Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/86

 must learn by heart, before he begins the Belles-lettres). At this time, Isvar Chandra's waywardness and obstinateness showed themselves clearly. What is considered to be a fault in ordinary men, turns to good account in the case of those who are gifted with extraordinary talents. Such was the case with Isvar Chandra. He was zealous, enthusiastic, and obstinate. He chose to be guided by nobody but his own will. He did not care for what other people said or would say. Menaces and threats, or even punishment, could not move him a single step from his design. If his father told him to change his dirty clothes and put on clean ones, he would act quite the contrary. If his father told him to bathe, he would never do it. In short, if his father told him to go one way, Isvar Chandra was sure to take the other. Thakurdas was very much annoyed at this wilful waywardness of the boy, and beat him severely; but Isvar Chandra would have his own way. Thakurdas then devised other means. He gave out in words directions quite contrary to what he really meant. If he wished that the boy should bathe, he directed him not to bathe, and Isvar Chandra would be sure to wash himself. If the father wished his son to change his dirty clothes, he told him not to change them, and Isvar Chandra at once put on a clean dress. But, at last, the boy found out the tricks played upon him by his father, and then he very carefully weighed the directions, and tried to discover what the father really wished,