Four ---- Then when he was twenty a lucky stroke of blackmail put him in possession of four hundred rupees, and he went at once to Rangoon and bought his way into a Government clerkship. Four pagodas, five, six, seven — the priests would tell him how many — with carved stonework, gilt umbrellas and little bells that tinkled in the wind, every tinkle a prayer. The population was about four thousand, including a couple of hundred Indians, a few score Chinese and seven Europeans. They went in, Westfield remarking in his gloomy voice, 'Lead on, Macduff.' Inside, the Club was a teak-walled place smelling of earth-oil, and consisting of only four rooms, one of which contained a forlorn 'library' of five hundred mildewed novels, and another an old and mangy billiard-table — this, however, seldom used, for during most of the year hordes of flying beetles came buzzing round the lamps and littered themselves over the cloth. She says she's going to cut my booze down to four pegs a day when our niece gets here. Down here with your racquet at four-thirty sharp.'. Down at Mr Macgregor's bungalow, two hundred yards away, a durwan, like a living clock, hammered four strokes on a section of iron rail. 'Four o'clock has struck, most holy god,' Ko S'la said. The village was called Nyaunglebin — 'the four peepul trees'; there were no peepul trees there now, probably they had been cut down and forgotten a century ago. Flory got off the cart and gave the driver a present of four annas. He had lived in a 'chummery' with four other youths who devoted their entire energies to debauchery. Four black-purple crows swooped down and perched on the veranda rail, waiting their chance to dart in and steal the bread and butter that Ko S'la had set down beside Flory's bed. Behind him stood Ma Pu, Ma Yi, Ko S'la's four eldest children, an unclaimed naked child, and two old women who had come down from the village upon the news that an 'Ingaleikma' was on view. Four of the girls at the school were 'the Honourable'; nearly all of them had ponies of their own, on which they were allowed to go riding on Saturday afternoons. The third day he pinched her on the calf, the fourth day behind the knee, the fifth day above the knee. 'They keep a little red book,' said Sammy, 'in which they enter the bazaar-money, two annas for thi.

Numbers in Burmese Days by George Orwell

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728

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17 pages

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