Page:Anandamath, The Abbey of Bliss - Chatterjee.djvu/27

Rh Then they began to suffer from diseases. They sold their cattle, sold their ploughs, ate up the seed grains, sold their houses and their holdings, and at last their daughters and sons and wives. Then there could not be found buyers of men, everybody wanted to sell. They then fed on leaves, grass and weeds for want of other food; the lower classes and wild tribes fed on dogs, mice and cats. Many fled and died of starvation away from their homes. Those who did not fly away died from starvation or from diseases brought on by eating unwholesome food.

Diseases had a jolly time of it Fever, cholera and small pox prevailed, particularly the last. People died in every house from small-pox. There was none to touch them, treat them, or give them a drink. No one looked at any body else. No one removed the dead. The fairest bodies lay down to rot in the mansions. When small-pox once made its appearance in a house, the householders instantly took to flight, leaving the patient behind.

Mahendra Singha was a very rich man of Padachinha, but rich and poor fared alike at this time. In that dire day, his relatives and friends, his servants and retainers, had all left him. Some had died of disease and others had fled. Of his entire household there remained now only himself, his wife and a little child—a daughter. It was of them that we were speaking.

Mahendra's wife Kalyani ceased musing and went to the cow-shed to milk the cow herself. She then