65. His Little Friends

In spite of his preoccupations Gandhiji always found some time to mingle with children. When after a brief stay at the Sabarmati Ashram he was called to Calcutta on his political work, he bade the Ashramites goodbye, and his parting advice echoed his regrets that he could not be so free with the Ashram children as he had liked to be. He said:

"In the end whilst I always shall recall this period of my stay in your midst with joy and satisfaction, my feeling is not free from a regret, and that is, that in spite of my being in your midst for all these days I have not been able to play with the children of the Ashram, to know them individually by their names, to win their personal friendship and confidence as I would have liked to do. But what could I do? I was so hard pressed for work!"