14 LIFE AND WORK OF SIR JAGADIS C. BOSE 



it, has been acquiring for the last century not a little to 

 the imageries of water in movement, as from ' current ' 

 onwards ? 



Besides such subconscious preparation of the future 

 physicist, the boy had from the first a strong interest in 

 animal life, which might well have made him a zoologist. 

 The fish and fish-trap of the little home-bridge over the 

 road-stream, the water-snake he captured, to the alarm of 

 his elder sister, are to this day vivid memories. So too' 

 are the varied insects, so often beautiful or strange, in 

 which India abounds. But above all the kindly creatures, 

 which could be made pets of, attracted him ; and this taste 

 was wisely encouraged from the first. 



From his fifth year he was given a pony, and soon 

 learned to stick on indeed so well and pluckily that at the 

 Faridpur races some of the spectators in fun said to the 

 child, ' Go on ; you are to race too ! ' Taking them at 

 their word, the child stirred on his pony, which rose fully 

 to the occasion, and carried him for his first gallop round 

 the course after the big horses. The rough saddle-girths, 

 which he had to grip with his short legs, and with all his 

 might he had no stirrups scratched and tore his skin 

 so deeply that it still bears the marks ; but he felt the joy 

 of the race, stuck to his purpose, finished the round, and 

 came in duly last, to receive hearty praise, as of victory. 

 He said nothing of his wounds, till the blood betrayed 

 them, and he was sent home for repairs. Thus early in 

 childhood does the man's character appear. Again, just 

 before beginning school, little Jagadis had seen a man 

 brought in mauled by a tiger, and watched the village 

 surgery of his wounds. Some days after, being reproved 

 by his mother, he made off into the sugar-cane plantation, 

 where the tiger had seized his victim, there to offer himself 

 up in his turn and thus make mother repent her hard 

 words ! But deep among the rustling canes, his courage, 

 failed him ; and he returned with wailings, which soon 

 brought him maternal consolation and renewed peace. 



