o you."

Sanatan suddenly remembered he had picked up a stone without
price among the pebbles on the river-bank, and thinking that some
one might need it hid it in the sands.

He pointed out the spot to the Brahmin, who wondering dug up the
stone.

The Brahmin sat on the earth and mused alone till the sun went
down behind the trees, and cowherds went home with their cattle.

Then he rose and came slowly to Sanatan and said, "Master, give
me the least fraction of the wealth that disdains all the wealth
of the world."

And he threw the precious stone into the water.

XXVIII

Time after time I came to your gate with raised hands, asking for
more and yet more.

You gave and gave, now in slow measure, now in sudden excess.

I took some, and some things I let drop; some lay heavy on my
hands; some I made into playthings and broke them when tired;
till the wrecks and the hoard of your gifts grew immense, hiding
you, and the ceaseless expectation wore my heart out.

Take, oh take--has now become my cry.

Shatter all from this beggar's bowl: put out this lamp of the
importunate watcher: hold my hands, raise me from the
still-gathering heap of your gifts into the bare infinity of
your uncrowded presence.

XXIX

You have set me among those who are defeated.

I know it is not for me to win, nor to leave the game.

I shall plunge into the pool although but to sink to the bottom.

I shall play the game of my undoing.

I shall stake all I have and when I lose my last penny I shall
stake myself, and then I think I shall have won through my utter
defeat.

XXX

A smile of mirth spread over the sky when you dressed my heart in
rags and sent her forth into the road to beg.

She went from door to door, and many a time when her bowl was
nearly full she was robbed.

At the end of the weary day she came to your palace gate holding
up her pitiful bowl, and you came and took her hand and seated
her beside you on your throne.

XXXI

"Who among you will take up the duty of feeding the hungry?"
Lord Buddha asked his followers when famine raged at Shravasti.

Ratnakar, the banker, hung his head and said, "Much more is
needed than all my wealth to feed the hungry."

Jaysen, the chief of the King's army, said, "I would gladly give
my life's blood, but there is not enough food in my house."

Dharmapaal, who owned broad acres of land, said with a sigh, "The
drought demon has sucked my fields dry. I