I was very glad that father gave his consent, for I had heard of Yun-t'u and knew that he was of my own age. He was named Yun-t'u because he was born in an intercallary (yun) month and lacked, according to the system of correspondences of the astrologers, the element of earth (t'u) in his horoscope. He knew how to set up a trap to catch birds.
I began to look forward to the coming of the New Year as it meant that Yun-t'u would come, too. Finally the end of the year approached and one day mother told me that Yun-t'u had come. I ran to see him and found him in the kitchen. He had a ruddy face and wore a felt scalp cap, and a silver ring around his neck. It was evident that his father loved him very much, was afraid that he might not live long, and had, after making a vow before the gods, put this ring around his neck to hold him. Yun-t'u was very shy with grown-ups but not with me, and would talk freely with me when there was no one else around. In a few hours we had become fast friends.
I don't know what we talked about then; I only remember that Yun-t'u was very happy and told me that he had seen, since he came to the city, many things which he had never seen before.
The following day I wanted him to show me how to catch birds, but he said: "We cannot do it now. We have to wait until after the snow. Back home I sweep off a spot in the snow and set up a big basket with a stick and scatter some grain under the basket. When the birds come to eat the grain I pull the string tied to the stick and the basket falls and catches the birds underneath. I catch all kinds of birds: wild fowls, wood pigeons, blue-backs, and so on."
And so I hoped it would snow.
Yun-t'u also said to me: "It is now too cold, but you come
