Hindu Tales from the Sanskrit

[Dark Saint Alaick]

CHAPTER VII


Subha Datta was very much cheered by the sympathy of the fairies,
so much so that he decided to stop with them for a little longer
at least. Now and then he felt restless, but on the whole the time
passed pleasantly, and the pitcher was a daily delight to him.

Meanwhile his poor wife was at her wits' end how to feed her dear
children. If it had not been that the two boys were brave, plucky
little chaps, she really would have been in despair. When their father
did not come back and all their efforts to find him were in vain,
these boys set to work to help their mother. They could not cut
down trees, but they could climb them and chop off small branches
with their axes; and this they did, making up bundles of faggots and
selling them to their neighbours. These neighbours were touched by
the courage they showed, and not only paid them well for the wood
but often gave them milk and rice and other little things to help
them. In time they actually got used to being without Subha Datta,
and the little girls nearly forgot all about him. Little did they
dream of the change that was soon to come into their lives.

13. Was it a good or a bad thing for the boys that their father did
not come back?

14. If you think it was a good thing, will you explain why? and if
it was a bad thing, why you think it was?

[Dark Saint Alaick]

CHAPTER VIII


A month passed peacefully away in the depths of the forest, Subha
Datta waiting on the fairies and becoming every day more selfish
and bent on enjoying himself. Then he had another dream, in which he
saw his wife and children in the old home with plenty of food, and
evidently so happy without him that he felt quite determined to go and
show them he was still alive. When he woke he said to the fairies,
"I will not stop with you any longer. I have had a good time here,
but I am tired of this life away from my own people."

The fairies saw he was really in earnest this time, so they consented
to let him go; but they were kind-hearted people and felt they ought
to pay him in some way for all he had done for them. They consulted
together, and then one of them told him they wished to make him a
present before he went away, and they would give him whatever he
asked for.

15. What do you think it was that made Subha Datta determine to go
home when he found his wife and children could do without him?

16. What would you have chosen if the fairies had told you you could
have anything you liked?

[Dark Saint Alaick]

CHAPTER IX


Directly the woodcutter heard he could have anything he asked for,
he cried, "I will have the magic pitcher."

You can just imagine what a shock this was to the fairies! You know,
of course, that fairies always keep their word. If they could not
persuade Subha Datta to choose something else, they would have to
give him their beloved, their precious pitcher and would have to
seek their food for themselves. They all tried all they could to
persuade the woodcutter to choose something else. They took him to
their own secret treasure-house, in an old, old tree with a hollow
trunk, even the entrance to which no mortal had ever been allowed
to see. They blindfolded him before they started, so that he could
never reveal the way, and one of them led him by the hand, telling
him where the steps going down from the tree began. When at last the
bandage was taken from his eyes, he found himself in a lofty hall
with an opening in the roof through which the light came. Piled up
on the floor were sparkling stones worth a great deal of gold and
silver money, and on the walls hung beautiful robes. Subha Datta was
quite dazed with all lie saw, but he was only an ignorant woodcutter
and did not realize the value of the jewels and clothes. So when the
fairies, said to him, "Choose anything you like here and let us keep
our pitcher," he shook his head and said: "No! no! no! The pitcher! I
will have the pitcher!" One fairy after another picked up the rubies
and diamonds and other precious stones and held them in the light,
that the woodcutter might see how lovely they were; and when he still
only shook his head, they got down the robes and tried to make him
put one of them on. "No! the pitcher! the pitcher!" he said, and at
last they had to give it up. They bound his eyes again and led him
back to the clearing and the pitcher.

17. Would you have been tempted to give up the pitcher when you saw
the jewels and the robes?

18. What made Subha Datta so determined to have the pitcher?

[Dark Saint Alaick]

CHAPTER X


Even when they were all back again in the clearing the fairies did
not quite give up hope of keeping their pitcher. This time they gave
other reasons why Subha Datta should not have it. "It will break very
easily," they told him, "and then it will be no good to you or any
one else. But if you take some of the money, you can buy anything
you like with it. If you take some of the jewels you can sell them
for lots of money."

"No! no! no!" cried the woodcutter. "The pitcher! the pitcher! I will
have the pitcher!"

"Very well then, take, the pitcher," they sadly answered, "and never
let us see your face again!"

