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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Stories from Tagore, by Rabindranath Tagore
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Stories from Tagore
+
+Author: Rabindranath Tagore
+
+Release Date: August 24, 2010 [EBook #33525]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORIES FROM TAGORE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Asad Razzaki and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+
+  Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been retained as in
+    the original.
+
+  A few typographical errors have been corrected. A complete list
+    follows the text.
+
+  Words italicized in the original are surrounded by _underscores_.
+
+  Words with bold emphasis in the original are surrounded by =equals
+    signs=.
+
+
+
+
+             STORIES FROM TAGORE
+
+
+               [Illustration]
+
+            THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+
+      NEW YORK A. BOSTON A. CHICAGO A. DALLAS
+           ATLANTA A. SAN FRANCISCO
+
+           MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED
+
+          LONDON A. BOMBAY A. CALCUTTA
+                 MELBOURNE
+
+        THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.
+
+                  TORONTO
+
+
+
+
+              Stories from Tagore
+
+
+                   New York
+             The Macmillan Company
+                     1918
+
+             _All rights reserved_
+
+
+            Copyright 1916 and 1918
+            BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+
+  Set up and electrotyped. Published, October, 1918
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+Every experienced teacher must have noticed the difficulty of
+instructing Indian children out of books that are specially intended for
+use in English schools. It is not merely that the subjects are
+unfamiliar, but almost every phrase has English associations that are
+strange to Indian ears. The environment in which they are written is
+unknown to the Indian school boy and his mind becomes overburdened with
+its details which he fails to understand. He cannot give his whole
+attention to the language and thus master it quickly.
+
+The present Indian story-book avoids some at least of these impediments.
+The surroundings described in it are those of the students' everyday
+life; the sentiments and characters are familiar. The stories are simply
+told, and the notes at the end will be sufficient to explain obscure
+passages. It should be possible for the Indian student to follow the
+pages of the book easily and intelligently. Those students who have read
+the stories in the original will have the further advantage of knowing
+beforehand the whole trend of the narrative and thus they will be able
+to concentrate their thoughts on the English language itself.
+
+It is proposed to publish together in a single volume the original
+stories whose English translations are given in this Reader. Versions of
+the same stories in the different Indian vernaculars have already
+appeared, and others are likely to follow.
+
+Two of the longest stories in this book--"Master Mashai" and "The Son of
+Rashmani"--are reproduced in English for the first time. The rest of the
+stories have been taken, with slight revision, from two English volumes
+entitled "The Hungry Stones" and "Mashi." A short paragraph has been
+added from the original Bengali at the end of the story called "The
+Postmaster." This was unfortunately omitted in the first English
+edition.
+
+The list of words to be studied has been chosen from each story in order
+to bring to notice different types of English words. The lists are in no
+sense exhaustive. The end in view has been to endeavour to create an
+interest in Indian words and their history, which may lead on to further
+study.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                       PAGE
+
+  THE CABULIWALLAH                       3
+
+  THE HOME-COMING                       21
+
+  ONCE THERE WAS A KING                 35
+
+  THE CHILD'S RETURN                    51
+
+  MASTER MASHAI                         69
+
+  SUBHA                                101
+
+  THE POSTMASTER                       115
+
+  THE CASTAWAY                         129
+
+  THE SON OF RASHMANI                  151
+
+  THE BABUS OF NAYANJORE               203
+
+  NOTES                                223
+
+
+
+
+THE CABULIWALLAH
+
+
+
+
+STORIES FROM TAGORE
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE CABULIWALLAH
+
+
+My five years' old daughter Mini cannot live without chattering. I
+really believe that in all her life she has not wasted a minute in
+silence. Her mother is often vexed at this, and would stop her prattle,
+but I would not. To see Mini quiet is unnatural, and I cannot bear it
+long. And so my own talk with her is always lively.
+
+One morning, for instance, when I was in the midst of the seventeenth
+chapter of my new novel, my little Mini stole into the room, and putting
+her hand into mine, said: "Father! Ramdayal the door-keeper calls a crow
+a krow! He doesn't know anything, does he?"
+
+Before I could explain to her the differences of language in this world,
+she was embarked on the full tide of another subject. "What do you
+think, Father? Bhola says there is an elephant in the clouds, blowing
+water out of his trunk, and that is why it rains!"
+
+And then, darting off anew, while I sat still making ready some reply to
+this last saying: "Father! what relation is Mother to you?"
+
+With a grave face I contrived to say: "Go and play with Bhola, Mini! I
+am busy!"
+
+The window of my room overlooks the road. The child had seated herself
+at my feet near my table, and was playing softly, drumming on her knees.
+I was hard at work on my seventeenth chapter, where Pratap Singh, the
+hero, had just caught Kanchanlata, the heroine, in his arms, and was
+about to escape with her by the third-story window of the castle, when
+all of a sudden Mini left her play, and ran to the window, crying: "A
+Cabuliwallah! a Cabuliwallah!" Sure enough in the street below was a
+Cabuliwallah, passing slowly along. He wore the loose, soiled clothing
+of his people, with a tall turban; there was a bag on his back, and he
+carried boxes of grapes in his hand.
+
+I cannot tell what were my daughter's feelings at the sight of this man,
+but she began to call him loudly. "Ah!" I thought, "he will come in, and
+my seventeenth chapter will never be finished!" At which exact moment
+the Cabuliwallah turned, and looked up at the child. When she saw this,
+overcome by terror, she fled to her mother's protection and
+disappeared. She had a blind belief that inside the bag, which the big
+man carried, there were perhaps two or three other children like
+herself. The pedlar meanwhile entered my doorway and greeted me with a
+smiling face.
+
+So precarious was the position of my hero and my heroine, that my first
+impulse was to stop and buy something, since the man had been called. I
+made some small purchases, and a conversation began about Abdurrahman,
+the Russians, the English, and the Frontier Policy.
+
+As he was about to leave, he asked: "And where is the little girl, sir?"
+
+And I, thinking that Mini must get rid of her false fear, had her
+brought out.
+
+She stood by my chair, and looked at the Cabuliwallah and his bag. He
+offered her nuts and raisins, but she would not be tempted, and only
+clung the closer to me, with all her doubts increased.
+
+This was their first meeting.
+
+One morning, however, not many days later, as I was leaving the house, I
+was startled to find Mini, seated on a bench near the door, laughing and
+talking, with the great Cabuliwallah at her feet. In all her life, it
+appeared, my small daughter had never found so patient a listener, save
+her father. And already the corner of her little _sari_ was stuffed
+with almonds and raisins, the gift of her visitor. "Why did you give her
+those?" I said, and taking out an eight-anna bit, I handed it to him.
+The man accepted the money without demur, and slipped it into his
+pocket.
+
+Alas, on my return an hour later, I found the unfortunate coin had made
+twice its own worth of trouble! For the Cabuliwallah had given it to
+Mini; and her mother, catching sight of the bright round object, had
+pounced on the child with: "Where did you get that eight-anna bit?"
+
+"The Cabuliwallah gave it me," said Mini cheerfully.
+
+"The Cabuliwallah gave it you!" cried her mother much shocked. "O Mini!
+how could you take it from him?"
+
+I, entering at the moment, saved her from impending disaster, and
+proceeded to make my own inquiries.
+
+It was not the first or second time, I found, that the two had met. The
+Cabuliwallah had overcome the child's first terror by a judicious
+bribery of nuts and almonds, and the two were now great friends.
+
+They had many quaint jokes, which afforded them much amusement. Seated
+in front of him, looking down on his gigantic frame in all her tiny
+dignity, Mini would ripple her face with laughter and begin: "O
+Cabuliwallah! Cabuliwallah! what have you got in your bag?"
+
+And he would reply, in the nasal accents of the mountaineer: "An
+elephant!" Not much cause for merriment, perhaps; but how they both
+enjoyed the fun! And for me, this child's talk with a grown-up man had
+always in it something strangely fascinating.
+
+Then the Cabuliwallah, not to be behindhand, would take his turn: "Well,
+little one, and when are you going to the father-in-law's house?"
+
+Now most small Bengali maidens have heard long ago about the
+father-in-law's house; but we, being a little new-fangled, had kept
+these things from our child, and Mini at this question must have been a
+trifle bewildered. But she would not show it, and with ready tact
+replied: "Are _you_ going there?"
+
+Amongst men of the Cabuliwallah's class, however, it is well known that
+the words _father-in-law's house_ have a double meaning. It is a
+euphemism for _jail_, the place where we are well cared for, at no
+expense to ourselves. In this sense would the sturdy pedlar take my
+daughter's question. "Ah," he would say, shaking his fist at an
+invisible policeman, "I will thrash my father-in-law!" Hearing this, and
+picturing the poor discomfited relative, Mini would go off into peals
+of laughter, in which her formidable friend would join.
+
+These were autumn mornings, the very time of year when kings of old went
+forth to conquest; and I, never stirring from my little corner in
+Calcutta, would let my mind wander over the whole world. At the very
+name of another country, my heart would go out to it, and at the sight
+of a foreigner in the streets, I would fall to weaving a network of
+dreams,--the mountains, the glens, and the forests of his distant home,
+with his cottage in its setting, and the free and independent life of
+far-away wilds. Perhaps the scenes of travel conjure themselves up
+before me and pass and repass in my imagination all the more vividly,
+because I lead such a vegetable existence that a call to travel would
+fall upon me like a thunder-bolt. In the presence of this Cabuliwallah I
+was immediately transported to the foot of arid mountain peaks, with
+narrow little defiles twisting in and out amongst their towering
+heights. I could see the string of camels bearing the merchandise, and
+the company of turbanned merchants carrying some their queer old
+firearms, and some their spears, journeying downward towards the plains.
+I could see--. But at some such point Mini's mother would intervene,
+imploring me to "beware of that man."
+
+Mini's mother is unfortunately a very timid lady. Whenever she hears a
+noise in the street, or sees people coming towards the house, she always
+jumps to the conclusion that they are either thieves, or drunkards, or
+snakes, or tigers, or malaria, or cockroaches, or caterpillars. Even
+after all these years of experience, she is not able to overcome her
+terror. So she was full of doubts about the Cabuliwallah, and used to
+beg me to keep a watchful eye on him.
+
+I tried to laugh her fear gently away, but then she would turn round on
+me seriously, and ask me solemn questions:--
+
+Were children never kidnapped?
+
+Was it, then, not true that there was slavery in Cabul?
+
+Was it so very absurd that this big man should be able to carry off a
+tiny child?
+
+I urged that, though not impossible, it was highly improbable. But this
+was not enough, and her dread persisted. As it was indefinite, however,
+it did not seem right to forbid the man the house, and the intimacy went
+on unchecked.
+
+Once a year in the middle of January Rahmun, the Cabuliwallah, was in
+the habit of returning to his country, and as the time approached he
+would be very busy, going from house to house collecting his debts. This
+year, however, he could always find time to come and see Mini. It would
+have seemed to an outsider that there was some conspiracy between the
+two, for when he could not come in the morning, he would appear in the
+evening.
+
+Even to me it was a little startling now and then, in the corner of a
+dark room, suddenly to surprise this tall, loose-garmented, much
+bebagged man; but when Mini would run in smiling, with her "O
+Cabuliwallah! Cabuliwallah!" and the two friends, so far apart in age,
+would subside into their old laughter and their old jokes, I felt
+reassured.
+
+One morning, a few days before he had made up his mind to go, I was
+correcting my proof sheets in my study. It was chilly weather. Through
+the window the rays of the sun touched my feet, and the slight warmth
+was very welcome. It was almost eight o'clock, and the early pedestrians
+were returning home with their heads covered. All at once I heard an
+uproar in the street, and, looking out, saw Rahmun being led away bound
+between two policemen, and behind them a crowd of curious boys. There
+were blood-stains on the clothes of the Cabuliwallah, and one of the
+policemen carried a knife. Hurrying out, I stopped them, and inquired
+what it all meant. Partly from one, partly from another, I gathered that
+a certain neighbour had owed the pedlar something for a Rampuri shawl,
+but had falsely denied having bought it, and that in the course of the
+quarrel Rahmun had struck him. Now, in the heat of his excitement, the
+prisoner began calling his enemy all sorts of names, when suddenly in a
+verandah of my house appeared my little Mini, with her usual
+exclamation: "O Cabuliwallah! Cabuliwallah!" Rahmun's face lighted up as
+he turned to her. He had no bag under his arm to-day, so she could not
+discuss the elephant with him. She at once therefore proceeded to the
+next question: "Are you going to the father-in-law's house?" Rahmun
+laughed and said: "Just where I am going, little one!" Then, seeing that
+the reply did not amuse the child, he held up his fettered hands. "Ah!"
+he said, "I would have thrashed that old father-in-law, but my hands are
+bound!"
+
+On a charge of murderous assault, Rahmun was sentenced to some years'
+imprisonment.
+
+Time passed away and he was not remembered. The accustomed work in the
+accustomed place was ours, and the thought of the once free mountaineer
+spending his years in prison seldom or never occurred to us. Even my
+light-hearted Mini, I am ashamed to say, forgot her old friend. New
+companions filled her life. As she grew older, she spent more of her
+time with girls. So much time indeed did she spend with them that she
+came no more, as she used to do, to her father's room. I was scarcely on
+speaking terms with her.
+
+Years had passed away. It was once more autumn and we had made
+arrangements for our Mini's marriage. It was to take place during the
+Puja Holidays. With Durga returning to Kailas, the light of our home
+also was to depart to her husband's house, and leave her father's in the
+shadow.
+
+The morning was bright. After the rains, there was a sense of ablution
+in the air, and the sun-rays looked like pure gold. So bright were they,
+that they gave a beautiful radiance even to the sordid brick walls of
+our Calcutta lanes. Since early dawn that day the wedding-pipes had been
+sounding, and at each beat my own heart throbbed. The wail of the tune,
+Bhairavi, seemed to intensify my pain at the approaching separation. My
+Mini was to be married that night.
+
+From early morning noise and bustle had pervaded the house. In the
+courtyard the canopy had to be slung on its bamboo poles; the
+chandeliers with their tinkling sound must be hung in each room and
+verandah. There was no end of hurry and excitement. I was sitting in my
+study, looking through the accounts, when some one entered, saluting
+respectfully, and stood before me. It was Rahmun the Cabuliwallah. At
+first I did not recognise him. He had no bag, nor the long hair, nor the
+same vigour that he used to have. But he smiled, and I knew him again.
+
+"When did you come, Rahmun?" I asked him.
+
+"Last evening," he said, "I was released from jail."
+
+The words struck harsh upon my ears. I had never before talked with one
+who had wounded his fellow, and my heart shrank within itself when I
+realised this; for I felt that the day would have been better-omened had
+he not turned up.
+
+"There are ceremonies going on," I said, "and I am busy. Could you
+perhaps come another day?"
+
+At once he turned to go; but as he reached the door he hesitated, and
+said: "May I not see the little one, sir, for a moment?" It was his
+belief that Mini was still the same. He had pictured her running to him
+as she used, calling "O Cabuliwallah! Cabuliwallah!" He had imagined too
+that they would laugh and talk together, just as of old. In fact, in
+memory of former days he had brought, carefully wrapped up in paper, a
+few almonds and raisins and grapes, obtained somehow from a countryman;
+for his own little fund was dispersed.
+
+I said again: "There is a ceremony in the house, and you will not be
+able to see any one to-day."
+
+The man's face fell. He looked wistfully at me for a moment, then said
+"Good morning," and went out.
+
+I felt a little sorry, and would have called him back, but I found he
+was returning of his own accord. He came close up to me holding out his
+offerings with the words: "I brought these few things, sir, for the
+little one. Will you give them to her?"
+
+I took them and was going to pay him, but he caught my hand and said:
+"You are very kind, sir! Keep me in your recollection. Do not offer me
+money!--You have a little girl: I too have one like her in my own home.
+I think of her, and bring fruits to your child--not to make a profit for
+myself."
+
+Saying this, he put his hand inside his big loose robe, and brought out
+a small and dirty piece of paper. With great care he unfolded this, and
+smoothed it out with both hands on my table. It bore the impression of a
+little hand. Not a photograph. Not a drawing. The impression of an
+ink-smeared hand laid flat on the paper. This touch of his own little
+daughter had been always on his heart, as he had come year after year to
+Calcutta to sell his wares in the streets.
+
+Tears came to my eyes. I forgot that he was a poor Cabuli fruit-seller,
+while I was--. But no, what was I more than he? He also was a father.
+
+That impression of the hand of his little _PAerbati_ in her distant
+mountain home reminded me of my own little Mini.
+
+I sent for Mini immediately from the inner apartment. Many difficulties
+were raised, but I would not listen. Clad in the red silk of her
+wedding-day, with the sandal paste on her forehead, and adorned as a
+young bride, Mini came, and stood bashfully before me.
+
+The Cabuliwallah looked a little staggered at the apparition. He could
+not revive their old friendship. At last he smiled and said: "Little
+one, are you going to your father-in-law's house?"
+
+But Mini now understood the meaning of the word "father-in-law," and she
+could not reply to him as of old. She flushed up at the question, and
+stood before him with her bride-like face turned down.
+
+I remembered the day when the Cabuliwallah and my Mini had first met,
+and I felt sad. When she had gone, Rahmun heaved a deep sigh, and sat
+down on the floor. The idea had suddenly come to him that his daughter
+too must have grown in this long time, and that he would have to make
+friends with her anew. Assuredly he would not find her as he used to
+know her. And besides, what might not have happened to her in these
+eight years?
+
+The marriage-pipes sounded, and the mild autumn sun streamed round us.
+But Rahmun sat in the little Calcutta lane, and saw before him the
+barren mountains of Afghanistan.
+
+I took out a bank-note and gave it to him, saying: "Go back to your own
+daughter, Rahmun, in your own country, and may the happiness of your
+meeting bring good fortune to my child!"
+
+Having made this present, I had to curtail some of the festivities. I
+could not have the electric lights I had intended, nor the military
+band, and the ladies of the house were despondent at it. But to me the
+wedding-feast was all the brighter for the thought that in a distant
+land a long-lost father met again with his only child.
+
+
+WORDS TO BE STUDIED
+
+  =precarious.= From the root "prec," meaning prayer. Compare
+      _deprecate_, _imprecation_; "precarious" means, therefore, held
+      by entreaty, and thus insecure.
+
+  =impending.= From the Latin "pendere," to hang. Compare _depend_,
+      _expend_, _expensive_, _pendant_, _suspend_, _interdependent_,
+      _independent_.
+
+  =judicious.= From the root "jus," "jud," meaning law, right. Compare
+      _judge_, _judicial_, _judgment_, _just_, _prejudge_, _adjustment_,
+      _adjudicate_.
+
+  =euphemism.= A Greek root "phe," meaning speech. Compare _blasphemy_.
+
+  =transported.= From the Latin "portare," to carry. Compare _porter_,
+      _import_, _export_, _deport_, _support_, _deportation_.
+
+  =intervene.= From the Latin "venire," to come. Compare _convenient_,
+      _convene_, _supervene_, _prevent_.
+
+  =conclusion.= From the Latin "claudere," to close, shut. Compare
+      _include_, _preclude_, _exclude_, _exclusive_, _exclusion_.
+
+  =exclamation.= From the Latin "clamare," to cry out. Compare
+      _clamour_, _proclaim_, _proclamation_, _clamorous_, _disclaim_,
+      _declaim_.
+
+  =separation.= From the Latin "parare," to make ready. Compare
+      _prepare_, _preparation_, _compare_, _comparison_, _comparative_.
+
+  =recollect.= From the Latin "legere," to choose. Compare _collect_,
+      _elect_, _election_, _college_, _eligible_.
+
+  =impression.= From the Latin "premere," to press. Compare
+      _impressive_, _depress_, _express_, _suppress_, _oppress_,
+      _pressure_.
+
+  =photograph.= From two Greek roots "phAt," meaning light and "graph,"
+      meaning to write. Compare _epigraph_, _epigram_, _photographic_,
+      _phosphorus_, _graph_, _diagram_.
+
+  =intend.= From the Latin "tendere," meaning to stretch. Compare
+      _extend_, _superintend_, _attend_, _attendant_, _extensive_,
+      _tense_, _pretend_, _distend_, _contend_.
+
+
+
+
+THE HOME-COMING
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE HOME-COMING
+
+
+Phatik Chakravorti was ringleader among the boys of the village. A new
+mischief got into his head. There was a heavy log lying on the mud-flat
+of the river waiting to be shaped into a mast for a boat. He decided
+that they should all work together to shift the log by main force from
+its place and roll it away. The owner of the log would be angry and
+surprised, and they would all enjoy the fun. Every one seconded the
+proposal, and it was carried unanimously.
+
+But just as the fun was about to begin, MAekhan, Phatik's younger
+brother, sauntered up and sat down on the log in front of them all
+without a word. The boys were puzzled for a moment. He was pushed,
+rather timidly, by one of the boys and told to get up; but he remained
+quite unconcerned. He appeared like a young philosopher meditating on
+the futility of games. Phatik was furious. "MAekhan," he cried, "if you
+don't get down this minute I'll thrash you!"
+
+MAekhan only moved to a more comfortable position.
+
+Now, if Phatik was to keep his regal dignity before the public, it was
+clear he ought to carry out his threat. But his courage failed him at
+the crisis. His fertile brain, however, rapidly seized upon a new
+manA"uvre which would discomfit his brother and afford his followers an
+added amusement. He gave the word of command to roll the log and MAekhan
+over together. MAekhan heard the order and made it a point of honour to
+stick on. But he overlooked the fact, like those who attempt earthly
+fame in other matters, that there was peril in it.
+
+The boys began to heave at the log with all their might, calling out,
+"One, two, three, go!" At the word "go" the log went; and with it went
+MAekhan's philosophy, glory and all.
+
+The other boys shouted themselves hoarse with delight. But Phatik was a
+little frightened. He knew what was coming. And, sure enough, MAekhan
+rose from Mother Earth blind as Fate and screaming like the Furies. He
+rushed at Phatik and scratched his face and beat him and kicked him, and
+then went crying home. The first act of the drama was over.
+
+Phatik wiped his face, and sat down on the edge of a sunken barge by the
+river bank, and began to chew a piece of grass. A boat came up to the
+landing and a middle-aged man, with grey hair and dark moustache,
+stepped on shore. He saw the boy sitting there doing nothing and asked
+him where the Chakravortis lived. Phatik went on chewing the grass and
+said: "Over there," but it was quite impossible to tell where he
+pointed. The stranger asked him again. He swung his legs to and fro on
+the side of the barge and said: "Go and find out," and continued to chew
+the grass as before.
+
+But now a servant came down from the house and told Phatik his mother
+wanted him. Phatik refused to move. But the servant was the master on
+this occasion. He took Phatik up roughly and carried him, kicking and
+struggling in impotent rage.
+
+When Phatik came into the house, his mother saw him. She called out
+angrily: "So you have been hitting MAekhan again?"
+
+Phatik answered indignantly: "No, I haven't! Who told you that?"
+
+His mother shouted: "Don't tell lies! You have."
+
+Phatik said sullenly: "I tell you, I haven't. You ask MAekhan!" But
+MAekhan thought it best to stick to his previous statement. He said:
+"Yes, mother. Phatik did hit me."
+
+Phatik's patience was already exhausted. He could not bear this
+injustice. He rushed at MAekhan and hammered him with blows: "Take
+that," he cried, "and that, and that, for telling lies."
+
+His mother took MAekhan's side in a moment, and pulled Phatik away,
+beating him with her hands. When Phatik pushed her aside, she shouted
+out: "What! you little villain! Would you hit your own mother?"
+
+It was just at this critical juncture that the grey-haired stranger
+arrived. He asked what was the matter. Phatik looked sheepish and
+ashamed.
+
+But when his mother stepped back and looked at the stranger, her anger
+was changed to surprise. For she recognized her brother and cried: "Why,
+Dada! Where have you come from?"
+
+As she said these words, she bowed to the ground and touched his feet.
+Her brother had gone away soon after she had married; and he had started
+business in Bombay. His sister had lost her husband while he was there.
+Bishamber had now come back to Calcutta and had at once made enquiries
+about his sister. He had then hastened to see her as soon as he found
+out where she was.
+
+The next few days were full of rejoicing. The brother asked after the
+education of the two boys. He was told by his sister that Phatik was a
+perpetual nuisance. He was lazy, disobedient, and wild. But MAekhan was
+as good as gold, as quiet as a lamb, and very fond of reading.
+Bishamber kindly offered to take Phatik off his sister's hands and
+educate him with his own children in Calcutta. The widowed mother
+readily agreed. When his uncle asked Phatik if he would like to go to
+Calcutta with him, his joy knew no bounds and he said: "Oh, yes, uncle!"
+in a way that made it quite clear that he meant it.
+
+It was an immense relief to the mother to get rid of Phatik. She had a
+prejudice against the boy, and no love was lost between the two
+brothers. She was in daily fear that he would either drown MAekhan some
+day in the river, or break his head in a fight, or run him into some
+danger. At the same time she was a little distressed to see Phatik's
+extreme eagerness to get away.
+
+Phatik, as soon as all was settled, kept asking his uncle every minute
+when they were to start. He was on pins and needles all day long with
+excitement and lay awake most of the night. He bequeathed to MAekhan, in
+perpetuity, his fishing-rod, his big kite, and his marbles. Indeed, at
+this time of departure, his generosity towards MAekhan was unbounded.
+
+When they reached Calcutta, Phatik made the acquaintance of his aunt for
+the first time. She was by no means pleased with this unnecessary
+addition to her family. She found her own three boys quite enough to
+manage without taking any one else. And to bring a village lad of
+fourteen into their midst was terribly upsetting. Bishamber should
+really have thought twice before committing such an indiscretion.
+
+In this world of human affairs there is no worse nuisance than a boy at
+the age of fourteen. He is neither ornamental nor useful. It is
+impossible to shower affection on him as on a little boy; and he is
+always getting in the way. If he talks with a childish lisp he is called
+a baby, and if he answers in a grown-up way he is called impertinent. In
+fact any talk at all from him is resented. Then he is at the
+unattractive, growing age. He grows out of his clothes with indecent
+haste; his voice grows hoarse and breaks and quavers; his face grows
+suddenly angular and unsightly. It is easy to excuse the shortcomings of
+early childhood, but it is hard to tolerate even unavoidable lapses in a
+boy of fourteen. The lad himself becomes painfully self-conscious. When
+he talks with elderly people he is either unduly forward, or else so
+unduly shy that he appears ashamed of his very existence.
+
+Yet it is at this very age when, in his heart of hearts, a young lad
+most craves for recognition and love; and he becomes the devoted slave
+of any one who shows him consideration. But none dare openly love him,
+for that would be regarded as undue indulgence and therefore bad for
+the boy. So, what with scolding and chiding, he becomes very much like a
+stray dog that has lost his master.
+
+For a boy of fourteen his own home is the only Paradise. To live in a
+strange house with strange people is little short of torture, while the
+height of bliss is to receive the kind looks of women and never to be
+slighted by them.
+
+It was anguish to Phatik to be the unwelcome guest in his aunt's house,
+despised by this elderly woman and slighted on every occasion. If ever
+she asked him to do anything for her, he would be so overjoyed that he
+would overdo it; and then she would tell him not to be so stupid, but to
+get on with his lessons.
+
+The cramped atmosphere of neglect oppressed Phatik so much that he felt
+that he could hardly breathe. He wanted to go out into the open country
+and fill his lungs with fresh air. But there was no open country to go
+to. Surrounded on all sides by Calcutta houses and walls, he would dream
+night after night of his village home and long to be back there. He
+remembered the glorious meadow where he used to fly his kite all day
+long; the broad river-banks where he would wander about the live-long
+day singing and shouting for joy; the narrow brook where he could go and
+dive and swim at any time he liked. He thought of his band of boy
+companions over whom he was despot; and, above all, the memory of that
+tyrant mother of his, who had such a prejudice against him, occupied him
+day and night. A kind of physical love like that of animals, a longing
+to be in the presence of the one who is loved, an inexpressible
+wistfulness during absence, a silent cry of the inmost heart for the
+mother, like the lowing of a calf in the twilight,--this love, which was
+almost an animal instinct, agitated the shy, nervous, lean, uncouth and
+ugly boy. No one could understand it, but it preyed upon his mind
+continually.
+
+There was no more backward boy in the whole school than Phatik. He gaped
+and remained silent when the teacher asked him a question, and like an
+overladen ass patiently suffered all the blows that came down on his
+back. When other boys were out at play, he stood wistfully by the window
+and gazed at the roofs of the distant houses. And if by chance he espied
+children playing on the open terrace of any roof, his heart would ache
+with longing.
+
+One day he summoned up all his courage and asked his uncle: "Uncle, when
+can I go home?"
+
+His uncle answered: "Wait till the holidays come."
+
+But the holidays would not come till October and there was a long time
+still to wait.
+
+One day Phatik lost his lesson book. Even with the help of books he had
+found it very difficult indeed to prepare his lesson. Now it was
+impossible. Day after day the teacher would cane him unmercifully. His
+condition became so abjectly miserable that even his cousins were
+ashamed to own him. They began to jeer and insult him more than the
+other boys. He went to his aunt at last and told her that he had lost
+his book.
+
+His aunt pursed her lips in contempt and said: "You great clumsy,
+country lout! How can I afford, with all my family, to buy you new books
+five times a month?"
+
+That night, on his way back from school, Phatik had a bad headache with
+a fit of shivering. He felt he was going to have an attack of malarial
+fever. His one great fear was that he would be a nuisance to his aunt.
+
+The next morning Phatik was nowhere to be seen. All searches in the
+neighbourhood proved futile. The rain had been pouring in torrents all
+night, and those who went out in search of the boy got drenched through
+to the skin. At last Bishamber asked help from the police.
+
+At the end of the day a police van stopped at the door before the house.
+It was still raining and the streets were all flooded. Two constables
+brought out Phatik in their arms and placed him before Bishamber. He
+was wet through from head to foot, muddy all over, his face and eyes
+flushed red with fever and his limbs trembling. Bishamber carried him in
+his arms and took him into the inner apartments. When his wife saw him
+she exclaimed: "What a heap of trouble this boy has given us! Hadn't you
+better send him home?"
