garden of a temple.'

'Which temple? That in the Nandgaon ward?' said the child.

'Nay, very far away. Maybe at Trimbak or Hurdwar, whither thou must
make pilgrimage when thou art a man. Now, there was sitting in the
garden under the jujube trees, a mendicant that had worshipped Shiv
for forty years, and he lived on the offerings of the pious, and
meditated holiness night and day.'

'Oh, father, was it thou?' said the child, looking up with large
eyes.

'Nay, I have said it was long ago, and, moreover, this mendicant was
married.'

'Did they put him on a horse with flowers on his head, and forbid him
to go to sleep all night long? Thus they did to me when they made my
wedding,' said the child, who had been married a few months before.

'And what didst thou do?' said I.

'I wept, and they called me evil names, and then I smote _her_, and
we wept together.'

'Thus did not the mendicant,' said Gobind; 'for he was a holy man,
and very poor. Parbati perceived him sitting naked by the temple
steps where all went up and down, and she said to Shiv, "What shall
men think of the Gods when the Gods thus scorn the worshippers? For
forty years yonder man has prayed to us, and yet there be only a few
grains of rice and some broken cowries before him after all. Men's
hearts will be hardened by this thing." And Shiv said, "It shall be
looked to," and so he called to the temple, which was the temple of
his son, Ganesh of the elephant head, saying, "Son, there is a
mendicant without who is very poor. What wilt thou do for him?" Then
that great elephant-headed One awoke in the dark and answered, "In
three days, if it be thy will, he shall have one lakh of rupees."
Then Shiv and Parbati went away.'

'But there was a money-lender in the garden hidden among the
marigolds'--the child looked at the ball of crumpled blossoms in its
hands--'ay, among the yellow marigolds, and he heard the Gods
talking. He was a covetous man, and of a black heart, and he desired
that lakh of rupees for himself. So he went to the mendicant and
said, "Oh brother, how much do the pious give thee daily?" The
mendicant said, "I cannot tell. Sometimes a little rice, sometimes a
little pulse, and a few cowries and, it has been, pickled mangoes,
and dried fish."

'That is good,' said the child, smacking its lips. 'Then said the
money-lender, "Because I have long watched thee, and learned to
love thee and thy patience, I will give thee now five rupees