THE SHAME OF THE NATIVES 37 



" Will you beat him? " 



"No, I can't do that." 



I then offered the boy to the Ancient for 

 chastisement, but he also declined. 



So I turned to the father and said the master 

 had decreed, that the boy was not to go to the 

 Reformatory, but that he himself should beat him, 

 and make him learn that it was a great wickedness 

 to steal, and that no one would ever employ him ; 

 and then how was he to earn his own living when 

 he grew up ? 



Then the man's self-restraint gave way. It 

 showed how much he had been feeling the disgrace 

 of it. He fell at my feet, in tears; thanking me 

 for not sending the boy to prison. The uncle, also, 

 knelt and put the dust of my shoe on his head, 

 sobbing his grief that Billy Doo should have done 

 this thing to me, whose salt he had eaten ; which 

 in their eyes accentuates the crime. And they 

 were more particularly ashamed, because during 

 the late illness of Billy Doo's poor little brother 

 who died my former page boy I had sent him 

 many comforts, and food and medicine, even ice 

 and pillows, and paid his doctor. So Billy Doo 



