Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/67

30 The extraordinary intellect and memory, with which Isvar Chandra was gifted, and which raised him to such eminence, showed themselves in the little boy on this Salkea road. Here was visible the sprout which subsequently grew into a big tree, with spreading branches bearing nice fruit and sweet-smelling flowers, under which many a wearied traveller found shelter, and ate of the fruit, and smelt of the flowers. There were mile-stones on the road, and the boy, Isvar Chandra, with childish inquisitiveness, enquired of his father what these stones were for. His father smiled at the simplicity of the boy, and replied that these were called mile-stones, explaining, at the same time, that they were placed at intervals of a distance of mile, which was nearly equalled to half a Bengali krosh, to indicate the length of the road. The boy learned the English figures (1 to 10) from the numbers engraved on the mile-stones. Presently, a little farther on the road, a milestone was not shown to the boy purposely, in order to test the boy's knowledge. When they came to the next mile-stone, Isvar Chandra remarked that they had omitted to notice a mile-stone, upon which his teacher, Kalikanta, said that the omission was intentional and made on purpose to see whether he (Isvar Chandra) had been able to learn the English figures.

They walked the whole day, and, at about sun-set, reached Salkea. Here they crossed the