to settle down quietly on the farm. He therefore had no other resource
than to convert, at a loss, the whole of his property into money, and to
take his wife and two servant girls and come over for shelter to the
house of his father-in-law.

His father-in-law, Feng Su, by name, was a native of Ta Ju Chou.
Although only a labourer, he was nevertheless in easy circumstances at
home. When he on this occasion saw his son-in-law come to him in such
distress, he forthwith felt at heart considerable displeasure.
Fortunately Shih-yin had still in his possession the money derived from
the unprofitable realization of his property, so that he produced and
handed it to his father-in-law, commissioning him to purchase, whenever
a suitable opportunity presented itself, a house and land as a provision
for food and raiment against days to come. This Feng Su, however, only
expended the half of the sum, and pocketed the other half, merely
acquiring for him some fallow land and a dilapidated house.

Shih-yin being, on the other hand, a man of books and with no experience
in matters connected with business and with sowing and reaping,
subsisted, by hook and by crook, for about a year or two, when he became
more impoverished.

In his presence, Feng Su would readily give vent to specious utterances,
while, with others, and behind his back, he on the contrary expressed
his indignation against his improvidence in his mode of living, and
against his sole delight of eating and playing the lazy.

Shih-yin, aware of the want of harmony with his father-in-law, could not
help giving way, in his own heart, to feelings of regret and pain. In
addition to this, the fright and vexation which he had undergone the