absolutely nothing in the house.  You run to papa and tell him to go into the bazaar and buy grain.  If he buys grain I’ll buy you images of Parwati.”  The children got up and ran to their father and cried out, “Papa, Papa, Mama says that she will buy us images of Parwati if you will go into the bazaar and get food to offer to them.”  Their father at first searched all over the house but could find no grain.  And then he looked in his purse but he could find no money with which to go to the bazaar and buy grain.  But although he tried to explain this to his children, they would not listen to him.  They screamed at him and shouted, “Papa, Papa, Mummy says that she will buy us images of Parwati if you will get food to offer to them.”  “Papa, Papa, why should we not have images of Parwati like the other little boys and girls.”  At last they bothered the poor Brahman so much that he felt worried to death.  “I love,” he said, “my children as if they were made of gold, but they will not mind what I say.  They will not understand that it is nothing but poverty which prevents my buying food and offering it to Parwati.  I might go out and beg, but when I do, no one ever gives me anything.  Death is better than a life like this.”  With these words he got up and walked to the edge of the village pond and determined to drown himself.  It was dark when he started, and half-way he met an old woman.  She heard him coming and asked him who he was.  He told her all his trouble, and said that he meant to jump into the pond to escape from his children.  The woman comforted him and prevailed on him to turn home again.  He took her home.  His wife came to the door with a lamp and asked who she was.  The husband did not like to say that he had only just met her on the road, so he said to his wife, “She is my grandmother.”  The wife thereupon welcomed her and invited her to come in and stay to supper.  But her heart felt as heavy as lead, for she knew that there was nothing to eat inside the house.  When the old woman had seated herself inside the house, the Brahman’s wife got up and, in despair, went to look inside the grain-pots.  She knew they were empty, but she thought that she would first look into them once again.  But, lo and behold! when she looked this time she found the grain-pots brimming over with grain.  She called her husband, and they were both perfectly delighted.  And the wife prepared bowls full of rice-gruel, and every one, children and all, ate the rice-gruel till the skins on their stomachs felt quite tight.  And they went to bed as happy as possible.  Next morning the old woman called to the Brahman, “My son, my son, get me water for my bath and cook me a nice hot dinner, and please be quick about it, and do not start making objections.”  The Brahman got up and called his wife, and they got water for the old woman’s bath, and then the Brahman went out to beg.  When he had gone out before, no one had ever given him anything.  But to-day every one ran out and gave him food and molasses and copper