ng girl who had been seduced,
on an appropriate occasion and after great consideration, persuaded
seven of the disciples who had been engaged in her ruin to enter
her house. Then she invited them into her private chamber. As if by
chance, there came a sharp rap on the locked door; so she hid her
unusual visitors in a big wardrobe. What this young lady next did
might seem unnatural; but, with the help of her servants, she poured
boiling oil into the wardrobe, and killed the miscreants.

She next hired a porter to convey one body to the river near by and
bury it. This porter was not informed as to the number of corpses he
would have to bury; but every time he came back for his pay, there was
another body for him. So one after another he dropped the bodies of
the young monks into the swift-flowing stream, wondering all the while
by what magic the lifeless body managed to return to the original spot.

Just after he had disposed of the seventh, up came the old abbot
himself, with dignified mien. "Ah! I see now how you return," said the
drudger, and he laid hold of the priest and ended his natural days. The
old abbot thus suffered the fate of his seven unworthy disciples.

TALE 34

RESPECT OLD AGE.

Narrated by Jose Ignacio, a Tagalog from Malabon, Rizal.

Once there lived a poor man who had to support his family, the
members of which were a hot-headed wife who predominated over the
will of her husband; a small boy of ten; and an old man of eighty,
the boy's grandfather. This old man could no longer work, because of
his feebleness. He was the cause of many quarrels between the husband
and wife, but was loved by their son.

One rainy morning the husband was forced by his wife to send his
father away. He called his son, and ordered him to carry a basket full
of food and also a blanket. He told the boy that they were to leave
the old man in a hut on their farm some distance away. The boy wept,
and protested against this harsh treatment of his grandfather, but
in vain. He then cut the blanket into two parts. When he was asked to
explain his action, he said to his father, "When you grow old, I will
leave you in a hut, and give you this half of the blanket." The man
was astonished, hurriedly recalled his order concerning his father,
and thereafter took good care of him.

The Golden Rule.

Narrated by Cipriano Serafica, a Pangasinan from Mangaldan, Pangasinan.

A long time ago there lived in a town a couple who