Mission to Kala

' delighted and honourad I am to be able to talk to YOU toda~ He insisted on pushing the
31w can have no idea -'
Ddighfsd d honoured? To talk to me? I couldn't understa ommon fans stretched out be-
it, 1 must have misheard him. My athletic cousin did n t has picked up an unexpected
we, sound as though he were joking. Far a moment I d come to Kala. I gave him a
b&v& I was going to faint with shock. There stood Z d him - with careful emphasis
smiling benignly at me and exposing all his -nt if this was not inconvenient.
I. -------- , - . - -- - - - - - - - - - - - =
hm-bnt wu-.,. fiirmdlv- fraternal- evenba littlc obseauious. --"-l-) ---..---
mbo looked as astonished as
whnle .. ---- attitude ------- was .. - exactlv what I - was needed to reassure n
ten years earlier) had sud-
completely; yet somehow reassurance failed to come. Try materialized in front of him and asked, very humbly, for a
imagine a poor insignificant creature, an ex-Conquistador
trcatin~ (after a brief career) in some codusion, a mere fai
studen; - - - - -- - - Ace - -- - - mare. - who is &nfionted with the spectacle of
pq god f a g h:omwnat his fcet and wonhippidg him. For
mnmmt T hat~rl rnv rni~sin. I reaented this unex~ected revers -"I-.--- - -, -- --. - - - -
of our role, and the way in which, fbr the thirdAtime that da
I had been forced to revise py estimate of my own strength.
Besides, Zambo was not alone in his disconcerting attitud
All the young boys and girls who had been singing his praisl
now turned and clustered round m, displaying the indiscrim
nate -- . admiration and scenerally unrestrained behaviour whie
(I supposed) were on& to be' found among such upcount
hi~nhmen. - -------
'Look -- at his clothes.' one said; 'He's a proper - - town boy, isq
he?'
little cousin,' he protested, 'we should be highly
o have you in our house, naturally - the pleasure is
again. What did it all mean? At this point he
eech of which I remember
as that everyone ought
learning and diplomas.
ad seen the matter in a
a lived very near the centre of the village.
we reached their hut, Zambo rent the' fans patking
t ceremony. (Some of them looked as though they into
come in with us.)
I
I
- --,
--- - -- . . -- - - # ---- ----- - - -
GOh ~P'S a tnwn bav all richt. Look at that bike. What
swell he must be!' i
'Good-lookinn. don't vou think?' I
"I
'Lf young.'
- ---- ---- -
T felt mnst embarrassed. I wanted to tell them that I was
111 a - swell - --- at -- - all. and nearlv as old as my cousin Zambo, td
champion. B& this k t kperience of buch imbecile ad
%m paralysed me. I had been brought up for six years or
to belim in modesty, even on occasion hdty, and
beginning to resent their attentions. Zambo (who continue
& obsequiously at me) must in the end have noticed
, , $iurment, for he invited me home to get a little rest,
26
I