This appeal is directed against the decree and judgment of the learned Subordinate Judge of Coimbatore in O.S. No. 24 of 1952.

The plaintiff is the son of a carpenter who has studied upto the fourth class. His elder brother is a cleaner earning Rs. 30 a month. The plaintiff also wanted to become a fitter and the selling of ice-fruit by him was apparently only a temporary job till the plaintiff reached sufficient age to join the St. Michael’s Workshop to learn the fitter’s job. In these circumstances on the date of the occurrence, viz., 10 a.m. on 16th July, 1950, the plaintiff after returning from Church was sitting on the culvert near the main gate of the Forest College with one of his legs folded and resting on it and his other leg hanging down. Then a bus bearing MDC.3967 belonging to the Arthur Hope’s College of Technology, now known as the Government College of Technology, crossed this culvert near the main gate of the Forest College, Coimbatore. There is no dispute that this bus was driven so rashly and negligently that it dashed against the culvert and hit the plaintiff’s left leg, which was hanging down, and severed it below the knee, thereby causing the plaint