Becharam.-- Ramlall is a very good boy: the mere sight of him would refresh my eyes: he is bound to be good, and it has all come about by reason of his association with you.
Meanwhile, Thakchacha and Bahulya had passed Saugor on a vessel The pair were for all the world like two cranes: they sat together, ate together, slept together, and were perfectly inseparable: their mutual woes formed the continual theme of their conversation. One day Thakchacha, with a deep sigh, said to his companion:-- "Our destiny is a very hard one: we have become mere lumps of earth: our trickery is of no further avail, and as for my stratagems, they have all escaped from my head. My house is ruined: I did not even have an interview with my wife before leaving: I am very much afraid that she will marry again." Bahulya replied: "Friend, pluck all these matters out of your heart: life in the world is after all but a pilgrimage: we are here to-day, gone to-morrow: no one has anything he can call his own. You have one wife, I have four. Throw everything else to the winds, consider only carefully the means whereby it may go well with self." The wind soon began to blow hard, and the ship went on her way with a strong list to one side. A terrible storm then got up. Thakchacha, trembling all over with fright, said to Bahulya: "Oh, my friend, I am in a terrible fright! I think my death must be very near." Bahulya replied: "Are we not already within an ace of death? We are but ghosts of our former selves. Come, and let us go below, and say our prayers to Allah and his prophet: I have them all by heart: if we are swamped, we shall at any rate have the name of our patron saint to accompany us on our journey."
