l his attendant
spirits shall combine to pour into your home."

Yin was entranced with the prospect which was pictured before him in
such glowing language by the man at his side, and he heartily agreed
with the proposal that he should stay his search and purchase the
ground on which they were standing as a cemetery for his family.

Just at this moment a man came sauntering along to see what these two
strangers were doing in this out-of-the-way place, to which no road ran
and from which no by-paths led to the villages beyond.

"Can you tell me, my man," asked Yin, "to whom this piece of land
belongs?"

"Yes, I can easily do that," he replied. "Do you see that
dilapidated-looking cottage down by the riverside? Well, it is
occupied by a man named Lin, together with his wife and a daughter
about nineteen years of age. They are exceedingly poor, as you can see
by their house. The only property Lin possesses is this plot of
ground, which has come down to him from his forefathers, and which he
hopes one day to dispose of to some well-to-do person as a
burying-ground that may bring him good luck."

"I am very willing to buy the land, if I can only get it at a
reasonable price," replied Yin, "and I shall be glad if you will
consent to act as middleman and negotiate the matter for me. You might
go at once and see Lin, and find out what are the terms upon which he
is willing to transfer the property to me."

On the morrow the middle-man returned and reported to Yin that Lin
would on no consideration consent to let him have the ground. "The
fact is," he continued, "that Lin has a settled purpose in his mind
with which this particular plot of land has a good deal to do. He and
his wife are getting on in years, and when the daughter is married off
he is afraid that his branch of the family will become extinct; so he
plans to get a husband for her who will come into the home and act the
part of a son as well as that of son-in-law."

So determined, however, was Yin to gain possession of this particular
piece of land that after considerable negotiations during which it
seemed as though the old father would never be moved from his settled
purpose, it was finally agreed that his daughter should be married to
Yin's eldest son, Shung, and that her father and mother should remove
to rooms in Yin's family mansion, where they should be maintained by
him in ease and comfort as long as they lived. Had Yin been a
large-hearted an