But Sim Ching ran after the man and caught him by the sleeve.
“Wait!” cried she. “Do not go until you have told me something. You say your master will richly reward the family of any maiden who will willingly give herself to this Water Spirit. Would he give as much as a hundred and fifty bags of rice to such a family?”
“That and more,” replied the messenger. “My master is very rich, and the reward will be generous.”
“Then I will go with you and be the sacrifice,” said Sim Ching. “Permit me only to go and bid farewell to my father, and then I will be ready.”
The messenger was rejoiced that he had been able to secure the maiden for his master and gladly consented to wait until she had spoken with her father.
But when Sim Ching went back into the house and told her father what she intended to do he was in despair. He wept aloud and rent his clothes. “Never, never will I consent to such a sacrifice,” cried he.
But his daughter comforted him. “Do you forget,” said she, “what the priest promised you? Did he not tell you that if you offered up this rice to the temple, all would be well with us, and that I would be raised to the highest place in the kingdom? Let us have faith and believe that the gods of the temple can save me at the last even though I be thrown into the sea.”
As her father listened to her, he grew quieter, and at last gave his consent for her to go.
The neighbors who had heard what she meant to do gathered about to bid her farewell and could not but weep for pity, even while they praised her for her dutifulness toward her father.
Sim Ching at once set out with the messenger, who was in haste to bring her before his master. Indeed he feared that if she thought too long of what she had consented to do, she might repent of her bargain.