Lady Seol薛氏女

Lady Seol was the daughter of a common house in Yulli. Her house was poor and without name, and her kin were few, but her face was fair and correct and her purpose and her conduct were well ordered, and there was no one who saw her and did not admire her, yet none dared trespass upon her.

In the time of King Jinpyeong her father was old in years, and his turn came to take the autumn watch at Jeonggok. The daughter thought of her father as worn and sick and could not bear to part far from him, and she was bitter too that the body of a woman could not go in his place, and she only fretted and was heavy in herself.

Gasil, a young man of Saryang-bu, was poor and in want, but he was a straight man who had nourished his purpose. He had long liked Lady Seol and thought her beautiful, but he had not dared to speak. When he heard that Lady Seol was troubled for her father's age and that her father was to go to the army, he went and asked of her, "I am only one weak man, but I have long held myself to purpose and spirit. I wish to take the service of your honored father upon this unworthy body."

Lady Seol was greatly glad, and she went in and told her father. The father brought him before him and said, "I hear that you would go in place of an old man, and I cannot hold down my gladness and my fear. I think of how to repay it. If you do not cast me off as foolish and mean, I would offer you my young daughter, that she may take up the dustpan and the broom for you."

Gasil bowed twice and said, "I did not dare to hope for it, but this is what I wish."

Then Gasil withdrew and asked for a day. Lady Seol said, "Marriage is a great bond among people, and it cannot be done in haste. I have already given my promise in my heart, and though there be death there will be no change. I ask that you go to the watch. When your turn is taken and you come back, it will not be too late to choose a day and hold the rites."

Then she took a mirror and divided it in half, and each held one piece, and she said, "Let this be our token. On the day to come we shall put them together."

Gasil had one horse, and he said to Lady Seol, "This is a good horse under heaven, and later there will surely be a use for it. Now I go on foot, and there is no one to keep it. I ask that it be left here and put to use." Then he took his leave and went.

It happened that the country had troubles, and no one was sent to take his turn, and six years passed and he did not come back.

The father said to his daughter, "At the first three years were set, and now they are past. You may marry into another house."

Lady Seol said, "Before this I wished to set my parent at ease, and so I pressed a promise upon Gasil. Gasil trusted it, and so for years he has been in the army, hungry and cold and in hardship, and what is more he is close to the border of the enemy and does not let his weapon out of his hand, as though he were near the mouth of a tiger and feared always to be bitten. To throw away trust and eat one's own words, how is that the feeling of a person? To the end I dare not follow my father's command. I ask you to say no more."

Her father was old and his mind was clouded, and because his daughter was grown and had no match he wished to marry her off by force, and he promised her in secret to a man of the village, and when the day was set he brought the man in. Lady Seol firmly refused, and she planned in secret to flee, but she could not do it.

She came to the stable and saw the horse that Gasil had left, and she sighed greatly and let her tears fall.

Then Gasil came back, his turn taken. His body was dried and worn and his clothes were in rags, and the people of the house did not know him and said he was someone else. Gasil went straight forward and threw the broken mirror to her, and Lady Seol took it and cried out and wept, and her father and the people of the house could not hold their gladness. In the end they promised to meet on another day, and she grew old together with him.