freedom from a wicked fairy, and
if you like, I'll tell you the story of my misfortune."

"Pray do, kind sir," she replied eagerly. "I told Ch'ang that you were
a fairy, and I should like to know if I was right."

"Well, you see," he began, "my father is a rich man who lives in a
distant county. When I was a boy he gave me everything I wished. I was
so humoured and petted from earliest childhood that at last I began to
think there was nothing at all in the world I could not have for the
asking, and nothing that I must not do if I wished to.

"My teacher often scolded me for having such notions. He told me there
was a proverb: 'Men die for gain, birds perish to get food.' He thought
such men were very foolish. He told me that money would go a long way
towards making a man happy, but he always ended by saying that the gods
were more powerful than men. He said I must always be careful not to
make the evil spirits angry. Sometimes I laughed in his face, telling
him that I was rich and could buy the favour of gods and fairies. The
good man would shake his head, saying, 'Take care, my boy, or you will
be sorry for these rash speeches.'"

"One day, after he had been giving me a long lecture of this sort, we
were walking in the garden of my father's compound. I was even more
daring than usual and told him that I cared nothing for the rules other
people followed. 'You say,' said I, 'that this well here in my father's
yard is ruled by a spirit, and that if I were to anger him by jumping
over it, he would be vexed and give me trouble.' 'Yes,' said he, 'that
is exactly what I said, and I repeat it. Beware, young man, beware of
idle boasting and of breaking the law.' 'What do I care for a spirit
that lives on my father's land?' I answered with a sneer. 'I don't
believe there is a spirit in this well. If there is, it is only another
of my father's slaves.'

"So saying, and before my tutor could stop me, I leaped across the mouth
of the well. No sooner had I touched the ground than I felt a strange
shrinking of my body. My strength left me in the twinkling of an eye,
my bones shortened, my skin grew yellow and wrinkled. I looked at my
pigtail and found that the hair had suddenly grown thin and white. In
every way I had been changed completely into an old man.

"My teacher stared at me in amazement, and when I asked him what it all
meant my voice was as shrill as that of early childhood. 'Alas! my dear
pupil,' he replied, 'now yo