HURD WAR. 
197 
he found his own strength declining, and the enfeebling 
linger of disease warned him that very speedily his 
improvident son would be deprived of his guidance and 
protection. Then came serious thoughts and dismal 
apprehensions, as he found that his most grave injunc- 
tions failed to move the lad to an appreciation of his 
wise sayings, and that his oft-repeated prayers and 
tearful warnings were equally unavailing. He could 
not but anticipate that in a few short years after his 
death his accumulated wealth would be completely 
squandered, his treasures scattered to the winds, his 
broad lands, acquired with a whole life’s thrift, a prey 
to remorseless creditors ; his child, a ruined debauchee, 
an outcast, a squalid mendicant. 
Finding all his advice utterly without effect upon 
the hardened youth, the now dying father bethought 
him how in a measure he might place a restraint upon 
his prodigal propensities, and having after much 
deliberation framed the following expedient, he sur- 
rounded his couch with Brahmins, and then calling 
his son, he thus addressed him. “ Oh Purwatti, thou 
art the anguish of thy aged father’s soul ; thou, whose 
welfare is far more precious to me than the gain of my 
whole life, art become the destroyer of my peace. 
Yet, wilt thou listen to my last words, and remember 
them P Know then, my son, that fortune stands firm 
when she has planted her feet, the one upon honesty, 
the other on prudence; but he who shall withdraw 
these her supports shall himself be crushed by her 
s 3 
