"Are they doing well there? Dear old people! How glad my husband would
be to see you, were he here! Sit down, please, and rest until he
returns. How do they live there? Have they enough to eat and dress
themselves withal?" These and a hundred other questions she put to the
rogue, who, for his part, wished to get away as soon as possible,
knowing full well how he would be treated if the miser should return
while he was there. So he replied, "Mother, language has no words to
describe the miseries they are undergoing in the other world. They have
not a rag of clothing, and for the last six days they have eaten
nothing, and have lived on water only. It would break your heart to see
them." The rogue's pathetic words deceived the good woman, who firmly
believed that he had come down from Kailasa, a messenger from the old
couple to herself. "Why should they so suffer," said she, "when their
son has plenty to eat and clothe himself withal, and when their
daughter-in-law wears all sorts of costly garments?" So saying, she went
into the house, and soon came out again with two boxes containing all
her own and her husband's clothes, which she handed to the rogue,
desiring him to deliver them to the poor old couple in Kailasa. She also
gave him her jewel-box, to be presented to her mother-in-law. "But dress
and jewels will not fill their hungry stomachs," said the rogue.
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