허f II ܗ ܘܟܠ of his long home; and if ever one chanced, on occasion, to find in them their former brightness, it was the sheen of the tear-drop rather, whereof they were then often so full. Like Dr. Johnson, Mr. Datta had a peculiar dread of death. He feared death not because the judgment day would be too severe for him, but because he, of all mortal men, was most unwilling to leave the world which he loved and liked so well. The thought of the fate of his wife and children, and, more especially, of the education of the latter distracted him. A fonder husband and a fonder father it is difficult to find anywhere, I believe. On a dark evening (it was about a week or ten days before his death), the two sons playing in the parlour, Mr. Datta himself lying on the broad of his back upon a bedstead, constantly spitting blood, Mrs. Datta lolling on a sofa, Sarmishtha and myself squat ting on the matting, and talking glibly of native medicines and the diseases of women, a low murmur, as of pain, was heard, and suddenly Mrs. Datta ceased to speak. The poor lady had a swoon. Mr. D. who lay prostrate and incapable of moving tried to rise up, but could not. “Alas Mrs. Datta is gone," he cried ; "God bless you, my boy, save her." Saying this he burst into a flood of tears. In about half an hour Sarmishtha and I succeeded in restoring her to her senses. Thereupon, as the tears of joy and the tears of grief and pain and anguish mingled together in his eyes, the fast dying poet waxed poetic, beginning, in the floweriest language, to recount his past deeds and misdeeds ; and calling to me, and holding me by both the hands, imploringly said :-"My dear good fellow Your Library garden, I fear, will be my grave, perhaps also my wife's. But I pray you, take care of my boys, and see that they are well educated; that is my last request As your elder, I beg of you never to drink, never to eat ham or beef-these have been my ruin,” “Mr. Mukharji", interrupted Mrs. Datta, "for Heaven's sake put my two sons in some English fohool, and see that they receive good education.' Mr. Datta was of so proud a nature that on days when he had literally no victuals he would ask us to send native dishes, saying he had not tasted them for many a year, but never for once'so much as hinting that he went without food. His gratefulness was boundless; in fact, he delighted to acknowledge services in the most glowing and enthusiastic terms, To three persons, Pandit Iswara Chandra Vidyasagara, Mr. W. C. Bonnerjee and Maharani Swarnamayi, he used daily and hourly to acknowledge that he was indebted beyond all hope of repayment. Of his then attending physician and old chum, the late Dr. S. R. G. Chakravarti, he often said, in a tone of bitter contempt -"Chuck has ruined me, he has not spared me a single fee.' 8Ꮼ
