Page:The Spoilt Child.djvu/174

Ganges mud and brick-bats, and insulted them generally, and the Brahmans, interrupted in this rude way at their devotions, went their way, calling upon Krishna in their distress. The young men having embarked on board a boat, all caught up a popular love-song, screaming it out at the top of their voices. The boat glided quickly down stream on the ebb. The Babus could not keep still for a moment; one would get on the deck of the cabin; another would work the rudder; one would pull an oar, and another strike a light with a flint. They had not gone very far when they met with Dhanamala. Now Dhanamala never cared what he said to any one: he called out to them: "Having reduced a whole village to ashes, are you now going to set the Ganges on fire?" To which they angrily replied: "Shut up, you idiot! Do you not know that we are all going into business?" Dhanamala's only answer to this was:-- "If you ever become traders, may your business come to grief! may it perish with a halter on its neck!"