Page:Shubala - a child-mother (IA shubalachildmoth00soraiala).pdf/18

 what diet was good for her baby as it grew older, or how much milk it should have, or how often.

It had no proper hours for sleep or food.

It was feeding at its mother's breast, even when it was running about and playing: and was imperious in greedy demand.

Of how to treat its Baby ailments, she had no ghost of an idea. That it lived at all, is to me a miracle.

Baby followed after Baby also, as the years passed. There are six children now, and Shubala is 18 years old; and her health is absolutely ruined.

This is not an isolated instance of what might happen in India. This is a cared-for illustration of an incident that is repeated in worse circumstances in thousands of Indian homes, not only among the poor and destitute, but among landed proprietors.