Sanskrit is not now spoken by any of those who live in India, but all who know Indian scholarship know it. It was in this language that Ramabai learned the beautiful Hindu poems, and the stories of the gods. There is much in these poems and in the stories that is ugly and bad, but we can feel sure that it was the most lovely parts that were taught to the child in the wood. When Ramabai grew older she joined the others in their studies, and then her father found to his great delight that this youngest of his children had a mind that could answer to his own in no ordinary way. By and by the time came when the eldest daughter must be married. Ananta was a Brahman, and he would have been disgraced amongst all his people if he had not married his daughter while she was still a child, so she had been betrothed to a Brahman boy when she was very young. When this took place, Ananta arranged that the little boy was to be educated as she had been, so that the two might have many thoughts and interests in common. The wedding day came, and Ananta sought to have everything as beautiful and costly as custom demanded for the marriage of his daughter, but his heart was bitter within him, because he found that the promises that had been made to him about his son-in-law had all been broken, and he knew that he had given his daughter to one who could not understand her. And this was not his only reason for sorrow. Custom had made him give her a large dowry, and spend great sums of money on the marriage feasting. Brahmans and beggars had been fed too, and he found that he had left himself and his children poor. This made him feel more strongly than ever that there was much that was wrong in Hindu customs. He lectured on the wrongs of India’s women, and tried to prove that many of the things they suffered were not commanded in the old writings. But another trouble was before them. Ananta could not face the thought of giving Ramabai to the same fate that had awaited her sister. So he resolved that he would not marry her to anyone until she was grown up. His friends and relations had been very angry with him for teaching his wife, but they had not made him an outcast for that, but when they saw that he was not going to arrange for Ramabai’s marriage, they were enraged, and would not own him as one of them. Then came the years of a great famine. None of Ananta’s people would give him work, and no one had money to pay for listening to lectures, so the little family moved about from place to place. They always hoped that the gifts they had given to the gods would bring them favour sooner or later. But one misfortune followed another until at last they resolved to die. Ananta had ceased to worship idols, but he had never heard of Christ. Yet, though he had not heard of Him he was feeling his way as many a Hindu has done, towards that same God whom Christ has revealed. Yet though this is so, it did not seem to him that it would be wrong