Page:True Tales of Indian Life - Dwijendra Nath Neogi.pdf/27

Rh when one day, as she was returning with her pitcher, the old woman slipped and fell, hurting herself severely. The shock was too much for the poor woman, who contracted a fever and died in a few days, to the inexpressible sorrow of her devoted son.

The Bràhman's agony of mind was intense, as he felt convinced that it was owing to his not having provided a tank of drinking water for his mother that she had met her death. Bitterly reproaching himself, he resolved to dig a tank for public use as the best means of making amends for his previous neglect. He then performed the usual sràddha ceremony (funeral rites) as best as he could, but made a vow that until he had completed his self-appointed task he would consider his obligation to his mother's memory unfulfilled.

Having no money, he was forced to beg for alms from the villagers and others in the neighbourhood. But when they heard what he proposed to do, they only laughed at him, telling him that no one but a madman would dream of making a tank in such a place, people had managed without one before, and so forth. But he was not to be dissuaded, and returning home took up a spade, and having no other place in which to dig began to turn up the soil in his own homestead, and to such purpose that in a few months the place where his hut had stood was nothing more than a large ditch. When the neighbours saw this they scoffed at him more than ever, and were now firmly convinced that he had lost his reason, but in spite of all he persisted in his task.

Now it so happened that about this time the wealthy Dewàn Gangàgovinda Sinha, founder of the Paikpara zaminder family, was celebrating in great