great good
fortune that you should have returned after all!"

And before she had ended the whole family, men and women, came
streaming up and welcomed him in a great throng outside the hall.

And his wife pointed out this one and that and said: "That is so and
so, and this is so and so!"

At the time the scholar had disappeared there had been only a tiny boy
in his home, but a few years old. And he was now an old man of eighty.
He had served the empire in a high office, and had already retired to
enjoy his old age in the ancestral gardens. There were three
grand-children, all celebrated ministers; there were more than ten
great-grand-children, of whom five had already passed their examinations
for the doctorate; there were some twenty great-great-grand-children, of
whom the oldest had just returned home after having passed his induction
examinations for the magistracy with honor. And the little ones, who
were carried in their parents' arms, were not to be counted. The
grand-children, who were away, busy with their duties, all asked for
leave and returned home when they heard that their ancestor had
returned. And the girl grand-children, who had married into other
families, also came. This filled Liu with joy, and he had a family
banquet prepared in the hall, and all his descendants, with their wives
and husbands sat about him in a circle. He himself and his wife, a
white-haired, wrinkled old lady, sat in their midst at the upper end.
The scholar himself still looked like a youth of twenty years, so that
all the young people in the circle looked around and laughed.

Then the scholar said: "I have a means of driving away old age!"

And he drew out his magic wine and gave his wife some of it to drink.
And when she had taken three glasses, her white hair gradually turned
black again, her wrinkles disappeared, and she sat beside her husband,
a handsome young woman. Then his son and the older grand-children
came up and all asked for a drink of the wine. And whichever of them
drank only so much as a drop of it was turned from an old man into a
youth. The tale was bruited abroad and came to the emperor's ears. The
emperor wanted to call Liu to his court, but he declined with many
thanks. Yet he sent the emperor some of his magic wine as a gift. This
pleased the emperor greatly, and he gave Liu a tablet of honor, with
the inscription:

"The Common Home of Five Generations"

Besides this he sent him three signs which