They 'll teach ye something -- but I do n't think ye 'll like it . ' The day dragged to its weary end . When he wished to sleep he was instructed how to fold up his clothes and set out his boots ; the other boys deriding . Bugles waked him in the dawn ; the schoolmaster caught him after breakfast , thrust a page of meaningless characters under his nose , gave them senseless names and whacked him without reason . Kim meditated poisoning him with opium borrowed from a barrack-sweeper , but reflected that , as they all ate at one table in public -LRB- this was peculiarly revolting to Kim , who preferred to turn his back on the world at meals -RRB- , the stroke might be dangerous . Then he attempted running off to the village where the priest had tried to drug the lama -- the village where the old soldier lived . But far-seeing sentries at every exit headed back the little scarlet figure . Trousers and jacket crippled body and mind alike so he abandoned the project and fell back , Oriental-fashion , on time and chance . Three days of torment passed in the big , echoing white rooms . He walked out of afternoons under escort of the drummer-boy , and all he heard from his companions were the few useless words which seemed to make two-thirds of the white man 's abuse . Kim knew and despised them all long ago . The boy resented his silence and lack of interest by beating him , as was only natural . He did not care for any of the bazars which were in bounds . He styled all natives ` niggers ' ; yet servants and sweepers called him abominable names to his face , and , misled by their deferential attitude , he never understood . This somewhat consoled Kim for the beatings . On the morning of the fourth day a judgement overtook that drummer . They had gone out together towards Umballa racecourse . He returned alone , weeping , with news that young O'Hara , to whom he had been doing nothing in particular , had hailed a scarlet-bearded nigger on horseback ; that the nigger had then and there laid into him with a peculiarly adhesive quirt , picked up young O'Hara , and borne him off at full gallop . These tidings came to Father Victor , and he drew down his long upper lip . He was already sufficiently startled by a letter from the Temple of the Tirthankars at Benares , enclosing a native banker 's note of hand for three hundred rupees , and an amazing prayer to ` Almighty God ' .
The XXXXX would have been more annoyed than the priest had he known how the bazar letter-writer had translated his phrase ` to acquire merit . '
Bugles Kim O'Hara barrack-sweeper bazars days drummer-boy lama racecourse sentries