CHILDHOOD AND EARLY EDUCATION 5 



not to be unknown in India), could not but exasperate 

 the dacoits ; and their fiercer spirits repeatedly organised 

 attempts at revenge. One group, whom he had tried and 

 sentenced, turned on him as they were being led away with 

 the threat that ' when we get out, we will make the red 

 horse fly/ Three or four years later they kept their word. 

 One midnight the thatch of Mr. Bose's bungalow was set 

 on fire from three or four corners, and the outhouses also 

 were ablaze. Suddenly aroused from sleep by the crackling 

 and smoke, the household could but rush out into the com- 

 pound, without time to remove anything. The immediate 

 neighbours, who as it happened were mostly Mahommedans, 

 hastened to the rescue. One of them saw in the burning 

 house a small figure, which in the smoke and firelight he 

 mistook ; he ran back to Mr. Bose, saying, ' You would not 

 like us to touch your idol, but I think it can be saved/ 

 ' Idol ! I have no idol, let me see ! ' and here was the 

 little daughter (afterwards Mrs. M. M. Bose), then aged only 

 three, who in the scattered confusion of the family had not 

 been missed, but was sitting on her bed, fascinated rather 

 than terrified by the scene. The father rushed in, and 

 carried the child out ; and a moment after the roof fell in. 

 Everything was lost ; when the strong-box was extricated 

 from the ruins, ornaments and money, gold, silver and 

 copper were fused into a mass ; and the horses and cows 

 in the outhouses had perished. But one neighbour lent 

 a part of his house, others lent clothing and cooking- 

 vessels, and so the family encamped as best it could 

 for a month or more, until a fresh house this time 

 prudently of substantial construction was secured. The 

 burned house had been Mr. Bose's own, so this severe 

 loss was a beginning of the many misfortunes of his 

 later career. 



A year or two later, when the boy Jagadis was five or six, 

 he recalls from a ' Mela ' or popular fair, a wrestling match 

 among the policemen, mostly big stalwart fellows from 

 the North-Western Provinces, who practised much among 



