My only fault is that I will not burden myself
with all this toil for the sake of saving a trifling sum of money!"
The mother answered not a word, but wept bitterly and in silence
because of the insult offered her.

Her son came along and noticed that his mother had been weeping. He
insisted on knowing the reason, and found out what had happened.
Angrily he reproached his wife. She raised objections and did not wish
to admit that she had been in the wrong. Finally Sia said: "It is
better to have no wife at all than one who gives her mother-in-law no
pleasure. What can the old frog do to me after all, if I anger him,
save call misfortunes upon me and take my life!" So he once more drove
his wife out of the house.

The princess left her home and went away. The following day fire broke
out in the house, and spread to several other buildings. Tables,
beds, everything was burned.

Sia, in a rage because of the fire, went to the temple to complain:
"To bring up a daughter in such a way that she does not please her
parents-in-law shows that there is no discipline in a house. And now
you even encourage her in her faults. It is said the gods are most
just. Are there gods who teach men to fear their wives? Incidentally,
the whole quarrel rests on me alone. My parents had nothing to do with
it. If I was to be punished by the ax and cord, well and good. You
could have carried out the punishment yourself. But this you did not
do. So now I will burn your own house in order to satisfy my own sense
of justice!"

With these words he began piling up brush-wood before the temple,
struck sparks and wanted to set it ablaze. The neighbors came
streaming up, and pleaded with him. So he swallowed his rage and went
home.

When his parents heard of it, they grew pale with a great fear. But at
night the god appeared to the people of a neighboring village, and
ordered them to rebuild the house of his son-in-law. When day began to
dawn they dragged up building-wood and the workmen all came in throngs
to build for Sia. No matter what he said he could not prevent them.
All day long hundreds of workmen were busy. And in the course of a few
days all the rooms had been rebuilt, and all the utensils, curtains
and furniture were there as before. And when the work had been
completed the princess also returned. She climbed the stairs to the
great room, and acknowledged her fault with many tender and loving
words. Then she turned to Sia Kung-Schong,