Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/421

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ISVAR CHANDRA VIDYASAGAR.

stood up and clasped Raghav in his arms, saying,—'You are Krishna Ray.' Raghav's delight now knew no bounds. He took his seat at Vidyasagar's feet, and the two friends of early years fell to talking of reminiscences of their childhood.

On another occasion, as he was sitting in the verandah of his house at Birsingha, one Matuk Ghosh, a Sadgop by caste, called on him. He welcomed the visitor with his usual affability, and asked him to get up on the verandah and to sit by him. The man hesitated. Vidyasagar at once caught hold of his two arms, and lifted him upon the verandah from below it, and made him sit by himself. His physical powers were equal to his powers of the mind.

Some time in 1862, when he was at Birsingha, one day, as he sat to dinner, an aged lady and a young girl appeared before him and began to cry, Vidyasagar was told that the lady was wife of his Guru Mahasay, Kalikanta, and the girl was his daughter. We have already said that Kalikanta was a Kulin Brahman and had taken to him many wives. Vidyasagar was also told that Kalikanta did not care to provide for the maintenance of this wife and daughter. He at once sent for Kalikanta, whom he had made one of the teachers of his school. When the latter arrived, he requested him to provide for the maintenance of the two females, who were no other than his own wife and daughter, adding, at the same time, that if he did