One afternoon, when Jaganath was rambling as usual through the village
lanes shaded by mango topes, he saw a boy, apparently a stranger,
assuming the captaincy of the village boys and explaining to them
the scheme of some new prank. Won by the force of his character and
the startling novelty of his ideas, the boys had all sworn allegiance
to him. Unlike the others, he did not run away from the old man as
he approached, but came quite close to him and began to shake his own
_chadar_. The result was that a live lizard sprang out of it on to
the old man's body, ran down his back and off towards the jungle.
Sudden fright made the poor man shiver from head to foot, to the
great amusement of the other boys, who shouted with glee. Before
Jaganath had gone far, cursing and swearing, the _gamcha_ on his
shoulder suddenly disappeared, and the next moment it was seen on
the head of the new boy, transformed into a turban.
The novel attentions of this manikin came as a great relief to
Jaganath. It was long since any boy had taken such freedom with him.
After a good deal of coaxing and many fair promises, he at last
persuaded the boy to come to him, and this was the conversation
which followed:
'What's your name, my boy?'
'Nitai Pal.'
'Where's your home?'
'Won't tell.'
'Who's your father?'
'Won't tell.'
'Why won't you?'
'Because I have run away from home.'
'What made you do it?'
'My father wanted to send me to school.'
It occurred to Jaganath that it would be useless extravagance to send
such a boy to school, and his father must have been an unpractical fool
not to have thought so.
'Well, well,' said Jaganath, 'how would you like to come and stay
with me?'
'Don't mind,' said the boy, and forthwith he installed himself in
Jaganath's house. He felt as little hesitation as though it were
the shadow of a tree by the wayside. And not only that. He began
to proclaim his wishes as regards his food and clothing with such
coolness that you would have thought he had paid his reckoning in full
beforehand; and, when anything went wrong, he did not scruple to
quarrel with the old man. It had been easy enough for Jaganath to get
the better of his own child; but, now, where another man's child was
concerned, he had to acknowledge defeat.