+
+Phatik heard her words and sobbed out loud: "Uncle, I was just going
+home; but they dragged me back again."
+
+The fever rose very high, and all that night the boy was delirious.
+Bishamber brought in a doctor. Phatik opened his eyes, flushed with
+fever, and looked up to the ceiling and said vacantly: "Uncle, have the
+holidays come yet?"
+
+Bishamber wiped the tears from his own eyes and took Phatik's lean and
+burning hands in his own and sat by him through the night. The boy began
+again to mutter. At last his voice became excited: "Mother!" he cried,
+"don't beat me like that.... Mother! I _am_ telling the truth!"
+
+The next day Phatik became conscious for a short time. He turned his
+eyes about the room, as if expecting some one to come. At last, with an
+air of disappointment, his head sank back on the pillow. He turned his
+face to the wall with a deep sigh.
+
+Bishamber knew his thoughts and bending down his head whispered:
+"Phatik, I have sent for your mother."
+
+The day went by. The doctor said in a troubled voice that the boy's
+condition was very critical.
+
+Phatik began to cry out: "By the mark--three fathoms. By the mark--four
+fathoms. By the mark----." He had heard the sailor on the river-steamer
+calling out the mark on the plumb-line. Now he was himself plumbing an
+unfathomable sea.
+
+Later in the day Phatik's mother burst into the room, like a whirlwind,
+and began to toss from side to side and moan and cry in a loud voice.
+
+Bishamber tried to calm her agitation, but she flung herself on the bed,
+and cried: "Phatik, my darling, my darling."
+
+Phatik stopped his restless movements for a moment. His hands ceased
+beating up and down. He said: "Eh?"
+
+The mother cried again: "Phatik, my darling, my darling."
+
+Phatik very slowly turned his head and without seeing anybody said:
+"Mother, the holidays have come."
+
+
+WORDS TO BE STUDIED
+
+  =proposal.= From the Latin word "ponere," to place. Compare
+      _position_, _post_, _depose_, _impose_, _component_,
+      _composition_, _repose_.
+
+  =unanimously.= From the Latin "unus," one, and "animus," mind. Compare
+      _magnanimous_, _pusillanimous_.
+
+  =philosopher.= From the Greek "philos," a friend, and "sophia,"
+      wisdom. Compare _philology_, _philanthropy_, _theosophy_.
+
+  =moustache.= A French word which has found its home in English. French
+      is frequently giving to English new words. Compare, in this story,
+      _manA"uvre_, _discomfit_, _mischief_.
+
+  =juncture.= From the Latin "jungere," to join. Compare _junction_,
+      _conjunction_, _subjunctive_, _adjunct_.
+
+  =unattractive.= From the negative "un," meaning "not," and the root
+      "tract-," meaning to draw. Compare _traction_, _tractor_,
+      _attract_, _extract_, _subtract_.
+
+  =atmosphere.= From the Greek word "atmos," the air, and "sphaira," a
+      "globe." Compare _sphere_, _hemisphere_, _photosphere_.
+
+  =wistfulness.= Probably from the English word "wish," wishfulness.
+      Several, however, regard it as coming from an old word "whist" or
+      "wist," meaning silent. The vernacular word "udAes" has the same
+      meaning.
+
+  =abjectly.= From the Latin word "jacere," to throw. Compare
+      _ad-jec-tive_, _subject_, _object_, _project_, _inject_, _reject_.
+
+  =neighbourhood.= From a Saxon word meaning near, nigh; "hood" or
+      "head" is a common addition to Saxon words denoting the quality or
+      character. Compare _knighthood_, _manhood_, _boyhood_,
+      _womanhood_.
+
+  =holidays.= This word is made up of two words, "holy" and "days." The
+      religious days of the Church were those on which no one worked and
+      thus they got the meaning of holidays as opposed to working days.
+
+
+
+
+ONCE THERE WAS A KING
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+ONCE THERE WAS A KING
+
+
+"Once upon a time there was a king."
+
+When we were children there was no need to know who the king in the
+fairy story was. It didn't matter whether he was called Shiladitya or
+Shaliban, whether he lived at Kashi or Kanauj. The thing that made a
+seven-year-old boy's heart go thump, thump with delight was this one
+sovereign truth, this reality of all realities: "Once there was a king."
+
+But the readers of this modern age are far more exact and exacting. When
+they hear such an opening to a story, they are at once critical and
+suspicious. They apply the searchlight of science to its legendary haze
+and ask: "Which king?"
+
+The story-tellers have become more precise in their turn. They are no
+longer content with the old indefinite, "There was a king," but assume
+instead a look of profound learning and begin: "Once there was a king
+named Ajatasatru."
+
+The modern reader's curiosity, however, is not so easily satisfied. He
+blinks at the author through his scientific spectacles and asks again:
+"Which Ajatasatru?"
+
+When we were young, we understood all sweet things; and we could detect
+the sweets of a fairy story by an unerring science of our own. We never
+cared for such useless things as knowledge. We only cared for truth. And
+our unsophisticated little hearts knew well where the Crystal Palace of
+Truth lay and how to reach it. But to-day we are expected to write pages
+of facts, while the truth is simply this:
+
+"There was a king."
+
+I remember vividly that evening in Calcutta when the fairy story began.
+The rain and the storm had been incessant. The whole of the city was
+flooded. The water was knee-deep in our lane. I had a straining hope,
+which was almost a certainty, that my tutor would be prevented from
+coming that evening. I sat on the stool in the far corner of the
+verandah looking down the lane, with a heart beating faster and faster.
+Every minute I kept my eye on the rain, and when it began to diminish I
+prayed with all my might: "Please, God, send some more rain till
+half-past seven is over." For I was quite ready to believe that there
+was no other need for rain except to protect one helpless boy one
+evening in one corner of Calcutta from the deadly clutches of his
+tutor.
+
+If not in answer to my prayer, at any rate according to some grosser law
+of nature, the rain did not give up.
+
+But, alas, nor did my teacher!
+
+Exactly to the minute, in the bend of the lane, I saw his approaching
+umbrella. The great bubble of hope burst in my breast, and my heart
+collapsed. Truly, if there is a punishment to fit the crime after death,
+then my tutor will be born again as me, and I shall be born as my tutor.
+
+As soon as I saw his umbrella I ran as hard as I could to my mother's
+room. My mother and my grandmother were sitting opposite one another
+playing cards by the light of a lamp. I ran into the room, and flung
+myself on the bed beside my mother, and said:
+
+"Mother, the tutor has come, and I have such a bad headache; couldn't I
+have no lessons to-day?"
+
+I hope no child of immature age will be allowed to read this story, and
+I sincerely trust it will not be used in text-books or primers for
+junior classes. For what I did was dreadfully bad, and I received no
+punishment whatever. On the contrary, my wickedness was crowned with
+success.
+
+My mother said to me: "All right," and turning to the servant added:
+"Tell the tutor that he can go back home."
+
+It was perfectly plain that she didn't think my illness very serious, as
+she went on with her game as before and took no further notice. And I
+also, burying my head in the pillow, laughed to my heart's content. We
+perfectly understood one another, my mother and I.
+
+But every one must know how hard it is for a boy of seven years old to
+keep up the illusion of illness for a long time. After about a minute I
+got hold of Grandmother and said: "Grannie, do tell me a story."
+
+I had to ask this many times. Grannie and Mother went on playing cards
+and took no notice. At last Mother said to me: "Child, don't bother.
+Wait till we've finished our game." But I persisted: "Grannie, do tell
+me a story." I told Mother she could finish her game to-morrow, but she
+must let Grannie tell me a story there and then.
+
+At last Mother threw down the cards and said: "You had better do what he
+wants. I can't manage him." Perhaps she had it in her mind that she
+would have no tiresome tutor on the morrow, while I should be obliged to
+be back at those stupid lessons.
+
+As soon as ever Mother had given way, I rushed at Grannie. I got hold
+of her hand, and, dancing with delight, dragged her inside my mosquito
+curtain on to the bed. I clutched hold of the bolster with both hands in
+my excitement, and jumped up and down with joy, and when I had got a
+little quieter said: "Now, Grannie, let's have the story!"
+
+Grannie went on: "And the king had a queen."
+
+That was good to begin with. He had only one!
+
+It is usual for kings in fairy stories to be extravagant in queens. And
+whenever we hear that there are two queens our hearts begin to sink. One
+is sure to be unhappy. But in Grannie's story that danger was past. He
+had only one queen.
+
+We next hear that the king had not got any son. At the age of seven I
+didn't think there was any need to bother if a man had no son. He might
+only have been in the way.
+
+Nor are we greatly excited when we hear that the king has gone away into
+the forest to practise austerities in order to get a son. There was only
+one thing that would have made me go into the forest, and that was to
+get away from my tutor!
+
+But the king left behind with his queen a small girl, who grew up into a
+beautiful princess.
+
+Twelve years pass away, and the king goes on practising austerities, and
+never thinks all this while of his beautiful daughter. The princess has
+reached the full bloom of her youth. The age of marriage has passed,
+but the king does not return. And the queen pines away with grief and
+cries: "Is my golden daughter destined to die unmarried? Ah me, what a
+fate is mine!"
+
+Then the queen sent men to the king to entreat him earnestly to come
+back for a single night and take one meal in the palace. And the king
+consented.
+
+The queen cooked with her own hand, and with the greatest care,
+sixty-four dishes. She made a seat for him of sandal-wood and arranged
+the food in plates of gold and cups of silver. The princess stood behind
+with the peacock-tail fan in her hand. The king, after twelve years'
+absence, came into the house, and the princess waved the fan, lighting
+up all the room with her beauty. The king looked in his daughter's face
+and forgot to take his food.
+
+At last he asked his queen: "Pray, who is this girl whose beauty shines
+as the gold image of the goddess? Whose daughter is she?"
+
+The queen beat her forehead and cried: "Ah, how evil is my fate! Do you
+not know your own daughter?"
+
+The king was struck with amazement. He said at last: "My tiny daughter
+has grown to be a woman."
+
+"What else?" the queen said with a sigh. "Do you not know that twelve
+years have passed by?"
+
+"But why did you not give her in marriage?" asked the king.
+
+"You were away," the queen said. "And how could I find her a suitable
+husband?"
+
+The king became vehement with excitement. "The first man I see
+to-morrow," he said, "when I come out of the palace shall marry her."
+
+The princess went on waving her fan of peacock feathers, and the king
+finished his meal.
+
+The next morning, as the king came out of his palace, he saw the son of
+a Brahman gathering sticks in the forest outside the palace gates. His
+age was about seven or eight.
+
+The King said: "I will marry my daughter to him."
+
+Who can interfere with a king's command? At once the boy was called, and
+the marriage garlands were exchanged between him and the princess.
+
+At this point I came up close to my wise Grannie and asked her eagerly:
+"When then?"
+
+In the bottom of my heart there was a devout wish to substitute myself
+for that fortunate wood-gatherer of seven years old. The night was
+resonant with the patter of rain. The earthen lamp by my bedside was
+burning low. My grandmother's voice droned on as she told the story.
+And all these things served to create in a corner of my credulous heart
+the belief that I had been gathering sticks in the dawn of some
+indefinite time in the kingdom of some unknown king, and in a moment
+garlands had been exchanged between me and the princess, beautiful as
+the Goddess of Grace. She had a gold band on her hair and gold earrings
+in her ears. She had a necklace and bracelets of gold, and a golden
+waist-chain round her waist, and a pair of golden anklets tinkled above
+her feet.
+
+If my grandmother were an author, how many explanations she would have
+to offer for this little story! First of all, every one would ask why
+the king remained twelve years in the forest? Secondly, why should the
+king's daughter remain unmarried all that while? This would be regarded
+as absurd.
+
+Even if she could have got so far without a quarrel, still there would
+have been a great hue and cry about the marriage itself. First, it never
+happened. Secondly, how could there be a marriage between a princess of
+the Warrior Caste and a boy of the priestly Brahman Caste? Her readers
+would have imagined at once that the writer was preaching against our
+social customs in an underhand way. And they would write letters to the
+papers.
+
+So I pray with all my heart that my grandmother may be born a
+grandmother again, and not through some cursed fate take birth as her
+luckless grandson.
+
+With a throb of joy and delight, I asked Grannie: "What then?"
+
+Grannie went on: Then the princess took her little husband away in great
+distress, and built a large palace with seven wings, and began to
+cherish her husband with great care.
+
+I jumped up and down in my bed and clutched at the bolster more tightly
+than ever and said: "What then?"
+
+Grannie continued: The little boy went to school and learnt many lessons
+from his teachers, and as he grew up his class-fellows began to ask him:
+"Who is that beautiful lady living with you in the palace with the seven
+wings?"
+
+The Brahman's son was eager to know who she was. He could only remember
+how one day he had been gathering sticks and a great disturbance arose.
+But all that was so long ago that he had no clear recollection.
+
+Four or five years passed in this way. His companions always asked him:
+"Who is that beautiful lady in the palace with the seven wings?" And the
+Brahman's son would come back from school and sadly tell the princess:
+"My school companions always ask me who is that beautiful lady in the
+palace with the seven wings, and I can give them no reply. Tell me, oh,
+tell me, who you are!"
+
+The princess said: "Let it pass to-day. I will tell you some other day."
+And every day the Brahman's son would ask: "Who are you?" and the
+princess would reply: "Let it pass to-day. I will tell you some other
+day." In this manner four or five more years passed away.
+
+At last the Brahman's son became very impatient and said: "If you do not
+tell me to-day who you are, O beautiful lady, I will leave this palace
+with the seven wings." Then the princess said: "I will certainly tell
+you to-morrow."
+
+Next day the Brahman's son, as soon as he came home from school, said:
+"Now, tell me who you are." The princess said: "To-night I will tell you
+after supper, when you are in bed."
+
+The Brahman's son said: "Very well"; and he began to count the hours in
+expectation of the night. And the princess, on her side, spread white
+flowers over the golden bed, and lighted a gold lamp with fragrant oil,
+and adorned her hair, and dressed herself in a beautiful robe of blue,
+and began to count the hours in expectation of the night.
+
+That evening when her husband, the Brahman's son, had finished his meal,
+too excited almost to eat, and had gone to the golden bed in the
+bedchamber strewn with flowers, he said to himself: "To-night I shall
+surely know who this beautiful lady is in the palace with the seven
+wings."
+
+The princess took for her food that which was left over by her husband,
+and slowly entered the bedchamber. She had to answer that night the
+question, who was the beautiful lady that lived in the palace with the
+seven wings. And as she went up to the bed to tell him she found a
+serpent had crept out of the flowers and had bitten the Brahman's son.
+Her boy-husband was lying on the bed of flowers, with face pale in
+death.
+
+My heart suddenly ceased to throb, and I asked with choking voice: "What
+then?"
+
+Grannie said: "Then ..."
+
+But what is the use of going on any further with the story? It would
+only lead on to what was more and more impossible. The boy of seven did
+not know that, if there were some "What then?" after death, no
+grandmother of a grandmother could tell us all about it.
+
+But the child's faith never admits defeat, and it would snatch at the
+mantle of death itself to turn him back. It would be outrageous for him
+to think that such a story of one teacherless evening could so suddenly
+come to a stop. Therefore the grandmother had to call back her story
+from the ever-shut chamber of the great End, but she does it so simply:
+it is merely by floating the dead body on a banana stem on the river,
+and having some incantations read by a magician. But in that rainy night
+and in the dim light of a lamp death loses all its horror in the mind of
+the boy, and seems nothing more than a deep slumber of a single night.
+When the story ends the tired eyelids are weighed down with sleep. Thus
+it is that we send the little body of the child floating on the back of
+sleep over the still water of time, and then in the morning read a few
+verses of incantation to restore him to the world of life and light.
+
+
+WORDS TO BE STUDIED
+
+  =sovereign.= This word is taken directly from the French language. It
+      is connected with the Latin "supremus."
+
+  =blinks.= Many English words are made up from the supposed sound or
+      motion to be represented. Compare _to splash_, _to plump_, _to
+      quack_, _to throb_, _to swish_.
+
+  =suspicious.= From the Latin word "spicere," to look. Compare
+      _auspicious_, _respect_, _inspect_, _aspect._
+
+  =unsophisticated.= This word comes from the Greek "sophistes," meaning
+      a sophist, that is to say, one who makes a pretence of being wise.
+      Unsophisticated means one who makes no pretence to be learned.
+
+  =umbrella.= This word has come into English from the Italian language.
+      "Umbra" in Latin means "shade" and Ombrella in Italian means
+      "little shade."
+
+  =extravagant.= From the Latin root "vag," meaning to wander. The word
+      means "wandering outside" and so "going beyond bounds." Compare
+      _vagrant_, _vagabond_, _vague._
+
+  =explanation.= From the Latin "planus," meaning plain. Compare
+      _explanatory_, _explain_, _plain_, _plane._
+
+  =incantation.= From the Latin "cantare," to chant, something chanted
+      over a person.
+
+  =magician.= From the Greek "magus," an astrologer. Compare _magic_,
+      _the Magi_, _magical._
+
+
+
+
+THE CHILD'S RETURN
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+THE CHILD'S RETURN
+
+
+I
+
+Raicharan was twelve years old when he came as a servant to his master's
+house. He belonged to the same caste as his master and was given his
+master's little son to nurse. As time went on the boy left Raicharan's
+arms to go to school. From school he went on to college, and after
+college he entered the judicial service. Always, until he married,
+Raicharan was his sole attendant.
+
+But when a mistress came into the house, Raicharan found two masters
+instead of one. All his former influence passed to the new mistress.
+This was compensated by a fresh arrival. Anukul had a son born to him
+and Raicharan by his unsparing attentions soon got a complete hold over
+the child. He used to toss him up in his arms, call to him in absurd
+baby language, put his face close to the baby's and draw it away again
+with a laugh.
+
+Presently the child was able to crawl and cross the doorway. When
+Raicharan went to catch him, he would scream with mischievous laughter
+and make for safety. Raicharan was amazed at the profound skill and
+exact judgment the baby showed when pursued. He would say to his
+mistress with a look of awe and mystery: "Your son will be a judge some
+day."
+
+New wonders came in their turn. When the baby began to toddle, that was
+to Raicharan an epoch in human history. When he called his father Ba-ba
+and his mother Ma-ma and Raicharan Chan-na, then Raicharan's ecstasy
+knew no bounds. He went out to tell the news to all the world.
+
+After a while Raicharan was asked to show his ingenuity in other ways.
+He had, for instance, to play the part of a horse, holding the reins
+between his teeth and prancing with his feet. He had also to wrestle
+with his little charge; and if he could not, by a wrestler's trick, fall
+on his back defeated at the end a great outcry was certain.
+
+About this time Anukul was transferred to a district on the banks of the
+Padma. On his way through Calcutta he bought his son a little go-cart.
+He bought him also a yellow satin waistcoat, a gold-laced cap, and some
+gold bracelets and anklets. Raicharan was wont to take these out and put
+them on his little charge, with ceremonial pride, whenever they went for
+a walk.
+
+Then came the rainy season and day after day the rain poured down in
+torrents. The hungry river, like an enormous serpent, swallowed down
+terraces, villages, cornfields, and covered with its flood the tall
+grasses and wild casuarinas on the sandbanks. From time to time there
+was a deep thud as the river-banks crumbled. The unceasing roar of the
+main current could be heard from far away. Masses of foam, carried
+swiftly past, proved to the eye the swiftness of the stream.
+
+One afternoon the rain cleared. It was cloudy, but cool and bright.
+Raicharan's little despot did not want to stay in on such a fine
+afternoon. His lordship climbed into the go-cart. Raicharan, between the
+shafts, dragged him slowly along till he reached the rice-fields on the
+banks of the river. There was no one in the fields and no boat on the
+stream. Across the water, on the farther side, the clouds were rifted in
+the west. The silent ceremonial of the setting sun was revealed in all
+its glowing splendour. In the midst of that stillness the child, all of
+a sudden, pointed with his finger in front of him and cried: "Chan-na!
+Pitty fow."
+
+Close by on a mud-flat stood a large _Kadamba_ tree in full flower. My
+lord, the baby, looked at it with greedy eyes and Raicharan knew his
+meaning. Only a short time before he had made, out of these very flower
+balls, a small go-cart; and the child had been so entirely happy
+dragging it about with a string, that for the whole day Raicharan was
+not asked to put on the reins at all. He was promoted from a horse into
+a groom.
+
+But Raicharan had no wish that evening to go splashing knee-deep through
+the mud to reach the flowers. So he quickly pointed his finger in the
+opposite direction, calling out: "Look, baby, look! Look at the bird."
+And with all sorts of curious noises he pushed the go-cart rapidly away
+from the tree.
+
+But a child, destined to be a judge, cannot be put off so easily. And
+besides, there was at the time nothing to attract his eyes. And you
+cannot keep up for ever the pretence of an imaginary bird.
+
+The little Master's mind was made up, and Raicharan was at his wits'
+end. "Very well, baby," he said at last, "you sit still in the cart, and
+I'll go and get you the pretty flower. Only mind you don't go near the
+water."
+
+As he said this, he made his legs bare to the knee, and waded through
+the oozing mud towards the tree.
+
+The moment Raicharan had gone, his little Master's thoughts went off at
+racing speed to the forbidden water. The baby saw the river rushing by,
+splashing and gurgling as it went. It seemed as though the disobedient
+wavelets themselves were running away from some greater Raicharan with
+the laughter of a thousand children. At the sight of their mischief, the
+heart of the human child grew excited and restless. He got down
+stealthily from the go-cart and toddled off towards the river. On his
+way he picked up a small stick and leant over the bank of the stream
+pretending to fish. The mischievous fairies of the river with their
+mysterious voices seemed inviting him into their play-house.
+
+Raicharan had plucked a handful of flowers from the tree and was
+carrying them back in the end of his cloth, with his face wreathed in
+smiles. But when he reached the go-cart there was no one there. He
+looked on all sides and there was no one there. He looked back at the
+cart and there was no one there.
+
+In that first terrible moment his blood froze within him. Before his
+eyes the whole universe swam round like a dark mist. From the depth of
+his broken heart he gave one piercing cry: "Master, Master, little
+Master."
+
+But no voice answered "Chan-na." No child laughed mischievously back: no
+scream of baby delight welcomed his return. Only the river ran on with
+its splashing, gurgling noise as before,--as though it knew nothing at
+all and had no time to attend to such a tiny human event as the death
+of a child.
+
+As the evening passed by Raicharan's mistress became very anxious. She
+sent men out on all sides to search. They went with lanterns in their
+hands and reached at last the banks of the Padma. There they found
+Raicharan rushing up and down the fields, like a stormy wind, shouting
+the cry of despair: "Master, Master, little Master!"
+
+When they got Raicharan home at last, he fell prostrate at the feet of
+his mistress. They shook him, and questioned him, and asked him
+repeatedly where he had left the child; but all he could say was that he
+knew nothing.
+
+Though every one held the opinion that the Padma had swallowed the
+child, there was a lurking doubt left in the mind. For a band of gipsies
+had been noticed outside the village that afternoon, and some suspicion
+rested on them. The mother went so far in her wild grief as to think it
+possible that Raicharan himself had stolen the child. She called him
+aside with piteous entreaty and said: "Raicharan, give me back my baby.
+Give me back my child. Take from me any money you ask, but give me back
+my child!"
+
+Raicharan only beat his forehead in reply. His mistress ordered him out
+of the house.
+
+Anukul tried to reason his wife out of this wholly unjust suspicion:
+"Why on earth," he said, "should he commit such a crime as that?"
+
+The mother only replied: "The baby had gold ornaments on his body. Who
+knows?"
+
+It was impossible to reason with her after that.
+
+
+II
+
+Raicharan went back to his own village. Up to this time he had had no
+son, and there was no hope that any child would now be born to him. But
+it came about before the end of a year that his wife gave birth to a son
+and died.
+
+An overwhelming resentment at first grew up in Raicharan's heart at the
+sight of this new baby. At the back of his mind was resentful suspicion
+that it had come as a usurper in place of the little Master. He also
+thought it would be a grave offence to be happy with a son of his own
+after what had happened to his master's little child. Indeed, if it had
+not been for a widowed sister, who mothered the new baby, it would not
+have lived long.
+
+But a change gradually came over Raicharan's mind. A wonderful thing
+happened. This new baby in turn began to crawl about, and cross the
+doorway with mischief in its face. It also showed an amusing cleverness
+in making its escape to safety. Its voice, its sounds of laughter and
+tears, its gestures, were those of the little Master. On some days, when
+Raicharan listened to its crying, his heart suddenly began thumping
+wildly against his ribs, and it seemed to him that his former little
+Master was crying somewhere in the unknown land of death because he had
+lost his Chan-na.
+
+Phailna (for that was the name Raicharan's sister gave to the new baby)
+soon began to talk. It learnt to say Ba-ba and Ma-ma with a baby accent.
+When Raicharan heard those familiar sounds the mystery suddenly became
+clear. The little Master could not cast off the spell of his Chan-na and
+therefore he had been reborn in his own house.
+
+The three arguments in favour of this were, to Raicharan, altogether
+beyond dispute:
+
+The new baby was born soon after his little master's death.
+
+His wife could never have accumulated such merit as to give birth to a
+son in middle age.
+
+The new baby walked with a toddle and called out Ba-ba and Ma-ma.--There
+was no sign lacking which marked out the future judge.
+
+Then suddenly Raicharan remembered that terrible accusation of the
+mother. "Ah," he said to himself with amazement, "the mother's heart was
+right. She knew I had stolen her child."
+
+When once he had come to this conclusion, he was filled with remorse for
+his past neglect. He now gave himself over, body and soul, to the new
+baby and became its devoted attendant. He began to bring it up as if it
+were the son of a rich man. He bought a go-cart, a yellow satin
+waistcoat, and a gold-embroidered cap. He melted down the ornaments of
+his dead wife and made gold bangles and anklets. He refused to let the
+little child play with any one of the neighbourhood and became himself
+its sole companion day and night. As the baby grew up to boyhood, he was
+so petted and spoilt and clad in such finery that the village children
+would call him "Your Lordship," and jeer at him; and older people
+regarded Raicharan as unaccountably crazy about the child.
+
+At last the time came for the boy to go to school. Raicharan sold his
+small piece of land and went to Calcutta. There he got employment with
+great difficulty as a servant and sent Phailna to school. He spared no
+pains to give him the best education, the best clothes, the best food.
+Meanwhile, he himself lived on a mere handful of rice and would say in
+secret: "Ah, my little Master, my dear little Master, you loved me so
+much that you came back to my house! You shall never suffer from any
+neglect of mine."
+
+Twelve years passed away in this manner. The boy was able to read and
+write well. He was bright and healthy and good-looking. He paid a great
+deal of attention to his personal appearance and was specially careful
+in parting his hair. He was inclined to extravagance and finery and
+spent money freely. He could never quite look on Raicharan as a father,
+because, though fatherly in affection, he had the manner of a servant. A
+further fault was this, that Raicharan kept secret from every one that
+he himself was the father of the child.
+
+The students of the hostel, where Phailna was a boarder, were greatly
+amused by Raicharan's country manners, and I have to confess that behind
+his father's back Phailna joined in their fun. But, in the bottom of
+their hearts, all the students loved the innocent and tender-hearted old
+man, and Phailna was very fond of him also. But, as I have said before,
+he loved him with a kind of condescension.
+
+Raicharan grew older and older, and his employer was continually finding
+fault with him for his incompetent work. He had been starving himself
+for the boy's sake, so he had grown physically weak and no longer up to
+his daily task. He would forget things and his mind became dull and
+stupid. But his employer expected a full servant's work out of him and
+would not brook excuses. The money that Raicharan had brought with him
+from the sale of his land was exhausted. The boy was continually
+grumbling about his clothes and asking for more money.
+
+
+III
+
+Raicharan made up his mind. He gave up the situation where he was
+working as a servant, and left some money with Phailna and said: "I have
+some business to do at home in my village, and shall be back soon."
+
+He went off at once to Baraset where Anukul was magistrate. Anukul's
+wife was still broken down with grief. She had had no other child.
+
+One day Anukul was resting after a long and weary day in court. His wife
+was buying, at an exorbitant price, a herb from a mendicant quack, which
+was said to ensure the birth of a child. A voice of greeting was heard
+in the courtyard. Anukul went out to see who was there. It was
+Raicharan. Anukul's heart was softened when he saw his old servant. He
+asked him many questions and offered to take him back into service.
+
+Raicharan smiled faintly and said in reply: "I want to make obeisance to
+my mistress."
+
+Anukul went with Raicharan into the house, where the mistress did not
+receive him as warmly as his old master. Raicharan took no notice of
+this, but folded his hands and said: "It was not the Padma that stole
+your baby. It was I."
+
+Anukul exclaimed: "Great God! Eh! What! Where is he?"
+
+Raicharan replied: "He is with me. I will bring him the day after
+to-morrow."
+
+It was Sunday. There was no magistrate's court sitting. Both husband and
+wife were looking expectantly along the road, waiting from early morning
+for Raicharan's appearance. At ten o'clock he came leading Phailna by
+the hand.
+
+Anukul's wife, without a question, took the boy into her lap and was
+wild with excitement, sometimes laughing, sometimes weeping, touching
+him, kissing his hair and his forehead, and gazing into his face with
+hungry, eager eyes. The boy was very good-looking and dressed like a
+gentleman's son. The heart of Anukul brimmed over with a sudden rush of
+affection.
+
+Nevertheless the magistrate in him asked: "Have you any proofs?"
+
+Raicharan said: "How could there be any proof of such a deed? God alone
+knows that I stole your boy, and no one else in the world."
+
+When Anukul saw how eagerly his wife was clinging to the boy, he
+realised the futility of asking for proofs. It would be wiser to
+believe. And then,--where could an old man like Raicharan get such a boy
+from? And why should his faithful servant deceive him for nothing?
+
+"But," he added severely, "Raicharan, you must not stay here."
+
+"Where shall I go, Master?" said Raicharan, in a choking voice, folding
+his hands. "I am old. Who will take in an old man as a servant?"
+
+The mistress said: "Let him stay. My child will be pleased. I forgive
+him."
+
+But Anukul's magisterial conscience would not allow him. "No," he said,
+"he cannot be forgiven for what he has done."