So Subha Datta took the pitcher, carrying it very, very carefully,
lest he should drop it and break it before he got home. He did not
think at all of what a cruel thing it was to take it away from the
fairies, and leave them either to starve or to seek for food for
themselves. The poor fairies watched him till he was out of sight,
and then they began to weep and wring their hands. "He might at least
have waited whilst we got some food out for a few days," one of them
said. "He was too selfish to think of that," said another. "Come,
let us forget all about him and go and look for some fruit."

So they all left off crying and went away hand in hand. Fairies do
not want very much to eat. They can live on fruit and dew, and they
never let anything make them sad for long at a time. They go out of
this story now, but you need not be unhappy about them, because you
may be very sure that they got no real harm from their generosity to
Subha Datta in letting him take the pitcher.

19. Do you think the woodcutter was wrong to ask for the pitcher?

20. What would have been the best thing for Subha Datta to ask for,
if he had decided to let the fairies keep their pitcher?

[Dark Saint Alaick]

CHAPTER XI


You can just imagine what a surprise it was to Subha Datta's wife
and children when they saw him coming along the path leading to his
home. He did not bring the pitcher with him, but had hidden it in a
hollow tree in the wood near his cottage, for he did not mean any one
to know that he had it. He told his wife that he had lost his way in
the forest, and had been afraid he would never see her or his children
again, but he said nothing about the fairies. When his wife asked him
how he had got food, he told her a long story about the fruits he
had found, and she believed all he said, and determined to make up
to him now for all she thought he had suffered. When she called the
little girls to come and help her get a nice meal for their father,
Subha Datta said: "Oh, don't bother about that! I've brought something
back with me. I'll go and fetch it, but no one is to come with me."

Subha Datta's wife was sorely disappointed at this, because she loved
her husband so much that it was a joy to her to work for him. The
children too wanted, of course, to go with their father, but he
ordered them to stop where they were. He seized a big basket which was
fall of fuel for the fire, tumbled all the wood in it on the floor,
and went off alone to the pitcher. Very soon he was back again with
his basket full of all sorts of good things, the very names of which
his wife and children had no idea of. "There!" he cried; "what do you
think of that? Am I not a clever father to have found all that in the
forest? Those are the 'fruits' I meant when I told Mother about them."

21. What would you have thought about this wonderful supply of food,
if you had been one of the woodcutter's children?

22. Was it a good thing for those children to have all this food
without working for it? If not, why was it not a good thing?

[Dark Saint Alaick]

CHAPTER XII


Life was now, of course, completely changed for the family in the
forest. Subha Datta no longer went to cut wood to be sold, and the
boys also left off doing so. Every day their father fetched food for
them all, and the greatest desire of each one of the family was to
find out where it came from. They never could do so, for Subha Datta
managed to make them afraid to follow him when he went forth with
his basket. The secret he kept from the wife to whom he used to tell
everything soon began to spoil the happiness of the home. The children
who had no longer anything to do quarrelled with each other. Their
mother got sadder and sadder, and at last decided to tell Subha Datta
that, unless he would let her know where the food came from, she would
go away from him and take her little girls with her. She really did
mean to do this, but something soon happened to change everything
again. Of course, the neighbours in the wood, who had bought the
fuel from the boys and helped them by giving them fruit and rice,
heard of the return of their father and of the wonderful change in
their lot. Now the whole family had plenty to eat every day, though
none of them knew where it all came from. Subha Datta was very fond
of showing off what he could do, and sometimes asked his old friends
amongst the woodcutters to come and have a meal with him. When they
arrived they would find all sorts of good things spread out on the
ground and different kinds of wines in beautiful bottles.

This went on for some months, Subha Datta getting prouder and prouder
of all that he could do, and it seemed likely that his secret would
never be discovered. Everybody tried to find it out, and many followed
him secretly when he set forth into the woods; but he was very clever
at dodging them, hiding his treasure constantly in a new place in the
dead of the night. If he had only been content with getting food out
of his pitcher and drinking pure water, all would most likely have
been well with him. But that was just what he could not do. Till he
had his pitcher he had never drunk anything but water, but now he
often took too much wine. It was this which led to the misfortune
of losing his beloved pitcher. He began to boast of his cleverness,
telling his friends there was nothing they wanted that he could not
get for them; and one day when he had given them a very grand feast,
in which were several rare kinds of food they had asked for, he drank
too much wine--so much that he no longer knew what he was saying.

