For Swami, events took an unexpected turn. Father looked over the newspaper he was reading under the hall lamp and said, "Swami, listen to this: News has been received about the bravery of a village lad who. while returning home by the jungle path, came face to face with a tiger....."
After reading it through, father looked at Swami fixedly and asked. "What do you say to that?" Swami said, "I think he must have been a very strong and grown-up person, not a boy at all." "How could a boy fight a tiger?
"You think you are wiser than the newspaper father sneered. "A man may have the strength of an elephant and yet be a coward: where as another may have the strength of a straw, but if he has courage, he can do anything. Courage is everything, strength and age are not important".
Swami disputed the theory "How can it be, Father? Suppose I have all the courage what could I do if a tiger should attack me?"
"Leave alone strength, can you prove you have courage? Let me see if you can sleep alone tonight in my office room."
A frightful proposition, Swami thought. He had always slept beside his granny in the passage, and any change in this arrangement kept him trembling and awake all night. He hoped at first that father was only joking. He mumbled weakly, "Yes," and tried to change the subject: he said very loudly and with a great deal of enthusiasm, "We are going to admit even elders in our cricket club hereafter, We are buying brand-new bats and balls. Our captain has asked me to tell you...
"We'll see about that later, father cut in. "You must sleep alone hereafter." Swami realized that the matter had gone beyond his control: from a challenge it had become a command; he knew his father's tenacity at such moments.
"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 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," said father.
"If you mean 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 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 to hear a story?" Swami made wild gesticulations to silence his 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, perhaps I shall die." He turned over and curried, and snored under the blanket till he found his blanket pulled away.
Presently his 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" said father for the third time and Swam got up. Father rolled up his bed, took it under his arm and said, "Come with me. "Swami looked at 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 shank 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?"
"All right. But promise you won't roll up your bed and go to your granny's side at night. If you do it, I'll make you the laughing stock of your school."10. Swami felt cut off from humanity. He was pained and angry. He did not like the strain of cruelty he saw in his father's nature. He hated the newspaper for printing the tiger's story. He wished that the tiger had not spared the boy, who didn't appear to be a boy after all, but a monster.....
As the night advanced and the silence in the house deepened, his heart beat faster. He remembered all the stories of devils and ghosts he had heard in his life. How often his chum Mani had seen the devil in the banyan tree at his street end. And what about poor Munisami's father, who spat out blood because the devil near the river's edge slapped his check when he was returning home late one night. And so on and on his thoughts continued. He was faint with fear. A ray of light from the street lamp strayed in and cast shadows on the wall(Through the stillness all kinds of noises reached his ears-the ticking of the clock, rustle of trees, soring sounds, and some vague night insects humming He covered himself so completely that he could hardly breathe Every moment he expected the devils to come up to carry him away, there was the instance of his old friend in the fourth class who suddenly disappeared and was said to have been carried off by a ghost to Siam or Nepal.....
Swami hurriedly got up and spread his bed under the bench and crouched there. It seemed to be a much safer place, more compact and reassuring He shut his eyes tight and encased himself in his blanket once again and unknown to himself fell asleep, and in sleep was racked with nightmares. A tiger was chasing him. His feet stuck to the ground. He desperately tried to escape but his feet would not move; the tiger was at his back, and he could hear its claws scratch the ground.... scratch, scratch, and then a loud thud... Swami tried to open his eyes but his eyelids would not open and the nightmare continued. It threatened to continue forever. Swami groaned in despair.
With a desperate effort he opened his eyes. He put his hand out to feel his granny's presence at his side as was his habit, but he only touched the wooden leg of the bench. And his lonely state came back to him. He sweated with fright. And now what was this rustling? He moved to the edge of the bench and stared into the darkness. Something was moving down. He lay gazing at it in horror. His end had come. (He realized that the devil would presently pull him out and tear him, and so why should he wait? As it came nearer he crawled out from under the bench, hugged it with all his might, and used his teeth on it like a mortal weapon..
"Aiyo! Something has bitten me went forth an agenized, Thundering cry and was followed by a heavy tumbling and falling amidst furniture. In a moment father, cook, and a servant came in, carrying light.
And all three of them fell on the burglar who lay amidst the furniture with a bleeding ankle.
, and his teacher patted his back. The headmaster said that he was a true scout Swami had bitten into the flesh of one of the most notorious house-breakers of the district and the police were grateful to him for it.
The inspector said, "Why don't you join the police when you are grown up?" Swami said for the sake of politeness, "Certainly, yes, though he had quite made up his mind to be an engine driver, a railway guard, or a bus conductor later in life.
When he returned home from the club
"He is asleep."
"Already!"
"He didn't have a wink of sleep the whole of last night," said his mother.
"Where is he sleeping?"
"In his usual place," mother said casually. "He went to bed at seven-thirty.
"Sleeping beside his granny again" father said. "No wonder he wanted to be asleep before I could return home. Clever boy!" Mother lost her temper. "You let him sleep where he likes. You needn't risk his life again." Father mumbled as he went in to change. "All right, molly-coddle and spoil him as much as you like. Only don't blame me afterwards." Swami, following the whole conversation from under the blanket, felt tremendously relieved to hear that his father was giving him up.
SUMMARY :
One day Swami's father while reading the newspaper mentioned about the bravery of a young lad who came face to face to with a tiger. But Swami was not impressed and began a discussion on courage. Swami's father dared Swami tis sleep in his office room that night, to prove that he had courage. Poor Swami had to agree to this. He usually slept beside his granny 3 and any change in the arrangement only made him treeified. That night, he rushed and lay beside his granny and pretended to sleep. But his father remembered the bet and woke him up and took him to his office room which was filled with huge, dusty books. Swami wondered if scorpions lurked in the corners. His father warned him that if Swami ran away to his grandmother's side, he would narrate the whole thing in Swami's school the next day
Swami lay alone in the darkness fearfully. His heart beat faster as he remembered all the stories of devils and closes he had heard in his life. So he got up and lay under the bench praying hard. He slept fitfully and dreamt of a tiger chasing him but he couldn't move. Suddenly he heard a loud thud and some scratching sound. He opened his eyes and saw something moving. He was speechless with fear and as it came near, he crawled out and hugged it with all his might and bit it. Someone screamed in agony and fell down Hearing the noise, his father, the cook and the servant came rushing and saw that a thief had fallen down and Swami was holding his legs very tightly. Congratulations were showered on Swami the next day and he was called "The Hero. The next night, when the father wanted to know where Swami was sleeping. his mother and grandmother asked the father to leave the boy alone and let him be wherever he was.
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