Page:Shantiniketan; the Bolpur School of Rabindranath Tagore.djvu/77

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THE GIFT TO THE GURU

By Satish Chandra Roy

Translated by W. W. Pearson


Introduction

This evening I am going to tell you a story about a boy of long ago.

Forget for a while this lamp that we have lighted indoors, and think of that flood of moonlight that pours itself out upon the surrounding fields. On one side of this open country the wood is black and indistinct like a huge python that has risen from some chasm of the earth and is lying asleep in the moonlight, swaying in the wind. To-night as we all sit together I shall speak to you about the night. If it had been daytime, perhaps I should have talked about the day. But no,—I have another reason for describing the night, for night time is the best time for story-telling. At night time every-

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