Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/94

Rh rooms of a neighbouring gentleman, by name Tilak Chandra Ghosh. His brother, Sambhu Chandra, slept in the same bed with him, but being much younger, he was usually permitted to go to bed immediately after the night-meal. One night, Sambhu Chandra having a little ailment of his bowels, eased himself on the bed and lay there sleeping, without apprising anybody of it. Later in the night, Isvar Chandra, quite unconscious of his brother's indisposition, lay down on the bed, and quite exhausted with hard labour, both physical and mental, fell fast asleep. When he awoke early in the morning, he found, to his utter astonishment and disgust, that his back and sides were besmeared with night-soil. He immediately removed the dirt with his own hands, and washed himself and the bedding. He did neither mention this to anybody, nor rebuke the offender, Sambhu Chandra. He was as much devoted to his brothers, as to his parents.

We have not yet noticed Isvar Chandra's clothing. India had not then been overflooded with foreign cloths turned out from machine-looms. Neither were there any weaving-machines, imported from the West, set up in the country. The native weavers used the hand-looms of their progenitors, and manufactured cloths of different kinds, both fine and coarse. There was a time, and that not long ago, when the fine muslin of Dacca, and the silk of Murshidabad and Rajsahi