When the Bell of the great Tower struck the hour of the Rat, he was a fat pink baby playing and laughing with the little girl.
The governor of the town, being informed, personally directed an inquiry. It was discovered that the coffin had disappeared at the same hour when the transformation had happened.
The Emperor, on the report of the governor, ordered the two children to receive a handsome dowry.
As to them, they grew up, loved each other, and lived happy and well as far as the limits of human longevity.
THE WOMAN IN GREEN
At this time, in the Pavilion-of-the-guests, in the Monastery-of-the-healing-springs, the most celebrated of the Fo-kien province, lived a young scholar whose name was Little-cypress.
As soon as the sun rose he was at his work, seated near the trellised window. When night fell, his lamp still lit the outline of the wooden trellis.
One morning a shadow darkened his book; he raised his eyes: a young woman with a long green skirt, her face of matchless beauty, was standing outside the window and was looking at him.
"You are then always working, Lord Little-cypress?" she said.