[Dark Saint Alaick]

This was the chance his guests wanted. They began teasing him,
telling him they believed he was really a wicked robber, who had
stolen the food or the money to buy it. He got angry, and at last
was actually silly enough to tell them all to come with him, and
he would show them he was no robber. When his wife heard this, she
was half pleased to think that now at last the secret would come out
of where the food came from, and half afraid that something terrible
would happen. The children too were greatly excited, and went with the
rest of the party, who followed their father to the last hiding-place
of the precious pitcher.

When, they all got very near the place, however, some idea began to
come into Subha Datta's head that he was doing a very foolish thing. He
stopped suddenly, turned round facing the crowd that followed him,
and said he would not go a step further till they all went back to
the cottage. His wife begged him to let her at least go with him,
and the children all clamoured not to be sent back, but it was no
good. Back they all had to go, the woodcutter watching till they were
out of sight.

23. Would Subha Datta have been wise if he had told has wife about
the pitcher?

24. Do you think it would have been a good or a bad thing for the
secret to be found out?

[Dark Saint Alaick]

CHAPTER XIII


When the woodcutter was quite sure that every one was gone and
nobody could see where he had hidden the pitcher, he took it from the
hole in which it lay and carried it carefully to his home. You can
imagine how everybody rushed out to meet him when he came in sight,
and crowded round him, so that there was danger of the pitcher being
thrown to the ground and broken. Subha Datta however managed to get
into the cottage without any accident, and then he began to take
things out of the pitcher and fling them on the ground, shouting,
"Am I a robber? Am I a robber? Who dared to call me a robber?" Then,
getting more and more excited, he picked up the pitcher, and holding
it on his shoulder began to dance wildly about. His wife called out
to him, "Oh, take care, take care! You will drop it!" But he paid no
attention to her. Suddenly, however, he began to feel giddy and fell to
the ground, dropping the pitcher as he did so. It was broken to pieces,
and a great cry of sorrow went up from all who saw the accident. The
woodcutter himself was broken-hearted, for he knew that he had done
the mischief himself, and that if only he had resisted the temptation
to drink the wine he would still have his treasure.

He was going to pick up the pieces to see if they could be stuck
together, but to his very great surprise lie could not touch them. He
heard a silvery laugh, and what sounded like children clapping their
hands, and he thought he also heard the words, "Our pitcher is ours
again!" Could it all have been a dream? No: for there on the ground
were the fruits and cakes that had been in the pitcher, and there
were his wife, his children and his friends, all looking sadly and
angrily at him. One by one the friends went away, leaving Subha Datta
alone with his family.

25. If you had been Subha Datta's wife, what would you have done when
this misfortune came to her husband?

26. What would you have done if you had been the woodcutter?

[Dark Saint Alaick]

CHAPTER XIV


This is the end of the story of the Magic Pitcher, but it was
the beginning of a new chapter in the lives of Subha Datta and
his family. They never forgot the wonder-working pitcher, and the
children were never tired of hearing the story of how their father
came to get it. They often wandered about in the forest, hoping that
they too would meet with some wonderful adventure, but they never saw
the fairies or found a magic pitcher. By slow degrees the woodcutter
returned to his old ways, but he had learnt one lesson. He never
again kept a secret from his wife; because he felt sure that, if he
had told her the truth about the pitcher when he first came home,
she would have helped him to save the precious treasure.

27. What lesson can be learnt from this story?

28. Do you think it is easier for a boy or a girl to keep a secret?

29. Why is it wrong to let out a secret you have been told?

30. What do you think was the chief fault in the character of Subha
Datta?

[Dark Saint Alaick]

STORY II

The Story of a Cat, a Mouse, a Lizard and an Owl


CHAPTER I


This is the story of four creatures, none of whom loved each other,
who lived in the same banyan tree in a forest in India. Banyan trees
are very beautiful and very useful, and get their name from the fact
that "banians," as merchants are called in India, often gather together
in their shade to sell their goods. Banyan trees grow to a very great
height, spreading their branches out so widely that many people can
stand beneath them. From those branches roots spring forth, which,
when they reach the ground, pierce it, and look like, columns holding
up a roof. If you have never seen a banyan tree, you can easily find
a picture of one in some dictionary; and when you have done so, you
will understand that a great many creatures can live in one without
seeing much of each other.