Page:The jade story book; stories from the Orient (IA jadestorybooksto00cous).pdf/79

Rh even as he looked at her. This filled him with fear, and he promised to leave her free if she would resume here former shape, to which she then returned.

Then the Emperor left, but night and day he thought only of the beautiful Princess Moonlight.

Soon after this the bamboo-cutter and his wife noticed that the Princess would sit on her balcony and gaze ardently at the moon, after which she would burst into tears. They asked her the reason for this, and she told them that she did not belong to this world, but came from the moon. And on the fifteenth day of this very month her real parents would send for her and she would have to go. It was the thought of leaving her kind foster-parents, and the home in which she had been so happy, that made her weep. This made the old people and the Princess's attendants very sad, for they all loved her, and the thought of losing her was a great blow to them.

The news soon reached the Emperor, who at once made plans to keep the Princess Moonlight on earth. When the fifteenth day