Page:Chinese Fables and Folk Stories.djvu/54

50 "You married my son very young and you are not yet old. You have a good house to live in, plenty of clothes to wear, and a little son, I think you have great blessings from the gods. To-morrow is the New Year Day, and we will buy some pretty red paper to cut in a thousand pieces and hang on our walls, doors, beds, and vases.

"We will make a happy New Year and worship the gods. We will open our door wide and our friends who are happy will come to us and make the New Year call. We will cook the two sweet potatoes, one for you and one-half for me, and the other half for the child. Now see what a happy New Year we shall have."

But on the morning of the New Year early, Woo-Liu-Mai awoke and found her child dead in the bed by her side, and she ran sobbing her great despair, to her mother-in-law.

"We will not hang up the red paper on the door or any place, mother, for our happiness is all dead now. We will have a funeral in three days."

Woo-Liu-Mai's mother then took a piece of blue cloth and nailed it to the door, so that people would know that some one was dead there and would not come near the house for fear of bad luck. And she laid the child on a cloth and covered him with another cloth until the third day, when he would be buried.