Page:Old Deccan Days.djvu/237

Rh So the Fisherman cast his net in that part of the river, and dragged the box ashore.

I don't know which was most astonished, the Merchant or the Fisherman, when they saw what a prize they had found. For the box was composed entirely of gold and precious stones, and within it lay the most lovely little child that ever was seen.

She seemed a little Princess, for her dress was all made of cloth of gold, and on her feet were two anklets that shone like the sun.

When the Sowkar opened the box, she smiled, and stretched out her little arms towards him. Then he was pleased, and said, 'Fisherman, the box is yours, but this child must belong to me.' The Fisherman was content that it should be so, for he had many children of his own at home, and wanted no more, but was glad to have the golden box; while the Sowkar, who had only his one little son, and was rich, did not care for the box, but was well pleased to have the baby.

He took her home to his wife, and said, 'See, wife, here is a pretty little daughter-in-law for us. Here is a wife for your little son.' And when the Sowkar's wife saw the child looking so beautiful and smiling so sweetly, her heart was glad, and she loved her, and from that day took the greatest care of her, just as if the baby-girl had been her own daughter. And when Chandra Ranee was a year old, they married her to their son, Koila.

Years wore on, and the Sowkar and his wife were in a good old age gathered to their fathers. Meantime, Koila and Chandra had grown up the handsomest couple in all the country: Koila tall and straight, with a face like a young lion, and Chandra as lithe and graceful as a palm-tree, with a face calm and beautiful like the silver moonlight.

Meantime, 'Moulee,' the Nautch woman's daughter (and third of the mango children), had likewise grown up, in the Madura Tinivelly country, and was also very fair, fairer than any one in all the land around. Moreover, she danced and sang more beautifully than any of the other Nautch girls. Her voice was clear as the voice of a quail, and it rang through the air with such power that the sound could be heard a twelve-days' journey off. The Nautch people used to travel about from place to place, staying one day in one town and the next in another, and so it happened that in their wanderings they reached the borders of the land where Koila and Chandra lived.