The next day, Devdas got a terrible beating, - and he was kept locked up in his room. Later, after his mother had wept profusely, he was set free. Early the next morning, he was standing below Parvati’s window, calling softly, “Paru! Parooo!” Parvati’s window opened a crack. “Devda!”

Devdas beckoned impatiently, “Come quick.”

In a minute, Parvati was standing next to him.

“Why did you tell Dad I smoked ?”

“Why did you beat me ?”

“Why didn’t you fetch the water when I asked you ?”

Parvati did not answer.

Devdas eexclaimed, “ You really are a great idiot! Don’t snitch on me again, ok ?”

Parvati shook her head “ No , I never will.”

“All right, then. Come on. You can help me cut a couple of rods. We’ll catch some fish today.”

There were young canes growing in the bamboo thicket, and that’s where they went. Devdas pulled one of the bamboos down to the ground. Telling Parvati to hold it down, he climbed on it, and began cutting a young shoot of cane.Parvati hung on to the bamboo with all her strength.

She asked, “Devda, aren’t you going to school?”

“No.”

“Your dad will make you.”

“My dad is getting me a tutor, to teach me at home.”

Parvati thought this over. Then she said, We changed to summer hours for school yesterday. That means classes start at seven instead of ten. I have to go soon.”

Devdas glared at her. “You don’t have to go . ” he announced.

Parvati had been finding it harder and harder to hold the bamboo down. Now it slipped out of her hands, and swung upright, spilling Devdas onto the ground.

It was not a hard fall, but he was grazed in many places, and his dignity was lost.

Turning a furious face on Parvati, he lashed at her with the cane he was still clutching.

The blows fell on her back and her face.

“Get away from me, you ninny!”

At first, Parvati was thoroughly ashamed , at having let go the bamboo and causing Devdas to fall.

Now she felt most unjustly used.

“I’m going to tell you Dad!”

“Go on then, do that, you sneak!”

Parvati ran off. She had not gone far, when Devdas called “Paru! Come back!”

Parvati did not answer or look back.

Devdas called again “Paru! Listen! Come back!”

Parvati pretended not to hear.

Irritated, Devdas muttered “Go then, I don’t care.”

He cut the cane into a fishing rod, but he did not want to go fishing anymore. He wished he hadn’t lost his temper with Parvati.

Still weeping, Parvati returned home. By this time the welts from the cane were raised and red. The first person to see Paru was her grandmother who cried out in horror.

“Oh my God! Who has done this to you ?”

Parvati replied “Schoolmaster Sir.”

Her grandmother pulled her onto her lap. “Come with me ! We’re going to see the Squire! Let him see what kind of man the schoolmaster is! Why, he’s practically beaten you to death!”

At Narayan Mukherjee’s, Parvati’s grandmother described at length what kind of untalented subhuman the schoolmaster was. She also described his unfortunate and deceased ancestors and their impious desserts in the other world.

Finally she said “ Do you see how that Govind has got above himself ? Calls himself a Pandit! Why, the upstart! Look how he dared to raise his hand on my little girl!”

Narayan Mukherjee asked, “Paru, who hit you?”

Parvati did not answer.

Her grandmother cried out, “Who else but that wretched so-called schoolteacher!”

“Who hit you?”

Still Parvati remained silent.

Narayan Mukherjee understood that she must have done something to deserve a beating, but the injury was far too much for a punishment, and he said so. Looking at the welts on her cheek and back, Narayan Mukherjee was furious. He decided to summon Govind Pandit and hear what the man had to say for himself. Such a man did not deserve any students. Paru’s grandmother was contented with this verdict; taking Paru’s hand she returned home.

When they got home, however, Paru’s mother began to quiz her.

“Why did he hit you ?”

“For no reason.”

Paru’s mother knew her daughter well. The girl was definitely lying. Why?

She boxed Paru’s ears. “No one punishes for no reason!”

Paru’s grandmother came running back.

“Daughter-in-law! If you can hit the child for no reason, what ‘s to say that idiot teacher didn’t ?”

“He wouldn’t have struck without a reason, and she is a quiet child, he wouldn’t have punished her for talking, - she must have done something!”

Paru’s grandmother was irritated.

“Whatever! But we’re not sending her back to that school!”

“Is she to grow up ignorant, then?”

“What’s the big deal ? She can read and write. What more does she need ? She’s not going to become a judge or a lawyer, is she! ”

Paru’s mother did not argue further.

Devdas returned home late that day, fearfully. He fully expected to be punished. Surely, by now Parvati would have told everything. Much to his surprise, he was not rebuked in the least. Moreover, his mother informed him that Govind Pandit had beaten Parvati, and Parvati was not going back to school. Devdas ran to Paru’s house as soon as he could.

“Is true you’re not going back to school ?”

“It’s true.”

“How did this happen ?”

“I told them Sir hit me.”

Delighted, Devdas laughed uproariously, and expressed his opinion that Parvati was the most knowing and intelligent creature on earth. Then, looking at the marks on her, he sighed, "oh, dear."

“Oh dear, what ?”

“Must have hurt terribly, Paru!”

“It did.”

“Ah, Paru, if only you wouldn’t be so provking, I get so mad, and then I hit you.”

Tears crept into Parvati’s eyes. She wanted to ask, “Well then, what should I do ? ”, but couldn’t.

Devdas rested