How we cite our quotes: (Chapter. Paragraph)
Quote #4
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 n***** on horseback; that the n***** had then and there laid into him with a peculiarly adhesive quirt, picked up young O'Hara, and borne him off at full gallop. (6.86)
We know the English drummer-boy has been bullying Kim badly since Kim first started living in the Mavericks' regimental housing, so when the drummer-boy returns to the regiment barracks weeping after Mahbub Ali hits him with a riding whip (the "quirt") and carries off Kim to meet Creighton officially for the first time, we are not particularly sympathetic to his pain.
Quote #5
'That is all one.' The great red beard wagged solemnly. 'Children should not see a carpet on the loom till the pattern is made plain. Believe me, Friend of all the World, I do thee great service. They will not make a soldier of thee.'
'You crafty old sinner!' thought Creighton. 'But you're not far wrong. That boy mustn't be wasted if he is as advertised.' (6.124-5)
Mahbub Ali says to Kim that he doesn't intend to tell Kim his plans because "children should not see a carpet on the loom till the pattern is made plain." In other words, adults are the ones who make plans—it is the kid's job to accept those plans, whether they like it or not. Eventually, Kim thanks Mahbub Ali for the decision to keep him in school and make him a Sahib, but we find it a little hard that both Mahbub Ali and Creighton look at Kim—this kid who has just turned fourteen—as though he is raw material for their own ideas.
When Creighton says Kim "mustn't be wasted" if he has as much talent as Mahbub Ali says he has, he is talking about Kim as though he has no more feelings about or wishes for his future than any other natural resource. Kim may as well be a block of wood, for all that Creighton cares about his personal ambitions. It's lucky for Creighton that Kim actually wants to join the Great Game, because otherwise, the two of them might have had to fight over Kim's future.
Quote #6
'I am very old,' he thought sleepily. 'Every month I become a year more old. I was very young, and a fool to boot, when I took Mahbub's message to Umballa. Even when I was with that white Regiment I was very young and small and had no wisdom. But now I learn every day, and in three years the Colonel will take me out of the madrissah and let me go upon the Road with Mahbub hunting for horses' pedigrees, or maybe I shall go by myself; or maybe I shall find the lama and go with him. Yes; that is best. To walk again as a chela with my lama when he comes back to Benares.' (8.66)
The very fact that Kim thinks of a year as something long shows how young he is. In our experience, as we've gotten older, the more years you spend on this earth, the shorter those years seem (just ask your grandma). Anyway, we like this passage because it shows the ways in which Kim is starting to reflect on his own life up until this point. Kim has also started thinking of the future, which didn't seem to be a huge concern for him in Chapter 1.
Kim may still have about seven chapters of growing up to do after this point, but he is considering who he is and what he wants—both definite signs that Kim is developing into a young adult.