+
+Raicharan bowed to the ground and clasped Anukul's feet. "Master," he
+cried, "let me stay. It was not I who did it. It was God."
+
+Anukul's conscience was more shocked than ever when Raicharan tried to
+put the blame on God's shoulders.
+
+"No," he said, "I could not allow it. I cannot trust you any more. You
+have done an act of treachery."
+
+Raicharan rose to his feet and said: "It was not I who did it."
+
+"Who was it then?" asked Anukul.
+
+Raicharan replied: "It was my fate."
+
+But no educated man could take this for an excuse. Anukul remained
+obdurate.
+
+When Phailna saw that he was the wealthy magistrate's son, and not
+Raicharan's, he was angry at first, thinking that he had been cheated
+all this time of his birthright. But seeing Raicharan in distress, he
+generously said to his father: "Father, forgive him. Even if you don't
+let him live with us, let him have a small monthly pension."
+
+After hearing this, Raicharan did not utter another word. He looked for
+the last time on the face of his son. He made obeisance to his old
+master and mistress. Then he went out and was mingled with the
+numberless people of the world.
+
+At the end of the month Anukul sent him some money to his village. But
+the money came back. There was no one there of the name of Raicharan.
+
+
+WORDS TO BE STUDIED
+
+  =judicial.= From the Latin word "judex," a judge. Compare
+      _judicious_, _judge_, _judgment_, _just_.
+
+  =compensate.= From the Latin word "pensare," to weigh. Compare
+      _dispense_, _dispensary_, _compensation_. (This must not be
+      confused with the Latin word "pendere," to hang. Compare
+      _suspend_, _expend_, _depend_.)
+
+  =ecstasy.= From two Greek words "ex" and "stasis," meaning standing
+      outside oneself.
+
+  =transferred.= From the Latin word "ferre," to carry. Compare _offer_,
+      _defer_, _confer_, _prefer_, _proffer_, _infer_, _conference_,
+      _fertile_.
+
+  =crumble.= To break into crumbs or little pieces.
+
+  =promoted.= From the Latin word "movAe"re," to move. Compare _motive_,
+      _motion_, _motor_, _promotion_, _commotion_.
+
+  =excited.= From the Latin word "ciere," to set in motion. Compare
+      _incite_, _excitement_, _exciting_, _cite_.
+
+  =lantern.= A French word derived from the Greek "lampein," to shine.
+      Compare, _magic-lantern_, _lamp_.
+
+  =gipsy.= Also spelt gypsy, from "Egyptian"; because the gipsies were
+      supposed to come from Egypt.
+
+  =usurper.= From the Latin word "usurpare." This word is made up of
+      "usus," use and "rapere," to snatch. Compare _use_, _usual_,
+      _usufruct_, _rapid_, _rapt_, _rapture_.
+
+  =magisterial.= From the Latin word "magister," a judge. Compare
+      _magistrate_, _magistracy_.
+
+  =obdurate.= From the Latin word "dA"rus," hard. Compare _endure_,
+      _endurance_, _obduracy_.
+
+
+
+
+MASTER MASHAI
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+MASTER MASHAI
+
+
+I
+
+Adhar Babu lives upon the interest of the capital left him by his
+father. Only the brokers, negotiating loans, come to his drawing room
+and smoke the silver-chased hookah, and the clerks from the attorney's
+office discuss the terms of some mortgage or the amount of the stamp
+fees. He is so careful with his money that even the most dogged efforts
+of the boys from the local football club fail to make any impression on
+his pocket.
+
+At the time this story opens a new guest came into his household. After
+a long period of despair, his wife, Nanibala, bore him a son.
+
+The child resembled his mother,--large eyes, well-formed nose, and fair
+complexion. Ratikanta, Adharlal's protA(C)gA(C), gave verdict,--"He is worthy
+of this noble house." They named him Venugopal.
+
+Never before had Adharlal's wife expressed any opinion differing from
+her husband's on household expenses. There had been a hot discussion now
+and then about the propriety of some necessary item and up to this time
+she had merely acknowledged defeat with silent contempt. But now
+Adharlal could no longer maintain his supremacy. He had to give way
+little by little when things for his son were in question.
+
+
+II
+
+As Venugopal grew up, his father gradually became accustomed to spending
+money on him. He obtained an old teacher, who had a considerable repute
+for his learning and also for his success in dragging impassable boys
+through their examinations. But such a training does not lead to the
+cultivation of amiability. This man tried his best to win the boy's
+heart, but the little that was left in him of the natural milk of human
+kindness had turned sour, and the child repulsed his advances from the
+very beginning. The mother, in consequence, objected to him strongly,
+and complained that the very sight of him made her boy ill. So the
+teacher left.
+
+Just then, Haralal made his appearance with a dirty dress and a torn
+pair of old canvas shoes. Haralal's mother, who was a widow, had kept
+him with great difficulty at a District school out of the scanty
+earnings which she made by cooking in strange houses and husking rice.
+He managed to pass the Matriculation and determined to go to College. As
+a result of his half-starved condition, his pinched face tapered to a
+point in an unnatural manner,--like Cape Comorin in the map of India;
+and the only broad portion of it was his forehead, which resembled the
+ranges of the Himalayas.
+
+The servant asked Haralal what he wanted, and he answered timidly that
+he wished to see the master.
+
+The servant answered sharply: "You can't see him." Haralal was
+hesitating, at a loss what to do next, when Venugopal, who had finished
+his game in the garden, suddenly came to the door. The servant shouted
+at Haralal: "Get away." Quite unaccountably Venugopal grew excited and
+cried: "No, he shan't get away." And he dragged the stranger to his
+father.
+
+Adharlal had just risen from his mid-day sleep and was sitting quietly
+on the upper verandah in his cane chair, rocking his legs. Ratikanta was
+enjoying his hookah, seated in a chair next to him. He asked Haralal how
+far he had got in his reading. The young man bent his head and answered
+that he had passed the Matriculation. Ratikanta looked stern and
+expressed surprise that he should be so backward for his age. Haralal
+kept silence. It was Ratikanta's special pleasure to torture his
+patron's dependants, whether actual or potential.
+
+Suddenly it struck Adharlal that he would be able to employ this youth
+as a tutor for his son on next to nothing. He agreed, there and then, to
+take him at a salary of five rupees a month with board and lodging free.
+
+
+III
+
+This time the post of tutor remained occupied longer than before. From
+the very beginning of their acquaintance Haralal and his pupil became
+great friends. Never before did Haralal have such an opportunity of
+loving any young human creature. His mother had been so poor and
+dependent, that he had never had the privilege of playing with the
+children where she was employed at work. He had not hitherto suspected
+the hidden stores of love which lay all the while accumulating in his
+own heart.
+
+Venu, also, was glad to find a companion in Haralal. He was the only boy
+in the house. His two younger sisters were looked down upon, as unworthy
+of being his playmates. So his new tutor became his only companion,
+patiently bearing the undivided weight of the tyranny of his child
+friend.
+
+
+IV
+
+Venu was now eleven. Haralal had passed his Intermediate, winning a
+scholarship. He was working hard for his B.A. degree. After College
+lectures were over, he would take Venu out into the public park and tell
+him stories about the heroes from Greek History and Victor Hugo's
+romances. The child used to get quite impatient to run to Haralal, after
+school hours, in spite of his mother's attempts to keep him by her side.
+
+This displeased Nanibala. She thought that it was a deep-laid plot of
+Haralal's to captivate her boy, in order to prolong his own appointment.
+One day she talked to him from behind the purdah: "It is your duty to
+teach my son only for an hour or two in the morning and evening. But why
+are you always with him? The child has nearly forgotten his own parents.
+You must understand that a man of your position is no fit companion for
+a boy belonging to this house."
+
+Haralal's voice choked a little as he answered that for the future he
+would merely be Venu's teacher and would keep away from him at other
+times.
+
+It was Haralal's usual practice to begin his College study early before
+dawn. The child would come to him directly after he had washed himself.
+There was a small pool in the garden and they used to feed the fish in
+it with puffed rice. Venu was also engaged in building a miniature
+garden-house, at the corner of the garden, with its liliputian gates and
+hedges and gravel paths. When the sun became too hot they would go back
+into the house, and Venu would have his morning lesson from Haralal.
+
+On the day in question Venu had risen earlier than usual, because he
+wished to hear the end of the story which Haralal had begun the evening
+before. But he found his teacher absent. When asked about him, the
+door-servant said that he had gone out. At lesson time Venu remained
+unnaturally quiet. He never even asked Haralal why he had gone out, but
+went on mechanically with his lessons. When the child was with his
+mother taking his breakfast, she asked him what had happened to make him
+so gloomy, and why he was not eating his food. Venu gave no answer.
+After his meal his mother caressed him and questioned him repeatedly.
+Venu burst out crying and said,--"Master Mashai." His mother asked
+Venu,--"What about Master Mashai?" But Venu found it difficult to name
+the offence which his teacher had committed.
+
+His mother said to Venu: "Has your Master Mashai been saying anything to
+you against _me_?"
+
+Venu could not understand the question and went away.
+
+
+V
+
+There was a theft in Adhar Babu's house. The police were called in to
+investigate. Even Haralal's trunks were searched. Ratikanta said with
+meaning: "The man who steals anything, does not keep his thefts in his
+own box."
+
+Adharlal called his son's tutor and said to him: "It will not be
+convenient for me to keep any of you in my own house. From to-day you
+will have to take up your quarters outside, only coming in to teach my
+son at the proper time."
+
+Ratikanta said sagely, drawing at his hookah: "That is a good
+proposal,--good for both parties."
+
+Haralal did not utter a word, but he sent a letter saying that it would
+be no longer possible for him to remain as tutor to Venu.
+
+When Venu came back from school, he found his tutor's room empty. Even
+that broken steel trunk of his was absent. The rope was stretched across
+the corner, but there were no clothes or towel hanging on it. Only on
+the table, which formerly was strewn with books and papers, stood a bowl
+containing some gold-fish with a label on which was written the word
+"Venu" in Haralal's hand-writing. The boy ran up at once to his father
+and asked him what had happened. His father told him that Haralal had
+resigned his post. Venu went to his room and flung himself down and
+began to cry. Adharlal did not know what to do with him.
+
+The next day, when Haralal was sitting on his wooden bedstead in the
+Hostel, debating with himself whether he should attend his college
+lectures, suddenly he saw Adhar Babu's servant coming into his room
+followed by Venu. Venu at once ran up to him and threw his arms round
+his neck asking him to come back to the house.
+
+Haralal could not explain why it was absolutely impossible for him to go
+back, but the memory of those clinging arms and that pathetic request
+used to choke his breath with emotion long after.
+
+
+VI
+
+Haralal found out, after this, that his mind was in an unsettled state,
+and that he had but a small chance of winning the scholarship, even if
+he could pass the examination. At the same time, he knew that, without
+the scholarship, he could not continue his studies. So he tried to get
+employment in some office.
+
+Fortunately for him, an English Manager of a big merchant firm took a
+fancy to him at first sight. After only a brief exchange of words the
+Manager asked him if he had any experience, and could he bring any
+testimonial. Haralal could only answer "No"; nevertheless a post was
+offered him of twenty rupees a month and fifteen rupees were allowed him
+in advance to help him to come properly dressed to the office.
+
+The Manager made Haralal work extremely hard. He had to stay on after
+office hours and sometimes go to his master's house late in the evening.
+But, in this way, he learnt his work quicker than others, and his fellow
+clerks became jealous of him and tried to injure him, but without
+effect. He rented a small house in a narrow lane and brought his mother
+to live with him as soon as his salary was raised to forty rupees a
+month. Thus happiness came back to his mother after weary years of
+waiting.
+
+Haralal's mother used to express a desire to see Venugopal, of whom she
+had heard so much. She wished to prepare some dishes with her own hand
+and to ask him to come just once to dine with her son. Haralal avoided
+the subject by saying that his house was not big enough to invite him
+for that purpose.
+
+
+VII
+
+The news reached Haralal that Venu's mother had died. He could not wait
+a moment, but went at once to Adharlal's house to see Venu. After that
+they began to see each other frequently.
+
+But times had changed. Venu, stroking his budding moustache, had grown
+quite a young man of fashion. Friends, befitting his present condition,
+were numerous. That old dilapidated study chair and ink-stained desk had
+vanished, and the room now seemed to be bursting with pride at its new
+acquisitions,--its looking-glasses, oleographs, and other furniture.
+Venu had entered college, but showed no haste in crossing the boundary
+of the Intermediate examination.
+
+Haralal remembered his mother's request to invite Venu to dinner. After
+great hesitation, he did so. Venugopal, with his handsome face, at once
+won the mother's heart. But as soon as ever the meal was over he became
+impatient to go, and looking at his gold watch he explained that he had
+pressing engagements elsewhere. Then he jumped into his carriage, which
+was waiting at the door, and drove away. Haralal with a sigh said to
+himself that he would never invite him again.
+
+
+VIII
+
+One day, on returning from office, Haralal noticed the presence of a man
+in the dark room on the ground floor of his house. Possibly he would
+have passed him by, had not the heavy scent of some foreign perfume
+attracted his attention. Haralal asked who was there, and the answer
+came:
+
+"It is I, Master Mashai."
+
+"What is the matter, Venu?" said Haralal. "When did you arrive?"
+
+"I came hours ago," said Venu. "I did not know that you returned so
+late."
+
+They went upstairs together and Haralal lighted the lamp and asked Venu
+whether all was well. Venu replied that his college classes were
+becoming a fearful bore, and his father did not realize how dreadfully
+hard it was for him to go on in the same class, year after year, with
+students much younger than himself. Haralal asked him what he wished to
+do. Venu then told him that he wanted to go to England and become a
+barrister. He gave an instance of a student, much less advanced than
+himself, who was getting ready to go. Haralal asked him if he had
+received his father's permission. Venu replied that his father would not
+hear a word of it until he had passed the Intermediate, and that was an
+impossibility in his present frame of mind. Haralal suggested that he
+himself should go and try to talk over his father.
+
+"No," said Venu, "I can never allow that!"
+
+Haralal asked Venu to stay for dinner and while they were waiting he
+gently placed his hand on Venu's shoulder and said:
+
+"Venu, you should not quarrel with your father, or leave home."
+
+Venu jumped up angrily and said that if he was not welcome, he could go
+elsewhere. Haralal caught him by the hand and implored him not to go
+away without taking his food. But Venu snatched away his hand and was
+just leaving the room when Haralal's mother brought the food in on a
+tray. On seeing Venu about to leave she pressed him to remain and he did
+so with bad grace.
+
+While he was eating the sound of a carriage stopping at the door was
+heard. First a servant entered the room with creaking shoes and then
+Adhar Babu himself. Venu's face became pale. The mother left the room as
+soon as she saw strangers enter. Adhar Babu called out to Haralal in a
+voice thick with anger:
+
+"Ratikanta gave me full warning, but I could not believe that you had
+such devilish cunning hidden in you. So, you think you're going to live
+upon Venu? This is sheer kidnapping, and I shall prosecute you in the
+Police Court."
+
+Venu silently followed his father and went out of the house.
+
+
+IX
+
+The firm to which Haralal belonged began to buy up large quantities of
+rice and dhal from the country districts. To pay for this, Haralal had
+to take the cash every Saturday morning by the early train and disburse
+it. There were special centres where the brokers and middlemen would
+come with their receipts and accounts for settlement. Some discussion
+had taken place in the office about Haralal being entrusted with this
+work, without any security, but the Manager undertook all the
+responsibility and said that a security was not needed. This special
+work used to go on from the middle of December to the middle of April.
+Haralal would get back from it very late at night.
+
+One day, after his return, he was told by his mother that Venu had
+called and that she had persuaded him to take his dinner at their house.
+This happened more than once. The mother said that it was because Venu
+missed his own mother, and the tears came into her eyes as she spoke
+about it.
+
+One day Venu waited for Haralal to return and had a long talk with him.
+
+"Master Mashai!" he said. "Father has become so cantankerous of late
+that I cannot live with him any longer. And, besides, I know that he is
+getting ready to marry again. Ratikanta is seeking a suitable match, and
+they are always conspiring about it. There used to be a time when my
+father would get anxious, if I were absent from home even for a few
+hours. Now, if I am away for more than a week, he takes no
+notice,--indeed he is greatly relieved. If this marriage takes place, I
+feel that I cannot live in the house any longer. You must show me a way
+out of this. I want to become independent."
+
+Haralal felt deeply pained, but he did not know how to help his former
+pupil. Venu said that he was determined to go to England and become a
+barrister. Somehow or other he must get the passage money out of his
+father: he could borrow it on a note of hand and his father would have
+to pay when the creditors filed a suit. With this borrowed money he
+would get away, and when he was in England his father was certain to
+remit his expenses.
+
+"But who is there," Haralal asked, "who would advance you the money?"
+
+"You!" said Venu.
+
+"I!" exclaimed Haralal in amazement.
+
+"Yes," said Venu, "I've seen the servant bringing heaps of money here in
+bags."
+
+"The servant and the money belong to someone else."
+
+Haralal explained why the money came to his house at night, like birds
+to their nest, to be scattered next morning.
+
+"But can't the Manager advance the sum?" Venu asked.
+
+"He may do so," said Haralal, "if your father stands security."
+
+The discussion ended at this point.
+
+
+X
+
+One Friday night a carriage and pair stopped before Haralal's lodging
+house. When Venu was announced Haralal was counting money in his
+bedroom, seated on the floor. Venu entered the room dressed in a strange
+manner. He had discarded his Bengali dress and was wearing a Parsee coat
+and trousers and had a cap on his head. Rings were prominent on almost
+all the fingers of both hands, and a thick gold chain was hanging round
+his neck: there was a gold-watch in his pocket, and diamond studs could
+be seen peeping from his shirt sleeves. Haralal at once asked him what
+was the matter and why he was wearing that dress.
+
+"My father's marriage," said Venu, "comes off to-morrow. He tried hard
+to keep it from me, but I found it out. I asked him to allow me to go to
+our garden-house at Barrackpur for a few days, and he was only too glad
+to get rid of me so easily. I am going there, and I wish to God I had
+never to come back."
+
+Haralal looked pointedly at the rings on his fingers. Venu explained
+that they had belonged to his mother. Haralal then asked him if he had
+already had his dinner. He answered, "Yes, haven't you had yours?"
+
+"No," said Haralal, "I cannot leave this room until I have all the money
+safely locked up in this iron chest."
+
+"Go and take your dinner," said Venu, "while I keep guard here: your
+mother will be waiting for you."
+
+For a moment Haralal hesitated, and then he went out and had his dinner.
+In a short time he came back with his mother and the three of them sat
+among the bags of money talking together. When it was about midnight,
+Venu took out his watch and looked at it and jumped up saying that he
+would miss his train. Then he asked Haralal to keep all his rings and
+his watch and chain until he asked for them again. Haralal put them all
+together in a leather bag and laid it in the iron safe. Venu went out.
+
+The canvas bags containing the currency notes had already been placed in
+the safe: only the loose coins remained to be counted over and put away
+with the rest.
+
+
+XI
+
+Haralal lay down on the floor of the same room, with the key under his
+pillow, and went to sleep. He dreamt that Venu's mother was loudly
+reproaching him from behind the curtain. Her words were indistinct, but
+rays of different colours from the jewels on her body kept piercing the
+curtain like needles and violently vibrating. Haralal struggled to call
+Venu, but his voice seemed to forsake him. At last, with a noise, the
+curtain fell down. Haralal started up from his sleep and found darkness
+piled up round about him. A sudden gust of wind had flung open the
+window and put out the light. Haralal's whole body was wet with
+perspiration. He relighted the lamp and saw, by the clock, that it was
+four in the morning. There was no time to sleep again; for he had to get
+ready to start.
+
+After Haralal had washed his face and hands his mother called from her
+own room,--"Baba, why are you up so soon?"
+
+It was the habit of Haralal to see his mother's face the first thing in
+the morning in order to bring a blessing upon the day. His mother said
+to him: "I was dreaming that you were going out to bring back a bride
+for yourself." Haralal went to his own bedroom and began to take out the
+bags containing the silver and the currency notes.
+
+Suddenly his heart stopped beating. Three of the bags appeared to be
+empty. He knocked them against the iron safe, but this only proved his
+fear to be true. He opened them and shook them with all his might. Two
+letters from Venu dropped out from one of the bags. One was addressed to
+his father and one to Haralal.
+
+Haralal tore open his own letter and began reading. The words seemed to
+run into one another. He trimmed the lamp, but felt as if he could not
+understand what he read. Yet the purport of the letter was clear. Venu
+had taken three thousand rupees, in currency notes, and had started for
+England. The steamer was to sail before day-break that very morning. The
+letter ended with the words: "I am explaining everything in a letter to
+my father. He will pay off the debt; and then, again, my mother's
+ornaments, which I have left in your care, will more than cover the
+amount I have taken."
+
+Haralal locked up his room and hired a carriage and went with all haste
+to the jetty. But he did not know even the name of the steamer which
+Venu had taken. He ran the whole length of the wharves from Prinsep's
+Ghat to Metiaburuj. He found that two steamers had started on their
+voyage to England early that morning. It was impossible for him to know
+which of them carried Venu, or how to reach him.
+
+When Haralal got home, the sun was strong and the whole of Calcutta was
+awake. Everything before his eyes seemed blurred. He felt as if he were
+pushing against a fearful obstacle which was bodiless and without pity.
+His mother came on the verandah to ask him anxiously where he had gone.
+With a dry laugh he said to her,--"To bring home a bride for myself,"
+and then he fainted away.
+
+On opening his eyes after a while, Haralal asked his mother to leave
+him. Entering his room he shut the door from the inside while his mother
+remained seated on the floor of the verandah in the fierce glare of the
+sun. She kept calling to him fitfully, almost mechanically,--"Baba,
+Baba!"
+
+The servant came from the Manager's office and knocked at the door,
+saying that they would miss the train if they did not start out at once.
+Haralal called from inside, "It will not be possible for me to start
+this morning."
+
+"Then where are we to go, Sir?"
+
+"I will tell you later on."
+
+The servant went downstairs with a gesture of impatience.
+
+Suddenly Haralal thought of the ornaments which Venu had left behind. Up
+till now he had completely forgotten about them, but with the thought
+came instant relief. He took the leather bag containing them, and also
+Venu's letter to his father, and left the house.
+
+Before he reached Adharlal's house he could hear the bands playing for
+the wedding, yet on entering he could feel that there had been some
+disturbance. Haralal was told that there had been a theft the night
+before and one or two servants were suspected. Adhar Babu was sitting in
+the upper verandah flushed with anger and Ratikanta was smoking his
+hookah. Haralal said to Adhar Babu, "I have something private to tell
+you." Adharlal flared up, "I have no time now!" He was afraid that
+Haralal had come to borrow money or to ask his help. Ratikanta suggested
+that if there was any delicacy in making the request in his presence he
+would leave the place. Adharlal told him angrily to sit where he was.
+Then Haralal handed over the bag which Venu had left behind. Adharlal
+asked what was inside it and Haralal opened it and gave the contents
+into his hands.
+
+Then Adhar Babu said with a sneer: "It's a paying business that you two
+have started--you and your former pupil! You were certain that the
+stolen property would be traced, and so you come along with it to me to
+claim a reward!"
+
+Haralal presented the letter which Venu had written to his father. This
+only made Adharlal all the more furious.
+
+"What's all this?" he shouted, "I'll call for the police! My son has not
+yet come of age,--and _you_ have smuggled him out of the country! I'll
+bet my soul you've lent him a few hundred rupees, and then taken a note
+of hand for three thousand! But I am not going to be bound by _this_!"
+
+"I never advanced him any money at all," said Haralal.
+
+"Then how did he find it?" said Adharlal, "Do you mean to tell me he
+broke open your safe and stole it?"
+
+Haralal stood silent.
+
+Ratikanta sarcastically remarked: "I don't believe this fellow ever set
+hands on as much as three thousand rupees in his life."
+
+When Haralal left the house he seemed to have lost the power of dreading
+anything, or even of being anxious. His mind seemed to refuse to work.
+Directly he entered the lane he saw a carriage waiting before his own
+lodging. For a moment he felt certain that it was Venu's. It was
+impossible to believe that his calamity could be so hopelessly final.
+
+Haralal went up quickly, but found an English assistant from the firm
+sitting inside the carriage. The man came out when he saw Haralal and
+took him by the hand and asked him: "Why didn't you go out by train this
+morning?" The servant had told the Manager his suspicions and he had
+sent this man to find out.
+
+Haralal answered: "Notes to the amount of three thousand rupees are
+missing."
+
+The man asked how that could have happened.
+
+Haralal remained silent.
+
+The man said to Haralal: "Let us go upstairs together and see where you
+keep your money." They went up to the room and counted the money and
+made a thorough search of the house.
+
+When the mother saw this she could not contain herself any longer. She
+came out before the stranger and said: "Baba, what has happened?" He
+answered in broken Hindustani that some money had been stolen.
+
+"Stolen!" the mother cried, "Why! How could it be stolen? Who could do
+such a dastardly thing?" Haralal said to her: "Mother, don't say a
+word."
+
+The man collected the remainder of the money and told Haralal to come
+with him to the Manager. The mother barred the way and said:
+
+"Sir, where are you taking my son? I have brought him up, starving and
+straining to do honest work. My son would never touch money belonging to
+others."
+
+The Englishman, not knowing Bengali, said, "Achcha! Achcha!" Haralal
+told his mother not to be anxious; he would explain it all to the
+Manager and soon be back again. The mother entreated him, with a
+distressed voice,
+
+"Baba, you haven't taken a morsel of food all morning." Haralal stepped
+into the carriage and drove away, and the mother sank to the ground in
+the anguish of her heart.
+
+The Manager said to Haralal: "Tell me the truth. What did happen?"
+
+Haralal said to him, "I haven't taken any money."
+
+"I fully believe it," said the Manager, "but surely you know who has
+taken it."
+
+Haralal looked on the ground and remained silent.
+
+"Somebody," said the Manager, "must have taken it away with your
+connivance."
+
+"Nobody," replied Haralal, "could take it away with my knowledge without
+taking first my life."
+
+"Look here, Haralal," said the Manager, "I trusted you completely. I
+took no security. I employed you in a post of great responsibility.
+Every one in the office was against me for doing so. The three thousand
+rupees is a small matter, but the shame of all this to me is a great
+matter. I will do one thing. I will give you the whole day to bring back
+this money. If you do so, I shall say nothing about it and I will keep
+you on in your post."
+
+It was now eleven o'clock. Haralal with bent head went out of the
+office. The clerks began to discuss the affair with exultation.
+
+"What can I _do_? What can I _do_?" Haralal repeated to himself, as he
+walked along like one dazed, the sun's heat pouring down upon him. At
+last his mind ceased to think at all about what could be done, but the
+mechanical walk went on without ceasing.
+
+This city of Calcutta, which offered its shelter to thousands and
+thousands of men had become like a steel trap. He could see no way out.
+The whole body of people were conspiring to surround and hold him
+captive--this most insignificant of men, whom no one knew. Nobody had
+any special grudge against him, yet everybody was his enemy. The crowd
+passed by, brushing against him: the clerks of the offices were eating
+their lunch on the road side from their plates made of leaves: a tired
+wayfarer on the Maidan, under the shade of a tree, was lying with one
+hand beneath his head and one leg upraised over the other: The
+up-country women, crowded into hackney carriages, were wending their way
+to the temple: a chuprassie came up with a letter and asked him the
+address on the envelope,--so the afternoon went by.
+
+Then came the time when the offices were all about to close. Carriages
+started off in all directions, carrying people back to their homes. The
+clerks, packed tightly on the seats of the trams, looked at the theatre
+advertisements as they returned to their lodgings. From to-day, Haralal
+had neither his work in the office, nor release from work in the
+evening. He had no need to hurry to catch the tram to take him to his
+home. All the busy occupations of the city--the buildings--the horses
+and carriages--the incessant traffic--seemed, now at one time, to swell
+into dreadful reality, and at another time, to subside into the shadowy
+unreal.
+
+Haralal had taken neither food, nor rest, nor shelter all that day.
+
+The street lamps were lighted from one road to another and it seemed to
+him that a watchful darkness, like some demon, was keeping its eyes wide
+open to guard every movement of its victim. Haralal did not even have
+the energy to enquire how late it was. The veins on his forehead
+throbbed, and he felt as if his head would burst. Through the paroxysms
+of pain, which alternated with the apathy of dejection, only one thought
+came again and again to his mind; among the innumerable multitudes in
+that vast city, only one name found its way through his dry
+throat,--"Mother!"
+
+He said to himself, "At the deep of night, when no one is awake to
+capture me--me, who am the least of all men,--I will silently creep to
+my mother's arms and fall asleep, and may I never wake again!"
+
+Haralal's one trouble was lest some police officer should molest him in
+the presence of his mother, and this kept him back from going home. When
+it became impossible for him at last to bear the weight of his own body,
+he hailed a carriage. The driver asked him where he wanted to go. He
+said: "Nowhere, I want to drive across the Maidan to get the fresh air."
+The man at first did not believe him and was about to drive on, when
+Haralal put a rupee into his hand as an advance payment. Thereupon the
+driver crossed, and then re-crossed, the Maidan from one side to the
+other, traversing the different roads.
+
+Haralal laid his throbbing head on the side of the open window of the
+carriage and closed his eyes. Slowly all the pain abated. His body
+became cool. A deep and intense peace filled his heart and a supreme
+deliverance seemed to embrace him on every side. It was _not_ true,--the
+day's despair which threatened him with its grip of utter helplessness.
+It was _not_ true, it was false. He knew now that it was only an empty
+fear of the mind. Deliverance was in the infinite sky and there was no
+end to peace. No king or emperor in the world had the power to keep
+captive this nonentity, this Haralal. In the sky, surrounding his
+emancipated heart on every side, he felt the presence of his mother,
+that one poor woman. She seemed to grow and grow till she filled the
+infinity of darkness. All the roads and buildings and shops of Calcutta
+gradually became enveloped by her. In her presence vanished all the
+aching pains and thoughts and consciousness of Haralal. It burst,--that
+bubble filled with the hot vapour of pain. And now there was neither
+darkness nor light, but only one tense fulness.
