As soon as we received
our portions, the two elder (for I am the youngest), being married,
followed their husbands and left me alone. Some time after, my
eldest sister's husband sold all that he had, and with that money
and my sister's portion they both went into Africa, where her
husband, by riotous living, spent all; and finding himself reduced
to poverty, he found a pretext for divorcing my sister, and sent
her away.
She returned to this city, and, having suffered incredible
hardships by the way, came to me in so lamentable a condition that
it would have moved the hardest heart to compassion. I received her
with all the tenderness she could expect, and on my inquiring into
the cause of her sad condition, she told me with tears how
inhumanly her husband had dealt with her. I was so much concerned
at her misfortune that it drew tears from my eyes: I clothed her
with my own apparel, and spoke to her thus: 'Sister, you are the
elder, and I esteem you as my mother: during your absence, God has
blessed the portion that fell to my share, and the employment I
follow of feeding and bringing up silk-worms. Assure yourself that
there is nothing I have but is at your service, and as much at your
disposal as my own.
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