Page:Malabari, Behramji M. - Gujarat and the Gujaratis (1882).djvu/116

100 great fall. The noise awakened the housewives. The Rájá-Dewán, at his time of life, was not able to pick himself up. So when the women came up to the scene of the fall, they saw a well-dressed old beau grovelling in the dust, with sowars and sepoys chattering and bowing at a distance, as is their wont. Then said a spinster old, approaching the figure in the dust. "Brother, what are ye about?" And he replied, "Sister, go thy way; the night is dark, and I am the Dewán Rájá. Think not I have fallen; I am merely trying, by personal experience, to see if the road requires repair." Then asked a maid of twenty-three, looking archly at the fallen figure, "Old man, art thou satisfied?" "Yes, my child," replied the pious Rájá, picking himself up by main effort. Before entering the palki the Dewan turned round and said, "Good people, do not bother me with a petition; I know you need a good road, and will give you one."

Such is personal experience. How much I wish that a Legislative Councillor had now and then a fall, a Town Councillor now and then a