+
+The Cathedral clock struck one. The driver called out impatiently:
+"Babu, my horse can't go on any longer. Where do you want to go?"
+
+There came no answer.
+
+The driver came down and shook Haralal and asked him again where he
+wanted to go.
+
+There came no answer.
+
+And the answer was never received from Haralal, where he wanted to go.
+
+
+WORDS TO BE STUDIED
+
+  =broker.= This word meant originally a "broacher," one who broached
+      or made a hole in casks of wine to test their value for sale.
+      Then it came to mean a middleman in a sale.
+
+  =attorney.= This word comes from the Old French "tourner" meaning to
+      turn. The original sense of the word is "one who turns or
+      transfers (property)," and thus it comes to mean one who is
+      appointed to do legal business in the name of another. Compare the
+      phrase "_power of attorney_."
+
+  =mortgage.= This comes from the two words "mort-" meaning "death" and
+      "gage" meaning "pledge,"--a death pledge. It is used for the
+      transfer of property as a pledge or guarantee that the debt will
+      be paid. Compare _mortuary_, _mortal_, _mortify_, _mortmain_; also
+      compare _engage_, _disengage_, _wage_, _wager_.
+
+  =repulsed.= From the Latin "puls-" meaning "to drive." This Latin root
+      has another form "pel," also meaning "to drive." We have thus two
+      series of  words:--
+
+          _repel_, _impel_, _compel_, _expel_, _dispel_, and
+          _repulse_, _impulse_ (noun), _compulsion_, _expulsion_.
+
+  =amiability.= This word comes from the Latin "amicus" friend and is
+      the same in origin as "amicability." Compare _amicable_ and
+      _amiable_.
+
+  =salary.= This originally meant "_salt_-money" from the Latin "sal"
+      meaning "salt." First, it meant the "salt-money" given to
+      soldiers, then it meant a fixed pay. Compare the use of _namak_ in
+      India,--_namak khAenAe_,--which is somewhat similar.
+
+  =liliputian.= This word has come into the English language from a
+      famous story book called "Gulliver's Travels." "Liliput" was a
+      place where tiny people lived and "Brobdingnag" was a place where
+      giants lived. These two words are therefore sometimes used, in an
+      amusing manner, to represent respectively the land of dwarfs and
+      the land of giants.
+
+  =B.A. degree.= These titles were originally used in the old medieval
+      universities of Europe. The word "bachelor" was taken from its use
+      in chivalry, where it meant a young knight not yet fully qualified
+      or equipped. Then came the "Master," or fully qualified person. A
+      secondary meaning of bachelor, which is now the most common, is
+      "an unmarried person,"--a man not being considered fully qualified
+      or equipped till he is married.
+
+  =romance.= This word has a very interesting history. The Latin
+      language was the literary language of the South of Europe for many
+      centuries and the vernacular languages were despised. The word for
+      "vernacular" was "romanicus" as contrasted with "Latinus," i.e.
+      Latin. The old folk stories of the Middle Ages were written in the
+      vernacular or "romance" languages, and as these stories were
+      strange and mysterious, the word romance became used for this kind
+      of literature.
+
+  =pathetic.= From the Greek word "pathos" meaning "suffering." Compare
+      _pathos_, _sympathy_, _pathology_, _electropathy_, _allopathy_,
+      _homA"opathy_.
+
+  =dilapidated.= From the Latin "lapis" meaning a "stone." It probably
+      means to separate stone from stone. Compare _lapidary_,
+      _dilapidation_.
+
+  =intermediate.= From the Latin "medius" meaning "middle." Compare
+      _mediate_, _immediate_, _medium_, _mediocrity_, _mediator._
+
+  =police.= From the Greek "polis" meaning a "city." Compare _politics_,
+      _policy_, _metropolis_, _politician_.
+
+  =barrister.= From the word "bar." There was a bar in the law court,
+      from which the lawyer pleaded his case. So the pleader was called
+      a _bar_-ister. Compare the phrase _"called to the Bar."_
+
+  =obstacle.= From the Latin root "sta-" meaning to stand. Compare
+      _obstinate_, _station_, _status_, _statute_, _instant_,
+      _distance_, _constant_.
+
+  =dastardly.= A word of doubtful origin,--probably akin to the word
+      "dazed."
+
+  =reality.= From the Latin word "res" meaning a "thing." Compare
+      _real_, _unreal_, _realize_, _republic_, _really_, _realization_.
+
+  =alternated.= From the Latin "alter" meaning "other." Compare
+      _alteration_, _alternative_, _alter_, _altercate_.
+
+  =infinity.= From the Latin "finis" meaning "end." Compare _finish_,
+      _finite_, _definite_, _confine_.
+
+
+
+
+SUBHA
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+SUBHA
+
+
+When the girl was given the name of Subhashini, who could have guessed
+that she would prove dumb? Her two elder sisters were Sukeshini and
+Suhasini, and for the sake of uniformity her father named his youngest
+girl Subhashini. She was called Subha for short.
+
+Her two elder sisters had been married with the usual cost and
+difficulty, and now the youngest daughter lay like a silent weight upon
+the heart of her parents. All the world seemed to think that, because
+she did not speak, therefore she did not feel; it discussed her future
+and its own anxiety freely in her presence. She had understood from her
+earliest childhood that God had sent her like a curse to her father's
+house, so she withdrew herself from ordinary people and tried to live
+apart. If only they would all forget her she felt she could endure it.
+But who can forget pain? Night and day her parents' minds were aching on
+her account. Especially her mother looked upon her as a deformity in
+herself. To a mother a daughter is a more closely intimate part of
+herself than a son can be; and a fault in her is a source of personal
+shame. Banikantha, Subha's father, loved her rather better than his
+other daughters; her mother regarded her with aversion as a stain upon
+her own body.
+
+If Subha lacked speech, she did not lack a pair of large dark eyes,
+shaded with long lashes; and her lips trembled like a leaf in response
+to any thought that rose in her mind.
+
+When we express our thought in words, the medium is not found easily.
+There must be a process of translation, which is often inexact, and then
+we fall into error. But black eyes need no translating; the mind itself
+throws a shadow upon them. In them thought opens or shuts, shines forth
+or goes out in darkness, hangs steadfast like the setting moon or like
+the swift and restless lightning illumines all quarters of the sky. They
+who from birth have had no other speech than the trembling of their lips
+learn a language of the eyes, endless in expression, deep as the sea,
+clear as the heavens, wherein play dawn and sunset, light and shadow.
+The dumb have a lonely grandeur like Nature's own. Wherefore the other
+children almost dreaded Subha and never played with her. She was silent
+and companionless as noontide.
+
+The hamlet where she lived was Chandipur. Its river, small for a river
+of Bengal, kept to its narrow bounds like a daughter of the middle
+class. This busy streak of water never overflowed its banks, but went
+about its duties as though it were a member of every family in the
+villages beside it. On either side were houses and banks shaded with
+trees. So stepping from her queenly throne, the river-goddess became a
+garden deity of each home, and forgetful of herself performed her task
+of endless benediction with swift and cheerful foot.
+
+Banikantha's house looked out upon the stream. Every hut and stack in
+the place could be seen by the passing boatmen. I know not if amid these
+signs of worldly wealth any one noticed the little girl who, when her
+work was done, stole away to the waterside and sat there. But here
+Nature fulfilled her want of speech and spoke for her. The murmur of the
+brook, the voice of the village folk, the songs of the boatmen, the
+crying of the birds and rustle of trees mingled and were one with the
+trembling of her heart. They became one vast wave of sound which beat
+upon her restless soul. This murmur and movement of Nature were the dumb
+girl's language; that speech of the dark eyes, which the long lashes
+shaded, was the language of the world about her. From the trees, where
+the cicalas chirped, to the quiet stars there was nothing but signs and
+gestures, weeping and sighing. And in the deep mid-noon, when the
+boatmen and fisher-folk had gone to their dinner, when the villagers
+slept and birds were still, when the ferry-boats were idle, when the
+great busy world paused in its toil and became suddenly a lonely, awful
+giant, then beneath the vast impressive heavens there were only dumb
+Nature and a dumb girl, sitting very silent,--one under the spreading
+sunlight, the other where a small tree cast its shadow.
+
+But Subha was not altogether without friends. In the stall were two
+cows, Sarbbashi and Panguli. They had never heard their names from her
+lips, but they knew her footfall. Though she had no words, she murmured
+lovingly and they understood her gentle murmuring better than all
+speech. When she fondled them or scolded or coaxed them, they understood
+her better than men could do. Subha would come to the shed and throw her
+arms round Sarbbashi's neck; she would rub her cheek against her
+friend's, and Panguli would turn her great kind eyes and lick her face.
+The girl paid them three regular visits every day and others that were
+irregular. Whenever she heard any words that hurt her, she would come to
+these dumb friends out of due time. It was as though they guessed her
+anguish of spirit from her quiet look of sadness. Coming close to her,
+they would rub their horns softly against her arms, and in dumb, puzzled
+fashion try to comfort her. Besides these two, there were goats and a
+kitten; but Subha had not the same equality of friendship with them,
+though they showed the same attachment. Every time it got a chance,
+night or day, the kitten would jump into her lap, and settle down to
+slumber, and show its appreciation of an aid to sleep as Subha drew her
+soft fingers over its neck and back.
+
+Subha had a comrade also among the higher animals, and it is hard to say
+what were the girl's relations with him; for he could speak, and his
+gift of speech left them without any common language. He was the
+youngest boy of the Gosains, Pratap by name, an idle fellow. After long
+effort, his parents had abandoned the hope that he would ever make his
+living. Now losels have this advantage, that, though their own folk
+disapprove of them, they are generally popular with every one else.
+Having no work to chain them, they become public property. Just as every
+town needs an open space where all may breathe, so a village needs two
+or three gentlemen of leisure, who can give time to all; then, if we are
+lazy and want a companion, one is to hand.
+
+Pratap's chief ambition was to catch fish. He managed to waste a lot of
+time this way, and might be seen almost any afternoon so employed. It
+was thus most often that he met Subha. Whatever he was about, he liked a
+companion; and, when one is catching fish, a silent companion is best of
+all. Pratap respected Subha for her taciturnity, and, as every one
+called her Subha, he showed his affection by calling her Su. Subha used
+to sit beneath a tamarind, and Pratap, a little distance off, would cast
+his line. Pratap took with him a small allowance of betel, and Subha
+prepared it for him. And I think that, sitting and gazing a long while,
+she desired ardently to bring some great help to Pratap, to be of real
+aid, to prove by any means that she was not a useless burden to the
+world. But there was nothing to do. Then she turned to the Creator in
+prayer for some rare power, that by an astonishing miracle she might
+startle Pratap into exclaiming: "My! I never dreamt our Su could have
+done this!"
+
+Only think, if Subha had been a water nymph, she might have risen slowly
+from the river, bringing the gem of a snake's crown to the
+landing-place. Then Pratap, leaving his paltry fishing, might dive into
+the lower world, and see there, on a golden bed in a palace of silver,
+whom else but dumb little Su, Banikantha's child? Yes, our Su, the only
+daughter of the king of that shining city of jewels! But that might not
+be, it was impossible. Not that anything is really impossible, but Su
+had been born, not into the royal house of Patalpur, but into
+Banikantha's family, and she knew no means of astonishing the Gosains'
+boy.
+
+Gradually she grew up. Gradually she began to find herself. A new
+inexpressible consciousness like a tide from the central places of the
+sea, when the moon is full, swept through her. She saw herself,
+questioned herself, but no answer came that she could understand.
+
+Once upon a time, late on a night of full moon, she slowly opened her
+door and peeped out timidly. Nature, herself at full moon, like lonely
+Subha, was looking down on the sleeping earth. Her strong young life
+beat within her; joy and sadness filled her being to its brim; she
+reached the limits even of her own illimitable loneliness, nay, passed
+beyond them. Her heart was heavy, and she could not speak. At the skirts
+of this silent troubled Mother there stood a silent troubled girl.
+
+The thought of her marriage filled her parents with an anxious care.
+People blamed them, and even talked of making them outcasts. Banikantha
+was well off; they had fish-curry twice daily; and consequently he did
+not lack enemies. Then the women interfered, and Bani went away for a
+few days. Presently he returned and said: "We must go to Calcutta."
+
+They got ready to go to this strange country. Subha's heart was heavy
+with tears, like a mist-wrapt dawn. With a vague fear that had been
+gathering for days, she dogged her father and mother like a dumb animal.
+With her large eyes wide open, she scanned their faces as though she
+wished to learn something. But not a word did they vouchsafe. One
+afternoon in the midst of all this, as Pratap was fishing, he laughed:
+"So then, Su, they have caught your bridegroom, and you are going to be
+married! Mind you don't forget me altogether!" Then he turned his mind
+again to his fish. As a stricken doe looks in the hunter's face, asking
+in silent agony: "What have I done to you?" so Subha looked at Pratap.
+That day she sat no longer beneath her tree. Banikantha, having finished
+his nap, was smoking in his bedroom when Subha dropped down at his feet
+and burst out weeping as she gazed towards him. Banikantha tried to
+comfort her, and his cheek grew wet with tears.
+
+It was settled that on the morrow they should go to Calcutta. Subha went
+to the cow-shed to bid farewell to her childhood's comrades. She fed
+them with her hand; she clasped their necks; she looked into their
+faces, and tears fell fast from the eyes which spoke for her. That night
+was the tenth of the moon. Subha left her room, and flung herself down
+on her grassy couch beside her dear river. It was as if she threw her
+arms about Earth, her strong silent mother, and tried to say: "Do not
+let me leave you, mother. Put your arms about me, as I have put mine
+about you, and hold me fast."
+
+One day in a house in Calcutta, Subha's mother dressed her up with great
+care. She imprisoned her hair, knotting it up in laces, she hung her
+about with ornaments, and did her best to kill her natural beauty.
+Subha's eyes filled with tears. Her mother, fearing they would grow
+swollen with weeping, scolded her harshly, but the tears disregarded the
+scolding. The bridegroom came with a friend to inspect the bride. Her
+parents were dizzy with anxiety and fear when they saw the god arrive to
+select the beast for his sacrifice. Behind the stage, the mother called
+her instructions aloud, and increased her daughter's weeping twofold,
+before she sent her into the examiner's presence. The great man, after
+scanning her a long time, observed: "Not so bad."
+
+He took special note of her tears, and thought she must have a tender
+heart. He put it to her credit in the account, arguing that the heart,
+which to-day was distressed at leaving her parents, would presently
+prove a useful possession. Like the oyster's pearls, the child's tears
+only increased her value, and he made no other comment.
+
+The almanac was consulted, and the marriage took place on an auspicious
+day. Having delivered over their dumb girl into another's hands, Subha's
+parents returned home. Thank God! Their caste in this and their safety
+in the next world were assured! The bridegroom's work lay in the west,
+and shortly after the marriage he took his wife thither.
+
+In less than ten days every one knew that the bride was dumb! At least,
+if any one did not, it was not her fault, for she deceived no one. Her
+eyes told them everything, though no one understood her. She looked on
+every hand, she found no speech, she missed the faces, familiar from
+birth, of those who had understood a dumb girl's language. In her silent
+heart there sounded an endless, voiceless weeping, which only the
+Searcher of Hearts could hear.
+
+
+WORDS TO BE STUDIED
+
+  =uniformity.= From the Latin "unus," meaning "one" and "forma"
+      meaning "form." Compare _universe_, _unison_, _unite_,
+      _formalism_, _formation_, _reform_, _deformed_, _deformity_ (the
+      last word occurs in the next paragraph of the story).
+
+  =translation.= The Latin word meaning "to bring" has two roots, viz.
+      "fer" and "lat." This word is taken from the second root. We have
+      the two parallel series of words in English:
+
+          transfer, refer, confer, differ, etc.
+          translate, relate, collate, dilate, etc.
+
+  =puzzled.= This is one of the few words in the English language whose
+      origin is doubtful. It probably comes from the word to "pose"
+      (which itself is a shortened form of "oppose") meaning to set
+      forward a difficult problem.
+
+  =losels.= An uncommon English word meaning a person who is good for
+      nothing. The word is derived from the verb to "lose."
+
+  =taciturnity.= The Latin word "tacitus," means "quiet" or "silent."
+      Compare _tacit_, _tacitly_, _reticence_, _reticent_.
+
+  =My!= This is used by common people in England. It is probably the
+      short form of "My eye!"
+
+  =dogged.= The word in this sense means to follow like a dog; to follow
+      closely. From this we have the adjective "dogged" pronounced as
+      two syllables dog-gA(C)d, meaning persevering, persistent, never
+      giving in, e.g. doggA(C)d courage.
+
+  =disregarded.= From the French "garder" or "guarder," meaning "to
+      keep." This French word appears in many English forms. Compare
+      _reward_, _guard_, _guerdon_, _guardian_, _ward_, _warder_,
+      _regard_.
+
+  =dizzy.= This word comes from an old Saxon root, which has left many
+      words in modern English. Compare _daze_, _dazed_, _dazzle_,
+      _doze_, _drowse_, _drowsy_.
+
+  =deceived.= From the Latin word "capere," meaning to take. The English
+      verbs such as "receive," "conceive," "perceive" have come into
+      English from the French. The Latin root is more clearly seen in
+      the nouns such as "deception," "reception," "perception," etc. It
+      should be carefully noticed that these "French" forms are spelt
+      _eive_ instead of _ieve_. A simple rule is this, that after _c_
+      write _ei_ not _ie_, but after other consonants write _ie_.
+      Compare the spelling of _believe_, _grieve_, _relieve_ with that
+      of _receive_, _deceive_.
+
+
+
+
+THE POSTMASTER
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+THE POSTMASTER
+
+
+The postmaster first took up his duties in the village of Ulapur. Though
+the village was a small one, there was an indigo factory near by, and
+the proprietor, an Englishman, had managed to get a post office
+established.
+
+Our postmaster belonged to Calcutta. He felt like a fish out of water in
+this remote village. His office and living-room were in a dark thatched
+shed, not far from a green, slimy pond, surrounded on all sides by a
+dense growth.
+
+The men employed in the indigo factory had no leisure; moreover, they
+were hardly desirable companions for decent folk. Nor is a Calcutta boy
+an adept in the art of associating with others. Among strangers he
+appears either proud or ill at ease. At any rate, the postmaster had but
+little company; nor had he much to do.
+
+At times he tried his hand at writing a verse or two. That the movement
+of the leaves and the clouds of the sky were enough to fill life with
+joy--such were the sentiments to which he sought to give expression.
+But God knows that the poor fellow would have felt it as the gift of a
+new life, if some genie of the _Arabian Nights_ had in one night swept
+away the trees, leaves and all, and replaced them with a macadamised
+road, hiding the clouds from view with rows of tall houses.
+
+The postmaster's salary was small. He had to cook his own meals, which
+he used to share with Ratan, an orphan girl of the village, who did odd
+jobs for him.
+
+When in the evening the smoke began to curl up from the village
+cowsheds, and the cicalas chirped in every bush; when the mendicants of
+the BaA1/4l sect sang their shrill songs in their daily meeting-place, when
+any poet, who had attempted to watch the movement of the leaves in the
+dense bamboo thickets, would have felt a ghostly shiver run down his
+back, the postmaster would light his little lamp, and call out "Ratan."
+
+Ratan would sit outside waiting for this call, and, instead of coming in
+at once, would reply, "Did you call me, sir?"
+
+"What are you doing?" the postmaster would ask.
+
+"I must be going to light the kitchen fire," would be the answer.
+
+And the postmaster would say: "Oh, let the kitchen fire be for awhile;
+light me my pipe first."
+
+At last Ratan would enter, with puffed-out cheeks, vigorously blowing
+into a flame a live coal to light the tobacco. This would give the
+postmaster an opportunity of conversing. "Well, Ratan," perhaps he would
+begin, "do you remember anything of your mother?" That was a fertile
+subject. Ratan partly remembered, and partly didn't. Her father had been
+fonder of her than her mother; him she recollected more vividly. He used
+to come home in the evening after his work, and one or two evenings
+stood out more clearly than others, like pictures in her memory. Ratan
+would sit on the floor near the postmaster's feet, as memories crowded
+in upon her. She called to mind a little brother that she had--and how
+on some bygone cloudy day she had played at fishing with him on the edge
+of the pond, with a twig for a make-believe fishing-rod. Such little
+incidents would drive out greater events from her mind. Thus, as they
+talked, it would often get very late, and the postmaster would feel too
+lazy to do any cooking at all. Ratan would then hastily light the fire,
+and toast some unleavened bread, which, with the cold remnants of the
+morning meal, was enough for their supper.
+
+On some evenings, seated at his desk in the corner of the big empty
+shed, the postmaster too would call up memories of his own home, of his
+mother and his sister, of those for whom in his exile his heart was
+sad,--memories which were always haunting him, but which he could not
+talk about with the men of the factory, though he found himself
+naturally recalling them aloud in the presence of the simple little
+girl. And so it came about that the girl would allude to his people as
+mother, brother, and sister, as if she had known them all her life. In
+fact, she had a complete picture of each one of them painted in her
+little heart.
+
+One noon, during a break in the rains, there was a cool soft breeze
+blowing; the smell of the damp grass and leaves in the hot sun felt like
+the warm breathing of the tired earth on one's body. A persistent bird
+went on all the afternoon repeating the burden of its one complaint in
+Nature's audience chamber.
+
+The postmaster had nothing to do. The shimmer of the freshly washed
+leaves, and the banked-up remnants of the retreating rain-clouds were
+sights to see; and the postmaster was watching them and thinking to
+himself: "Oh, if only some kindred soul were near--just one loving human
+being whom I could hold near my heart!" This was exactly, he went on to
+think, what that bird was trying to say, and it was the same feeling
+which the murmuring leaves were striving to express. But no one knows,
+or would believe, that such an idea might also take possession of an
+ill-paid village postmaster in the deep, silent mid-day interval of his
+work.
+
+The postmaster sighed, and called out "Ratan." Ratan was then sprawling
+beneath the guava-tree, busily engaged in eating unripe guavas. At the
+voice of her master, she ran up breathlessly, saying: "Were you calling
+me, Dada?" "I was thinking," said the postmaster, "of teaching you to
+read." And then for the rest of the afternoon he taught her the
+alphabet.
+
+Thus, in a very short time, Ratan had got as far as the double
+consonants.
+
+It seemed as though the showers of the season would never end. Canals,
+ditches, and hollows were all overflowing with water. Day and night the
+patter of rain was heard, and the croaking of frogs. The village roads
+became impassable, and marketing had to be done in punts.
+
+One heavily clouded morning, the postmaster's little pupil had been long
+waiting outside the door for her call, but, not hearing it as usual, she
+took up her dog-eared book, and slowly entered the room. She found her
+master stretched out on his bed, and, thinking that he was resting, she
+was about to retire on tip-toe, when she suddenly heard her
+name--"Ratan!" She turned at once and asked: "Were you sleeping, Dada?"
+The postmaster in a plaintive voice said: "I am not well. Feel my head;
+is it very hot?"
+
+In the loneliness of his exile, and in the gloom of the rains, his
+ailing body needed a little tender nursing. He longed to remember the
+touch on the forehead of soft hands with tinkling bracelets, to imagine
+the presence of loving womanhood, the nearness of mother and sister. And
+the exile was not disappointed. Ratan ceased to be a little girl. She at
+once stepped into the post of mother, called in the village doctor, gave
+the patient his pills at the proper intervals, sat up all night by his
+pillow, cooked his gruel for him, and every now and then asked: "Are you
+feeling a little better, Dada?"
+
+It was some time before the postmaster, with weakened body, was able to
+leave his sick-bed. "No more of this," said he with decision. "I must
+get a transfer." He at once wrote off to Calcutta an application for a
+transfer, on the ground of the unhealthiness of the place.
+
+Relieved from her duties as nurse, Ratan again took up her old place
+outside the door. But she no longer heard the same old call. She would
+sometimes peep inside furtively to find the postmaster sitting on his
+chair, or stretched on his bed, and staring absent-mindedly into the
+air. While Ratan was awaiting her call, the postmaster was awaiting a
+reply to his application. The girl read her old lessons over and over
+again,--her great fear was lest, when the call came, she might be found
+wanting in the double consonants. At last, after a week, the call did
+come one evening. With an overflowing heart Ratan rushed into the room
+with her--"Were you calling me, Dada?"
+
+The postmaster said: "I am going away to-morrow, Ratan."
+
+"Where are you going, Dada?"
+
+"I am going home."
+
+"When will you come back?"
+
+"I am not coming back."
+
+Ratan asked no other question. The postmaster, of his own accord, went
+on to tell her that his application for a transfer had been rejected, so
+he had resigned his post and was going home.
+
+For a long time neither of them spoke another word. The lamp went on
+dimly burning, and from a leak in one corner of the thatch water dripped
+steadily into an earthen vessel on the floor beneath it.
+
+After a while Ratan rose, and went off to the kitchen to prepare the
+meal; but she was not so quick about it as on other days. Many new
+things to think of had entered her little brain. When the postmaster had
+finished his supper, the girl suddenly asked him: "Dada, will you take
+me to your home?"
+
+The postmaster laughed. "What an idea!" said he; but he did not think it
+necessary to explain to the girl wherein lay the absurdity.
+
+That whole night, in her waking and in her dreams, the postmaster's
+laughing reply haunted her--"What an idea!"
+
+On getting up in the morning, the postmaster found his bath ready. He
+had stuck to his Calcutta habit of bathing in water drawn and kept in
+pitchers, instead of taking a plunge in the river as was the custom of
+the village. For some reason or other, the girl could not ask him about
+the time of his departure, so she had fetched the water from the river
+long before sunrise, that it should be ready as early as he might want
+it. After the bath came a call for Ratan. She entered noiselessly, and
+looked silently into her master's face for orders. The master said: "You
+need not be anxious about my going away, Ratan; I shall tell my
+successor to look after you." These words were kindly meant, no doubt:
+but inscrutable are the ways of a woman's heart!
+
+Ratan had borne many a scolding from her master without complaint, but
+these kind words she could not bear. She burst out weeping, and said:
+"No, no, you need not tell anybody anything at all about me; I don't
+want to stay on here."
+
+The postmaster was dumbfounded. He had never seen Ratan like this
+before.
+
+The new incumbent duly arrived, and the postmaster, having given over
+charge, prepared to depart. Just before starting he called Ratan and
+said: "Here is something for you; I hope it will keep you for some
+little time." He brought out from his pocket the whole of his month's
+salary, retaining only a trifle for his travelling expenses. Then Ratan
+fell at his feet and cried: "Oh, Dada, I pray you, don't give me
+anything, don't in any way trouble about me," and then she ran away out
+of sight.
+
+The postmaster heaved a sigh, took up his carpet bag, put his umbrella
+over his shoulder, and, accompanied by a man carrying his many-coloured
+tin trunk, he slowly made for the boat.
+
+When he got in and the boat was under way, and the rain-swollen river,
+like a stream of tears welling up from the earth, swirled and sobbed at
+her bows, then he felt a pain at heart; the grief-stricken face of a
+village girl seemed to represent for him the great unspoken pervading
+grief of Mother Earth herself. At one time he had an impulse to go back,
+and bring away along with him that lonesome waif, forsaken of the world.
+But the wind had just filled the sails, the boat had got well into the
+middle of the turbulent current, and already the village was left
+behind, and its outlying burning-ground came in sight.
+
+So the traveller, borne on the breast of the swift-flowing river,
+consoled himself with philosophical reflections on the numberless
+meetings and partings going on in the world--on death, the great
+parting, from which none returns.
+
+But Ratan had no philosophy. She was wandering about the post office in
+a flood of tears. It may be that she had still a lurking hope in some
+corner of her heart that her Dada would return, and that is why she
+could not tear herself away. Alas for our foolish human nature! Its fond
+mistakes are persistent. The dictates of reason take a long time to
+assert their own sway. The surest proofs meanwhile are disbelieved.
+False hope is clung to with all one's might and main, till a day comes
+when it has sucked the heart dry and it forcibly breaks through its
+bonds and departs. After that comes the misery of awakening, and then
+once again the longing to get back into the maze of the same mistakes.
+
+
+WORDS TO BE STUDIED
+
+  =indigo.= This word has a very interesting history. It means
+      "Indian." The celebrated dark-blue dye came from India. This dye
+      was first known to the Greeks who called it "Indikon," then to
+      the Latins who called it Indicum, then to the Italians and
+      Spaniards who called it Indigo. It was introduced into England
+      from Italy by artists and painters who kept the Italian word
+      "indigo" without change.
+
+  =genie.= There is a Latin word "genius," meaning originally a spirit
+      inhabiting a special place. It is from this word that our English
+      common noun "genius" is taken, meaning a specially gifted or
+      inspired person, e.g. "a man of genius." But in the Arabian Nights
+      a completely different Arabic word is found, viz. "jinn" with its
+      feminine form "jinni." This was written in English "genie" and was
+      confused with the word "genius." The plural of genie when used in
+      this sense is genii, which is really the plural of the Latin word
+      genius.
+
+  =macadamised.= This is quite a modern word in English. It comes from
+      the name of the inventor of this kind of road-paving, who was Mr.
+      J. L. Macadam. He discovered that different layers of small stone
+      rolled in, one after the other, can stand the wear and tear of
+      traffic. We have similar words from proper names. Compare,
+      _boycott_, _burke_, _lynch_, etc.
+
+  =allude.= From the Latin "ludere," to play. Compare _prelude_,
+      _interlude_, _delude_, _collusion_, _elude_, _elusive_,
+      _allusion_.
+
+  =guava.= This word came into English from the Spanish. It is of great
+      interest to trace the names of the fruits in English back to
+      their sources, e.g. _currant_, comes from Corinth; _mango_ from
+      the Portuguese _manga_ (from the Tamil "mankay" _fruit-tree_);
+      _orange_ from the Arabic "narang" and Hindustani "narangi";
+      _apricot_ from Arabic al-burquq; _date_ from the Greek "daktulos,"
+      meaning "finger."
+
+  =alphabet.= The two first letters in the Greek language are called
+      "alpha" and "beta." Then the whole series of letters was named an
+      alphabeta or alphabet.
+
+  =consonants.= From the Latin "sonare," meaning to sound. Consonants
+      are letters which "sound with" the vowels. Compare _dissonant_,
+      _assonance_, _sonant_, _sonorous_, _sonata_.
