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By Root 4164 0

grew heavy and drowsy with his food and his age and his third son was yet too young for responsibility, that it would be well to rent some of his farthest fields to others in the village. This Wang Lung did, then, and many of the men in the villages near by came to Wang Lung to rent his land and to become his tenants, and the rent was decided upon, half of the harvest to go to Wang Lung because he owned the land, and half to the one who hired because of his labor, and there were other things which each must furnish besides: Wang Lung certain stores of manure and beancake and of sesame refuse from his oil mill after the sesame was ground, and the tenant to reserve certain crops for the use of Wang Lung's house.

And then, since there was not the need for his management that there had been, Wang Lung went sometimes into the town and slept in the court which he caused to be prepared for him, but when day came he was back upon his land, walking through the gate in the wall about the town as soon as it was open after dawn came. And he smelled the fresh smell of the fields and when he came to his own land he rejoiced in it.

THEN AS IF the gods were kind for the once and had prepared peace for his old age his uncle's son, who grew restless in the house now quiet and without women save for the stout serving woman who was wife to one of the laborers, this uncle's son heard of a war to the north and he said to Wang Lung,

"It is said there is a war to the north of us and I will go and join it for something to do and to see. This I will if you will give me silver to buy more clothes and my bedding and a foreign firestick to put over my shoulder."

Then Wang Lung's heart leaped with pleasure but he hid his pleasure artfully and he demurred in pretense and he said,

"Now you are the only son of my uncle and after you there are none to carry on his body and if you go to war what will happen?"

But the man answered, laughing,

"Well, and I am no fool and I will not stand anywhere that my life is in danger. If there is to be a battle I will go away until it is over. I wish for a change and a little travel and to see foreign parts before I am too old to do it."

So Wang Lung gave him the silver readily and this time again the giving was not hard so that he poured the money out into the man's hand and he said to himself,

"Well, and if he likes it there is an end to this curse in my house, for there is always a war somewhere in the nation." And again he said to himself, "Well, and he may even be killed, if my good fortune holds, for sometimes in wars there are those who die."

He was in high good humor, then, although he concealed it, and he comforted his uncle's wife when she wept a little to hear of her son's going, and he gave her more opium and lit her pipe for her and he said,

"Doubtless he will rise to be a military official and honor will come to us all through him."

Then at last there was peace, for there were only the two old sleeping ones in the house in the country besides his own, and in the house in the town the hour grew near for the birth of Wang Lung's grandson.

Now Wang Lung, as this hour drew near, stayed more and more in the house in town and he walked about the courts and he could never have done with musing on what had happened, and he could never have his fill of wonder at this, that here in these courts where the great family of Hwang had once lived now he lived with his wife and his sons and their wives and now a child was to be born of a third generation.

And his heart swelled within him so that nothing was too good for his money to buy and he bought lengths of satin and of silk for them all for it looked ill to see common cotton robes upon the carved chairs and about the carved tables of southern blackwood, and he bought lengths of good blue and black cotton for the slaves so not one of them needed to wear a garment ragged. This he did, and he was pleased when the friends that his eldest son had found in the town came into the courts and proud that they should see all that was.

And Wang Lung took it into