did not let their father and mother know this. They lay there quietly expecting to be called to share in the good things the smell of which reached them, but when they had waited for a long time in vain and found that they would not get their share till the next day, when the viands would be cold and tasteless, they were very vexed and wept secretly. The foolish children were so used to their mother’s scolding tongue that they could not recognize how much she loved them; they thought her cruel when the fact was she did not like to break their slumbers by waking them at midnight. Piri proposed to the boy that they should run away from home and never come back again. The boy would not agree to this for some time, but after long discussion he eventually consented.
They rose, and cautiously slipping back the sliding door of the house, took hold of one another’s hand and went out into the night, their tears dropping fast as they wandered along. They came to a high rock having on its surface little cup-like hollows, and these little depressions were quite filled with their tears. At last they leaped up into the sky and went up among the stars, Piri holding firmly to the knotted extremity of her brother’s girdle.
The mother rose at the time the morning star