+
+  =canal.= This is one example of a word taken into English from the
+      Latin, through the French, having a companion word in English. The
+      companion word in this case is _channel_. Compare _cavalry_ and
+      _chivalry_, _legal_ and _loyal_, _guard_ and _ward_.
+
+  =dumbfounded.= This word has come into the English language from
+      common speech. It is a mixture of the English word dumb, and the
+      Latin "fundere," "to pour" which we find in _confound_,
+      _profound_, _confusion_. It is not often that we get such hybrid
+      words in earlier English, though to-day they are becoming common
+      in the case of new words such as _motorcar_, _speedometer_,
+      _airplane_, _waterplane_, _automobile_, etc. The old rule used to
+      be that a compound word in English should have _both_ its parts
+      from the same language (e.g. both parts Latin, or Greek, or Saxon,
+      etc.). But this rule is rapidly breaking down in common practice
+      as new words rush into the English language to express all the new
+      discoveries of science. We have English and Greek roots mixed
+      (such as _airplane_), and Latin and Greek roots mixed (such as
+      _oleograph_).
+
+
+
+
+THE CASTAWAY
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+THE CASTAWAY
+
+
+Towards evening the storm was at its height. From the terrific downpour
+of rain, the crash of thunder, and the repeated flashes of lightning,
+you might think that a battle of the gods and demons was raging in the
+skies. Black clouds waved like the Flags of Doom. The Ganges was lashed
+into a fury, and the trees of the gardens on either bank swayed from
+side to side with sighs and groans.
+
+In a closed room of one of the riverside houses at Chandernagore, a
+husband and his wife were seated on a bed spread on the floor, intently
+discussing. An earthen lamp burned beside them.
+
+The husband, Sharat, was saying: "I wish you would stay on a few days
+more; you would then be able to return home quite strong again."
+
+The wife, Kiran, was saying: "I have quite recovered already. It will
+not, cannot possibly, do me any harm to go home now."
+
+Every married person will at once understand that the conversation was
+not quite so brief as I have reported it. The matter was not difficult,
+but the arguments for and against did not advance it towards a solution.
+Like a rudderless boat, the discussion kept turning round and round the
+same point; and at last threatened to be overwhelmed in a flood of
+tears.
+
+Sharat said: "The doctor thinks you should stop here a few days longer."
+
+Kiran replied: "Your doctor knows everything!"
+
+"Well," said Sharat, "you know that just now all sorts of illnesses are
+abroad. You would do well to stop here a month or two more."
+
+"And at this moment I suppose every one in this place is perfectly
+well!"
+
+What had happened was this: Kiran was a universal favourite with her
+family and neighbours, so that, when she fell seriously ill, they were
+all anxious. The village wiseacres thought it shameless for her husband
+to make so much fuss about a mere wife and even to suggest a change of
+air, and asked if Sharat supposed that no woman had ever been ill
+before, or whether he had found out that the folk of the place to which
+he meant to take her were immortal. Did he imagine that the writ of Fate
+did not run there? But Sharat and his mother turned a deaf ear to them,
+thinking that the little life of their darling was of greater
+importance than the united wisdom of a village. People are wont to
+reason thus when danger threatens their loved ones. So Sharat went to
+Chandernagore, and Kiran recovered, though she was still very weak.
+There was a pinched look on her face which filled the beholder with
+pity, and made his heart tremble, as he thought how narrowly she had
+escaped death.
+
+Kiran was fond of society and amusement; the loneliness of her riverside
+villa did not suit her at all. There was nothing to do, there were no
+interesting neighbours, and she hated to be busy all day with medicine
+and dieting. There was no fun in measuring doses and making
+fomentations. Such was the subject discussed in their closed room on
+this stormy evening.
+
+So long as Kiran deigned to argue, there was a chance of a fair fight.
+When she ceased to reply, and with a toss of her head disconsolately
+looked the other way, the poor man was disarmed. He was on the point of
+surrendering unconditionally when a servant shouted a message through
+the shut door.
+
+Sharat got up and on opening the door learnt that a boat had been upset
+in the storm, and that one of the occupants, a young Brahmin boy, had
+succeeded in swimming ashore at their garden.
+
+Kiran was at once her own sweet self and set to work to get out some dry
+clothes for the boy. She then warmed a cup of milk and invited him to
+her room.
+
+The boy had long curly hair, big expressive eyes, and no sign yet of
+hair on the face. Kiran, after getting him to drink some milk asked him
+all about himself.
+
+He told her that his name was Nilkanta, and that he belonged to a
+theatrical troupe. They were coming to play in a neighbouring villa when
+the boat had suddenly foundered in the storm. He had no idea what had
+become of his companions. He was a good swimmer and had just managed to
+reach the shore.
+
+The boy stayed with them. His narrow escape from a terrible death made
+Kiran take a warm interest in him. Sharat thought the boy's appearance
+at this moment rather a good thing, as his wife would now have something
+to amuse her, and might be persuaded to stay on for some time longer.
+Her mother-in-law, too, was pleased at the prospect of profiting their
+Brahmin guest by her kindness. And Nilkanta himself was delighted at his
+double escape from his master and from the other world, as well as at
+finding a home in this wealthy family.
+
+But in a short while Sharat and his mother changed their opinion, and
+longed for his departure. The boy found a secret pleasure in smoking
+Sharat's hookahs; he would calmly go off in pouring rain with Sharat's
+best silk umbrella for a stroll through the village, and make friends
+with all whom he met. Moreover, he had got hold of a mongrel village dog
+which he petted so recklessly that it came indoors with muddy paws, and
+left tokens of its visit on Sharat's spotless bed. Then he gathered
+about him a devoted band of boys of all sorts and sizes, and the result
+was that not a solitary mango in the neighbourhood had a chance of
+ripening that season.
+
+There is no doubt that Kiran had a hand in spoiling the boy. Sharat
+often warned her about it, but she would not listen to him. She made a
+dandy of him with Sharat's cast-off clothes, and gave him new ones also.
+And because she felt drawn towards him, and had a curiosity to know more
+about him, she was constantly calling him to her own room. After her
+bath and midday meal Kiran would be seated on the bedstead with her
+betel-leaf box by her side; and while her maid combed and dried her
+hair, Nilkanta would stand in front and recite pieces out of his
+repertory with appropriate gesture and song, his elf-locks waving
+wildly. Thus the long afternoon hours passed merrily away. Kiran would
+often try to persuade Sharat to sit with her as one of the audience,
+but Sharat, who had taken a cordial dislike to the boy, refused; nor
+could Nilkanta do his part half so well when Sharat was there. His
+mother would sometimes be lured by the hope of hearing sacred names in
+the recitation; but love of her mid-day sleep speedily overcame
+devotion, and she lay lapped in dreams.
+
+The boy often got his ears boxed and pulled by Sharat, but as this was
+nothing to what he had been used to as a member of the troupe, he did
+not mind it in the least. In his short experience of the world he had
+come to the conclusion that, as the earth consisted of land and water,
+so human life was made up of eatings and beatings, and that the beatings
+largely predominated.
+
+It was hard to tell Nilkanta's age. If it was about fourteen or fifteen,
+then his face was too old for his years; if seventeen or eighteen, then
+it was too young. He was either a man too early or a boy too late. The
+fact was that, joining the theatrical band when very young, he had
+played the parts of Radhika, Damayanti, and Sita, and a thoughtful
+Providence so arranged things that he grew to the exact stature that his
+manager required, and then growth ceased.
+
+Since every one saw how small Nilkanta was, and he himself felt small,
+he did not receive due respect for his years. Causes, natural and
+artificial, combined to make him sometimes seem immature for seventeen
+years, and at other times a mere lad of fourteen but far too knowing
+even for seventeen. And as no sign of hair appeared on his face, the
+confusion became greater. Either because he smoked or because he used
+language beyond his years, his lips puckered into lines that showed him
+to be old and hard; but innocence and youth shone in his large eyes. I
+fancy that his heart remained young, but the hot glare of publicity had
+been a forcing-house that ripened untimely his outward aspect.
+
+In the quiet shelter of Sharat's house and garden at Chandernagore,
+Nature had leisure to work her way unimpeded. Nilkanta had lingered in a
+kind of unnatural youth, but now he silently and swiftly overpassed that
+stage. His seventeen or eighteen years came to adequate revelation. No
+one observed the change, and its first sign was this, that when Kiran
+treated him like a boy, he felt ashamed. When the gay Kiran one day
+proposed that he should play the part of lady's companion, the idea of
+woman's dress hurt him, though he could not say why. So now, when she
+called for him to act over again his old characters, he disappeared.
+
+It never occurred to Nilkanta that he was even now not much more than a
+lad-of-all-work in a strolling company. He even made up his mind to pick
+up a little education from Sharat's factor. But, because he was the pet
+of his master's wife, the factor could not endure the sight of him.
+Also, his restless training made it impossible for him to keep his mind
+long engaged; sooner or later, the alphabet did a misty dance before his
+eyes. He would sit long enough with an open book on his lap, leaning
+against a _champak_ bush beside the Ganges. The waves sighed below,
+boats floated past, birds flitted and twittered restlessly above. What
+thoughts passed through his mind as he looked down on that book he alone
+knew, if indeed he did know. He never advanced from one word to another,
+but the glorious thought, that he was actually reading a book, filled
+his soul with exultation. Whenever a boat went by, he lifted his book,
+and pretended to be reading hard, shouting at the top of his voice. But
+his energy dropped as soon as the audience was gone.
+
+Formerly he sang his songs automatically, but now their tunes stirred in
+his mind. Their words were of little import and full of trifling
+alliteration. Even the feeble meaning they had was beyond his
+comprehension; yet when he sang--
+
+    Twice-born bird, ah! wherefore stirred
+      To wrong our royal lady?
+    Goose, ah, say why wilt thou slay
+      Her in forest shady?
+
+then he felt as if transported to another world and to fear other folk.
+This familiar earth and his own poor life became music, and he was
+transformed. That tale of the goose and the king's daughter flung upon
+the mirror of his mind a picture of surpassing beauty. It is impossible
+to say what he imagined himself to be, but the destitute little slave of
+the theatrical troupe faded from his memory.
+
+When with evening the child of want lies down, dirty and hungry, in his
+squalid home, and hears of prince and princess and fabled gold, then in
+the dark hovel with its dim flickering candle, his mind springs free
+from its bonds of poverty and misery and walks in fresh beauty and
+glowing raiment, strong beyond all fear of hindrance, through that fairy
+realm where all is possible.
+
+Even so, this drudge of wandering players fashioned himself and his
+world anew, as he moved in spirit amid his songs. The lapping water,
+rustling leaves, and calling birds; the goddess who had given shelter to
+him, the helpless, the God-forsaken; her gracious, lovely face, her
+exquisite arms with their shining bangles, her rosy feet as soft as
+flower-petals; all these by some magic became one with the music of his
+song. When the singing ended, the mirage faded, and the Nilkanta of the
+stage appeared again, with his wild elf-locks. Fresh from the complaints
+of his neighbour, the owner of the despoiled mango-orchard, Sharat would
+come and box his ears and cuff him. The boy Nilkanta, the misleader of
+adoring youths, went forth once more, to make ever new mischief by land
+and water and in the branches that are above the earth.
+
+Shortly after the advent of Nilkanta, Sharat's younger brother, Satish,
+came to spend his college vacation with them. Kiran was hugely pleased
+at finding a fresh occupation. She and Satish were of the same age, and
+the time passed pleasantly in games and quarrels and reconciliations and
+laughter and even tears. Suddenly she would clasp him over the eyes from
+behind with vermilion-stained hands, or she would write "monkey" on his
+back, or else she would bolt the door on him from the outside amidst
+peals of laughter. Satish in his turn did not take things lying down; he
+would steal her keys and rings; he would put pepper among her betel, he
+would tie her to the bed when she was not looking.
+
+Meanwhile, heaven only knows what possessed poor Nilkanta. He was
+suddenly filled with a bitterness which he must avenge on somebody or
+something. He thrashed his devoted boy-followers for no fault, and sent
+them away crying. He would kick his pet mongrel till it made the skies
+resound with its whinings. When he went out for a walk, he would litter
+his path with twigs and leaves beaten from the roadside shrubs with his
+cane.
+
+Kiran liked to see people enjoying good fare. Nilkanta had an immense
+capacity for eating, and never refused a good thing however often it was
+offered. So Kiran liked to send for him to have his meals in her
+presence, and ply him with delicacies, happy in the bliss of seeing this
+Brahmin boy eat to satiety. After Satish's arrival she had much less
+spare time on her hands, and was seldom present when Nilkanta's meals
+were served. Before, her absence made no difference to the boy's
+appetite, and he would not rise till he had drained his cup of milk and
+rinsed it thoroughly with water.
+
+But now, if Kiran was not present to ask him to try this and that, he
+was miserable, and nothing tasted right. He would get up, without eating
+much, and say to the serving-maid in a choking voice: "I am not hungry."
+He thought in imagination that the news of his repeated refusal, "I am
+not hungry," would reach Kiran; he pictured her concern, and hoped that
+she would send for him, and press him to eat. But nothing of the sort
+happened. Kiran never knew and never sent for him; and the maid finished
+whatever he left. He would then put out the lamp in his room, and throw
+himself on his bed in the darkness, burying his head in the pillow in a
+paroxysm of sobs. What was his grievance? Against whom? And from whom
+did he expect redress? At last, when no one else came, Mother Sleep
+soothed with her soft caresses the wounded heart of the motherless lad.
+
+Nilkanta came to the unshakable conviction that Satish was poisoning
+Kiran's mind against him. If Kiran was absent-minded, and had not her
+usual smile, he would jump to the conclusion that some trick of Satish
+had made her angry with him. He took to praying to the gods, with all
+the fervour of his hate, to make him at the next rebirth Satish, and
+Satish him. He had an idea that a Brahmin's wrath could never be in
+vain; and the more he tried to consume Satish with the fire of his
+curses, the more did his own heart burn within him. And upstairs he
+would hear Satish laughing and joking with his sister-in-law.
+
+Nilkanta never dared openly to show his enmity to Satish. But he would
+contrive a hundred petty ways of causing him annoyance. When Satish
+went for a swim in the river, and left his soap on the steps of the
+bathing-place, on coming back for it he would find that it had
+disappeared. Once he found his favourite striped tunic floating past him
+on the water, and thought it had been blown away by the wind.
+
+One day Kiran, desiring to entertain Satish, sent for Nilkanta to recite
+as usual, but he stood there in gloomy silence. Quite surprised, Kiran
+asked him what was the matter. But he remained silent. And when again
+pressed by her to repeat some particular favourite piece of hers, he
+answered: "I don't remember," and walked away.
+
+At last the time came for their return home. Everybody was busy packing
+up. Satish was going with them. But to Nilkanta nobody said a word. The
+question whether he was to go or not seemed to have occurred to nobody.
+
+The subject, as a matter of fact, had been raised by Kiran, who had
+proposed to take him along with them. But her husband and his mother and
+brother had all objected so strenuously that she let the matter drop. A
+couple of days before they were to start, she sent for the boy, and with
+kind words advised him to go back to his own home.
+
+So many days had he felt neglected that this touch of kindness was too
+much for him; he burst into tears. Kiran's eyes were also brimming
+over. She was filled with remorse at the thought that she had created a
+tie of affection, which could not be permanent.
+
+But Satish was much annoyed at the blubbering of this overgrown boy.
+"Why does the fool stand there howling instead of speaking?" said he.
+When Kiran scolded him for an unfeeling creature, he replied: "My dear
+sister, you do not understand. You are too good and trustful. This
+fellow turns up from the Lord knows where, and is treated like a king.
+Naturally the tiger has no wish to become a mouse again. And he has
+evidently discovered that there is nothing like a tear or two to soften
+your heart."
+
+Nilkanta hurriedly left the spot. He felt he would like to be a knife to
+cut Satish to pieces; a needle to pierce him through and through; a fire
+to burn him to ashes. But Satish was not even scared. It was only his
+own heart that bled and bled.
+
+Satish had brought with him from Calcutta a grand inkstand. The inkpot
+was set in a mother-of-pearl boat drawn by a German-silver goose
+supporting a penholder. It was a great favourite of his, and he cleaned
+it carefully every day with an old silk handkerchief. Kiran would laugh,
+and tapping the silver bird's beak would say--
+
+    Twice-born bird, ah! wherefore stirred
+      To wrong our royal lady?
+
+and the usual war of words would break out between her and her
+brother-in-law.
+
+The day before they were to start, the inkstand was missing and could
+nowhere be found. Kiran smiled, and said: "Brother-in-law, your goose
+has flown off to look for your Damayanti."
+
+But Satish was in a great rage. He was certain that Nilkanta had stolen
+it--for several people said they had seen him prowling about the room
+the night before. He had the accused brought before him. Kiran also was
+there. "You have stolen my inkstand, you thief!" he blurted out. "Bring
+it back at once." Nilkanta had always taken punishment from Sharat,
+deserved or undeserved, with perfect equanimity. But, when he was called
+a thief in Kiran's presence, his eyes blazed with a fierce anger, his
+breast swelled, and his throat choked. If Satish had said another word,
+he would have flown at him like a wild cat and used his nails like
+claws.
+
+Kiran was greatly distressed at the scene, and taking the boy into
+another room said in her sweet, kind way: "Nilu, if you really have
+taken that inkstand give it to me quietly, and I shall see that no one
+says another word to you about it." Big tears coursed down the boy's
+cheeks, till at last he hid his face in his hands, and wept bitterly.
+Kiran came back from the room and said: "I am sure Nilkanta has not
+taken the inkstand." Sharat and Satish were equally positive that no
+other than Nilkanta could have done it.
+
+But Kiran said determinedly: "Never."
+
+Sharat wanted to cross-examine the boy, but his wife refused to allow
+it.
+
+Then Satish suggested that his room and box should be searched. And
+Kiran said: "If you dare do such a thing I will never forgive you. You
+shall not spy on the poor innocent boy." And as she spoke, her wonderful
+eyes filled with tears. That settled the matter and effectually
+prevented any further molestation of Nilkanta.
+
+Kiran's heart overflowed with pity at this attempted outrage on a
+homeless lad. She got two new suits of clothes and a pair of shoes, and
+with these and a banknote in her hand she quietly went into Nilkanta's
+room in the evening. She intended to put these parting presents into his
+box as a surprise. The box itself had been her gift.
+
+From her bunch of keys she selected one that fitted and noiselessly
+opened the box. It was so jumbled up with odds and ends that the new
+clothes would not go in. So she thought she had better take everything
+out and pack the box for him. At first knives, tops, kite-flying reels,
+bamboo twigs, polished shells for peeling green mangoes, bottoms of
+broken tumblers and such like things dear to a boy's heart were
+discovered. Then there came a layer of linen, clean and otherwise. And
+from under the linen there emerged the missing inkstand, goose and all.
+
+Kiran, with flushed face, sat down helplessly with the inkstand in her
+hand, puzzled and wondering.
+
+In the meantime, Nilkanta had come into the room from behind without
+Kiran knowing it. He had seen the whole thing and thought that Kiran had
+come like a thief to catch him in his thieving,--and that his deed was
+out. How could he ever hope to convince her that he was not a thief, and
+that only revenge had prompted him to take the inkstand, which he meant
+to throw into the river at the first chance? In a weak moment he had put
+it in the box instead. "He was not a thief," his heart cried out, "not a
+thief!" Then what was he? What could he say? That he had stolen, and yet
+he was not a thief? He could never explain to Kiran how grievously wrong
+she was. And then, how could he bear the thought that she had tried to
+spy on him?
+
+At last Kiran with a deep sigh replaced the inkstand in the box, and, as
+if she were the thief herself, covered it up with the linen and the
+trinkets as they were before; and at the top she placed the presents,
+together with the banknote which she had brought for him.
+
+The next day the boy was nowhere to be found. The villagers had not seen
+him; the police could discover no trace of him. Said Sharat: "Now, as a
+matter of curiosity, let us have a look at his box." But Kiran was
+obstinate in her refusal to allow that to be done.
+
+She had the box brought up to her own room; and taking out the inkstand
+alone, she threw it into the river.
+
+The whole family went home. In a day the garden became desolate. And
+only that starving mongrel of Nilkanta's remained prowling along the
+river-bank, whining and whining as if its heart would break.
+
+
+WORDS TO BE STUDIED
+
+  =favourite.= A certain number of words such as _honour_, _colour_,
+      _favour_, _ardour_, _fervour_ have come into English through the
+      French from the Latin. There is a constant tendency to-day in
+      modern English to leave out the letter "u" and spell _color_,
+      _favor_, etc. But this movement has not yet gained much ground in
+      England.
+
+  =wiseacres.= This form originally comes from the Dutch. The ending
+      "acres" is a corruption of the Dutch "seggen" which is the same as
+      the English to say. The word is equivalent to "wise-sayers."
+
+  =deign.= This is a word which comes through the French from the Latin
+      "dignus," meaning worthy. Compare _indignant_, _dignitary_,
+      _condign_, _indignity_.
+
+  =troupe.= An example of two words, with slightly different meanings,
+      coming from one and the same French word. The French word is
+      "troupe," meaning a company. This form is used in English for a
+      company of players or actors. But the form "troop" is used chiefly
+      of soldiers.
+
+  =automatically.= This is a modern English word from the Greek "autos,"
+      meaning self. Compare _autobiography_, _autonomy_, _autocracy_.
+      Modern English is drawing largely from the Greek language for its
+      new words.
+
+  =alliteration.= The Latin word for letter is "littera." From this we
+      get many English words, e.g. _letter_, _literate_, _literal_,
+      _literature_, _illiterate_, _obliterate_, _transliterate_, etc.
+
+  =mirage.= From the Latin "mirari," to wonder. Compare _mirror_,
+      _miracle_, _admire_. This is one of the words in English which
+      keeps the old French accent on the last syllable--mirAige. The
+      tendency in English is always to throw the accent back as far as
+      possible. Many words have changed their pronunciation in the
+      course of time. Obdurate, in Milton's time, was pronounced
+      obdAŗrate, but to-day it is pronounced A cubedbdurate. Trafalgar was
+      pronounced TrafalgAir last century. Now we pronounce it TrafAilgar.
+
+
+
+
+THE SON OF RASHMANI
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+THE SON OF RASHMANI
+
+
+I
+
+Kalipada's mother was Rashmani, but she had to do the duty of the father
+as well, because when both of the parents are "mother" then it is bad
+for the child. Bhavani, her husband, was wholly incapable of keeping his
+children under discipline. To know why he was bent on spoiling his son,
+you must hear something of the former history of the family.
+
+Bhavani was born in the famous house of Saniari. His father, Abhaya
+Charan, had a son, Shyama Charan, by his first wife. When he married
+again after her death he had himself passed the marriageable age, and
+his new father-in-law took advantage of the weakness of his position to
+have a special portion of his estate settled on his daughter. In this
+way he was satisfied that proper provision had been made, if his
+daughter should become a widow early in life. She would be independent
+of the charity of Shyama Charan.
+
+The first part of his anticipation came true. For very soon after the
+birth of a son, whom she called Bhavani, Abhaya Charan died. It gave the
+father-in-law great peace and consolation, as he looked forward to his
+own death, to know that his daughter was properly looked after.
+
+Shyama Charan was quite grown up. In fact his own eldest boy was a year
+older than Bhavani. He brought up the latter with his own son. In doing
+this he never took a farthing from the property allotted to his
+step-mother, and every year he got a receipt from her after submitting
+detailed accounts. His honesty in this affair surprised the
+neighbourhood. In fact they thought that such honesty was another name
+for foolishness. They did not like the idea of a division being made in
+the undivided ancestral property. If Shyama Charan in some underhand
+manner had been able to annul the dowry, his neighbours would have
+admired his sagacity; and there were good advisers ready to hand who
+could have rendered him material aid in the attainment of such an
+object. But Shyama Charan, in spite of the risk of crippling his
+patrimony, strictly set aside the dowry which came to the share of his
+step-mother; and the widow, Vraja Sundari, being naturally affectionate
+and trustful, had every confidence in Shyama Charan whom she trusted as
+her own son. More than once she had chided him for being so particular
+about her portion of the property. She would tell him that, as she was
+not going to take her property with her when she died, and as it would
+in any case revert to the family, it was not necessary to be so very
+strict about rendering accounts. But he never listened to her.
+
+Shyama Charan was a severe disciplinarian by habit and his children were
+perfectly aware of the fact. But Bhavani had every possible freedom, and
+this gave rise to the impression that he was more partial to his
+step-brother than to his own sons. But Bhavani's education was sadly
+neglected and he completely relied on Shyama Charan for the management
+of his share of the property. He merely had to sign documents
+occasionally without ever spending a thought on their contents. On the
+other hand, Tarapada, the eldest son of Shyama Charan, was quite an
+expert in the management of the estate, having to act as an assistant to
+his father.
+
+After the death of Shyama Charan, Tarapada said to Bhavani, "Uncle, we
+must not live together as we have done for so long, because some
+trifling misunderstanding may come at any moment and cause utter
+disruption."
+
+Bhavani never imagined, even in his dream, that a day might come when he
+would have to manage his own affairs. The world in which he had been
+born and bred ever appeared to him complete and entire in itself. It was
+an incomprehensible calamity to him that there could be a dividing line
+somewhere and that this world of his could be split into two. When he
+found that Tarapada was immovable and indifferent to the grief and
+dishonour that such a step would bring to the family, he began to rack
+his brain to find out how the property could be divided with the least
+possible strain.
+
+Tarapada showed surprise at his uncle's anxiety and said that there was
+no need to trouble about this, because the division had already been
+made in the life-time of his grandfather. Bhavani said in amazement,
+"But I know nothing of this!" Tarapada said in answer, "Then you must be
+the only one in the whole neighbourhood who does not. For, lest there
+should be ruinous litigation after he had gone, my grandfather had
+already given a portion of the property to your mother." Bhavani thought
+this not unlikely and asked, "What about the house?" Tarapada said, "If
+you wish, you can keep this house to yourself and we shall be contented
+with the other house in the district town."
+
+As Bhavani had never been to this town-house, he had neither knowledge
+of it, nor affection for it. He was astounded at the magnanimity of
+Tarapada for so easily relinquishing his right to the house in the
+village where they had been brought up. But when Bhavani told everything
+to his mother, she struck her forehead with her hand and said: "This is
+preposterous! What I got from my husband was my own dowry and its income
+is very small. I do not see why you should be deprived of your share in
+your father's property."
+
+Bhavani said, "Tarapada is quite positive that his grandfather never
+gave us any thing except this land."
+
+Vraja Sundari was astonished and informed her son that her husband had
+made two copies of his will, one of which was still lying in her own
+box. The box was opened and it was found that there was only the deed of
+gift for the property belonging to the mother and nothing else. The copy
+of the will had been taken out.
+
+The help of advisers was sought. The man who came to their rescue was
+Bagala, the son of their family _guru_. It was the profession of the
+father to look after the spiritual needs of the village; the material
+side was left to the son. The two of them had divided between themselves
+the other world and this. Whatever might be the result for others, they
+themselves had nothing to suffer from this division. Bagala said that,
+even if the will was missing, the shares in the ancestral property must
+be equal, as between the brothers.
+
+Just at this time, a copy of a will made its appearance supporting the
+claims of the other side. In this document there was no mention of
+Bhavani and the whole property was given to the grandsons at the time
+when no son was born to Bhavani. With Bagala as his captain Bhavani set
+out on his voyage across the perilous sea of litigation. When his vessel
+at last reached harbour his funds were nearly exhausted and the
+ancestral property was in the hands of the other party. The land which
+was given to his mother had dwindled to such an extent, that it could
+barely give them shelter, or keep up the family dignity. Then Tarapada
+went away to the district town and they never met again.
+
+
+II
+
+Shyama Charan's treachery pierced the heart of the widow like an
+assassin's knife. To the end of her life, almost every day she would
+heave a sigh and say that God would never suffer such an injustice to be
+done. She was quite firm in her faith when she said to Bhavani, "I do
+not know your law or your law courts, but I am certain that my husband's
+true will and testament will someday be recovered. You will find it
+again."
+
+Because Bhavani was helpless in worldly matters such assurances as these
+gave him great consolation. He settled down in his inactivity, certain
+in his own mind that his pious mother's prophecy could never remain
+unfulfilled. After his mother's death his faith became all the stronger,
+since the memory of her piety acquired greater radiance through death's
+mystery. He felt quite unconcerned about the stress of their poverty
+which became more and more formidable as the years went by. The
+necessities of life and the maintenance of family traditions,--these
+seemed to him like play acting on a temporary stage, not real things.
+When his former expensive clothing was outworn and he had to buy cheap
+materials in the shop, this amused him almost like a joke. He smiled and
+said to himself,--"These people do not know that this is only a passing
+phase of my fortune. Their surprise will be all the greater, when some
+day I shall celebrate the Puja Festival with unwonted magnificence."
+
+This certainty of future prodigality was so clear to his mind's eye that
+present penury escaped his attention. His servant, Noto, was the
+principal companion with whom he had discussions about these things.
+They used to have animated conversations, in which sometimes his opinion
+differed from his master's, as to the propriety of bringing down a
+theatrical troupe from Calcutta for these future occasions. Noto used to
+get reprimands from Bhavani for his natural miserliness in these items
+of future expenditure.
+
+While Bhavani's one anxiety was about the absence of an heir, who could
+inherit his vast possible wealth, a son was born to him. The horoscope
+plainly indicated that the lost property would come back to this boy.
+
+From the time of the birth of his son, Bhavani's attitude was changed.
+It became cruelly difficult for him now to bear his poverty with his old
+amused equanimity, because he felt that he had a duty towards this new
+representative of the illustrious house of Saniari, who had such a
+glorious future before him. That the traditional extravagance could not
+be maintained on the occasion of the birth of his child gave him the
+keenest sorrow. He felt as if he were cheating his own son. So he
+compensated his boy with an inordinate amount of spoiling.
+
+Bhavani's wife, Rashmani, had a different temperament from her husband.
