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WHAT IS SADDHAMMA ?
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that though she has got a temper, she does not show it? I will try her.’
“So next morning she got up late. ‘Darkie! Darkie! cried the mistress.’ ‘Yes, madam,’ answered the girl. ‘Why did you get up so late ?’ ‘Oh, that’s nothing, madam.’ ‘Nothing indeed, you naughty girl !’ thought the mistress, frowning with anger and displeasure.
“ ‘So she has got a temper, though she does not show it,” thought the maid : ‘It is because I do my work so well that she does not show it ; I will try her further.’ So she got up later next morning. ‘Darkie! Darkie!’ cried the mistress. ‘Yes, madam,’ answered the girl. ‘Why did you get up so late?’ ‘Oh that’s nothing, madam.’ ‘Nothing, indeed, you naughty girl!’ exclaimed the mistress, giving vent in words to her anger and displeasure.
“ ‘Yes,’ thought the maid, ‘she has got a temper though she does not show it because I do my work so well ; I will try her yet further.’ So next morning she got up later still. ‘Darkie! Darkie! cried her mistress.’ ‘ Yes, madam,’ answered the girl. ‘Why did you get up so late?’ ‘Oh, that’s nothing, madam.’
“ ‘Nothing indeed you naughty girl, to get up so late !’ exclaimed the mistress and in her anger and displeasure she picked up the lynch-pin and struck the girl on the head with it, drawing blood.
“With her broken head streaming with blood, Darkie roused the neighbourhood with shrieks: ‘See, lady, what the gentle one has done! See, lady, what the meek one has done! See, lady, what the mild one has done. What for ? Just because her only maid got up late, she was so angry and displeased that she just jumped with the lynch-pin to strike her on the head and break it.’
“In the result the lady Videshika got the reputation of being violent, anything but meek and mild.
“In like manner an almsman may be gentle and meek, and mild enough so long as nothing
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