'Very ill, sir; hardly able to stand without assistance.'
'What was the matter with him?'
'It was what we call a drying-up, or withering of the System.'
'What were the symptoms?'
'Dysentery.'
'Good; and what cured him, as he now seems quite well?'
'Our mother and father vowed five pair of baskets of Ganges water to Gajādhar, an incarnation of the god Siva, at the temple of Baijnāth, and a visit to the temple of Jagannāth.'
'And having fulfilled these vows, your brother recovered?'
'He had quite recovered, sir, before we had set out on our return from Jagannāth.'
'And who carried the baskets?'