CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

"WHAT is sixteen and three multiplied? "Barked the teacher.
The boy blinked. The teacher persisted, and the boy promptly answered : " Twenty-
four," with, as it seemed to the teacher, a wicked smile on his lips. The boy evidently
was trying to fool him and was going contrary on purpose. He had corrected this error
repeatedly, and now the boy persisted in saying " Twenty-four."
How could this fellow be made to obtain fifty in the class test and go up by double-
promotion to the first form, as his parents fondly hoped ? At the mention of " Twenty-
four " the teacher felt all his blood rushing to his head. He controlled himself, and
asked again : " How much ? " as a last chance.
When the boy said the same thing obstinately, he felt as if his finger was releasing the
trigger : he reached across the table, and delivered a wholesome slap on the
youngster's cheek. The boy gazed at him for a moment and then burst into tears. The
teacher now regained his normal vision, felt appalled by his own action, and begged
frantically : " Don't cry, little fellow, you mustn't. . . ."
" I will tell them," sobbed the boy.
" Oh, no, no, no," appealed the teacher. He looked about cautiously. Fortunately this
nursery was at a little distance from the main building.
" I'll tell my mother," said the boy.
According to the parents, the boy was a little angel, all dimples, smiles, and sweetness
only wings lacking. He was their only child, they had abundant affection and ample
money. They built up a nursery, bought him expensive toys, fitted up miniature
furniture sets, gave him a small pedal motor-car to go about in all over the garden.
They filled up his cupboard with all kinds of sweets and biscuits, and left it to his good
sense to devour them. They believed a great deal in leaving things that way.
" You must never set up any sort of contrariness or repression in the child's mind,"
declared the parents. " You'll damage him for life. It no doubt requires a lot of discipline
on our part, but it is worth it," they declared primly. " We shall be bringing up a healthy
citizen."
" Yes, yes," the teacher agreed outwardly, feeling more and more convinced every day
that what the little fellow needed to make him a normal citizen was not cajoling but an
anna worth of cane, for which he was prepared to advance the outlay. To the teacher it
was a life of utter travail the only relieving feature in the whole business was the thirty
rupees they paid him on every first day.
It took him in all three hours every evening of which the first half an hour he had to
listen to the child-psychology theories of the parents. The father had written a thesis on
infant- psychology for his M.A., and the lady had studied a great deal of it for her B.A.
They lectured to him every day on their theories, and he got more and more the feeling
that they wanted him to deal with the boy as if he were made of thin glass. He had to
pretend that he agreed with them, while his own private view was that he was in
charge of a little gorilla.
Now the teacher did not know how to quieten the boy, who kept sobbing. He felt
desperate. He told the youngster, " You must not cry for these trifling matters, you must
be like a soldier. . . ."
" A soldier will shoot with a gun if he is hit," said the boy in reply. The teacher treated it
as a joke and laughed artificially. The boy caught the infection and laughed too. This
eased the situation somewhat.
" Go and wash your face," suggested the teacher a fine blue porcelain closet was
attached to the nursery. The boy disobeyed and commanded : " Close the lessons
today." The teacher was aghast. " No, no," he cried.
" Then, I will go and tell my mother," threatened the boy. He pushed the chair back and
got up. The teacher rushed up to him and held him down. " My dear fellow, I've to be
here for another hour." The boy said : "All right, watch me put the engine on its rails."
" If your father comes in," said the teacher.
" Tell him it is an engine lesson," said the boy and smiled maliciously.
He went over to his cupboard, opened it, and took out his train set, and started
assembling the track. He wound the engine and put it down, and it went round and
round. " You are the Station Master," proclaimed the boy.
" No, no," cried the teacher. " You have your tests the day after tomorrow." The boy
merely smiled in a superior way and repeated. " Will you be a Station Master
or not ? " The teacher was annoyed. " I won't be a Station Master," he said defiantly,
whereupon the young fellow said : " Oh, oh, is that what you say ? "
He gently touched his cheek, and murmured : "
It is paining me here awfully, I must see my mother." He made a movement towards
the door. The teacher watched him with a dull desperation. The boy's cheek was still
red. So he said : " Don't boy. You want me to be a Station Master? What shall I have to
do ? "
The boy directed, " When the train comes to your station, you must blow the whistle
and cry Engine Driver, stop the train. There are a lot of people today who have bought
tickets '. . . ."
The teacher hunched up in a corner and obeyed. He grew tired of the position and the
game in thirty minutes, and got up, much to the displeasure of his pupil. Luckily for him
the engine also suddenly refused to move. The boy handed it to him, as he went back
to his seat and said : " Repair it, sir." He turned it about in his hand and said : " I can't.
I know nothing about it."
" It must go," said the boy firmly. The teacher felt desperate. He was absolutely non-
mechanical. He could not turn the simplest screw if it was to save his life. The boy
stamped his foot impatiently and waited like a tyrant. The teacher put it away definitely
with : " I can't and I won't."
The boy immediately switched on to another demand. " Tell me a story. . . ."
" You haven't done a sum. It is 8.30."
" I don't care for sums," said the boy, " Tell me a story."
" No. . . ."
The boy called, " Appa ! Appa ! "
" Why are you shouting like that for your father ? "
" I have something to tell him, something important. . . ."
The teacher was obliged to begin the story of a bison and a tiger, and then he passed
on to All Baba and the Forty Thieves, and Aladin's Lamp. The boy listened rapt, and
ordered : " I want to hear the story of the bison again. It is good. . . ." The teacher was
short of breath. He had done during the day six hours of teaching at school.
" Tomorrow. I've lost all my breath. . . ."
" Oh ! All right. I'll go and tell. . . ." exclaimed the boy ; he got up and started running all
of a sudden towards the house, and the teacher started after him. The boy was too fast
for him, wheeled about madly, and made the teacher run round the garden thrice. The
teacher looked beaten. The boy took pity on him and stopped near the rose bush. But
the moment he went up and tried to put his hand on him, the boy darted through and
ran off. It was a hopeless pursuit ; the boy enjoyed it immensely, laughing fiendishly.
The teacher's face was flushed and he gasped uncomfortably. He felt a darkness
swelling up around him. He sank down on the portico step.
At this moment father and mother emerged from the house. " What is the matter ? "
The teacher struggled up to his feet awkwardly. He was still panting badly and could
not talk. He had already made up his mind that he would confess and take the
consequence, rather than stand the blackmail by this boy. It seemed less forbidding to
throw himself at the mercy of the ciders. They looked enquiringly at the boy and asked
: " Why have you been running in the garden at this hour ? "
The boy looked mischievously at the teacher. The teacher cleared his throat and said :
" I will explain. . . ."
He was trying to find the words for his sentence. The father asked : " How's he
preparing for his test in arithmetic . . . ? "
On hearing the word " test " the boy's face fell ; he unobtrusively slunk behind his
parents and by look and gestures appealed to the teacher not to betray him. He looked
so pathetic and desperate that the teacher replied. " Only please let him mug up the 1
6th table a little more. . . . He is all right. He will pull through."
The boy looked relieved. The teacher saw his grateful face, felt confident that the boy
would not give him up .now, and said : " Good-night, sir ; we finished our lessons early,
and I was just playing about with the child . . . something to keep up his spirits you
know."