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50 into her mouth. Just then her mother turned her eyes upon the child. "Alack a day," said the mother, "what has she taken ?" She promptly thrust her finger into the mouth of the child. It was then that they saw the pill-box lying empty. Sukuman thought it quite a jolly game ; she pressed her teeth — she had only a few of them and smiled at her mother. But perhaps the taste of the poison began to disagree with her ; so she presently loosened her teeth and Kalyani threw away the pill from the mouth. The girl began to weep. The pill remained on the ground. Kalyani soaked her skirt in the stream, washed her daughter's face with water and anxiously asked Mahendra if anything had gone down her stomach. Under such circumstances it is the worst that comes uppermost in the mind of parents. Where there is love there is always fear. Mahendra had never seen before how big the pill was, but he took it up, gazed at it for some time and said, " Most likely she has swallowed a great deal." Kalyani easily believed that. She too took the pill and examined it. In the meantime the girl became slightly out of sorts for the little that she had swallowed. She began to fidget and cry and grew very weak in the end. Kalyani then told Mahendra : " There is nothing more to be done now ; Sukumari has gone the way the gods have pointed, 1 too must folio ;v " So saying Kalyani threw the pill into her mouth and instantly swallowed it.