a year in it, applied for a scholarship to Mr David Hare, who recommended him to Mr Wilson, Secretary to the “Committee of Public Instruction.” Being examined, and found worthy of encouragement, he was awarded a scholarship of sixteen rupees a month.
Having now means of his own, in addition to what his eldest brother Kesava gave him, he had his younger brothers, Radhabilash and Kalicharan, brought to Calcutta for their education. The three brothers lodged in a house near the college; and having no cook or menial servant of their own they themselves had to work as such. Trouble of another nature soon crossed their path. Unexpected calls on Kesava’s purse having drained it, he could no longer send them any money. Ramtanu, therefore, was thrown upon his own resources, and was sometimes so hard pressed as to have to run about in quest of loans.
We cannot conclude this chapter without mentioning two instances showing Mr David Hare’s love for the youth of his acquaintance. Once our hero was seized with cholera, and Mr Hare nursed him at great personal risk. On another occasion this noble-minded Englishman, at an advanced hour of the night, escorted a young lad, named Chandra Sikhar Deb, who had called on him at Mr Gray’s house in the street now called Hare Street, and had been detained there by a storm, almost to the lad’s house at Puttoatola, for fear lest the latter should be molested on the way by some bad character.
