Correct-happiness, when winter set in, caught a cold and was soon in a desperate state of health. His nephews were always beside him; but, seeing he would adopt neither of them, they began looting the house; they found at last the treasure and took it away openly.
The moribund was too ill even to know what they did. Peaceful-union tried in vain to stop them.
"Will you leave me to die of hunger? I am the wife of your uncle. I am entitled to a part of his riches."
But they would not hear her.
"If you had borne a son to our uncle, or if he had adopted one of us, we would not have touched a single copper cash of his treasure; but, through your own fault, he has nobody to maintain his rights; we take what is our own."
When the day ended, the widow found herself alone in the deserted and emptied house, crying over the body of her dead husband.
Suddenly she heard steps outside the door; a young man appeared on the threshold, his eyes full of tears, covered with the white dress of mourning. He entered, kneeled beside the corpse, and, knocking the ground with his forehead, he began the ritual lamentations.
Peaceful-union stopped crying and looked at him with astonishment; she did not know him.
"May I ask your noble name? Who are you to cry over my husband's death?"
"I am the deceased's only son."