JITNAGAD-LIMBD1 12$
possessed a cheerful and pleasant temperament, except
-when his only son \ronld come from the city to tease
him and pick Tip a quarrel with him. They used to fight
like cocks in a hand-to-hand scuffle. At the bottom
of the frequent quarrels, Ramdas could clearly see,
there was a strong mutual attachment—for that matter,
all strife and violence in the Trorld can be traced to the
same source.
Both the sadhus were kind and hospitable to him. The
time was winter and hence the cold was severe. They had
a fireplace in the middle of the floor of the shed. The
sadhns slept around the fire at right angles to one another.
By joining them at bedtime, Ramdas formed another
angle. Maganlal would come to him in this garden every
ilay and take him home for the midday meal. The bearded
old man cooked roties in the shed for himself and Atmanand.
Very often they had to be satisfied with only dry
roties, salt and chillies for dinner. One early morning
Atmanand must have felt unusually hungry. He asked the
old sadhu if there was any remnant from the roties of the
previous night. In response the old man placed before
Atmanand a napkin containing some fragments of roties
which resembled thick pieces of white leather. Roiling up
his sleeves Atmanand fell to. Piece after piece of the stiff
dry bread found its way into his capacious month. He pos-
sessed strong teeth with which he munched them. As he
went on with the meal, to humour his palate that craved
for fine and delicious food, he was uttering at every mouth-
ful of the dry and tasteless stuff:
"Ladoo— ladoo—ladoo; poori-poori—poori;
jilabi—jilabi—jilabi; barfi— barfi—barfi."
The same afternoon, he complained of stomachache.
Evidently, the dry bread had put his digestive apparatus
out of order. "I am going to the doctor,'* he said and left
the garden. He turned up in the evening quite fit and
cheerful.
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