Page:Buddhist Birth Stories, or, Jātaka Tales.djvu/275

Rh Then she thought, "This silly fellow dares not go home because his offence has been so great. But parents are, after all, true friends. Whether he goes or not, it will be better for me to go."

So, as soon as he had gone out, she set her house in order, and telling her nearest neighbours that she was going to her own home, she started on her way. The man returned to the house; and when he could not find her, and learned on inquiry from the neighbours that she had gone home, he followed her quickly, and came up to her halfway on the road. There the pains of labour had just seized her. And he accosted her, saying, "Wife, what is this?"

"Husband, I have given birth to a son," replied she.

"What shall we do now?" said he.

"The very thing we were going home for has happened on the road. What's the use of going there? Let us stop!"

So saying, they both agreed to stop. And as the child was born on the road, they called him Roadling. Now not long after she conceived again, and all took place as before; and as that child too was born on the road, they called the firstborn Great Roadling, and the second Little Roadling. And taking the two babies with them, they went back to the place where they were living.

And whilst they were living there this child of the road heard other children talking about uncles, and grandfathers, and grandmothers; and he asked his mother, saying, "Mother, the other boys talk of their uncles, and grandfathers, and grandmothers. Have we no relations?"

"Certainly, my dear! You have no relations here, but you have a grandfather, a rich gentleman, at Rājagaha; and there you have plenty of relations."

"Then why don't we go there, mother?" said he.

Then she told him the reason of their not going. But