+She never felt any anxiety about the family traditions of the Chowdhuris
+of Saniari. Bhavani was quite aware of the fact and indulgently smiled
+to himself, as though nothing better could be expected from a woman who
+came from a Vaishnava family of very humble lineage. Rashmani frankly
+acknowledged that she could not share the family sentiments: what
+concerned her most was the welfare of her own child.
+
+There was hardly an acquaintance in the neighbourhood with whom Bhavani
+did not discuss the question of the lost will; but he never spoke a word
+about it to his wife. Once or twice he had tried, but her perfect
+unconcern had made him drop the subject. She neither paid attention to
+the past greatness of the family, nor to its future glories,--she kept
+her mind busy with the actual necessities of the present, and those
+necessities were not small in number or quality.
+
+When the Goddess of Fortune deserts a house, she usually leaves some of
+her burdens behind, and this ancient family was still encumbered with
+its host of dependents, though its own shelter was nearly crumbling to
+dust. These parasites take it to be an insult if they are asked to do
+any service. They get head-aches at the least touch of the kitchen
+smoke. They are visited with sudden rheumatism the moment they are asked
+to run errands. Therefore all the responsibilities of maintaining the
+family were laid upon Rashmani herself. Women lose their delicacy of
+refinement, when they are compelled night and day to haggle with their
+destiny over things which are pitifully small, and for this they are
+blamed by those for whom they toil.
+
+Besides her household affairs Rashmani had to keep all the accounts of
+the little landed property which remained and also to make arrangements
+for collecting rents. Never before was the estate managed with such
+strictness. Bhavani had been quite incapable of collecting his dues:
+Rashmani never made any remission of the least fraction of rent. The
+tenants, and even her own agents, reviled her behind her back for the
+meanness of the family from which she came. Even her husband
+occasionally used to enter his protest against the harsh economy which
+went against the grain of the world-famed house of Saniari.
+
+Rashmani quite ungrudgingly took the blame of all this upon herself and
+openly confessed the poverty of her parents. Tying the end of her _sari_
+tightly round her waist she went on with her household duties in her own
+vigorous fashion and made herself thoroughly disagreeable both to the
+inmates of the house and to her neighbours. But nobody ever had the
+courage to interfere. Only one thing she carefully avoided. She never
+asked her husband to help her in any work and she was nervously afraid
+of his taking up any responsibilities. Indeed she was always furiously
+engaged in keeping her husband idle; and because he had received the
+best possible training in this direction she was wholly successful in
+her mission.
+
+Rashmani had attained middle age before her son came. Up to this time
+all the pent-up tenderness of the mother in her and all the love of the
+wife had their centre of devotion in this simple-hearted
+good-for-nothing husband. Bhavani was a child grown up by mistake beyond
+its natural age. This was the reason why, after the death of her
+husband's mother, she had to assume the position of mother and mistress
+in one.
+
+In order to protect her husband from invasions of Bagala, the son of the
+_guru_, and other calamities, Rashmani adopted such a stern demeanour,
+that the companions of her husband used to be terribly afraid of her.
+She never had the opportunity, which a woman usually has, of keeping
+her fierceness hidden and of softening the keen edge of her
+words,--maintaining a dignified reserve towards men such as is proper
+for a woman.
+
+Bhavani meekly accepted his wife's authority with regard to himself, but
+it became extremely hard for him to obey her when it related to
+Kalipada, his son. The reason was, that Rashmani never regarded
+Bhavani's son from the point of view of Bhavani himself. In her heart
+she pitied her husband and said, "Poor man, it was no fault of his, but
+his misfortune, to be born into a rich family." That is why she never
+could expect her husband to be deprived of any comfort to which he had
+been accustomed. Whatever might be the condition of the household
+finance, she tried hard to keep him in his habitual ease and luxury.
+Under her rA(C)gime all expense was strictly limited except in the case of
+Bhavani. She would never allow him to notice if some inevitable gap
+occurred in the preparation of his meals or his apparel. She would blame
+some imaginary dog for spoiling dishes that were never made and would
+blame herself for her carelessness. She would attack Noto for letting
+some fictitious article of dress be stolen or lost. This had the usual
+effect of rousing Bhavani's sympathy on behalf of his favourite servant
+and he would take up his defence. Indeed it had often happened that
+Bhavani had confessed with bare-faced shamelessness that he had used the
+dress which had never been bought, and for whose loss Noto was blamed;
+but what happened afterwards, he had not the power to invent and was
+obliged to rely upon the fertile imagination of his wife who was also
+the accuser!
+
+Thus Rashmani treated her husband, but she never put her son in the same
+category. For he was her own child and why should he be allowed to give
+himself airs? Kalipada had to be content for his breakfast with a few
+handfuls of puffed rice and some treacle. During the cold weather he had
+to wrap his body as well as his head with a thick rough cotton
+_chaddar_. She would call his teacher before her and warn him never to
+spare her boy, if he was the least neglectful with his lessons. This
+treatment of his own son was the hardest blow that Bhavani Charan
+suffered since the days of his destitution. But as he had always
+acknowledged defeat at the hands of the powerful, he had not the spirit
+to stand up against his wife in her method of dealing with the boy.
+
+The dress which Rashmani provided for her son, during the Puja
+festivities, was made of such poor material that in former days the very
+servants of the house would have rebelled if it had been offered to
+them. But Rashmani more than once tried her best to explain to her
+husband that Kalipada, being the most recent addition to the Chowdhuri
+family, had never known their former splendour and so was quite glad to
+get what was given to him. But this pathetic innocence of the boy about
+his own destiny hurt Bhavani more than anything else, and he could not
+forgive himself for deceiving the child. When Kalipada would dance for
+joy and rush to him to show him some present from his mother, which was
+ridiculously trivial, Bhavani's heart would suffer torture.
+
+Bagala, the _guru's_ son, was now in an affluent condition owing to his
+agency in the law suit which had brought about the ruin of Bhavani. With
+the money which he had in hand he used to buy cheap tinsel wares from
+Calcutta before the Puja holidays. Invisible ink,--absurd combinations
+of stick, fishing-rod and umbrella,--letter-paper with pictures in the
+corner,--silk fabrics bought at auctions, and other things of this kind,
+attractive to the simple villagers,--these were his stock in trade. All
+the forward young men of the village vied with one another in rising
+above their rusticity by purchasing these sweepings of the Calcutta
+market which, they were told, were absolutely necessary for the city
+gentry.
+
+Once Bagala had bought a wonderful toy,--a doll in the form of a foreign
+woman,--which, when wound up, would rise from her chair and begin to fan
+herself with sudden alacrity. Kalipada was fascinated by it. He had a
+very good reason to avoid asking his mother about the toy; so he went
+straight to his father and begged him to purchase it for him. Bhavani
+answered "yes" at once, but when he heard the price his face fell.
+Rashmani kept all the money and he went to her as a timid beggar. He
+began with all sorts of irrelevant remarks and then took a desperate
+plunge into the subject with startling incoherence.
+
+Rashmani briefly remarked: "Are you mad?" Bhavani Charan sat silent
+revolving in his mind what to say next.
+
+"Look here," he exclaimed, "I don't think I need milk pudding daily with
+my dinner."
+
+"Who told you?" said Rashmani sharply.
+
+"The doctor says it's very bad for biliousness."
+
+"The doctor's a fool!"
+
+"But I'm sure that rice agrees with me better than your _luchis_. They
+are too indigestible."
+
+"I've never seen the least sign of indigestion in you. You have been
+accustomed to them all your life!"
+
+Bhavani Charan was ready enough to make sacrifices, but there his
+passage was barred. Butter might rise in price, but the number of his
+_luchis_ never diminished. Milk was quite enough for him at his midday
+meal, but curds also had to be supplied because that was the family
+tradition. Rashmani could not have borne seeing him sit down to his
+meal, if curds were not supplied. Therefore all his attempts to make a
+breach in his daily provisions, through which the fanning foreign woman
+might enter, were an utter failure.
+
+Then Bhavani paid a visit to Bagala for no reason whatever, and after a
+great deal of round about talk asked concerning the foreign doll. Of
+course his straightened circumstances had long been known to Bagala, yet
+it was a perfect misery to Bhavani to have to hesitate to buy this doll
+for his son owing to want of ready money. Swallowing his pride, he
+brought out from under his arm an expensive old Kashmir shawl, and said
+in a husky voice: "My circumstances are bad just at present and I
+haven't got much cash. So I have determined to mortgage this shawl and
+buy that doll for Kalipada."
+
+If the object offered had been less expensive than this Kashmir shawl,
+Bagala would at once have closed the bargain. But knowing that it would
+not be possible for him to take possession of this shawl in face of the
+village opinion, and still more in face of Rashmani's watchfulness, he
+refused to accept it; and Bhavani had to go back home disappointed with
+the Kashmir shawl hidden under his arm.
+
+Kalipada asked every day for that foreign fanning toy, and Bhavani
+smiled every day and said,--"Wait, a bit, my boy, till the seventh day
+of the moon comes round." But every new day it became more and more
+difficult to keep up that smile.
+
+On the fourth day of the moon Bhavani made a sudden inroad upon his wife
+and said:
+
+"I've noticed that there's something wrong with Kalipada,--something the
+matter with his health."
+
+"Nonsense," said Rashmani, "he's in the best of health."
+
+"Haven't you noticed him sitting silent for hours together?"
+
+"I should be very greatly relieved if he could sit still for as many
+minutes."
+
+When all his arrows had missed their mark, and no impression had been
+made, Bhavani Charan heaved a deep sigh and passing his fingers through
+his hair went away and sat down on the verandah and began to smoke with
+fearful assiduity.
+
+On the fifth day, at his morning meal, Bhavani passed by the curds and
+the milk pudding without touching them. In the evening he simply took
+one single piece of _sandesh_. The _luchis_ were left unheeded. He
+complained of want of appetite. This time a considerable breach was made
+in the fortifications.
+
+On the sixth day, Rashmani took Kalipada into the room and sweetly
+calling him by his pet name said, "Betu, you are old enough to know that
+it is the halfway house to stealing to desire that which you can't
+have."
+
+Kalipada whimpered and said, "What do I know about it? Father promised
+to give me that doll."
+
+Rashmani sat down to explain to him how much lay behind his father's
+promise,--how much pain, how much affection, how much loss and
+privation. Rashmani had never in her life before talked thus to
+Kalipada, because it was her habit to give short and sharp commands. It
+filled the boy with amazement when he found his mother coaxing him and
+explaining things at such a length, and mere child though he was, he
+could fathom something of the deep suffering of his mother's heart. Yet
+at the same time it will be easily understood, that it was hard for this
+boy to turn his mind away altogether from that captivating foreign
+fanning woman. He pulled a long face and began to scratch the ground.
+
+This made Rashmani's heart at once hard, and she said in her severe
+tone: "Yes, you may weep and cry, or become angry, but you shall never
+get that which is not for you to have." And she hastened away without
+another word.
+
+Kalipada went out. Bhavani Charan was still smoking his hookah. Noticing
+Kalipada from a distance he got up and walked in the opposite direction
+as if he had some urgent business. Kalipada ran to him and said,--"But
+that doll?" Bhavani could not raise a smile that day. He put his arm
+round Kalipada's neck and said:
+
+"Baba, wait a little. I have some pressing business to get through. Let
+me finish it first, and then we will talk about it." Saying this, he
+went out of his house.
+
+Kalipada saw him brush a tear from his eyes. He stood at the door and
+watched his father, and it was quite evident, even to this boy, that he
+was going nowhere in particular, and that he was dragging the weight of
+a despair which could not be relieved.
+
+Kalipada at once went back to his mother and said:
+
+"Mother, I don't want that foreign doll."
+
+That morning Bhavani Charan returned late. When he sat down to his meal,
+after his bath, it was quite evident, by the look on his face, that the
+curds and the milk pudding would fare no better with him than on the day
+before, and that the best part of the fish would go to the cat.
+
+Just at this critical juncture Rashmani brought in a card-board box,
+bound round with twine, and set it before her husband. Her intention had
+been to reveal the mystery of this packet to her husband when he went to
+take his nap after his meal. But in order to remove the undeserved
+neglect of the curds and the milk and the fish, she had to disclose its
+contents before the time. So the foreign doll came out of the box and
+without more ado began to fan itself vigorously.
+
+After this, the cat had to go away disappointed. Bhavani remarked to his
+wife that the cooking was the best he had ever tasted. The fish soup was
+incomparable: the curds had set themselves with an exactness that was
+rarely attained, and the milk pudding was superb.
+
+On the seventh day of the moon, Kalipada got the toy for which he had
+been pining. During the whole of that day he allowed the foreigner to go
+on fanning herself and thereby made his boy companions jealous. In any
+other case this performance would have seemed to him monotonously
+tiresome, but knowing that on the following day he would have to give
+the toy back, his constancy to it on that single occasion remained
+unabated. At the rental of two rupees per diem Rashmani had hired it
+from Bagala.
+
+On the eighth day of the moon, Kalipada heaved a deep sigh and returned
+the toy, along with the box and twine, to Bagala with his own hands.
+From that day forward Kalipada began to share the confidences of his
+mother, and it became so absurdly easy for Bhavani to give expensive
+presents every year, that it surprised even himself.
+
+When, with the help of his mother, Kalipada came to know that nothing
+in this world could be gained without paying for it with the inevitable
+price of suffering, he rapidly grew up in his mind and became a valued
+assistant to his mother in her daily tasks. It come to be a natural rule
+of life with him that no one should add to the burden of the world, but
+that each should try to lighten it.
+
+When Kalipada won a scholarship at the Vernacular examination, Bhavani
+proposed that he should give up his studies and take in hand the
+supervision of the estate. Kalipada went to his mother and said,--"I
+shall never be a man, if I do not complete my education."
+
+The mother said,--"You are right, Baba, you must go to Calcutta."
+
+Kalipada explained to her that it would not be necessary to spend a
+single pice on him; his scholarship would be sufficient, and he would
+try to get some work to supplement it.
+
+But it was necessary to convince Bhavani of the wisdom of the course.
+Rashmani did not wish to employ the argument that there was very little
+of the estate remaining to require supervision; for she knew how it
+would hurt him. She said that Kalipada must become a man whom everyone
+could respect. But all the members of the Chowdhuri family had attained
+their respectability without ever going a step outside the limits of
+Saniari. The outer world was as unknown to them as the world beyond the
+grave. Bhavani, therefore, could not conceive how anybody could think of
+a boy like Kalipada going to Calcutta. But the cleverest man in the
+village, Bagala, fortunately agreed with Rashmani.
+
+"It is perfectly clear," he said, "that, one day, Kalipada will become a
+lawyer; and then he will set matters right concerning the property of
+which the family has been deprived."
+
+This was a great consolation to Bhavani Charan and he brought out the
+file of records about the theft of the will and tried to explain the
+whole thing to Kalipada by dint of daily discussion. But his son was
+lacking in proper enthusiasm and merely echoed his father's sentiment
+about this solemn wrong.
+
+The day before Kalipada's departure for Calcutta Rashmani hung round his
+neck an amulet containing some mantras to protect him from evils. She
+gave him at the same time a fifty-rupee currency note, advising him to
+keep it for any special emergency. This note, which was the symbol of
+his mother's numberless daily acts of self-denial, was the truest amulet
+of all for Kalipada. He determined to keep it by him and never to spend
+it, whatever might happen.
+
+
+III
+
+From this time onward the old interminable discussions about the theft
+of the will became less frequent on the part of Bhavani. His one topic
+of conversation was the marvellous adventure of Kalipada in search of
+his education. Kalipada was actually engaged in his studies in the city
+of Calcutta! Kalipada knew Calcutta as well as the palm of his hand!
+Kalipada had been the first to hear the great news that another bridge
+was going to be built over the Ganges near Hughli! The day on which the
+father received his son's letter, he would go to every house in the
+village to read it to his neighbours and he would hardly find time even
+to take his spectacles from his nose. On arriving at a fresh house he
+would remove them from their case with the utmost deliberation; then he
+would wipe them carefully with the end of his _dhoti_; then, word by
+word, he would slowly read the letter through to one neighbour after
+another, with something like the following comment:--
+
+"Brother, just listen! What _is_ the world coming to? Even the dogs and
+the jackals are to cross the holy Ganges without washing the dust from
+their feet! Who could imagine such a sacrilege?"
+
+No doubt it was very deplorable; but all the same it gave Bhavani
+Charan a peculiar pleasure to communicate at first hand such important
+news from his own son's letter, and this more than compensated for the
+spiritual disaster which must surely overtake the numberless creatures
+of this present age. To everyone he met he solemnly nodded his head and
+prophesied that the days were soon coming when Mother Ganges would
+disappear altogether; all the while cherishing the hope that the news of
+such a momentous event would come to him by letter from his own son in
+the proper time.
+
+Kalipada, with very great difficulty, scraped together just enough money
+to pay his expenses till he passed his Matriculation and again won a
+scholarship. Bhavani at once made up his mind to invite all the village
+to a feast, for he imagined that his son's good ship of fortune had now
+reached its haven and there would be no more occasion for economy. But
+he received no encouragement from Rashmani.
+
+Kalipada was fortunate enough to secure a place of study in a students'
+lodging house near his college. The proprietor allowed him to occupy a
+small room on the ground floor which was absolutely useless for other
+lodgers. In exchange for this and his board, he had to coach the son of
+the owner of the house. The one great advantage was that there would be
+no chance of any fellow lodger ever sharing his quarters. So, although
+ventilation was lacking, his studies were uninterrupted.
+
+Those of the students who paid their rent and lived in the upper story
+had no concern with Kalipada; but soon it became painfully evident that
+those who are up above have the power to hurl missiles at those below
+with all the more deadly force because of their distance. The leader of
+those above was Sailen.
+
+Sailen was the scion of a rich family. It was unnecessary for him to
+live in a students' mess, but he successfully convinced his guardians
+that this would be best for his studies. The real reason was that Sailen
+was naturally fond of company, and the students' lodging house was an
+ideal place where he could have all the pleasure of companionship
+without any of its responsibilities. It was the firm conviction of
+Sailen that he was a good fellow and a man of feeling. The advantage of
+harbouring such a conviction was that it needed no proof in practice.
+Vanity is not like a horse or an elephant requiring expensive fodder.
+
+Nevertheless, as Sailen had plenty of money he did not allow his vanity
+merely to graze at large; he took special pride in keeping it stall-fed.
+It must be said to his credit that he had a genuine desire to help
+people in their need, but the desire in him was of such a character,
+that if a man in difficulty refused to come to him for help, he would
+turn round on him and do his best to add to his trouble. His mess mates
+had their tickets for the theatre bought for them by Sailen, and it cost
+them nothing to have occasional feasts. They could borrow money from him
+without meaning to pay it back. When a newly married youth was in doubt
+about the choice of some gift for his wife, he could fully rely on
+Sailen's good taste in the matter. On these occasions the love-lorn
+youth would take Sailen to the shop and pretend to select the cheapest
+and least suitable presents: then Sailen, with a contemptuous laugh
+would intervene and select the right thing. At the mention of the price
+the young husband would pull a long face, but Sailen would always be
+ready to abide by his own superior choice and to pay the cost.
+
+In this manner Sailen became the acknowledged patron of the students
+upstairs. It made him intolerant of the insolence of any one who refused
+to accept his help. Indeed, to help others in this way had become his
+hobby.
+
+Kalipada, in his tattered jersey, used to sit on a dirty mat in his damp
+room below and recite his lessons, swinging himself from side to side to
+the rhythm of the sentence. It was a sheer necessity for him to get
+that scholarship next year.
+
+Kalipada's mother had made him promise, before he left home for Calcutta
+that he would avoid the company of rich young men. Therefore he bore the
+burden of his indigence alone, strictly keeping himself from those who
+had been more favoured by fortune. But to Sailen, it seemed a sheer
+impertinence that a student as poor as Kalipada should yet have the
+pride to keep away from his patronage. Besides this, in his food and
+dress and everything, Kalipada's poverty was so blatantly exposed, it
+hurt Sailen's sense of decency. Every time he looked down into
+Kalipada's room, he was offended by the sight of the cheap clothing, the
+dingy mosquito net and the tattered bedding. Whenever he passed on his
+way to his own room in the upper story the sight of these things was
+unavoidable. To crown it all there was that absurd amulet which Kalipada
+always had hanging round his neck, and those daily rites of devotion
+which were so ridiculously out of fashion!
+
+One day Sailen and his followers condescended to invite Kalipada to a
+feast, thinking that his gratitude would know no bounds. But Kalipada
+sent an answer saying that his habits were different and it would not be
+wholesome for him to accept the invitation. Sailen was unaccustomed to
+such a refusal, and it roused up in him all the ferocity of his insulted
+benevolence. For some days after this, the noise on the upper story
+became so loudly insistent that it was impossible for Kalipada to go on
+with his studies. He was compelled to spend the greater part of his days
+studying in the Park, and to get up very early and sit down to his work
+long before it was light.
+
+Owing to his half-starved condition, his mental overwork, and
+badly-ventilated room, Kalipada began to suffer from continual attacks
+of headache. There were times when he was obliged to lie down on his bed
+for three or four days together. But he made no mention of his illness
+in his letters to his father. Bhavani himself was certain that, just as
+vegetation grew rank in his village surroundings, so comforts of all
+kinds sprang up of themselves from the soil of Calcutta. Kalipada never
+for a moment disabused his mind of that misconception. He did not fail
+to write to his father, even when suffering from one of these paroxysms
+of pain. The deliberate rowdiness of the students in the upper story
+added at such times to his distress.
+
+Kalipada tried to make himself as scarce and small as possible, in order
+to avoid notice; but this did not bring him relief. One day, he found
+that a cheap shoe of his own had been taken away and replaced by an
+expensive foreign one. It was impossible for him to go to college with
+such an incongruous pair. He made no complaint, however, but bought some
+old second-hand shoes from the cobbler. One day, a student from the
+upper story came into his room and asked him:
+
+"Have you, by any mistake, brought away my silver cigarette case with
+you?"
+
+Kalipada got annoyed and answered:
+
+"I have never been inside your room in my life."
+
+The student stooped down. "Hullo!" he said, "here it is!" And the
+valuable cigarette case was picked up from the corner of the room.
+
+Kalipada determined to leave this lodging house as soon as ever he had
+passed his Intermediate Examination, provided only he could get a
+scholarship to enable him to do so.
+
+Every year the students of the house used to have their annual Saraswati
+Puja. Though the greater part of the expenses fell to the share of
+Sailen, every one else contributed according to his means. The year
+before, they had contemptuously left out Kalipada from the list of
+contributors; but this year, merely to tease him, they came with their
+subscription book. Kalipada instantly paid five rupees to the fund,
+though he had no intention of participating in the feast. His penury
+had long brought on him the contempt of his fellow lodgers, but this
+unexpected gift of five rupees became to them insufferable. The
+Saraswati Puja was performed with great A(C)clat and the five rupees could
+easily have been spared. It had been hard indeed for Kalipada to part
+with it. While he took the food given him in his landlord's house he had
+no control over the time at which it was served. Besides this, since the
+servants brought him the food, he did not like to criticise the dishes.
+He preferred to provide himself with some extra things; and after the
+forced extravagance of his five-rupee subscription he had to forgo all
+this and suffered in consequence. His paroxysms of headache became more
+frequent, and though he passed his examination, he failed to obtain the
+scholarship that he desired.
+
+The loss of the scholarship drove Kalipada to do extra work as a private
+tutor and to stick to the same unhealthy room in the lodging house. The
+students overhead had hoped that they would be relieved of his presence.
+But punctually to the day the room was unlocked on the lower floor.
+Kalipada entered, clad in the same old dirty check Parsee coat. A coolie
+from Sealdah Station took down from his head a steel trunk and other
+miscellaneous packages and laid them on the floor of the room; and a
+long wrangle ensued as to the proper amount of pice that were due.
+
+In the depths of those packages there were mango chutnies and other
+condiments which his mother had specially prepared. Kalipada was aware
+that, in his absence, the upper-story students, in search of a jest, did
+not scruple to come into his room by stealth.
+
+He was especially anxious to keep these home gifts from their cruel
+scrutiny. As tokens of home affection they were supremely precious to
+him; but to the town students, they denoted merely the boorishness of
+poverty-stricken villagers. The vessels were crude and earthen, fastened
+up by an earthen lid fixed on with paste of flour. They were neither
+glass nor porcelain, and therefore sure to be regarded with insolent
+disdain by rich town-bred people.
+
+Formerly Kalipada used to keep these stores hidden under his bed,
+covering them up with old newspapers. But this time he took the
+precaution of always locking up his door, even if he went out for a few
+minutes. This still further roused the spleen of Sailen and his party.
+It seemed to them preposterous that the room which was poor enough to
+draw tears from the eyes of the most hardened burglar should be as
+carefully guarded as if it were a second Bank of Bengal.
+
+"Does he actually believe," they said among themselves, "that the
+temptation will be irresistible for us to steal that Parsee coat?"
+
+Sailen had never visited this dark and mildewed room from which the
+plaster was dropping. The glimpses that he had taken, while going
+up-stairs,--especially when, in the evening, Kalipada, the upper part of
+his body bare, would sit poring over his books with a smoky lamp beside
+him,--were enough to give him a sense of suffocation. Sailen asked his
+boon companions to explore the room below and find out the treasure
+which Kalipada had hidden. Everybody felt intensely amused at the
+proposal.
+
+The lock on Kalipada's door was a cheap one, which had the magnanimity
+to lend itself to any key. One evening when Kalipada had gone out to his
+private tuition, two or three of the students with an exuberant sense of
+humour took a lantern and unlocked the room and entered. It did not need
+a moment to discover the pots of chutney under the bed, but these hardly
+seemed valuable enough to demand such watchful care on the part of
+Kalipada. A further search disclosed a key on a ring under the pillow.
+They opened the steel trunk with the key and found a few soiled clothes,
+books and writing material. They were about to shut the box in disgust
+when they saw, at the very bottom, a packet covered by a dirty
+handkerchief. On uncovering three or four wrappers they found a currency
+note of fifty rupees. This made them burst out into peals of laughter.
+They felt certain that Kalipada was harbouring suspicion against the
+whole world in his mind because of this fifty rupees!
+
+The meanness of this suspicious precaution deepened the intensity of
+their contempt for Kalipada. Just then, they heard a foot-step outside.
+They hastily shut the box, locked the door, and ran upstairs with the
+note in their possession.
+
+Sailen was vastly amused. Though fifty rupees was a mere trifle, he
+could never have believed that Kalipada had so much money in his trunk.
+They all decided to watch the result of this loss upon that queer
+creature downstairs.
+
+When Kalipada came home that night after his tuition was over, he was
+too tired to notice any disorder in his room. One of his worst attacks
+of nervous headache was coming on and he went straight to bed.
+
+The next day, when he brought out his trunk from under the bed and took
+out his clothes, he found it open. He was naturally careful, but it was
+not unlikely, he thought, that he had forgotten to lock it on the day
+before. But when he lifted the lid he found all the contents
+topsy-turvy, and his heart gave a great thud when he discovered that
+the note, given to him by his mother, was missing. He searched the box
+over and over again in the vain hope of finding it, and when his loss
+was made certain, he flung himself upon his bed and lay like one dead.
+
+Just then, he heard footsteps following one another on the stairs, and
+every now and then an outburst of laughter from the upper room. It
+struck him, all of a sudden, that this was not a theft: Sailen and his
+party must have taken the note to amuse themselves and make laughter out
+of it. It would have given him less pain if a thief had stolen it. It
+seemed to him that these young men had laid their impious hands upon his
+mother herself.
+
+This was the first time that Kalipada had ascended those stairs. He ran
+to the upper floor,--the old jersey on his shoulders,--his face flushed
+with anger and the pain of his illness. As it was Sunday, Sailen and his
+company were seated in the verandah, laughing and talking. Without any
+warning, Kalipada burst upon them and shouted:
+
+"Give me back my note!"
+
+If he had begged it of them, they would have relented; but the sight of
+his anger made them furious. They started up from their chairs and
+exclaimed:
+
+"What do you mean, sir? What do you mean? What note?"
+
+Kalipada shouted: "The note you have taken from my box!"
+
+"How dare you?" they shouted back. "Do you take us to be thieves?"
+
+If Kalipada had held any weapon in his hand at that moment he certainly
+would have killed some one among them. But when he was about to spring,
+they fell on him, and four or five of them dragged him down to his room
+and thrust him inside.
+
+Sailen said to his companions: "Here, take this hundred-rupee note, and
+throw it to that _dog_!"
+
+They all loudly exclaimed: "No! Let him climb down first and give us a
+written apology. Then we shall consider it!"
+
+Sailen's party all went to bed at the proper time and slept the sleep of
+the innocent. In the morning they had almost forgotten Kalipada. But
+some of them, while passing his room, heard the sound of talking and
+they thought that possibly he was busy consulting some lawyer. The door
+was shut from the inside. They tried to overhear, but what they heard
+had nothing legal about it. It was quite incoherent.
+
+They informed Sailen. He came down and stood with his ear close to the
+door. The only thing that could be distinctly heard was the word
+'Father.' This frightened Sailen. He thought that possibly Kalipada had
+gone mad on account of the grief of losing that fifty-rupee note. Sailen
+shouted "Kalipada Babu!" two or three times, but got no answer. Only
+that muttering sound continued. Sailen called,--"Kalipada Babu,--please
+open the door. Your note has been found." But still the door was not
+opened and that muttering sound went on.
+
+Sailen had never anticipated such a result as this. He did not express a
+word of repentance to his followers, but he felt the sting of it all the
+same. Some advised him to break open the door: others thought that the
+police should be called in,--for Kalipada might be in a dangerous state
+of lunacy. Sailen at once sent for a doctor who lived close at hand.
+When they burst open the door they found the bedding hanging from the
+bed and Kalipada lying on the floor unconscious. He was tossing about
+and throwing up his arms and muttering, with his eyes red and open and
+his face all flushed. The doctor examined him and asked if there were
+any relative near at hand; for the case was serious.
+
+Sailen answered that he knew nothing, but would make inquiries. The
+doctor then advised the removal of the patient at once to an upstairs
+room and proper nursing arrangements day and night. Sailen took him up
+to his own room and dismissed his followers. He got some ice and put it
+on Kalipada's head and began to fan him with his own hand.
