wrong; willingly or unwillingly I have prepared the Indigo, and also I am ready to make it this time. But then, every thing has its probability and improbability; if you want to make powder of eight inches thickness to enter a pipe half-an-inch thick, will it not burst? I am a poor ryot, I keep only one and half ploughs, have only twenty bigahs of land for cultivation; and now, if I am to give nine bigahs out of that for Indigo, that must occasion my death, but my Lord, what is that to you, it is only my death.
Gopi. The Saheb fears lest you keep him confined in the godown of your eldest Babu.
Sadhu. Now, Sir Dewanji, what you say is striking a corpse (useless labour). What mite am I that I shall imprison the Saheb, the mighty and glorious?
Gopi. Sadhu, now away with your high-flown language; it does not sound well on the tongue of a peasant; it is like a sweeper's broom touching the body.
Wood. Now the rascal is become very wise.
Amin. That fool explains the laws and magistrate's orders to the common people, and thus raises confusion. His brother draws the ploughshare, and he uses the high word "pratapshali" ("glorious").
Gopi. The child of the preparer of cow-dung balls is become a Court Naeb (deputy). My Lord, the establishment of schools in villages has increased the violence of the ryots.
Wood. I shall write to our Indigo Planters' Association to make a petition to the Government for stopping the schools in villages; we shall fight to secure stopping the schools.
Amin. That fool wants to bring the case into Court.
Wood. (To Sadhu) You are very wicked. You have twenty bigahs, of which, if you employ nine bigahs for Indigo, why can't you cultivate the other nine bigahs for rice.
Gopi. My Lord, what to speak of nine bigahs! The debt which is credited to him can be made use of by bringing the whole twenty bigahs within our own power.
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