Shri Nathji had hardly settled down at Savitri Nivas when he was faced with the problem of the boys’ school again. Vincent Hill School was about to be closed. The Seventh Day Adventists were winding up their institution in Mussoorie.
It was a tremendous setback for the children who had found everything that they liked in this school–most of all the friendly and congenial atmosphere where they were called by their first names – ‘Pran-Priya’– by the teachers and students, unlike the harsh and formal surname address of “Mehta” at Allen Memorial. There was a natural friendliness and humility in the teachers of the school, which the boys liked. They discovered that they could study more and appreciate education more in an atmosphere of love. This was in sharp contrast to the ‘spare the rod and spoil the child’ regime prevailing at other schools.
The teachers at Vincent Hill would laugh and joke with the students and rarely be angry with them. There was a certain Mr. Hooper who had the habit of twitching his shoulders, and who had become the butt of the jokes of the students. If he rarely reprimanded any student he would repent for it afterwards in the morning prayers, calling upon God: “Help us to be loving and forgiving and to not to be harsh upon our fellowmen.”
There was the old English teacher, Miss Lehman, who lent her books to Priya Nath when he was without books. She would always praise Priya Nath for his good behaviour and would sometimes say: “There is only one and a half persons in the class who behaves like a perfect gentlemen!” referring to Priya Nath and a friend of his, Mahabir, by name.