“He is now a little man, with a loose skin the colour of a finely-lacquered apricot,” replied the woman.  “His teeth are large and jagged, his expression open and sincere, and the sound of his breathing is like the continuous beating of waves upon a stony beach.  Furthermore, he has ten fingers upon his left hand and a girdle of rubies about his waist.”

“The description is unmistakable,” said Ten-teh evasively.  “Did he chance to leave a parting message of any moment?”

“He twice remarked:  ’When the sun sets the moon rises, but to-morrow the drawn will break again,’” replied his wife.  “Also, upon leaving he asked for ink, brushes and a fan, and upon it he inscribed certain words.”  She thereupon handed the fan to Ten-teh, who read, written in characters of surpassing beauty and exactness, the proverb:  “Well-guarded lips, patient alertness and a heart conscientiously discharging its accepted duty:  these three things have a sure reward.”

At that moment Ten-teh’s wife saw that he carried something beyond his creel and discovering the man-child she cried out with delight, pouring forth a torrent of inquiries and striving to possess it.  “A tale half told is the father of many lies,” exclaimed Ten-teh at length, “and of the greater part of what you ask this person knows neither the beginning nor the end.  Let what is written on the fan suffice.”  With this he explained to her the meaning of the characters and made their significance clear.  Then without another word he placed the man-child in her arms and led her back into the house.

From that time Hoang, as he was thenceforward called, was received into the household of Ten-teh, and from that time Ten-teh prospered.  Without ever approaching a condition of affluence or dignified ease, he was never exposed to the penury and vicissitudes which he had been wont to experience; so that none had need to go hungry or ill-clad.  If famine ravaged the villages Ten-teh’s store of grain was miraculously maintained; his success on the lagoons was unvaried, fish even leaping on to the structure of the raft.  Frequently in dark and undisturbed parts of the house he found sums of money and other valuable articles of which he had no remembrance, while it was no uncommon thing for passing merchants to leave bales of goods at his door in mistake and to meet with some accident which prevented them from ever again visiting that part of the country.  In the meanwhile Hoang grew from infancy into childhood, taking part with Ten-teh in all his pursuits, yet even in the most menial occupation never wholly shaking off the air of command and nobility of bearing which lay upon him.  In strength and endurance he outpaced all the youths around, while in the manipulation of the raft and the dexterous handling of the cormorants he covered Ten-teh with gratified shame.  So excessive was the devotion which he aroused in those who knew him that the deficient youth wept openly if Hoang chanced to cough or sneeze; and it is even asserted that on more than one occasion high officials, struck by the authority of his presence, though he might be in the act of carrying fish along the road, hastily descended from their chairs and prostrated themselves before him.