nor heard anything of her. She had conceived a violent dislike
to the young stranger above mentioned; and one evening, when he was
sitting talking with Ku, the young lady appeared. After a while she
got angry at something he said, and drew from her robe a glittering
knife about a foot long. The young man, seeing her do this, ran out
in a fright and she after him, only to find that he had vanished. She
then threw her dagger up into the air, and _whish!_ a streak of light
like a rainbow, and something came tumbling down with a flop. Ku got
a light, and ran to see what it was; and lo! there lay a white fox,
head in one place and body in another. "There is your _friend_,"
cried the girl; "I knew he would cause me to destroy him sooner or
later." Ku dragged it into the house, and said, "Let us wait till
to-morrow to talk it over; we shall then be more calm." Next day the
young lady arrived, and Ku inquired about her knowledge of the black
art; but she told Ku not to trouble himself about such affairs, and
to keep it secret or it might be prejudicial to his happiness. Ku
then entreated her to consent to their union, to which she replied
that she had already been as it were a daughter-in-law to his mother,
and there was no need to push the thing further. "Is it because I am
poor?" asked Ku. "Well, I am not rich," answered she, "but the fact
is I had rather not." She then took her leave, and the next evening
when Ku went across to their house to try once more to persuade her
the young lady had disappeared, and was never seen again.

The Boon-companion

Once upon a time there was a young man named Ch'e, who was not
particularly well off, but at the same time very fond of his wine;
so much so that without his three stoups of liquor every night he was
quite unable to sleep, and bottles were seldom absent from the head
of his bed. One night he had waked up and was turning over and over,
when he fancied some one was in the bed with him; but then, thinking
it was only the clothes which had slipped off, he put out his hand
to feel, and in doing so touched something silky like a cat. Striking
a light, he found it was a fox, lying in a drunken sleep like a dog;
and then looking at his wine bottle he saw that it had been emptied. "A
boon-companion," said he, laughing, as he avoided startling the animal,
and, covering it up, lay down to sleep with his arm across it, and the
candle alight so as to see what transformation it might under