+
+Kalipada, fearing that mocking references would be made, had concealed
+the names and address of his parents from these people with special
+care. So Sailen had no alternative but to open his box. He found two
+bundles of letters tied up with ribbon. One of them contained his
+mother's letters, the other contained his father's. His mother's letters
+were fewer in number than his father's. Sailen closed the door and began
+to read the letters. He was startled when he saw the address,--Saniari,
+the house of the Chowdhuries,--and then the name of the father, Bhavani.
+He folded up the letters and sat still, gazing at Kalipada's face. Some
+of his friends had casually mentioned, that there was a resemblance
+between Kalipada and himself. But he was offended at the remark and did
+not believe it. To-day he discovered the truth. He knew that his own
+grandfather, Shyama Charan, had a step-brother named Bhavani; but the
+later history to the family had remained a secret to him. He did not
+even know that Bhavani had a son named Kalipada; and he never suspected
+that Bhavani had come to such an abject state of poverty as this. He now
+felt not only relieved, but proud of his own relative, Kalipada, that
+he had refused to enter himself on the list of protA(C)gA(C)s.
+
+
+IV
+
+Knowing that his party had insulted Kalipada almost every day, Sailen
+felt reluctant to keep him in the lodging house with them. So he rented
+another suitable house and kept him there. Bhavani came down in haste to
+Calcutta the moment he received a letter from Sailen informing him of
+his son's illness. Rashmani parted with all her savings giving
+instructions to her husband to spare no expense upon her son. It was not
+considered proper for the daughters of the great Chowdhuri family to
+leave their home and go to Calcutta unless absolutely obliged, and
+therefore she had to remain behind offering prayers to all the tutelary
+gods. When Bhavani Charan arrived he found Kalipada still unconscious
+and delirious. It nearly broke Bhavani's heart when he heard himself
+called 'Master Mashai.' Kalipada often called him in his delirium and he
+tried to make himself recognized by his son, but in vain.
+
+The doctor came again and said the fever was getting less. He thought
+the case was taking a more favourable turn. For Bhavani, it was an
+impossibility to imagine that his son would not recover. He _must_
+live: it was his destiny to live. Bhavani was much struck with the
+behaviour of Sailen. It was difficult to believe that he was not of
+their own kith and kin. He supposed all this kindness to be due to the
+town training which Sailen had received. Bhavani spoke to Sailen
+disparagingly of the country habits which village people like himself
+got into.
+
+Gradually the fever went down and Kalipada recovered consciousness. He
+was astonished beyond measure when he saw his father sitting in the room
+beside him. His first anxiety was lest he should discover the miserable
+state in which he had been living. But what would be harder still to
+bear was, if his father with his rustic manners became the butt of the
+people upstairs. He looked round him, but could not recognize his own
+room and wondered if he had been dreaming. But he found himself too weak
+to think.
+
+He supposed that it had been his father who had removed him to this
+better lodging, but he had no power to calculate how he could possibly
+bear the expense. The only thing that concerned him at that moment was
+that he felt he must live, and for that he had a claim upon the world.
+
+Once when his father was absent Sailen came in with a plate of grapes in
+his hand. Kalipada could not understand this at all and wondered if
+there was some practical joke behind it. He at once became excited and
+wondered how he could save his father from annoyance. Sailen set the
+plate down on the table and touched Kalipada's feet humbly and said: "My
+offence has been great: pray forgive me."
+
+Kalipada started and sat up on his bed. He could see that Sailen's
+repentance was sincere and he was greatly moved.
+
+When Kalipada had first come to the students' lodging house he had felt
+strongly drawn towards this handsome youth. He never missed a chance of
+looking at his face when Sailen passed by his room on his way upstairs.
+He would have given all the world to be friends with him, but the
+barrier was too great to overcome. Now to-day when Sailen brought him
+the grapes and asked his forgiveness, he silently looked at his face and
+silently accepted the grapes which spoke of his repentance.
+
+It amused Kalipada greatly when he noticed the intimacy that had sprung
+up between his father and Sailen. Sailen used to call Bhavani Charan
+"grandfather" and exercised to the full the grandchild's privilege of
+joking with him. The principal object of the jokes was the absent
+"grandmother." Sailen made the confession that he had taken the
+opportunity of Kalipada's illness to steal all the delicious chutnies
+which his "grandmother" had made with her own hand. The news of his act
+of "thieving" gave Kalipada very great joy. He found it easy to deprive
+himself, if he could find any one who could appreciate the good things
+made by his mother. Thus this time of his convalescence became the
+happiest period in the whole of Kalipada's life.
+
+There was only one flaw in this unalloyed happiness. Kalipada had a
+fierce pride in his poverty which prevented him ever speaking about his
+family's better days. Therefore when his father used to talk of his
+former prosperity Kalipada winced. Bhavani could not keep to himself the
+one great event of his life,--the theft of that will which he was
+absolutely certain that he would some day recover. Kalipada had always
+regarded this as a kind of mania of his father's, and in collusion with
+his mother he had often humoured his father concerning this amiable
+weakness. But he shrank in shame when his father talked about this to
+Sailen. He noticed particularly that Sailen did not relish such
+conversation and that he often tried to prove, with a certain amount of
+feeling, its absurdity. But Bhavani, who was ready to give in to others
+in matters much more serious, in this matter was adamant. Kalipada tried
+to pacify him by saying that there was no great need to worry about it,
+because those who were enjoying its benefit were almost the same as his
+own children, since they were his nephews.
+
+Such talk Sailen could not bear for long and he used to leave the room.
+This pained Kalipada, because he thought that Sailen might get quite a
+wrong conception of his father and imagine him to be a grasping worldly
+old man. Sailen would have revealed his own relationship to Kalipada and
+his father long before, but this discussion about the theft of the will
+prevented him. It was hard for him to believe that his grandfather or
+father had stolen the will; on the other hand he could not but think
+that some cruel injustice had been done in depriving Bhavani of his
+share of the ancestral property. Therefore he gave up arguing when the
+subject was brought forward and took some occasion to leave as soon as
+possible.
+
+Though Kalipada still had headaches in the evening, with a slight rise
+in temperature, he did not take it at all seriously. He became anxious
+to resume his studies because he felt it would be a calamity to him if
+he again missed his scholarship. He secretly began to read once more,
+without taking any notice of the strict orders of the doctor. Kalipada
+asked his father to return home, assuring him that he was in the best of
+health. Bhavani had been all his life fed and nourished and cooked for
+by his wife; he was pining to get back. He did not therefore wait to be
+pressed.
+
+On the morning of his intended departure, when he went to say good-bye
+to Kalipada, he found him very ill indeed, his face red with fever and
+his whole body burning. He had been committing to memory page after page
+of his text book of Logic half through the night, and for the remainder
+he could not sleep at all. The doctor took Sailen aside. "This relapse,"
+he said, "is fatal." Sailen came to Bhavani and said, "The patient
+requires a mother's nursing: she must be brought to Calcutta."
+
+It was evening when Rashmani came, and she only saw her son alive for a
+few hours. Not knowing how her husband could survive such a terrible
+shock she altogether suppressed her own sorrow. Her son was merged in
+her husband again, and she took up this burden of the dead and the
+living on her own aching heart. She said to her God,--"It is too much
+for me to bear." But she did bear it.
+
+
+V
+
+It was midnight. With the very weariness of her sorrow Rashmani had
+fallen asleep soon after reaching her own home in the village. But
+Bhavani had no sleep that night. Tossing on his bed for hours he heaved
+a deep sigh saying,--"Merciful God!" Then he got up from his bed and
+went out. He entered the room where Kalipada had been wont to do his
+lessons in his childhood. The lamp shook as he held it in his hand. On
+the wooden settle there was still the torn, ink-stained quilt, made long
+ago by Rashmani herself. On the wall were figures of Euclid and Algebra
+drawn in charcoal. The remains of a Royal Reader No. III and a few
+exercise books were lying about; and the one odd slipper of his infancy,
+which had evaded notice so long, was keeping its place in the dusty
+obscurity of the corner of the room. To-day it had become so important
+that nothing in the world, however great, could keep it hidden any
+longer. Bhavani put the lamp in the niche on the wall and silently sat
+on the settle; his eyes were dry, but he felt choked as if with want of
+breath.
+
+Bhavani opened the shutters on the eastern side and stood still,
+grasping the iron bars, gazing into the darkness. Through the drizzling
+rain he could see the outline of the clump of trees at the end of the
+outer wall. At this spot Kalipada had made his own garden. The passion
+flowers which he had planted with his own hand had grown densely thick.
+While he gazed at this Bhavani felt his heart come up into his throat
+with choking pain. There was nobody now to wait for and expect daily.
+The summer vacation had come, but no one would come back home to fill
+the vacant room and use its old familiar furniture.
+
+"O Baba mine!" he cried, "O Baba! O Baba mine!"
+
+He sat down. The rain came faster. A sound of footsteps was heard among
+the grass and withered leaves. Bhavani's heart stood still. He hoped it
+was ... that which was beyond all hope. He thought it was Kalipada
+himself come to see his own garden,--and in this downpour of rain how
+wet he would be! Anxiety about this made him restless. Then somebody
+stood for a moment in front of the iron window bars. The cloak round his
+head made it impossible for Bhavani to see his face clearly, but his
+height was the same as that of Kalipada.
+
+"Darling!" cried Bhavani, "You have come!" and he rushed to open the
+door.
+
+But when he came outside to the spot where the figure had stood, there
+was no one to be seen. He walked up and down in the garden through the
+drenching rain, but no one was there. He stood still for a moment
+raising his voice and calling,--"Kalipada," but no answer came. The
+servant, Noto, who was sleeping in the cowshed, heard his cry and came
+out and coaxed him back to his room.
+
+Next day, in the morning, Noto, while sweeping the room found a bundle
+just underneath the grated window. He brought it to Bhavani who opened
+it and found it was an old document. He put on his spectacles and after
+reading a few lines came rushing in to Rashmani and gave the paper into
+her hand.
+
+Rashmani asked, "What is it?"
+
+Bhavani replied, "It is the will!"
+
+"Who gave it you?"
+
+"He himself came last night to give it to me."
+
+"What are you going to do with it?"
+
+Bhavani said: "I have no need of it now." And he tore the will to
+pieces.
+
+When the news reached the village Bagala proudly nodded his head and
+said: "Didn't I prophesy that the will would be recovered through
+Kalipada?"
+
+But the grocer Ramcharan replied: "Last night when the ten o'clock train
+reached the Station a handsome looking young man came to my shop and
+asked the way to the Chowdhuri's house and I thought he had some kind of
+bundle in his hand."
+
+"Absurd," said Bagala.
+
+
+WORDS TO BE STUDIED
+
+  =detailed.= From the French "tailler," to cut. Compare _tailor_,
+      _entail_, _retail_.
+
+  =patrimony.= From the Latin "pater," a father. Compare _paternal_,
+      _patriarch_, _patriot_. The ending -mony is from the Latin
+      -monium. Compare _testimony_, _matrimony_, _sanctimony_.
+
+  =revert.= From the Latin "vertere," to turn. Compare _convert_,
+      _subvert_, _divert_, _invert_, _advert_, _version_, _conversion_,
+      _adverse_.
+
+  =amazement.= This word is of doubtful origin. We have the simpler form
+      "maze" but do not know how it has come into English.
+
+  =preposterous.= The Latin word "pre" means "before," and the Latin
+      word "posterus" behind. The literal meaning, therefore, is
+      "before-behind" and so "absurd," "outrageous."
+
+  =treachery.= This comes from the Old French "treacher," to trick. It
+      is to be distinguished from the word "traitor," which comes from
+      the Latin "traditor," one who gives up another. Compare
+      _intricate_, _trickery_, _trick_, _intrigue_.
+
+  =parasites.= From the Greek word "sitos," food,--one who feeds on
+      another.
+
+  =property.= From the Latin "proprius," meaning "one's own." Compare
+      _proper_, _appropriate_, _improper_.
+
+  =haggle.= This is an Old Norwegian word which has come into English,
+      meaning literally to chop.
+
+  =good-for-nothing.= Such "phrase" words as these are not very common
+      in English. They are more common in French. Compare the English
+      _ne'er-do-well_, _lazybones_, _out-of-the-way_, and the French
+      _coup-d'A(C)tat_, _nom-de-plume_, _fin-de-siA(C)cle_. On the other hand,
+      adjectives made up of two words are quite common in English.
+      Compare _simple-hearted_, _middle-aged._
+
+  =rA(C)gime.= This word still retains its French form and accent and
+      pronunciation. Little by little such French words become
+      pronounced and spelt in an English form and take a permanent place
+      in the language. For instance, the French word "morale" with
+      accent on the last syllable is now becoming a common English word.
+      In time it will probably be accented on the first syllable like
+      ordinary English words and will drop its final "e."
+
+  =gap.= This is another Old Norwegian word meaning a wide opening.
+      Compare _gape_. These Norwegian words came into English somewhat
+      plentifully at the time of the Danish Conquest.
+
+  =sympathy.= From the Greek "syn" with, and "pathos" suffering. It
+      should be noted that the word "compassion" from the Latin "cum"
+      with, and "passio" suffering, has the same root meaning, viz.
+      "suffering _with_ another."
+
+  =law-suit.= The English word "suit" comes from the Latin "sequi," to
+      follow, which in French becomes "suivre." We have two English
+      forms, one form directly from the Latin, the other from the
+      French. From the Latin _prosecute_, _persecute_, _consecutive_,
+      _execute_. From the French _pursue_, _ensue_, _sue_.
+
+        A "suit" in a game of cards means the cards that follow one
+      another in a sequence.
+
+        A "suit" of clothes means the trousers, coat, waistcoat,
+      following the same pattern. Compare also the French word _suite_
+      which has now been taken into English, e.g. a _suite_ of rooms, a
+      _suite_ of furniture (pronounced like "sweet").
+
+  =incoherence.= From the Latin "haerere," to stick. Compare _adhere_,
+      _cohere_, _inherent_, _coherence_.
+
+  =foreign.= From the Old French "forain," out of doors. The letter "g"
+      has become wrongly inserted in this word as also in "sovereign."
+
+  =bargain.= From the late Latin "barca," a boat, because trade was
+      carried on by boats along the rivers. Compare _barque_, _barge_,
+      _bark_.
+
+  =husky.= From the noun husk,--as dry as a husk.
+
+  =shawl.= From the Persian word "shAel." A considerable number of words
+      are coming into use in English now from the East. One of the most
+      curious recent ones is Blighty which is a corruption of wilayati,
+      bilaiti. For words introduced into English compare _karma_,
+      _sanyasi_, _fakir_, _brahmin_, _ghat_, _puggaree_, _pyjama_,
+      _pucca_, _curry_, _chutney_, _chintz_, _cummerbund_, _khaki_,
+      _rupee_, _durrie_, _turban_, _sepoy_.
+
+  =doll.= This is a shortened form of the English girl's name Dorothy,
+      Dolly, Doll. Compare _poll-parrot_ from Polly or Poll.
+
+  =soup.= This word still retains its French form, without the final "e"
+      (French _soupe_), but the English words _sup_, _supper_ have
+      dropped their French spelling altogether.
+
+  =ticket.= From the Old French "estiquette," meaning something fixed
+      like a bill on the wall. (Compare the English word to "stick"
+      which comes from the same root.)
+
+  We have here a case of a French word branching off into two quite
+      distinct English words,--"etiquette" and "ticket," each having its
+      own meaning.
+
+  =jersey.= One of the islands in the English Channel called Jersey
+      first made this special form of woollen vest. Many English words
+      are thus taken from the names of places. Compare _currant_
+      (Corinth), _argosy_ (Ragusa), _calico_ (Calicut), _bronze_
+      (Brundusium), _gipsy_ (Egyptian), _cashmere_ (Kashmir).
+
+  =impertinence.= Originally this word means that which is not
+      "pertinent," and so something "out-of-place." Later on it got the
+      present meaning of something insolent.
+
+  =mosquito.= From the Spanish. The word is the diminutive of the Latin
+      "musca," a fly.
+
+  =scruple.= From the Latin "scrupulus," a small sharp stone. This word
+      meant first in English a very small weight of twenty grains; then
+      it came to mean a slight weight on the mind or conscience. In the
+      Trial Scene of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice we have the
+      original sense used,--"the twentieth part of one poor scruple."
+
+  =exuberant.= From the Latin "uber," udder. Thus it comes to mean
+      "flowing from the udder" and so "overflowing."
+
+  =handkerchief.= "Kerchief" came from two French words "couvre," to
+      cover, and "chef," the head. It meant a head cloth. Then a smaller
+      cloth was used in the hand and this was called a hand-kerchief.
+
+  =lunacy.= From the Latin "luna," the moon. In former times Europeans
+      used to think that madness was due to some influence of the moon.
+      Compare the word _moonstruck_.
+
+  =algebra.= This is one of the many words from Arabic beginning with
+      "al," the. Compare _alkali_, _albatross_, _alcohol_, _alembic_,
+      _alchemy_, _alcove_.
+
+  =Euclid.= This word was originally the name of a great Greek
+      mathematical writer. His writings were called "Books of Euclid."
+      Now the subject is usually called Geometry.
+
+  =absurd.= From the Latin "surdus," deaf. Deaf people generally appear
+      stupid to those who can hear. So this word has come to mean
+      foolish or ridiculous.
+
+  =topsy-turvy.= This probably is a shortened form of
+      topside-turvy,--"turvy" being a colloquial corruption for "turned"
+      or "turned over."
+
+
+
+
+THE BABUS OF NAYANJORE
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+THE BABUS OF NAYANJORE
+
+
+I
+
+Once upon a time the Babus at Nayanjore were famous landholders. They
+were noted for their princely extravagance. They would tear off the
+rough border of their Dacca muslin, because it rubbed against their
+delicate skin. They could spend many thousands of rupees over the
+wedding of a kitten. And on a certain grand occasion it is alleged that
+in order to turn night into day they lighted numberless lamps and
+showered silver threads from the sky to imitate sunlight.
+
+Those were the days before the flood. The flood came. The line of
+succession among these old-world Babus, with their lordly habits, could
+not continue for long. Like a lamp with too many wicks burning, the oil
+flared away quickly, and the light went out.
+
+Kailas Babu, our neighbour, is the last relic of this extinct
+magnificence. Before he grew up, his family had very nearly reached its
+lowest ebb. When his father died, there was one dazzling outburst of
+funeral extravagance, and then insolvency. The property was sold to
+liquidate the debt. What little ready money was left over was altogether
+insufficient to keep up the past ancestral splendours.
+
+Kailas Babu left Nayanjore and came to Calcutta. His son did not remain
+long in this world of faded glory. He died, leaving behind him an only
+daughter.
+
+In Calcutta we are Kailas Babu's neighbours. Curiously enough our own
+family history is just the opposite of his. My father got his money by
+his own exertions, and prided himself on never spending a penny more
+than was needed. His clothes were those of a working man, and his hands
+also. He never had any inclination to earn the title of Babu by
+extravagant display; and I myself, his only son, owe him gratitude for
+that. He gave me the very best education, and I was able to make my way
+in the world. I am not ashamed of the fact that I am a self-made man.
+Crisp bank-notes in my safe are dearer to me than a long pedigree in an
+empty family chest.
+
+I believe this was why I disliked seeing Kailas Babu drawing his heavy
+cheques on the public credit from the bankrupt bank of his ancient Babu
+reputation. I used to fancy that he looked down on me, because my father
+had earned money with his own hands.
+
+I ought to have noticed that no one showed any vexation towards Kailas
+Babu except myself. Indeed it would have been difficult to find an old
+man who did less harm than he. He was always ready with his kindly
+little acts of courtesy in times of sorrow and joy. He would join in all
+the ceremonies and religious observances of his neighbours. His familiar
+smile would greet young and old alike. His politeness in asking details
+about domestic affairs was untiring. The friends who met him in the
+street were perforce ready to be button-holed, while a long string of
+questions of this kind followed one another from his lips:
+
+"My dear friend, I am delighted to see you. Are you quite well? How is
+Shashi? And Dada--is he all right? Do you know, I've only just heard
+that Madhu's son has got fever. How is he? Have you heard? And Hari
+Charan Babu--I have not seen him for a long time--I hope he is not ill.
+What's the matter with Rakkhal? And er--er, how are the ladies of your
+family?"
+
+Kailas Babu was spotlessly neat in his dress on all occasions, though
+his supply of clothes was sorely limited. Every day he used to air his
+shirts and vests and coats and trousers carefully, and put them out in
+the sun, along with his bed-quilt, his pillowcase, and the small carpet
+on which he always sat. After airing them he would shake them, and
+brush them, and put them carefully away. His little bits of furniture
+made his small room decent, and hinted that there was more in reserve if
+needed. Very often, for want of a servant, he would shut up his house
+for a while. Then he would iron out his shirts and linen with his own
+hands, and do other little menial tasks. After this he would open his
+door and receive his friends again.
+
+Though Kailas Babu, as I have said, had lost all his landed property, he
+had still some family heirlooms left. There was a silver cruet for
+sprinkling scented water, a filigree box for otto-of-roses, a small gold
+salver, a costly ancient shawl, and the old-fashioned ceremonial dress
+and ancestral turban. These he had rescued with the greatest difficulty
+from the money-lenders' clutches. On every suitable occasion he would
+bring them out in state, and thus try to save the world-famed dignity of
+the Babus of Nayanjore. At heart the most modest of men, in his daily
+speech he regarded it as a sacred duty, owed to his rank, to give free
+play to his family pride. His friends would encourage this trait in his
+character with kindly good-humour, and it gave them great amusement.
+
+The neighbourhood soon learnt to call him their Thakur Dada. They would
+flock to his house and sit with him for hours together. To prevent his
+incurring any expense, one or other of his friends would bring him
+tobacco and say: "Thakur Dada, this morning some tobacco was sent to me
+from Gaya. Do take it and see how you like it."
+
+Thakur Dada would take it and say it was excellent. He would then go on
+to tell of a certain exquisite tobacco which they once smoked in the old
+days of Nayanjore at the cost of a guinea an ounce.
+
+"I wonder," he used to say, "if any one would like to try it now. I have
+some left, and can get it at once."
+
+Every one knew that, if they asked for it, then somehow or other the key
+of the cupboard would be missing; or else Ganesh, his old family
+servant, had put it away somewhere.
+
+"You never can be sure," he would add, "where things go to when servants
+are about. Now, this Ganesh of mine,--I can't tell you what a fool he
+is, but I haven't the heart to dismiss him."
+
+Ganesh, for the credit of the family, was quite ready to bear all the
+blame without a word.
+
+One of the company usually said at this point: "Never mind, Thakur Dada.
+Please don't trouble to look for it. This tobacco we're smoking will do
+quite well. The other would be too strong."
+
+Then Thakur Dada would be relieved and settle down again, and the talk
+would go on.
+
+When his guests got up to go away, Thakur Dada would accompany them to
+the door and say to them on the door-step: "Oh, by the way, when are you
+all coming to dine with me?"
+
+One or other of us would answer: "Not just yet, Thakur Dada, not just
+yet. We'll fix a day later."
+
+"Quite right," he would answer. "Quite right. We had much better wait
+till the rains come. It's too hot now. And a grand rich dinner such as I
+should want to give you would upset us in weather like this."
+
+But when the rains did come, every one was very careful not to remind
+him of his promise. If the subject was brought up, some friend would
+suggest gently that it was very inconvenient to get about when the rains
+were so severe, and therefore it would be much better to wait till they
+were over. Thus the game went on.
+
+Thakur Dada's poor lodging was much too small for his position, and we
+used to condole with him about it. His friends would assure him they
+quite understood his difficulties: it was next to impossible to get a
+decent house in Calcutta. Indeed, they had all been looking out for
+years for a house to suit him. But, I need hardly add, no friend had
+been foolish enough to find one. Thakur Dada used to say, with a sigh of
+resignation: "Well, well, I suppose I shall have to put up with this
+house after all." Then he would add with a genial smile: "But, you know,
+I could never bear to be away from my friends. I must be near you. That
+really compensates for everything."
+
+Somehow I felt all this very deeply indeed. I suppose the real reason
+was, that when a man is young, stupidity appears to him the worst of
+crimes. Kailas Babu was not really stupid. In ordinary business matters
+every one was ready to consult him. But with regard to Nayanjore his
+utterances were certainly void of common sense. Because, out of amused
+affection for him, no one contradicted his impossible statements, he
+refused to keep them in bounds. When people recounted in his hearing the
+glorious history of Nayanjore with absurd exaggerations, he would accept
+all they said with the utmost gravity, and never doubted, even in his
+dreams, that any one could disbelieve it.
+
+
+II
+
+When I sit down and try to analyse the thoughts and feelings that I had
+towards Kailas Babu, I see that there was a still deeper reason for my
+dislike. I will now explain.
+
+Though I am the son of a rich man, and might have wasted time at
+college, my industry was such that I took my M.A. degree in Calcutta
+University when quite young. My moral character was flawless. In
+addition, my outward appearance was so handsome, that if I were to call
+myself beautiful, it might be thought a mark of self-estimation, but
+could not be considered an untruth.
+
+There could be no question that among the young men of Bengal I was
+regarded by parents generally as a very eligible match. I was myself
+quite clear on the point and had determined to obtain my full value in
+the marriage market. When I pictured my choice, I had before my mind's
+eye a wealthy father's only daughter, extremely beautiful and highly
+educated. Proposals came pouring in to me from far and near; large sums
+in cash were offered. I weighed these offers with rigid impartiality in
+the delicate scales of my own estimation. But there was no one fit to be
+my partner. I became convinced, with the poet Bhabavuti, that,
+
+    In this world's endless time and boundless space
+    One _may_ be born at last to match my sovereign grace.
+
+But in this puny modern age, and this contracted space of modern
+Bengal, it was doubtful if the peerless creature existed as yet.
+
+Meanwhile my praises were sung in many tunes, and in different metres,
+by designing parents.
+
+Whether I was pleased with their daughters or not, this worship which
+they offered was never unpleasing. I used to regard it as my proper due,
+because I was so good. We are told that when the gods withhold their
+boons from mortals they still expect their worshippers to pay them
+fervent honour and are angry if it is withheld. I had that divine
+expectance strongly developed in myself.
+
+I have already mentioned that Thakur Dada had an only grand-daughter. I
+had seen her many times, but had never mistaken her for beautiful. No
+thought had ever entered my mind that she would be a possible partner
+for myself. All the same, it seemed quite certain to me that some day or
+other Kailas Babu would offer her, with all due worship, as an oblation
+at my shrine. Indeed--this was the inner secret of my dislike--I was
+thoroughly annoyed that he had not done so already.
+
+I heard that Thakur Dada had told his friends that the Babus of
+Nayanjore never craved a boon. Even if the girl remained unmarried, he
+would not break the family tradition. It was this arrogance of his that
+made me angry. My indignation smouldered for some time. But I remained
+perfectly silent and bore it with the utmost patience, because I was so
+good.
+
+As lightning accompanies thunder, so in my character a flash of humour
+was mingled with the mutterings of my wrath. It was, of course,
+impossible for me to punish the old man merely to give vent to my rage;
+and for a long time I did nothing at all. But suddenly one day such an
+amusing plan came into my head, that I could not resist the temptation
+of carrying it into effect.
+
+I have already said that many of Kailas Babu's friends used to flatter
+the old man's vanity to the full. One, who was a retired Government
+servant, had told him that whenever he saw the Chota LAct Sahib he always
+asked for the latest news about the Babus of Nayanjore, and the Chota
+LAct had been heard to say that in all Bengal the only really respectable
+families were those of the Maharaja of Cossipore and the Babus of
+Nayanjore. When this monstrous falsehood was told to Kailas Babu he was
+extremely gratified and often repeated the story. And wherever after
+that he met this Government servant in company he would ask, along with
+other questions:
+
+"Oh! er--by the way, how is the Chota LAct Sahib? Quite well, did you
+say? Ah, yes, I am so delighted to hear it! And the dear Mem Sahib, is
+she quite well too? Ah, yes! and the little children--are they quite
+well also? Ah, yes! that's very good news! Be sure and give them my
+compliments when you see them."
+
+Kailas Babu would constantly express his intention of going some day and
+paying a visit to the Lord Sahib. But it may be taken for granted that
+many Chota LActs and Burra LActs also would come and go, and much water
+would pass down the Hoogly, before the family coach of Nayanjore would
+be furbished up to pay a visit to Government House.
+
+One day I took Kailas Babu aside and told him in a whisper: "Thakur
+Dada, I was at the Levee yesterday, and the Chota LAct Sahib happened to
+mention the Babus of Nayanjore. I told him that Kailas Babu had come to
+town. Do you know, he was terribly hurt because you hadn't called. He
+told me he was going to put etiquette on one side and pay you a private
+visit himself this very afternoon."
+
+Anybody else could have seen through this plot of mine in a moment. And,
+if it had been directed against another person, Kailas Babu would have
+understood the joke. But after all that he had heard from his friend the
+Government servant, and after all his own exaggerations, a visit from
+the Lieutenant-Governor seemed the most natural thing in the world. He
+became highly nervous and excited at my news. Each detail of the coming
+visit exercised him greatly,--most of all his own ignorance of English.
+How on earth was that difficulty to be met? I told him there was no
+difficulty at all: it was aristocratic not to know English: and,
+besides, the Lieutenant-Governor always brought an interpreter with him,
+and he had expressly mentioned that this visit was to be private.
+
+About midday, when most of our neighbours are at work, and the rest are
+asleep, a carriage and pair stopped before the lodging of Kailas Babu.
+Two flunkeys in livery came up the stairs, and announced in a loud
+voice, "The Chota LAct Sahib has arrived!" Kailas Babu was ready, waiting
+for him, in his old-fashioned ceremonial robes and ancestral turban, and
+Ganesh was by his side, dressed in his master's best suit of clothes for
+the occasion.
+
+When the Chota LAct Sahib was announced, Kailas Babu ran panting and
+puffing and trembling to the door, and led in a friend of mine, in
+disguise, with repeated salaams, bowing low at each step and walking
+backward as best he could. He had his old family shawl spread over a
+hard wooden chair and he asked the LAct Sahib to be seated. He then made
+a high-flown speech in Urdu, the ancient Court language of the Sahibs,
+and presented on the golden salver a string of gold _mohurs_, the last
+relics of his broken fortune. The old family servant Ganesh, with an
+expression of awe bordering on terror, stood behind with the
+scent-sprinkler, drenching the LAct Sahib, and touched him gingerly from
+time to time with the otto-of-roses from the filigree box.
