No More Learning

Moti Guj trumpeted.

"Be still, hog of the backwoods! Chihun's your mahout for ten days. And
now bid me goodbye, beast after mine own heart. Oh, my lord, my king!
Jewel of all created elephants, lily of the herd, preserve your honored
health; be virtuous. Adieu! "

Moti Guj lapped his trunk round Deesa and swung him into the air twice.
That was his way of bidding him goodbye.

"He'll work now," said Deesa to the planter. "Have I leave to go? "

The planter nodded, and Deesa dived into the woods. Moti Guj went back
to haul stumps.

Chihun was very kind to him, but he felt unhappy and forlorn for all
that. Chihun gave him a ball of spices, and tickled him under the chin,
and Chihun's little baby cooed to him after work was over, and Chihun's
wife called him a darling; but Moti Guj was a bachelor by instinct, as
Deesa was.
He did not understand the domestic emotions. He wanted the
light of his universe back again--the drink and the drunken slumber, the
savage beatings and the savage caresses.

None the less he worked well, and the planter wondered. Deesa had
wandered along the roads till he met a marriage procession of his own
caste, and, drinking, dancing, and tippling, had drifted with it past
all knowledge of the lapse of time.

The morning of the eleventh day dawned, and there returned no Deesa,
Moti Guj was loosed from his ropes for the daily stint. He swung clear,
looked round, shrugged his shoulders, and began to walk away, as one
having business elsewhere.

"Hi! ho! Come back you! " shouted Chihun. "Come back and put me on your
neck, misborn mountain! Return, splendor of the hillsides! Adornment of
all India, heave to, or I'll bang every toe off your forefoot! "

Moti Guj gurgled gently, but did not obey. Chihun ran after him with a
rope and caught him up. Moti Guj put his ears forward, and Chihun knew
what that meant, though he tried to carry it off with high words.