"Come here," said the master. "What is your name?"
"Wang old number nine, your Honour," answered the boy, using his common appellation in the manner of the common people.
At that both master and man laughed.
"But your full name?" inquired the former.
The boy stammered:
"My full name? From the moment I was carried to the city always have I been called Wang the Ninth, being the eighth child of my father's family. Chih Liang is my personal appellation, though never used. But it is as you wish."
Once again master and man smiled. There was a directness in this talk which was as the soul of democracy.
"And what have you done in the way of work?" asked his patron once again.
The boy hung his head and fidgetted with his hands.
"I have run wild," he confessed. "Sometimes I assisted my father although without regularity. Sometimes I did other work."