+
+Kailas Babu repeatedly expressed his regret at not being able to receive
+His Honour Bahadur with all the ancestral magnificence of his own family
+estate at Nayanjore. There he could have welcomed him properly with due
+ceremonial. But in Calcutta he was a mere stranger and sojourner,--in
+fact a fish out of water.
+
+My friend, with his tall silk hat on, very gravely nodded. I need hardly
+say that according to English custom the hat ought to have been removed
+inside the room. But my friend did not dare to take it off for fear of
+detection: and Kailas Babu and his old servant Ganesh were sublimely
+unconscious of the breach of etiquette.
+
+After a ten minutes' interview, which consisted chiefly of nodding the
+head, my friend rose to his feet to depart. The two flunkeys in livery,
+as had been planned beforehand, carried off in state the string of gold
+_mohurs_, the gold salver, the old ancestral shawl, the silver
+scent-sprinkler, and the otto-of-roses filigree box; they placed them
+ceremoniously in the carriage. Kailas Babu regarded this as the usual
+habit of Chota LAct Sahibs.
+
+I was watching all the while from the next room. My sides were aching
+with suppressed laughter. When I could hold myself in no longer, I
+rushed into a further room, suddenly to discover, in a corner, a young
+girl sobbing as if her heart would break. When she saw my uproarious
+laughter she stood upright in passion, flashing the lightning of her big
+dark eyes in mine, and said with a tear-choked voice: "Tell me! What
+harm has my grandfather done to you? Why have you come to deceive him?
+Why have you come here? Why----"
+
+She could say no more. She covered her face with her hands and broke
+into sobs.
+
+My laughter vanished in a moment. It had never occurred to me that there
+was anything but a supremely funny joke in this act of mine, and here I
+discovered that I had given the cruellest pain to this tenderest little
+heart. All the ugliness of my cruelty rose up to condemn me. I slunk out
+of the room in silence, like a kicked dog.
+
+Hitherto I had only looked upon Kusum, the grand-daughter of Kailas
+Babu, as a somewhat worthless commodity in the marriage market, waiting
+in vain to attract a husband. But now I found, with a shock of
+surprise, that in the corner of that room a human heart was beating.
+
+The whole night through I had very little sleep. My mind was in a
+tumult. On the next day, very early in the morning, I took all those
+stolen goods back to Kailas Babu's lodgings, wishing to hand them over
+in secret to the servant Ganesh. I waited outside the door, and, not
+finding any one, went upstairs to Kailas Babu's room. I heard from the
+passage Kusum asking her grandfather in the most winning voice: "Dada,
+dearest, do tell me all that the Chota LAct Sahib said to you yesterday.
+Don't leave out a single word. I am dying to hear it all over again."
+
+And Dada needed no encouragement. His face beamed over with pride as he
+related all manner of praises which the LAct Sahib had been good enough
+to utter concerning the ancient families of Nayanjore. The girl was
+seated before him, looking up into his face, and listening with rapt
+attention. She was determined, out of love for the old man, to play her
+part to the full.
+
+My heart was deeply touched, and tears came to my eyes. I stood there in
+silence in the passage, while Thakur Dada finished all his
+embellishments of the Chota LAct Sahib's wonderful visit. When he left
+the room at last, I took the stolen goods and laid them at the feet of
+the girl and came away without a word.
+
+Later in the day I called again to see Kailas Babu himself. According to
+our ugly modern custom, I had been in the habit of making no greeting at
+all to this old man when I came into the room. But on this day I made a
+low bow and touched his feet. I am convinced the old man thought that
+the coming of the Chota LAct Sahib to his house was the cause of my new
+politeness. He was highly gratified by it, and an air of benign serenity
+shone from his eyes. His friends had looked in, and he had already begun
+to tell again at full length the story of the Lieutenant-Governor's
+visit with still further adornments of a most fantastic kind. The
+interview was already becoming an epic, both in quality and in length.
+
+When the other visitors had taken their leave, I made my proposal to the
+old man in a humble manner. I told him that, "though I could never for a
+moment hope to be worthy of marriage connection with such an illustrious
+family, yet ... etc. etc."
+
+When I made clear my proposal of marriage, the old man embraced me and
+broke out in a tumult of joy: "I am a poor man, and could never have
+expected such great good fortune."
+
+That was the first and last time in his life that Kailas Babu confessed
+to being poor. It was also the first and last time in his life that he
+forgot, if only for a single moment, the ancestral dignity that belongs
+to the Babus of Nayanjore.
+
+
+WORDS TO BE STUDIED
+
+  =landholder.= This method of forming compound words from two original
+      English words should be studied. Compare the following words
+      which have "land" for one of their parts: _landlord_,
+      _landowner_, _landlady_, _landslip_, _landfall_. When the second
+      word is not very closely attached to the first word, a hyphen is
+      put between, thus _land-grabber_, _land-shark_.
+
+  =extinct.= From the Latin "stinguere," to quench. Compare _distinct_,
+      _instinct_, _extinguish_, _distinguish_.
+
+  =cheque.= This word is the same as "check,"--only in this case the
+      original French form has been kept. The verb to "check" came into
+      English originally from the game of chess. In Eastern lands when
+      the chess king was in danger the word "Shah!" was called out, and
+      when the chess king could not move, "Shah mata!" These were
+      corrupted into "Check!" and "Checkmate!"
+
+  =bankrupt.= This word is a curious mixture of the old French "banque"
+      (compare _bench_, _banquet_) and the Latin "rumpere," to break
+      (compare _corrupt_, _disrupt_). It is thus a hybrid word in modern
+      English.
+
+  =filigree.= From two Latin words, "filum," a thread, and "granum," a
+      grain.
+
+  =otto-of-roses.= A corruption of attar. The word is originally Arabic
+      and Persian.
+
+  =turban.= This word has now taken its place in most of the European
+      languages. It has come to Europe from the Turkish "tulbend" and
+      the Persian "dulband."
+
+  =tobacco.= This word came originally from Central America. It was
+      brought to Europe by the Spaniards, who pronounced it "tabaco." It
+      has now travelled all round the world, and has gained a place in
+      all the Indian vernaculars as well as in the Further East.
+
+  =boon.= The Old English word "ben" meant a prayer, and this was the
+      original meaning of "boon." But a new word appeared in English,
+      viz. the adjective "boon" from the French "bon," meaning "good."
+      (Compare _boon companion_). This influenced the earlier word,
+      which thus gained its present meaning of a "blessing" or "gift."
+
+  =smoulder.= "Smolder" is an Old English word meaning "smoke." Cognate
+      words in English are _smother_ and _small_, which come from the
+      same root.
+
+  =gingerly.= The origin of this word is very doubtful. Some connect it
+      with "ging" or "gang," meaning "to go." Others with "gent-"
+      meaning "gentle" or "graceful." The word has no relation to
+      "ginger" which is an Eastern word coming originally from the
+      Sanskrit _ASec.raga-vera_ and the Hindustani _zunjubil_.
+
+  =fantastic.= From the Greek "phainA," to manifest. Compare _emphasis_,
+      _emphatic_, _fantasy_, _fancy_, _phenomenon_.
+
+
+
+
+NOTES
+
+
+
+
+NOTES
+
+
+I.--THE CABULIWALLAH
+
+"The Cabuliwallah" is one of the most famous of the Poet's "Short
+Stories." It has been often translated. The present translation is by
+the late Sister Nivedita, and her simple, vivid style should be noticed
+by the Indian student reader. It is a good example of modern English,
+with its short sentences, its careful choice of words, and its luminous
+clearness of meaning.
+
+  =Cabuliwallah.=] A man from Cabul or Kabul, the capital of
+      Afghanistan.
+
+  =embarked.=] Like a ship putting out to sea on a new voyage.
+
+  =Bhola.=] Mini's attendant.
+
+  =Protap Singh.=] Rabindranath Tagore pictures himself as engaged in
+      writing a novel, full of wild adventures. These names are made up
+      to suit the story.
+
+  =so precarious.=] The writer amusingly imagines the hero and heroine
+      actually swinging by the rope until he can get back to his desk
+      and finish writing about how they escaped.
+
+  =Abdurrahman.=] The Amir of Kabul.
+
+  =Frontier policy.=] The question about guarding the North-West of
+      India against invasion.
+
+  =without demur.=] Without making any objection, or asking for more
+      money.
+
+  =judicious bribery.=] He gave her little presents, _judging_ well what
+      she would like best.
+
+  =new fangled.=] The parents had not talked about such things, as
+      old-fashioned people would have certainly done.
+
+  =euphemism.=] This means, in Greek, "fair speech." Here it means a
+      pleasant word used instead of the unpleasant word "jail."
+
+  =kings went forth.=] During the hot weather the kings of ancient India
+      used to stay at home: they would begin to fight again at the
+      beginning of the cold weather.
+
+  =my heart would go out.=] That is to say, he would long to see such
+      places.
+
+  =fall to weaving.=] This is an English idiom, like "set to": it means
+      to begin.
+
+  =conjure themselves.=] Just as the conjurer makes all kinds of things
+      appear before the eyes.
+
+  =vegetable existence.=] Vegetables are rooted to the ground. So
+      Rabindranath is rooted to his desk and cannot make long journeys.
+
+  =As it was indefinite.=] Because there was no actual reason for it.
+      Indefinite here means vague.
+
+  =forbid the man the house.=] This is a brief way of saying forbid the
+      man to enter the house.
+
+  =bebagged.=] This word is made up for the occasion, and means "laden
+      with bags." Compare the words bedewed, besmeared.
+
+  =just where.=] The word "just" has become very commonly used in modern
+      English. It means "exactly," "merely" or "at the very moment."
+      Compare "He had just gone out." "It was just a joke."
+
+  =Scarcely on speaking terms.=] Rabindranath Tagore is here making a
+      joke; "not to be on speaking terms" means usually "to be
+      displeased with." Mini had become so eager to talk with her girl
+      friends that she had almost neglected her father.
+
+  =Durga.=] The Durga Festival in Bengal is supposed to represent the
+      time when Parvati, or Durga, left her father's home in the
+      Himalayas, called Kailas, and went to live with her husband,
+      Siva.
+
+  =Bhairavi.=] One of the musical tunes which denotes separation.
+
+  =chandeliers.=] The glass ornamental hangings on which candles were
+      lighted in great houses at weddings.
+
+  =better-omened.=] It was not considered a good omen, or good fortune,
+      to meet a criminal on a wedding day.
+
+  =dispersed.=] Used up.
+
+  =Parbati.=] Another allusion to the Goddess Durga and her home in the
+      Himalayas.
+
+  =apparition.=] This word comes from the same root as the word to
+      "appear." It means a sudden or strange sight. It often means a
+      ghost. Mini had so changed that when she appeared in her wedding
+      dress she startled him, as if he had seen a ghost.
+
+  =make friends with her anew.=] His own daughter would not know him at
+      first.
+
+  =Saw before him the barren mountains.=] His memory was so strong that
+      it made him forget the crowded Calcutta street and think of his
+      home in the mountains.
+
+
+II.--THE HOME-COMING
+
+  =every one seconded the proposal.=] All were so eagerly in favour
+      that they wanted to speak at once in support of it.
+
+  =regal dignity.=] His position as a king of the other boys.
+
+  =fertile brain.=] Full of inventions and plans.
+
+  =manoeuvre.=] A French word meaning a plan of battle.
+
+  =point of honour.=] He would feel himself disgraced if he gave way.
+
+  =Mother Earth.=] Earth is here pictured as a person. There is a
+      well-known story of a giant who gained fresh power every time his
+      body touched the earth, which was his Mother.
+
+  =Furies.=] These were supposed to be certain demons, who pursued
+      guilty men with loud cries.
+
+  =the servant was master.=] Notice the play of words here. The
+      "servant" and "master" change places.
+
+  =critical juncture.=] At this exact moment when things were so
+      dangerous.
+
+  =Dada.=] The usual Bengal word for "Brother."
+
+  =no love was lost.=] This is a mild way of saying that they disliked
+      one another.
+
+  =on pins and needles.=] Exceedingly restless; like some one standing
+      on sharp points.
+
+  =in perpetuity.=] The phrase is a mock legal one, meaning "for all
+      time."
+
+  =by no means pleased.=] She was very displeased, because she had
+      already children of her own. In English a phrase is often put in a
+      negative way to imply a very strong positive statement. Thus "by
+      no means happy" may mean "very unhappy."
+
+  =committing such an indiscretion.=] Doing such an unwise thing.
+
+  =indecent haste.=] A mock humorous expression, meaning "very quickly."
+
+  =craves for recognition.=] Wishes to be noticed and loved.
+
+  =physical love.=] Just as a young animal clings to its mother for
+      protection.
+
+  =animal instinct.=] The phrase repeats in another form what was said
+      before, in the words "a kind of physical love."
+
+  =pursed her lips.=] Drew her lips tight like the mouth of a purse
+      which is tightened by pulling the string.
+
+  =as if expecting some one.=] He was looking for his mother.
+
+  =very critical.=] Very dangerous. The danger point of the illness
+      might be reached at any moment and death might come.
+
+  =By the mark.=] When a shallow place comes at sea, or on a great
+      river, one of the sailors throws a piece of lead, with a string
+      tied to it, into the water, and then looks at the _mark_ on the
+      string. He calls out that the depth is "three" or "four" fathoms
+      according to the mark.
+
+  =plumb-line.=] The line with a lead weight.
+
+  =plumbing.=] To plumb is to get to the bottom of a piece of water.
+      Here Phatik is pictured as himself going deeper and deeper into
+      the sea of death, which none can fathom.
+
+  =the holidays.=] The Bengali word for "holiday" means also "release."
+      It is as though he were saying, "My release has come." This cannot
+      be represented in the English.
+
+
+III.--ONCE THERE WAS A KING
+
+In this story Rabindranath Tagore begins with some amusing sentences
+about the dull, matter of fact character of modern scientific people,
+who cannot enjoy a fairy story without asking "Is it true?" The Poet
+implies that there are deeper truths than modern science has yet
+discovered. The ending of the present story will show this more clearly.
+
+  =sovereign truth.=] There is a play upon the word "sovereign" which
+      can mean "kingly" and also "supreme."
+
+  =exacting.=] There is further play here with the words "exact" and
+      "exacting." "Exact" means precise and "exacting" means making
+      others precise.
+
+  =legendary haze.=] The ancient legends are very obscure, just like an
+      object seen through a mist.
+
+  =knowledge.=] Mere book knowledge,--knowledge of outside things.
+
+  =truth.=] Inner truth such as comes from the heart of man and cannot
+      be reasoned or disputed.
+
+  =half past seven.=] The time when his tutor was due.
+
+  =no other need.=] As if God would continue the rain merely to keep his
+      tutor away!
+
+  =If not.=] Though it might not have been caused by his prayers, still
+      for some reason the rain did continue.
+
+  =nor did my teacher.=] Supply the words "give up."
+
+  =punishment to fit the crime.=] An amusing reference to the doctrine
+      of _karma_, which states that each deed will have its due reward
+      or punishment.
+
+  =as me.=] Strictly speaking it should be "I" not "me" but he is
+      writing not too strictly.
+
+  =I hope no child.=] The author here amusingly pretends that the
+      child's way of getting out of his lessons was too shocking for
+      young boys in the junior school to read about.
+
+  =I will marry my daughter to him.=] The verb to "marry" in English can
+      be used in two  senses:--
+
+        (1) To wed some one: to take in marriage.
+
+        (2) To get some one wedded: to give in marriage.
+
+  The later sense is used here.
+
+  =in the dawn of some indefinite time.=] In some past existence long
+      ago.
+
+  =If my grandmother were an author.=] Here Rabindranath returns to his
+      mocking humour. A modern author, he says, would be obliged to
+      explain all sorts of details in the story.
+
+  =hue and cry.=] This is a phrase used for the noise and bustle that is
+      made when people are searching for a thief.
+
+  =Her readers.=] Referring back to the Grandmother.
+
+  =in an underhand way.=] Under the disguise of a fairy story.
+
+  =grandmother again.=] That is, in the old conditions when people were
+      not too exacting about accuracy.
+
+  =luckless grandson.=] A humorous way of referring to himself. The
+      author had the misfortune to be born in the modern age of science.
+
+  =Seven wings.=] The word "wings" is here used, not for "wings" like
+      those of birds, but for the sides of a large building, projecting
+      out at an angle from the main building.
+
+  =But what is the use....=] The author here breaks off the story, as
+      though it were useless to go on any further in these modern days
+      when every thing has to be scientifically proved.
+
+  =Some "what then?"=] Some future existence about which explanations
+      might be asked.
+
+  =no grandmother of a grandmother.=] No one, however old.
+
+  =never admits defeat.=] Refuses to believe in death.
+
+  =teacherless evening=.] Evening on which the teacher did not come.
+
+  =chamber of the great end.=] Death itself is referred to; it is the
+      end of human life on earth and what is beyond death is shut out
+      from us.
+
+  =incantation.=] Sacred verses or _mantras_.
+
+
+IV.--THE RETURN OF THE CHILD
+
+  =found two masters.=] The wife was his master now, as well as her
+      husband.
+
+  =make for safety.=] Get to some place where he could not be caught.
+
+  =will be a judge some day.=] The baby seemed so wise to Raicharan,
+      that he thought he would certainly grow up to be a judge.
+
+  =epoch in human history.=] It seemed to Raicharan as though some great
+      event had happened which ought to be recorded.
+
+  =wrestler's trick.=] The writer, in fun, makes Raicharan's skill
+      depend on doing just what the wrestler tries to avoid, i.e. being
+      thrown on his back.
+
+  =swallowed down.=] Washed them away in a flood.
+
+  =little despot.=] The baby, who was able to make Raicharan do exactly
+      what he liked.
+
+  =The silent ceremonial.=] The author pictures the sunset as like some
+      splendid kingly ceremony, where every gorgeous colour can be seen.
+
+  ="Pitty fow."=] "Pretty flower." The baby can only lisp the words.
+
+  =He was promoted from a horse into a groom.=] He was no longer asked
+      by the baby to be a "horse" in his games, but to look after this
+      toy carriage, as a groom would.
+
+  =with all sorts of curious noises.=] He began to imitate the sounds of
+      birds.
+
+  =destined to be a judge.=] The baby could see through Raicharan's
+      attempts to deceive, as a judge would see through false evidence.
+
+  =wavelets.=] The little waves seemed like so many thousand little
+      children running away in fun or mischief.
+
+  =there was no one there.=] These words are repeated again and again to
+      give the sense of utter loss and desolation.
+
+  =overwhelming resentment.=] His own baby seemed to have been given to
+      him in order to tempt him to forget his little Master. Raicharan
+      was angry to think that any one could imagine such forgetfulness
+      to be possible.
+
+  =The little Master could not cast off the spell.=] Could not keep away
+      from the servant who loved him so much. He fancies his little
+      Master has come back to life again in this new little baby, drawn
+      as it were by some enchantment of love.
+
+  =accumulated.=] Gathered together: referring to the idea of _karma_.
+
+  =personal appearance.=] He spent a long time in arranging his clothes
+      and making himself look handsome.
+
+  =country manners.=] Country people have habits and ways of speaking
+      which seem absurd to town people.
+
+  =a kind of condescension.=] As if he were superior and Raicharan were
+      beneath him.
+
+  =mendicant quack.=] A beggar dealing in herbs and medicines and
+      charms.
+
+  =hungry, eager eyes.=] As if she could never gaze long enough upon
+      him.
+
+  =the magistrate in him.=] The magistrate's way of looking at things.
+
+  =magisterial conscience.=] His instincts as a judge, who must condemn
+      the guilty.
+
+
+V.--MASTER MASHAI
+
+  =Ratikanta.=] He is represented throughout as a typical hanger-on of
+      the rich family, selfish and flattering.
+
+  =Victor Hugo.=] The most famous of Victor Hugo's stories is called
+      "Les Miserables." Its opening scene of San Valjean and the saintly
+      Bishop is very well known in literature.
+
+  =deep-laid plot.=] Notice how throughout this story the different
+      members of this wealthy house appear to be unable to take account
+      of unselfish motives.
+
+  =this is sheer kidnapping.=] Adhar Babu believes that Haralal has
+      acquired some hypnotic influence over Venu and is trying to rob
+      him of his money.
+
+  =brokers and middlemen.=] Those who bought the grain from the peasants
+      and sold it to the English firm.
+
+  =any security.=] A money payment which would be forfeited if anything
+      went wrong.
+
+  =a note of hand.=] A paper signed by Venugopal saying that he owed so
+      much money.
+
+  =filed a suit.=] Brought an action in the law courts against the
+      father to recover the money lent to the son.
+
+  =Currency notes.=] Notes of twenty, fifty, a hundred rupees,--such as
+      could be changed for money.
+
+  =theft the night before.=] Adhar Babu had already missed the things
+      that Venu had taken away.
+
+  =it's a paying business.=] Adhar Babu imagines that Venu and Haralal
+      have become partners in order to swindle other people.
+
+  =with your connivance.=] With your secret knowledge and approval.
+
+  =Deliverance was in the infinite sky.=] He felt that all the evils,
+      which were pressing close around him, were broken through and
+      that he had come out beyond them into the clear light of truth. It
+      was like coming out of some narrow confined place into the open
+      sky.
+
+
+VI.--SUBHA
+
+  =Subhashini.=] Sweetly speaking.
+
+  =Sukheshini.=] With lovely hair.
+
+  =Suhashini.=] Sweetly smiling.
+
+  =process of translation.=] To change the unspoken language of thought
+      into the spoken language of words is like translating the mother
+      tongue into a foreign language. Much of the beauty is lost.
+
+  =that speech of the dark eyes.=] Nature was speaking in every part of
+      her own great being, in the same silent way as those dark eyes of
+      Subha were speaking.
+
+  =without any common language.=] The cows had the common language of
+      looks with which to talk to Subha. But Pratap, who could speak,
+      had not learnt Subha's language of looks.
+
+  =they become public property.=] Everyone can amuse himself by talking
+      with them in idle moments.
+
+  =water nymph.=] Referring to the legends, common in all countries, of
+      water fairies or mermaids living at the bottom of a river or
+      beneath the sea and dwelling in wonderful palaces.
+
+  =tide from the central places of the sea.=] When the moon is full, the
+      tide rises to its highest point: it seems to start from some
+      central place far out at sea and to come rolling and surging in.
+
+  =silent troubled Mother.=] Nature, with her full tide and full moon,
+      seems troubled and longing to break out into speech, just as Subha
+      longed to do.
+
+  =they have caught your bridegroom.=] Pratap employs the word "caught"
+      from his favourite pursuit of fishing. The bridegroom has been
+      caught just like a fish.
+
+  =did her best to kill her natural beauty.=] Her hair was much more
+      beautiful when left in its natural way, instead of being all bound
+      up in a net.
+
+  =The God ... the great man.=] These words refer to the bridegroom
+      himself, who wields such mighty powers of choice or refusal. They
+      are ironical.
+
+
+VII.--THE POSTMASTER
+
+  =like a fish out of water.=] Completely out of place, because he was
+      used to city life.
+
+  =macadamised road.=] He would have infinitely preferred the streets
+      and shops and crowded markets of Calcutta.
+
+  =smoke ... from the village cowsheds.=] Such as is used to drive away
+      the mosquitoes.
+
+  =BaA1/4l.=] A religious sect in Bengal whose members sing songs and often
+      go about begging.
+
+  =No more of this.=] He was afraid he might become too deeply attached
+      to Ratan if he stayed.
+
+  =Its fond mistakes are persistent.=] We continually try to deceive
+      ourselves that what we _wish_ to be true _is_ true. When at last
+      we find out the truth, we could almost wish we had not done so.
+
+
+VIII.--THE CASTAWAY
+
+  =Like a rudderless boat.=] Notice how the metaphor is kept up to the
+      end of the sentence.
+
+  =The writ of Fate.=] They said that if she was to die, she was to die,
+      and nothing could prevent it.
+
+  =profiting their Brahmin guest.=] She would believe this to be an act
+      of merit for which she would be rewarded.
+
+  =out of his repertory.=] Out of the stock of plays he recited when he
+      belonged to the theatrical troupe.
+
+  =hearing sacred names.=] This also, she believed, would bring her
+      merit.
+
+  =forcing house.=] Like some glass conservatory used for exotic
+      flowers.
+
+  =exact stature.=] The manager wished him to take the parts of women
+      who are smaller than men.
+
+  =came to adequate revelation.=] Were now abundantly apparent.
+
+  =twice-born bird.=] Once born in the egg and once after the breaking
+      of the egg. The goose in the story was the messenger between Nala
+      and Damayanti.
+
+  =the tiger has no wish to become a mouse.=] A reference to a folk
+      story of a saint who turned a pet mouse into a tiger.
+
+  =German silver.=] A kind of cheap silver containing much alloy in it.
+
+  =to look for your Damayanti.=] To find Satish a wife.
+
+
+IX.--THE SON OF RASHMANI
+
+  =do the duty of the father.=] By disciplining and punishing the
+      child.
+
+  =crippling his patrimony.=] Injuring the estate.
+
+  =this is preposterous.=] The natural thing would be for the property
+      to be divided between the two brothers and their descendants, but
+      by this will only one son was recognized and one set of grandsons.
+
+  =given to the grandsons.=] To Shyama Charan's and Bhavani's sons.
+      According to this preposterous will Bhavani was left out
+      altogether, and also his son.
+
+  =Shyama Charan's treachery.=] She fully believed that he had stolen
+      the will and put this false one in its place.
+
+  =Noto used to get reprimands.=] Used to be blamed for wishing to save
+      this waste of money. Of course the whole thing was imaginary, but
+      it gave Bhavani the pleased feeling of being generous.
+
+  =traditional extravagance.=] Such as had always been displayed in
+      former days when the family was prosperous.
+
+  =Some imaginary dog.=] She would say that some dog had run off with
+      the food which she had prepared.
+
+  =Bhavani had confessed.=] Rashmani, Noto and Bhavani himself were all
+      alike ready to keep up the illusion that the old magnificence was
+      still there, if only this or that accident had not deprived them
+      of its display.
+
+  =invisible ink.=] Ink which is invisible when first written with, but
+      when heated becomes visible.
+
+  =Baba, wait a little.=] In Bengal daughters are often called Ma
+      (mother) and sons Baba (father).
+
+  =it became absurdly easy.=] Because, after this, both the mother and
+      her son could join in the pretence together.
+
+  =lacking in proper enthusiasm.=] Did not care much about the subject.
+
+  =more than compensated.=] The pleasure of telling the news was greater
+      than the pain of knowing that such a sacrilege was going to take
+      place.
+
+  =with all the more deadly force.=] The thrower being up above, the
+      speed would increase all the more on the downward flight of the
+      missile.
+
+  =requiring expensive fodder.=] Vanity can feed itself on the idea of
+      self importance.
+
+  =to graze at large.=] Merely to feed on what is before it. He gave it
+      extra food by paying for a number of flatterers, just as a horse
+      is stall-fed with extra supplies of food.
+
+  =turned round on him.=] His vanity would be offended and he would be
+      his enemy instead of his helper.
+
+  =forced extravagance.=] Kalipada had been forced by the sneers of the
+      students to give far more than he could afford.
+
+  =draw tears from the eyes.=] An amusing way of saying that no burglar
+      would ever dream of trying to rob such a room.
+
+  =laid their impious hands.=] Had grossly insulted.
+
+  =let him climb down first.=] An English metaphor meaning "let him be
+      humble."
+
+  =he discovered the truth.=] The truth that he was a near relative of
+      Kalipada.
+
+  =grandchild's privilege.=] Especially in Bengal, a grandchild is
+      allowed the liberty of making jokes with his grandfather.
+
+  =he found it easy.=] He loved his mother so much that when he found
+      anyone pleased with things which she had made he enjoyed seeing
+      them use these things rather than himself.
+
+
+X.--THE BABUS OF NAYANJORE
+
+  =the days before the flood.=] The word "antediluvian" meaning "before
+      the flood," is used sometimes in English for things very ancient
+      and out of date. There is a play upon this here.
+
+  =dazzling outburst.=] Just as, at a firework display, pitch darkness
+      follows the last firework.
+
+  =drawing his heavy cheques.=] To "draw a cheque" is to take so much
+      from a credit account in the bank. The words are humorously used
+      here of taking something from the public belief about the
+      greatness of the Babus of Nayanjore.
+
+  =and er-er.=] He hesitates a little as he mentions the ladies.
+
+  =Thakur Dada.=] Grandfather.
+
+  =my moral character was flawless.=] Note how the author shows the
+      conceit of this young man. Compare, lower down, the phrase
+      "because I was so good."
+
+  =poet Bhabavuti.=] The poet means that there must be some one in this
+      vast universe of time and space who is the match for the hero of
+      his poem.
+
+  =Chota LAct Sahib.=] The story refers to the time when Calcutta was the
+      Capital of India. The Burra LAct Sahib was the Viceroy, the Chota
+      LAct Sahib was the Lieutenant-Governor.
+
+  =walking backward.=] As a mark of respect. He was continually bowing
+      and then stepping back. This kind of ceremonial bowing was
+      commoner in earlier days than it is now.
+
+  =tall silk hat.=] These were only worn in India at State functions
+      and their use in this country by Englishmen is becoming more and
+      more rare. But in earlier days they were not uncommon. They are
+      black in colour and shining.
+
+  =ugly modern custom.=] The author dislikes the passing away of an old
+      beautiful custom of reverence towards old men.
+
+  =becoming an epic.=] Becoming legendary by its additions. An epic poem
+      often goes on describing an incident with all kinds of marvellous
+      events added to it, till it becomes a very long story.
+
+
+PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+
+The following modifications have been made to the text.
+
+  Page 57: Raichran has been replaced with Raicharan.
+
+  Page 86: mornng has been replaced with morning.
+
+  Page 119: teachnig has been replaced with teaching.
+
+  Page 166: circumstance has been replaced with circumstances.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Stories from Tagore, by Rabindranath Tagore
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