“O uncle, you would have seen me there yourself.”
“Good, O maiden; that also I comprehend.”
He said to her further, “These girls first took food themselves and then gave to the persons in attendance; but you first gave food to the persons in attendance, and then took your own.”
“O uncle, that was for this reason: we, reaping the fruits of our merits, constantly have feast-days; but they, reaping the fruits of their trouble, very seldom obtain great things.”
“Good, O maiden; I comprehend this also.”
He asked her, moreover, “While all the world wears boots on dry land, why did you keep yours on in the water?”
“O uncle, the world is foolish. It is precisely when one is in water that one should wear boots.” [[113]]
“For what reason?”
“On dry land one can see tree-stems, thorns, stones, prickles, fragments of fish-scales or shells of reptiles, but in the water none of these things can be seen. Therefore we ought to wear boots in the water and not upon dry land.”
“Good, O maiden; this also I understand.”