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When she saw the stains on her frock, she was angry and ran after Malàsha to strike her.

Malàsha was frightened, and seeing that she had got herself into trouble, she scrambled
out of the puddle, and prepared to run home. Just then, Akoūlya’s mother happened to be
passing, and seeing that her daughter’s skirt was splashed, and her sleeves dirty, she said:

“You naughty, dirty girl, what have you been doing?”

‘Malàsha did it on purpose’, replied the girl. At this Akoūlya’s mother seized Malàsha, and
struck her on the back of her neck. Malàsha began to howl so loudly that she could be heard

all down the street. Now Malàsha’s mother came out.

“What are you beating my girl for?” said she and began scolding her neighbour. One word
led to another and they had an angry quarrel. The men came out, and a crowd collected
in the street, everyone shouting and no one listening. They went on quarrelling, till one

gave another a push, and the affair had very nearly come to blows, when Akoūlya’s old
grandmother, stepping in among them, tried to calm them.

‘What are you thinking of, friends? Is it right to behave so? On a day like this, too! It’s a time
for rejoicing, and not for such folly as this.’

They would not listen to the old woman and nearly knocked her off her feet. While the

women were abusing each other, Akoūlya had wiped the mud off her frock, and gone back to
the puddle.

She took a stone and began scraping away the earth in

front of the puddle to make a channel through which
the water could run out into the street. Presently

Malàsha joined her, and with a chip of wood

helped her dig the channel. Just as the men were
beginning to fight, the water from the little girls

channel ran streaming into the street towards

the very place where the old woman was trying
to pacify the men.

The girls followed it; one running each side of

the little stream.

“Catch it, Malàsha! Catch it!” shouted

Akoūlya; while Malàsha could not stop
laughing.

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