| One evening the two dogs kept at a peasant's house suddenly started
barking fiercely, but there was no one in sight when the wife went out
to take a look. Then she heard a voice coming from the roof, "I can't
go down because of your ferocious dogs. A run-away maid has hid herself
in your stove. Please take the trouble to drive her out by smoke."
When the startled woman went back into the room, she heard sobbing in the
stove and asked that it was and why it had come. "My name is Luyun,"
came the answer in a whisper. "I was a house maid of that fox.
As I could not bear his flogging, I've run away so that I can live a few
more days. Please take pity on me." The peasant woman happened
to be a Buddhist believer who often practiced abstinence from meat.
Moved by pity, she went out and shouted to the rooftop, "She is too afraid
to come out, and I can't bring myself to smoke her. Please have mercy
and let her go if her offense is not too serious." The voice on the
roof shot back, "I just bought her for two thousand coins. How can
I let her go for nothing?" "Can I buy her for two thousand coins
then?" asked the peasant woman. "All right," the fox on the roof
said after a pause. The peasant woman took the money and threw it
to the rooftop, then went inside to knock on the stove. "Come out,
Luyun. I have paid your master for your freedom." "Thank you
for saving my life," said the voice in the stove. "From now on I
will put myself at your service." "How can humans employ a fox-maid?"
responded the peasant woman. "You'd better take leave. Take
care to conceal yourself, or the children would be scared." Then
she saw a black creature dash out of the stove and vanish in the twinkling
of the eye. After that, the peasant woman never spent a New Year's
Day without hearing a voice outside the window, "Luyun has come to kowtow
to you!" |
