Page 62 - English Reader - 7

‘From the first of next month I’ll sleep alone, Father.’

‘No, you must do it now. It is disgraceful sleeping beside granny or mother like a baby. You are in
the second form and I don’t at all like the way you are being brought up,’ he said, and looked at his
wife, who was rocking the cradle. ‘Why do you look at me while you say it?’ she asked. ‘I hardly know
anything about the boy.’

‘No, no, I don’t mean you,’ Father said.

‘If you mean that your mother is spoiling him, tell her so; and don’t look at me,’ she said, and turned
away.

Swami’s father sat gloomily gazing at the newspaper on his lap. Swami rose silently and tiptoed away
to his bed in the passage. Granny was sitting up in her bed, and remarked, ‘Boy, are you already
feeling sleepy? Don’t you want a story?’ Swami made wild gesticulations to silence Granny, but that
good lady saw nothing. So Swami threw himself on his bed and pulled the blanket over his face.

Granny said, ‘Don’t cover your face. Are you really very sleepy?’ Swami leant over and whispered,
‘Please, please, shut up, Granny. Don’t talk to me, and don’t let anyone call me even if the house is
on fire. If I don’t sleep at once I shall perhaps die—’ He turned over, curled, and snored under the
blanket till he found his blanket pulled away.

Presently Father came and stood over him. ‘Swami, get up,’ he said. He looked like an apparition in
the semi-darkness of the passage which was lit by a cone of light from the hall. Swami stirred and
groaned as if in sleep. Father said, ‘Get up, Swami.’ Granny pleaded, ‘Why do you disturb him?’

‘Get up, Swami,’ he said for the fourth time, and Swami got up. Father rolled up his bed, took it
under his arm, and said, ‘Come with me.’ Swami looked at his Granny, hesitated for a moment, and
followed his Father into the office room. On the way he threw a look of appeal at his mother and she
said, ‘Why do you take him to the office room? He can sleep in the hall, I think.’
‘I don’t think so,’ Father said, and Swami slunk behind him with bowed head.

‘Let me sleep in the hall, Father,’
Swami pleaded. ‘Your office room is
very dusty and there may be scorpions
behind your law books.’

‘There are no scorpions, little fellow.
Sleep on the bench if you like.’
‘Can I have a lamp burning in the
room?’

‘No. You must learn not to be afraid
of darkness. It is only a question of
habit. You must cultivate good habits.’

‘Will you at least leave the door
open?’

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