Nobin. Mother, I also, have the same desire. Only, I wait till Bindu is engaged in some service. If we leave off ploughing the land, it will be impossible for us to maintain the family and it is for this reason that we have still, with so much trouble, kept these ploughs.
Sabitri. How shalt thou go with this headache? Oh! Oh! was such Indigo produced in this land; Oh! this hell of Indigo plantation! (Places her hand on Nobin's head.)
Enter REBOTI
Reboti. My mother! Where shall I go! What shall I do? They have done what! Why is it that through ill fortune I brought her. Having brought one who now belongs to another family, I am become unable to preserve propriety. My eldest Babu! Preserve me; my life is on the point of bursting out. Bring me Khetromany; bring me my puppet of gold.
Sabitri. What has happened?
Reboti. My Khetromany went to fetch water in the evening from Das's tank along with Panchu's mother: while she was returning through the forest path, four club-men kidnappd her. That devil of the woman, Podi, was there to point her out, and to flee afterwards. Oh, eldest Babu! What a terrible thing I did by bringing down my daughter here! She is now a member of another family! She is carrying. Oh, how I dreamt of celebrating it!
Sabitri. What misfortune! These destroyers can do all things. Ye are taking by force the pieces of ground of men, their grain, their kine and calves. By the force of clubs, ye are cultivating Indigo, and the people are doing your work with cries and sobbings. But what is this—the violation of the modesty of women!
Reboti. My mother! I am preparing the Indigo, taking only half the food. Those bigahs which they had marked, on
54
