Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/62

Rh to his native village, Birsingha, and he was again placed under the tuition of the worthy teacher, Kalikanta, who loved his young pupil, Isvar Chandra, exceedingly. In the evening, after he had dismissed his school, Kalikanta used daily to give him seperate lessons in native Arithmetic, Mensuration, and other subjects, which formed the curriculum of study in elementary vernacular schools of those days, and then, when the lessons were over, he used to carry the boy to his home. For this reason Isvar Chandra adored him ever after.

In his early years, Isvar Chandra was very naughty, and many stories are told of his childish waywardness and mischievous freaks. Surely enough, most boys are naughty and mischievous in their early years, but their naughtiness is never called to mind, nor does it ever appear in the pages of immortal history. But one feels a sort of curiousity to hear, with thrilling pleasure, the tales of mischievous freaks of those who, in after years, led a glorious life, and left a good name. Chaitanya, otherwise known as Gauranga, the great Hindu reformer of Vaishnaism, while a young boy, used to steal and eat up fruit and other articles of divine worship offered by his compatriot Brahmans. Shakspeare, in his early days, associated himself with some other wicked boys, and stole deer. The famous poet Wordsworth, in his boyhood, exceedingly tortured his mother. It is said that, one day,