The men appeared surprised at the refusal of horses, and stated
plainly that they would not accept it; at which my father shook his
head and smiled. One of the men then asked for water to quench his
thirst. Some one in the house then took out a large jug of cold water,
and my father taking it handed it up to the man; he drank, then passed
the jug on to the other thirsty ones, and after going its rounds the
jug was handed back and the demand for fresh horses renewed in
menacing tones. There was some water left in the jug, and my father
began pouring it out in a thin stream, making little circles and
figures on the dry dusty ground, then once more shook his head and
smiled very pleasantly on them. Then one of the men, fixing his eyes
on my father's face, bent forward and suddenly struck his hand
violently on the hilt of his broadsword and, rattling the weapon, half
drew it from its sheath. This nerve-trying experiment was a complete
failure, its only effect being to make my father smile up at the man
even more pleasantly than before, as if the little practical joke had
greatly amused him.
The strange thing was that my father was not playing a part--that it
was his nature to act in just that way. It is a curious thing to say
of any person that his highest or most shining qualities were nothing
but defects, since, apart from these same singular qualities, he was
just an ordinary person with nothing to distinguish him from his
neighbours, excepting perhaps that he was not anxious to get rich and
was more neighbourly or more brotherly towards his fellows than most
men.
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