e stars twinkled forth. The darkness had
become intense, the atmosphere silent, the village roads deserted, and
the thickets on either side filled with fireflies like a carnival of
sparks scattered in some noiseless revelry.

One of the objects of our association was to encourage the manufacture
of lucifer matches, and similar small industries. For this purpose each
member had to contribute a tenth of his income. Matches had to be made,
but matchwood was difficult to get; for though we all know with what
fiery energy a bundle of _khangras_[40] can be wielded in capable hands,
the thing that burns at its touch is not a lamp wick. After many
experiments we succeeded in making a boxful of matches. The patriotic
enthusiasm which was thus evidenced did not constitute their only value,
for the money that was spent in their making might have served to light
the family hearth for the space of a year. Another little defect was
that these matches could not be got to burn unless there was a light
handy to touch them up with. If they could only have inherited some of
the patriotic flame of which they were born they might have been
marketable even to-day.

News came to us that some young student was trying to make a power loom.
Off we went to see it. None of us had the knowledge with which to test
its practical usefulness, but in our capacity for believing and hoping
we were inferior to none. The poor fellow had got into a bit of debt
over the cost of his machine which we repaid for him. Then one day we
found Braja Babu coming over to our house with a flimsy country towel
tied round his head. "Made in our loom!" he shouted as with hands
uplifted he executed a war-dance. The outside of Braja Babu's head had
then already begun to ripen into grey!

At last some worldly-wise people came and joined our society, made us
taste of the fruit of knowledge, and broke up our little paradise.

When I first knew Rajnarain Babu, I was not old enough to appreciate his
many-sidedness. In him were combined many opposites. In spite of his
hoary hair and beard he was as young as the youngest of us, his
venerable exterior serving only as a white mantle for keeping his youth
perpetually fresh. Even his extensive learning had not been able to do
him any damage, for it left him absolutely simple. To the end of his
life the incessant flow of his hearty laughter suffered no check,
neither from the gravity of age, nor ill-health, nor domestic
affliction,