ove, any more than he might behold the wings of a
bee vibrating in swift flight.

* * * * *

The seasons passed, and Tong never knew want, so well did his beautiful
wife fulfil her promise,--"_I will provide_"; and the cubes of bright
silver brought by the silk-merchants were piled up higher and higher in
the great carven chest which Tchi had bought for the storage of the
household goods.

One morning, at last, when Tong, having finished his repast, was about
to depart to the fields, Tchi unexpectedly bade him remain; and opening
the great chest, she took out of it and gave him a document written in
the official characters called _li-shu_. And Tong, looking at it, cried
out and leaped in his joy, for it was the certificate of his
manumission. Tchi had secretly purchased her husband's freedom with the
price of her wondrous silks!

"Thou shalt labor no more for any master," she said, "but for thine own
sake only. And I have also bought this dwelling, with all which is
therein, and the tea-fields to the south, and the mulberry groves hard
by,--all of which are thine."

Then Tong, beside himself for gratefulness, would have prostrated
himself in worship before her, but that she would not suffer it.

* * * * *

Thus he was made free; and prosperity came to him with his freedom; and
whatsoever he gave to the sacred earth was returned to him centupled;
and his servants loved him and blessed the beautiful Tchi, so silent and
yet so kindly to all about her. But the silk-loom soon remained
untouched, for Tchi gave birth to a son,--a boy so beautiful that Tong
wept with delight when he looked upon him. And thereafter the wife
devoted herself wholly to the care of the child.

Now it soon became manifest that the boy was not less wonderful than his
wonderful mother. In the third month of his age he could speak; in the
seventh month he could repeat by heart the proverbs of the sages, and
recite the holy prayers; before the eleventh month he could use the
writing-brush with skill, and copy in shapely characters the precepts of
Lao-tseu. And the priests of the temples came to behold him and to
converse with him, and they marvelled at the charm of the child and the
wisdom of what he said; and they blessed Tong, saying: "Surely this son
of thine is a gift from the Master of Heaven, a sign that the immortals
love thee. May thine eyes behold a hundred happy summers!"