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THE WRECK

"Clear out!" cried Ramesh, thoroughly exasperated by this time, "you and your spinach, or I'll lack the lot into the river."

Umesh looked to Kamala for guidance and she signed to him to take the stuff away. He gauged from her manner that she still had a soft place in her heart for him, and collecting the vegetables he replaced them in the basket and sauntered off with them.

"It was very wrong of him ; you mustn't countenance that sort of thing'" was Ramesh's comment as he went off to his cabin to write a letter.

Kamala looked round and espied Umesh sitting at the stern beyond the second-class deck near her im- provised kitchen.

There being no second-class passengers Kamala went up to where he was sitting, after first veiling herself in a shawl. "Well, have you thrown the things away?" she asked.

"Oh, no; I put them all in the deck-house here."

"It was very naughty of you, you know," said Kam- ala, trying to look stem. "You're never to do it again. Think what would have happened if you had been left behind ! She went into the deck-house and called out peremptorily, "Bring me a chopper !"

Umesh obeyed, and Kamala began to slice up the appropriated vegetables.

"pounded mustard goes very well with that spinach, mother," remarked Umesh.

"All right, get some ready," said Kamala.

She was anxious to avoid the appearance of giving countenance to Umesh's misdeeds, and it was with a very severe expression that she sliced up spinach, pump- kins, and binjals.

Alas! how could she do other than countenance the helpless waif? She herself regarded the theft of gar- den-stuff as a trifle compared with the homeless lad's craving for protection. There was a touch of pathos

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