y
schooling at an extremely tender age.

My initiation into literature had its origin, at the same time, in the
books which were in vogue in the servants' quarters. Chief among these
were a Bengali translation of Chanakya's aphorisms, and the Ramayana of
Krittivasa.

A picture of one day's reading of the Ramayana comes clearly back to me.

[Illustration: Rabindranath Tagore in 1877]

The day was a cloudy one. I was playing about in the long verandah[3]
overlooking the road. All of a sudden Satya, for some reason I do not
remember, wanted to frighten me by shouting, "Policeman! Policeman!" My
ideas of the duties of policemen were of an extremely vague description.
One thing I was certain about, that a person charged with crime once
placed in a policeman's hands would, as sure as the wretch caught in a
crocodile's serrated grip, go under and be seen no more. Not knowing how
an innocent boy could escape this relentless penal code, I bolted
towards the inner apartments, with shudders running down my back for
blind fear of pursuing policemen. I broke to my mother the news of my
impending doom, but it did not seem to disturb her much. However, not
deeming it safe to venture out again, I sat down on the sill of my
mother's door to read the dog-eared Ramayana, with a marbled paper
cover, which belonged to her old aunt. Alongside stretched the verandah
running round the four sides of the open inner quadrangle, on which had
fallen the faint afternoon glow of the clouded sky, and finding me
weeping over one of its sorrowful situations my great-aunt came and took
away the book from me.

(3) _Within and Without_

Luxury was a thing almost unknown in the days of my infancy. The
standard of living was then, as a whole, much more simple than it is
now. Apart from that, the children of our household were entirely free
from the fuss of being too much looked after. The fact is that, while
the process of looking after may be an occasional treat for the
guardians, to the children it is always an unmitigated nuisance.

We used to be under the rule of the servants. To save themselves trouble
they had almost suppressed our right of free movement. But the freedom
of not being petted made up even for the harshness of this bondage, for
our minds were left clear of the toils of constant coddling, pampering
and dressing-up.

Our food had nothing to do with delicacies. A list of our articles of
clothing would only invite the modern