SANATAN WAS telling his beads by the Ganges when a Brahmin in rags came to him and said, 'Help me, I am poor!'
'My alms-bowl is all that is my own,' said Sanatan, 1 have given away everything I had.'
'But my lord Shiva came to me in my dreams,' said the Brahmin, 'and counselled me to come to 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.

I LONG TO GO over there to the further bank of the river,
Where those boats are tied to the bamboo poles in a line;
Where men cross over in their boats in the morning with ploughs on their shoulders to till their far-away fields;
Where the cowherds make their lowing cattle swim across to the riverside pasture;
Whence they all come back home in the evening, leaving the jackals to howl in the island overgrown with weeds.
Mother, if you don't mind, I should like to become the boatman of the ferry when I am grown up.
They say there are strange pools hidden behind that high bank,
Where flocks of wild ducks come when the rains are over, and thick reeds grow round the margins where waterbirds lay their eggs;
Where snipes with their dancing tails stamp their tiny footprints upon the clean soft mud;
Where in the evening the tall grasses crested with white flowers invite the moonbeam to float upon their waves.
Mother, if you don't mind, I should like to become the boatman of the ferryboat when I am grown up.
I shall cross and cross back from bank to bank, and all the boys and girls of the village will wonder at me while they are bathing.
When the sun climbs the mid sky and morning wears on to noon,
I shall come running to you, saying, 'Mother, I am hungry!'
When the day is done and the shadows cower under the trees, I shall come back in the dusk.
I shall never go away from you into the town to work like father.
Mother, if you don't mind, I should like to become the boatman of the ferryboat when I am grown up.

বৃষ্টি কোথায় নুকিয়ে বেড়ায়
          উড়ো মেঘের দল হয়ে,
যেই দেখা দেয় আর-এক ধারায়
          শ্রাবণ-ধারার জল হয়ে।
আমি ভাবি চুপটি করে
          মোর দশা হয় ঐ যদি!
কেই বা জানে আমি আবার
          আর-একজনও হই যদি!
একজনারেই তোমরা চেন
          আর-এক আমি কারোই না।
কেমনতরো ভাবখানা তার
          মনে আনতে পারই না।
হয়তো বা ঐ মেঘের মতোই
          নতুন নতুন রূপ ধরে
কখন যে সে ডাক দিয়ে যায়,
          কখন থাকে চুপ করে।
কখন বা সে পুবের কোণে
          আলো-নদীর বাঁধ বাঁধে,
কখন বা সে আধেক রাতে
          চাঁদকে ধরার ফাঁদ ফাঁদে।
শেষে তোমার ঘরের কথা
          মনেতে তার যেই আসে,
আমার মতন হয়ে আবার
          তোমার কাছে সেই আসে।
আমার ভিতর লুকিয়ে আছে
          দুই রকমের দুই খেলা,
একটা সে ঐ আকাশ-ওড়া,
          আরেকটা এই ভুঁই-খেলা।