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

The wonderful dream was fulfilled, and the mother and aunts called
the boy Putraka. Every morning they found the gold pieces under his
pillow, and they took care of the money for him, so that when he grew
up he was the very richest man in the whole country. He had a happy
childhood and boyhood, his only trouble being that he did not like
having never seen his father. His mother told him about the famine
before he was born, and how his father and uncles had gone away and
never come back. He often said, "When I am a man I will find my father
and bring him home again." He used his money to help others, and one
of the best things he did was to irrigate the land;