And this strange woman of his, who worked saying nothing, and seeming to see nothing, she had first seen the child thus clothed! She refused to have anyone with her when her hour came. It came one night, early, when the sun had hardly set. She was working beside him in the harvest field. She had been cutting more and more slowly, and he turned to look at her in anger. She stopped and stood up then. On her face was a new sweat, the sweat of a new pain. "It has come,' she said. ' I will go into the house. Do not come into the room until I call.' When he reached the house he found his supper table and the old man eating. She had stopped to prepare food for them! He said to himself that such a woman is not commonly found. Then he went to the door of their room. He heard her breathing heavily, as an animal breathes which has run for a long way. The old man looked up from his bowl to sa y: "Eat, or all will be cold.' And then he said, 'Do not trouble yourself yet. It will be a long time.' But Wang Lung stayed listening at the door to her heavy breathing. The breathing became quick and loud, but she made no other sound. When he could bear no more and was about to' break into the room, a thin, fierce cry came out and he forgot everything. "Is it a man?' he cried, forgetting the woman. The thin cry broke out again. ' Is it a man?' he cried again. 'Tell me at least this - is it a man?' And the voice of the woman answered faintly, ' A man!' He went and sat down at the table then. The food was cold hot upon the