Page:Masani - Gandhi's story.pdf/41

Rh —but Gandhiji taught them to think of each other as brothers and sisters. They celebrated the festivals of the different religions. In the month of Ramzan, the Mohammedan festival, when the children had to fast till the sunset, the Hindu and the Parsi children would cook the evening meal and prepare all kinds of delicacies for the children who had to fast.

There were also some very naughty children living in the farm who were always up to mischief. Once a little boy refused to listen to Gandhiji and was very disobedient. Gandhiji got angry with him and rapped him on the knuckles with a ruler. Later Gandhiji was sorry that he had done this as he did not believe in punishing boys and girls in this way. He thought that if a teacher wanted his pupils to be good he must first make his own character blameless and set an example to them, and then they would follow him.

Once two people living in the farm behaved very badly, and Gandhiji decided to atone for their sins by fasting himself for a whole week. Gandhiji believed that as he was the father of all these people, it was his fault if they did anything wrong and that he was to blame. Everybody in the farm was, of course, very upset to see their leader not taking any food for seven whole days, and the two people who had behaved badly felt worst of all. They resolved never again to do anything which Gandhiji would consider wrong. Some