my and distressed home
brought with it a sudden gleam of happiness, the great question as to
how they were to live had still to be solved. They were absolutely
without means, and they could only hope to meet their meagre expenses
by the sale of the house in which they were living.

At last this plan was discussed, and it was decided that the unused
buildings, in which Chin and the Buddhist priest had been accustomed to
spend a part of every day together, should be first of all disposed of.

In order to have some idea as to how much these outhouses were worth,
Chin went to see what condition they were in, so that he might fix a
price for them. As they had not been used for some time, the grass had
grown rank about them, and they had a dilapidated and forlorn air which
made Chin fear that their market value would not be very great.

Entering in by an open door, which a creeping vine, with the luxuriance
of nature, was trying to block up, Chin looked round with a feeling of
disappointment sending a chill into his very heart.

The air of the place was damp and musty. The white mould could be seen
gleaming on the walls, as if it wished to give a little colour to the
sombre surroundings. Great cobwebs flung their streaming banners from
the beams and rafters overhead, whilst smaller ones, with delicate
lace-like tracery, tried to beautify the corners of the windows,
through which the light from the outside world struggled to enter the
gloomy room.

Throwing the windows wide open to let in as much sunshine as was
possible, Chin soon became convinced that the market value of this
particular part of his property would be very small, and that unless he
carried out extensive repairs, it would be impossible to induce any one
to entertain the idea of buying it.

While he was musing over the problem that lay before him, his eye
caught a silvery gleam from a part of the earthen floor, where the
surface had evidently been scratched away by some animal that had
wandered in.

Looking down intently at the white, shining thing which had caught his
attention, Chin perceived that it was one of the tiles that the bonze
had made him bury in the earth, and when he picked it up, he discovered
to his amazement that in some mysterious manner it had been transformed
into silver! Digging further into the earth, he found that the same
process had taken place with every tile that had been hidden away
beneath the floor of this old and appar