Subha Datta's wife was sorely disappointed at this, because she loved
her husband so much that it was a joy to her to work for him. The
children too wanted, of course, to go with their father, but he
ordered them to stop where they were. He seized a big basket which was
fall of fuel for the fire, tumbled all the wood in it on the floor,
and went off alone to the pitcher. Very soon he was back again with
his basket full of all sorts of good things, the very names of which
his wife and children had no idea of. "There!" he cried; "what do you
think of that? Am I not a clever father to have found all that in the
forest? Those are the 'fruits' I meant when I told Mother about them."

21. What would you have thought about this wonderful supply of food,
if you had been one of the woodcutter's children?

22. Was it a good thing for those children to have all this food
without working for it? If not, why was it not a good thing?


CHAPTER XII


Life was now, of course, completely changed for the family in the
forest. Subha Datta no longer went to cut wood to be sold, and the
boys also left off doing so. Every day their father fetched food for
them all, and the greatest desire of each one of the family was to
find out where it came from. They never could do so, for Subha Datta
managed to make them afraid to follow him when he went forth with
his basket. The secret he kept from the wife to whom he used to tell
everything soon began to spoil the happiness of the home. The children