Page:Shantiniketan; the Bolpur School of Rabindranath Tagore.djvu/104

84 O king, has been granted. I have obtained the gift and must now bid farewell.”

The king replied, “But I cannot bid farewell so soon. Stay at least to-night.” So Utonka stayed that night in the palace.

All the noise of birds and beasts and men was stilled, and in the depth of the night Utonka began to think about the splendour of the royal palace. It seemed to him that heavenly messengers were descending through the moonlight and were standing all round the palace singing sacred chants in soft tones. Then again he remembered with wonder his vision of that cow. Then his mind turned to thoughts of his Guru’s wife and of his fellow-students all of whom he was so soon to leave. All the hundreds of events that had happened to him since his childhood in the ashram came before him and so he kept on thinking till it struck midnight. Then keeping tight hold of the ear-rings, and uttering the name of his Guru, Utonka turned over and went to sleep.