Sadhu. Has not the eldest Babu gone to the Factory?
Goluk. Has he gone of his own will? The pyeadah (a servant) has carried him off there.
Sadhu. But your eldest Babu has very great courage. On the day the Saheb said, “If you don’t hear the Amin, and don’t plant the Indigo within the ground marked off, then shall we throw your houses into the river Betraboti, and shall make you eat your rice in the factory godown;“ the eldest Babu replied, “As long as we shall not get the price for the fifty bigahs of land sown with Indigo last year, we will not give one bigah this year for Indigo. What do we care for our house? We shall even risk (pawn) our lives.”
Goluk. What could he have done, without he said that? Just see, no anxiety would have remained in our family if the fifty bigahs of rice produce had been left with us. And if they give us the money for the Indigo, the greater part of our troubles will go away.
Nobin Madhab enters.
O my son, What has been done?
Nobin. Sir, does the cobra shrink from biting the little child on the lap of its mother on account of the sorrow of the mother? I flattered him much, but: he understood nothing by that. He kept to his word, and said, give us sixty bigahs of land, secured by written documents, and take 50 Rupees, then we shall close the two years’ account at once.
Goluk. Then, if we are to give sixty bigahs for the cultivation of the Indigo, we cannot engage in any other cultivation whatever. Then we shall die without rice crops.
Nobin. I said, “Saheb, as you engage all your men, our ploughs, and our kine, every thing, in the Indigo field, only give us every year through our food. We don’t want hire.” On which, he with a laugh said, “You surely don’t eat Yaban’s[[2]] rice.”
Sadhu. Those whose only pay is a belly full of food are, I think, happier than we are.