Palace fare is quite tasteless to me now.” Ha! ha! ha!

Madhav [With folded palms]
I beseech you, headman, don’t you joke about these things —

Gaffer
Cutting jokes indeed, dare he!

Madhav
Are you out of your mind too, Gaffer?

Gaffer
Out of my mind, well then I am; I can read plainly that the King writes he will come himself to see Amal, with the state physician.

Amal
Fakir, Fakir, ‘sh, his trumpet! Can’t you hear?

Headman
Ha! ha! ha! I fear he won’t until he’s a bit more off his head.

Amal
Mr. Headman, I thought you were cross with me and didn’t love me. I never could think you would fetch me the King’s letter. Let me wipe the dust off your feet.

Headman
This little child does have an instinct of reverence. Though a little silly, he has a good heart.

Amal
It’s hard on the fourth watch now, I suppose — Hark the gong, “Dong, dong, ding,” “Dong, dong, ding.” Is the evening star up? How is it I can’t see —

Gaffer
Oh, the windows are all shut, I’ll open them.

[A knocking outside]

Madhav
What’s that? Who is it? What a bother!

Voice [From outside]
Open the door.

Madhav
Say, Headman. Hope they’re not robbers.

Headman
Who’s there? It’s Panchanan, the headman, who calls. Aren’t you afraid of the like of me? Fancy! The noise has ceased! Panchanan’s voice carries far. — Yes, show me the biggest robbers! —

Madhav [Peering out of the window]
I should think the noise has ceased, they’ve smashed the door.

[The King’s Herald enters]

Herald
Our Sovereign King comes to-night!

Headman
My God!