Page:Tales of Bengal (Sita and Santa Chattopadhyay).djvu/72

Tales of Bengal Now who on earth was Molly and whence had she appeared on the scene? There were some Christian families living in the place and there might be Mollies among them. But they lived too far off to be accessible to Raju. So I had to ask again; "Who is Molly, Raju?"

Raju pointed out the house, which had stood so long tenantless by our own, and said; "She is their baby."

I looked at the house attentively, and now saw that unknown to me it had already found occupants. A number of sarees and other feminine garments, the names of which I did not know, were hanging in front, drying in the sun. A figure appeared at the gate, and it seemed to be that of a girl child. No sooner had Raju caught sight of her than he uttered a yell of delight; "There is Molly! I'll go and give her three whole guavas." With this he tore his hand free and darted like an arrow across the field.

I had strict injunctions not to let Raju out of my sight. So I followed him though not at the same pace. As I came close to the house, I found that I had suspected Molly unjustly. She belonged certainly to our orthodox society and proclaimed the fact in every item of her dress and ornaments. The other inhabitants also seemed to be of the same type.

Raju had become thoroughly engrossed in the joy of eating his guavas in the company of his little friend and refused to budge. I was standing there helplessly by when an old gentleman came out of the house. He stared at me for a minute or two, then came and bowed to me. "We have just arrived." he said, "Do you live here, sir?"

I told him in short the history of our coming and after a few minute's conversation, succeeded in getting hold of Raju and started back home. On the way I discovered from Raju that Molly had given him five pears, the day before yesterday, and that she had two elder sisters and three elder brothers, of whom the first was good and the second Rh