Chapter 11. Sutthee's Resolution.

Otago Witness, Issue 2026, 22 December 1892, Page 20

Chapter 11. Sutthee's Resolution.

Home— what gentle witchery there is in the word 1 How much has been written in prose and verse with tbis as the theme I Wbat sublime lives have been sacrified, and what noble deeds have been done for the place itself; and then wbat a number of different kinds of homes there are in the world, from tent to castle, from cottage to palace I The ordinary mortal can boast of having possessed two or three sorts at least before he reaches tbe alloted span of threescore years and ten — the parental roof, the chunmery cr boarding-house, barrack or chamber?, and lastly the home in its truest sense, with wife and children to brighten it. I said last, but I hope not, for I am thinking of that other home where is perpetual happiness—a quality superlative there, but existing in all the other home 3 I have mentioned, and to which we look back lovingly, and see

* Rain, the god principally worshipped by lowcaste natives, t Court.

pi t ired in our memor"e^, e\'Gn though halt a h.mi*puere bulges out between us and ir, and our eyes have grown dim with looking for perfect peace. It was a common little hut wMch Guntia and Veria called horne — a circular hut with mud walls and palmyra leaf thatch. Taere were no windows in it, and only one door. A gigantic gourd plant clambered up one side and spread its green leaves and yellow tlossoms over the roof, tryiDg to hide as much of the general ugliness as possible. The other portion of the wall was plastered thick with flat cakes of cow-dang, to be used as fuel, and commonly called brattles. The dainty feminine fingers which had placed them there had left a desp impression in the centre of each cake, so that the owner could have identified her particular brattie among & thousand by comparing the model with the mould.

Two charpoys", a stool, a mat, and a basket constituted the whole of the furniture of this humble abode. Besides the two brothers the hut had another occupant— their mother, Sutthee, a little old woman with roving black eyes, who talked much and rapidly, and was for ever cracking her finger joints. You would guess her temperament was one easily excited. Her mind was certainly in that condition the evening her sons returned from Surmunda.

Guntia was too low-spirited to say much, and left it to his voluble brother to give her a graphic account of the events of the day, in the course of which he gravely mimicked the sentry, the person named Marapresarth, the private secretary, and the Rijab, and ended with solemnly execrating his Highness, in which he was joined by the others. T&en quiet ruled in the hut while the two men ate their curry and rice out of a shining brass basin, and their mother spread her hands over the dying embers in the fireplace outside and crooned to herself.

"My sons, I have something to say to thee," she began in a strangely calm tone, when she joined them later for a smoke on the mat before the door. " I have thought of a way by which we may have our revenge." " I am afraid, mother, the Ra]ah is like a toddy pot — too higd up to be reached by as," said Veria. "Tie up thy mouth, Veria. Mother has sense enough for anything," said Guntia reproachingly. Sutthee bent forward and pinched the lip 3 of her first-born affectionately. " Veria may be right, though, for my plan may fail." You see she had already made up her mind that her plan would be tried. "What is it?" asked Veria impatiently. His mother took a long pull at her cheroot, removed it, and watched the smoke slowly curl out of her mouth and hang about her head like a cloud before she answered. 11 Take me to our field and kill me there, and then inform the police that the Rajah has done it."

Guntia sprang up to his feet horror-etrnck. " Kill my mother to spite the Rajab," he exclaimed. - •• Be still, Gnntia, they will hear thee in the village," said Veria. " Thlß thing would be cheddathuppu (a bad sin,") he concluded, looking at bis mother. •• Why, the buffalo is not worth the price, cried Guntia indignantly. " But the field is, Guntia. and we would have the revenge for nothing. Bnongh, Bay no more : thou knowst my way. If thee and Veria do not kill me thus I will throw myself into the village well." Veria seemed to be thinking of something else; but Guntia knelt before her with tears streaming down his cheeks. " Mother, mother, do not make us commit this sin. Do not desolate our hut. We would suffer more than the Rajah even if he were to be hanged, and after all he might escape, but we would suffer— suffer— Buffer— thou the least of us three." The roving eyes went from one son to the other and then turned heavenward. " Thou art right, Guntia, I Bhall Buffer the least. Men have died for their land, and I remember hearing of a raneef "who did also. Why shouldn't I ? Mother's have died tor their children. Why shouldn't I ? Better an old woman give up her life now than thatsheand her sons should starve in the future. Come, Guntia, it is a righteous thing and the gods will be pleased. We will go to the tsmple and be all forgiven and blest before it is done, and then let it be done quickly. I have aaid it, and is not my name Sutthee ? " 11 Mother ha 3 spoken well ; the end justifies the deed," said Veria, in 3 deep, awful tone. All three stood up together and embraced each other silently. " Yonder are the lights of the temple. Let ub prepare to go thither."