ground becomes so parched and hard that nothing can grow in it.  The sun is very much stronger in India than it is in England; and it sent forth its burning rays, drying up all the water in the tanks and changing what had been, a beautiful country, covered with green crops good for food, into a dreary desert, where neither men nor animals could get anything to eat.  The result of this was that there was a terrible famine, in which hundreds of people and animals died, little children being the first to suffer.

Now the three brothers, who had none of them any children, got frightened at the state of things, and thought to themselves, “If we do not escape from this dreadful land, we shall die.”  They said to each other:  “Let us flee away from here, and go somewhere where we are sure of being able to get plenty to eat and drink.  We will not take our wives with us; they would only make things worse for us; let us leave them to look after themselves.”

1.  What do you think of the behaviour of the three brothers?  Was there any excuse for their leaving their wives behind them?

2.  Do you think the wives themselves can have been to blame in any way in the matter?

CHAPTER II

So the three wives were deserted, and had to manage as best they could without their husbands, who did not even trouble to wish them goodbye.  The wives were at first very sad and lonely, but presently a great joy came to one of them which made the other two very happy as well.  This joy was the birth of a little boy, whose two aunts loved him almost as much as his mother did.  The story does not tell how they all got food whilst the famine was going on, though it is very evident that they were not starved, for the baby boy grew fast and was a strong healthy little fellow.

One night all the three wives had the same dream, a very wonderful one, in which the god Siva, who is very much honoured in India, appeared to them.  He told them that, looking down from Heaven, he had noticed how tenderly they cared for the new-born baby, and that he wished them to call him Putraka.  Besides this he astonished them by adding that, as a reward for the unselfish way in which they had behaved, they would find one hundred thousand gold pieces under the little child’s pillow every morning, and that one day that little child would be a king.

3.  Do you think the three women wanted to be rewarded for loving the baby?

4.  Is it a good thing to have a great deal of money?

CHAPTER III