Page:The Poetical Works of Ram Sharma.djvu/11

 in his latter days met with reverses of fortune. After winding up his business he remained inactive for some time; but a busy man all his life, he began to chafe under the dull monotony of an idle home-life, and to keep himself engaged he took service as Head Assistant, under Remfry & Rogers, at one time a well-known firm of solicitors, but soon left it owing to the strong disapproval of the step by his sons. Of three children bom to him, Ram Sharma was the second, the first being a daughter who died young and the youngest, a son, Babu Bhakta Kissen Ghose who predeceased our poet at the age of 53.

The wonderful faculty of Bengali grand-fathers for spoiling their grand-children, is well-known, and our poet fell under its spell. The old grand-father indulged him to an inordinate extent and soon our poet grew up- a naughty and refractory child. Perhaps this early molly-coddling was, to some extent, responsible for the imperious temper of his after life which he successfully battled against as long as he lived. From early infancy he gave ample proof, of his great intellectual powers; for, although he did not lisp in numbers at the age of three, yet he grappled with the vernacular alphabet at that age and before long mastered the Shishubodha, the only vernacular text-book for children at the time Much against his will, the poet was sent to the nearest English school, the Oriental Seminary, more for correction and confinement than for education. But what was begun in