for us to do
here. Suppose we go somewhere." And after a long journey they came to
the house of their maternal grandfather in a village called Sacrifice.
The grandfather was dead, but their uncles sheltered them, and they
continued their studies.

But they did not amount to much, so in time their uncles became
scornful in such matters as food and clothing. And they were troubled.

Then the eldest took the others aside and said: "Brothers, no man can
do anything anywhere on earth. Now I was wandering about discouraged,
and I came to a wood. There I saw to-day a dead man whose limbs lay
relaxed on the ground. And I wished for the same fate, and I thought:
He is happy. He is free from the burden of woe.' So I made up my mind
to die, and hanged myself with a rope from a tree. I lost
consciousness, but before the breath of life was gone, the cord was cut
and I fell to the ground. And when I came to myself, I saw a
compassionate man who had happened by at that moment, and he was
fanning me with his garment. And he said to me: My friend, you are an
educated man. Tell me why you are so despondent. The righteous man
finds happiness, the unrighteous man finds unhappiness because of his
unrighteousness, and for no other reason. If you made up your mind to
this because of unhappiness, practice righteousness instead. Why seek
the pains of hell by suicide?' Thus the man comforted me and went away.
And I gave up the idea of suicide and came here. You see I could not
even die when fate was unwilling. Now I shall burn my body at some holy
place, that I may not again feel the woes of poverty."

Then the younger brothers said to him: "Sir, why is an intelligent man
sad for lack of money? Do you not know that money is uncertain as an
autumn cloud? No matter how carefully won and guarded, three things are
fickle and bring sorrow at the last: evil friendships, a flirt, and
money. The resolute and sensible man should by all means acquire that
virtue which brings him Happiness a captive in bonds."

So the eldest brother straightway plucked up heart, and said: "What
virtue is it which we should acquire?"

Then they all reflected, and took counsel together: "We will wander
over the earth, and each of us will learn some one science." So they
appointed a place for meeting, and the four brothers started in four
different directions.

After a time they all gathered at the meeting-place, and asked one
another what they had learned. The first