It 's awful doin ' nothin ' but school down ` ere . Do n't you ` ate it ? ' ` Oah yess ! ' I 'd run away if I knew where to go to , but , as the men say , in this bloomin ' Injia you 're only a prisoner at large . You ca n't desert without bein ' took back at once . I 'm fair sick of it . ' ` You have been in Be -- England ? ' ` W ` y , I only come out last troopin ' season with my mother . I should think I ` ave been in England . What a ignorant little beggar you are ! You was brought up in the gutter , was n't you ? ' ` Oah yess . Tell me something about England . My father he came from there . ' Though he would not say so , Kim of course disbelieved every word the drummer-boy spoke about the Liverpool suburb which was his England . It passed the heavy time till dinner -- a most unappetizing meal served to the boys and a few invalids in a corner of a barrack-room . But that he had written to Mahbub Ali , Kim would have been almost depressed . The indifference of native crowds he was used to ; but this strong loneliness among white men preyed on him . He was grateful when , in the course of the afternoon , a big soldier took him over to Father Victor , who lived in another wing across another dusty parade-ground . The priest was reading an English letter written in purple ink .
He looked at XXXXX more curiously than ever .
Ali England English Kim Liverpool Oah Victor afternoon barrack-room troopin