Page:Twelve men of Bengal in the nineteenth century (1910).djvu/98

82 family affairs and in close intercourse with all that was best and noblest in the society of the day. In and around his own home at Krishnagar he was universally respected and beloved. Not only those who came into close and immediate contact with him but the poor and unlettered peasant who dwelt without his gates learned to appreciate his worth. A story is told of the wonderful influence he exercised even over those who must have known him chiefly, if not entirely, only by repute. A friend of his was walking in the neighbourhood of his village and curious to find out if the reports of the widespread respect in which he was held locally were true, asked some labourers whom he met on the road if they knew Ramtanu Babu. They at once showed surprise, not unmixed with indignation, that they should be asked such a question. "Who does not know him?" they asked. When questioned further as to what kind of a man he was, one of them replied "Do you call him a man? He is a god." "But how can you call him a god," the stranger asked, "who has cast off the Brahminical thread and eats fowls?" For a moment the men stared at their interrogator. Then one of them answered, "It is evident that you do not belong to this part of the country or you would not have spoken in this way. Casting off the thread and eating fowls may be faults in others, but not in him. Whatever he does is good."