didn't find enough courage in himself to return to his village so late at night. Instead, he climbed the wall of the cattle lock-up and jumped down into the compound where he spotted a donkey. In the darkness the donkey looked as though it were sleeping. A little distance from the animal, Ramsarna laid his tired body down on a heap of hay and dozed off. The next morning as he was walking back to the village, Ramsarna thought; why did those people want to make him a Muslim? What would have they gained by that? They didn't love him; and they certainly wouldn't have fed him forever. Then the thought occurred to him: the priest was no well-wisher of his, either. Why, then, did he want him to remain a Hindu? What good would it have done him? Those other high-caste Hindus—they wouldn't have taken him in. After thinking long and hard, Ramsarna concluded: let's just say there are people who do many things without a reason. Bare Babu and his family were like that. So was the priest. And so had been his own father earlier. 68