that she would "follow his words" and do as he wished, as she had no
will apart from his.

[Illustration: "Each year at the Feast of Lights ... she prayed." Page 10.]

The king then called the woman and said: "O woman, I will give my only
remaining daughter to your son, but I make one stipulation. You must
build a road, paved and properly built, from the market-place to my
palace; the sides must be decorated with painted bamboos, and the work
must be done within seven days or you shall die. Now go, and prepare for
the work, and at the end of the seven days I will make ready the
marriage feast for my daughter or order the executioner to take off your
head."

In great distress Myeh Khit returned to her home and sat down on the
floor of her house and wept. All day long she bewailed her hopeless
condition. In vain her son asked her the cause of her sorrow. Afraid of
grieving him she would not tell him; but at last when six out of the
seven days had passed, and knowing the fate that awaited her on the
morrow, she told him how she had gone to the king with her request, and
the time being almost expired, that she must make ready to die on the
morrow.

"The executioner's sword has already been sharpened, my son," she said,
"and to-day in bazaar they were talking of it, and promising to meet one
another at the palace to-morrow when the sun should be overhead."

As a last resource she made ready food and sweetmeats. She took paddy
and placed it over the fire till the heat broke the husks and the pure
white grains appeared. These she mixed with the whitest of sugar, and as
she was too poor to own plates, she went into the jungle to where the
new bamboo was bursting through its green prison, and taking the broad
coverings of the new leaves she fashioned them into dishes and offered
them with many prayers for help to Lord Sa Kyah.

"Our lord knoweth that my son can do nothing," she cried. "He has not
even hands to help, and what can our lord's slave do to avoid the great
trouble to which I have arrived?"

That night in the lovely _hpea_ country the mighty Lord Sa Kyah reclined
on his golden throne of state. By and by the velvet mat became so hot
that he could sit upon it no longer, and looking down he saw, squatting
before him on the floor, a frog.

"O our lord," said the frog, "I come to remind our lord that he is his
slave's father. My mother, our lord's slave, has arrived at great
sorrow, and unless our lord pities us a