d set them down beside the corpse.
After that he went home, locked the door and went to bed again.

Little Ma, in spite of his youth, thought it would be better to say
nothing about an affair of this kind, in which a human life was
involved. He shut the window and withdrew. The sun rose higher, and
soon he heard a clamor without: "A dead man is lying on the
river-bank!" The constable gave notice, and in the afternoon the judge
came up to the beating of gongs, and the inspector of the dead knelt
down and uncovered the corpse; yet the body showed no wound. So it was
said: "He slipped and fell to his death!" The judge questioned the
neighbors, but the neighbors all insisted that they knew nothing of
the matter. Thereupon the judge had the body placed in a coffin,
sealed it with his seal, and ordered that the relatives of the
deceased be found. And then he went his way.

Nine years passed by, and young Ma had reached the age of twenty-one
and become a baccalaureate. His father had died, and the family was
poor. So it came about that in the same room in which he had formerly
studied his lessons, he now gathered a few pupils about him, to
instruct them.

The time for examinations drew near. Ma had risen early, in order to
work. He opened the window and there, in the distant alley, he saw a
man with two pails gradually drawing nearer. When he looked more
closely, it was the water-carrier. Greatly frightened, he thought that
he had returned to repay old Wang. Yet he passed the old man's door
without entering it. Then he went a few steps further to the house of
the Lis; and there went in. The Lis were wealthy people, and since
they were near neighbors the Mas and they were on a visiting footing.
The matter seemed very questionable to Ma, and he got up and followed
the water-carrier.

At the door of Li's house he met an old servant who was just coming
out and who said: "Heaven is about to send a child to our mistress! I
must go buy incense to burn to the gods in order to show our
gratitude!"

Ma asked: "Did not a man with two pails of water on his shoulder just
go in?"

The servant said there had not, but before he had finished speaking a
maid came from the house and said: "You need not go to buy incense,
for I have found some. And, through the favor of heaven, the child has
already come to us." Then Ma began to realize that the water-carrier
had returned to be born again into the life of earth, and not to exact
retribut