up came a very agreeable young fellow, who said he was from a
neighbouring village, and engaged Ku to draw a picture for him. The
two youths soon struck up a firm friendship and met constantly,
and later it happened that the stranger chanced to see the young
lady of over the way. "Who is that?" said he, following her with
his eyes. Ku told him, and then he said, "She is certainly pretty,
but rather stern in her appearance." By and by Ku went in, and his
mother told him the girl had come to beg a little rice, as they had
had nothing to eat all day. "She's a good daughter," said his mother,
"and I'm very sorry for her. We must try and help them a little." Ku
thereupon shouldered a peck of rice, and, knocking at their door,
presented it with his mother's compliments. The young lady received
the rice, but said nothing; and then she got into the habit of coming
over and helping Ku's mother with her work and household affairs,
almost as if she had been her daughter-in-law, for which Ku was very
grateful to her, and whenever he had anything nice he always sent some
of it in to her mother, though the young lady herself never once took
the trouble to thank him. So things went on until Ku's mother got an
abscess on her leg, and lay writhing in agony day and night. Then the
young lady devoted herself to the invalid, waiting on her and giving
her medicine with such care and attention that at last the sick woman
cried out, "O that I could secure such a daughter-in-law as you to see
this old body into its grave!" The young lady soothed her, and replied,
"Your son is a hundred times more filial than I, a poor widow's only
daughter." "But even a filial son makes a bad nurse," answered the
patient; "besides, I am now drawing toward the evening of my life,
when my body will be exposed to the mists and the dews, and I am
vexed in spirit about our ancestral worship and the continuance of our
line." As she was speaking Ku walked in; and his mother, weeping, said,
"I am deeply indebted to this young lady; do not forget to repay her
goodness." Ku made a low bow, but the young lady said, "Sir, when you
were kind to my mother, I did not thank you; why then thank me?" Ku
thereupon became more than ever attached to her; but could never get
her to depart in the slightest degree from her cold demeanour toward
himself. One day, however, he managed to squeeze her hand, upon which
she told him never to do so again; and then for some time he neither
saw