Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/547

500 money on their account, but unfortunately they did not reciprocate the same feelings. He was often heard to say with tearful eyes, that like the old man of the fables, in trying to please everybody, he had been able to please nobody.

Long before this dispute, Dinabandhu one day requested his elder brother to recommend him to the Lieutenant-Governor for a Deputy Magistracy. Vidyasagar was in great difficulty as to how he should request the Governor for his own brother. He called on the latter several days, but could not give out his mind. At last, he said one day,—'I have been trying for several days to request you for something, but bashfulness always stands in the way, and I cannot express my mind.' The Governor was very curious to hear it. The more he pressed Vidyasagar for the request, the more he grew shy and could not give utterance to it, and on different pretexts left his friend's august presence. When he called again the next week-day, the Governor said to him,—’I will confine you to-day, unless you tell me your mind.' Vidyasagar was now obliged to give out his brother's prayer. The Lieutenant-Governor said,—' Why have you been so much shy about it? Had you told me before, I could have given him one; there was a vacancy at Hugli. Very good, I will see if there is still a vacancy, and let you know ere long.' In the next week's Gazette appeared Dinabandhu's appointment as a Deputy Magistrate; he was posted to Barisal.