'Very well,' said Tods, 'I must _fink_ in English.' He spent a minute putting his ideas in order, and began very slowly, translating in his mind from the vernacular to English, as many Anglo-Indian children do. You must remember that the Legal Member helped him on by questions when he halted, for Tods was not equal to the sustained flight of oratory that follows. 'Ditta Mull says, "This thing is the talk of a child, and was made up by fools." But _I_ don't think you are a fool, Councillor _Sahib_,' said Tods hastily. 'You caught my goat. This is what Ditta Mull says--'I am not a fool, and why should the Sirkar say I am a child? I can see if the land is good and if the landlord is good. If I am a fool, the sin is upon my own head. For five years I take my ground for which I have saved money, and a wife I take too, and a little son is born." Ditta Mull has one daughter now, but he _says_ he will have a son soon. And he says, "At the end of five years, by this new _bundobust_, I must go. If I do not go, I must get fresh seals and _takkus_-stamps on the papers, perhaps in the middle of the harvest, and to go to the law-courts once is wisdom, but to go twice is _Jehannum_." 'That is _quite_ true,' explained Tods gravely. 'All my friends say so. And Ditta Mull says, "Always fresh _takkus_ and paying money to _vakils_ and _chaprassis_ and law-courts every five years, or else the landlord makes me go. Why do I want to go? Am I a fool? If I am a fool and do not know, after forty years, good land when I see it, let me die! But if the new _bundobust_ says for _fifteen_ years, that is good and wise. My little son is a man, and I am burnt, and he takes the ground or another ground, paying only once for the _takkus_-stamps on the papers, and his little son is born, and at the end of fifteen years is a man too. But what profit is there in five years and fresh papers? Nothing but _dikh_, trouble, _dikh_. We are not young men who take these lands, but old ones--not farmers, but tradesmen with a little money--and for fifteen years we shall have peace. Nor are we children that the Sirkar should treat us so."' Here Tods stopped short, for the whole table were listening. The Legal Member said to Tods, 'Is that all?' 'All I can remember,' said Tods. 'But you should see Ditta Mull's big monkey. It's just like a Councillor _Sahib_.' 'Tods! Go to bed!' said his father. Tods gathered up his dressing-gown tail and departed. The Legal Member brought his hand down on the table with a crash--'By Jove!' said the Legal Member, 'I believe the boy is right. The short tenure _is_ the weak point.'