Such a friendship little Saidjah had soon been able to make with the new-comer. The buffalo turned willingly on reaching the end of the field, and did not lose an inch of ground when plowing backwards the new furrow. Quite near were the rice fields of the father of Adinda (the child that was to marry Saidjah); and when the little brothers of Adinda came to the limit of their fields just at the same time that the father of Saidjah was there with his plow, then the children called out merrily to each other, and each praised the strength and the docility of his buffalo. Saidjah was nine and Adinda six, when this buffalo was taken by the chief of the district of Parang-Koodjang. Saidjah's father, who was very poor, thereupon sold to a Chinaman two silver curtain-hooks--heirlooms from the parents of his wife--for eighteen guilders, and bought a new buffalo. When this buffalo had also been taken away and slaughtered-- (I told you, reader, that my story is monotonous) ... Saidjah's father fled out of the country, for he was much afraid of being punished for not paying his land taxes, and he had not another heirloom to sell, that he might buy a new buffalo. However, he went on for some years after the loss of his last buffalo, by working with hired animals for plowing; but that is a very ungrateful labor, and moreover sad for a person who has had buffaloes of his own. Saidjah's mother died of grief; and then it was that his father, in a moment of dejection, fled from Bantam in order to endeavor to get labor in the Buitenzorg districts. But he was punished with stripes because he had left Lebak without a passport, and was brought back by the police to Badoer. But he was not long in prison, for he died soon afterwards. Saidjah was already fifteen years of age when his father set out for Buitenzorg; and he did not accompany him hither, because he had other plans in view. He had been told that there were at Batavia many gentlemen who drove in two-wheeled carriages, and that it would be easy for him to get a post as driver. He would gain much in that way if he behaved well,--perhaps be able to save in three years enough money to buy two buffaloes. This was a smiling prospect for him. He entered Adinda's house, and communicated to her his plans. "Think of it! when I come back, we shall be old enough to marry and shall possess two buffaloes: ... but if I find you married?" "Saidjah, you know very well that I shall marry nobody but you; my father promised me to your father." "And you yourself?" "I shall marry you, you may be sure of that." "When I come back, I will call from afar off." "Who shall hear it, if we are stamping rice in the village?" "That is true, ... but Adinda--... oh yes, this is better; wait for me under the oak wood, under the Retapan." "But Saidjah, how can I know when I am to go to the Retapan?"