to her quite natural that the Child Krishna should comfort a mother's heart.
So time went on. And then something happened. The schoolmaster announced that he must give a feast—a wedding-party, or something of the kind.
Now people in India practically never pay a schoolmaster for keeping a school. It is quite easy for him, all the same, to obtain food. For his field, like the widow's, is part of the village-lot, and the villagers plant and dig for him also.
But on a special occasion, such as the present, when it becomes known to his pupils that he must provide a feast, each boy will go home to his parents and say, "My noble teacher"—for so the master is called—"my noble teacher is about to give a party. What gifts can I take to him?"
Then some mothers will set to work and cook quantities of sweetmeats, cakes, and puddings; some will prepare great trays of fruit; one will buy beautiful silk cloth for him and his wife to wear at time of worship, and others will send cotton and muslin for daily clothing. In this way the schoolmaster and his wife are amply provided for.
And now, like others of course, Gopala said to his mother that night, "Mother, to-morrow is our noble teacher's party. What can I take to him?"
Again her child's words made the poor mother
