ABSTRACT
After long years of sleeping alone, Ko had finally left behind the age of childbearing, passing the threshold at which a woman is a woman no longer. Ko, having wasted twenty-five years in utter solitude and now about to part with her womanhood forever, understandably was filled with rancor. In this belligerent state of mind, Ko was intent on joining battle with anyone in the family, regardless of age, on the slightest pretext. She had resolved to blow her top in order to repay Master Yun for the undeserved curses poured upon her for having left the side gate open. T'aesik had been completely absorbed in the row between Master Yun and Ko, but when it ended he returned to his meal. T'aesik truly was Kyongson's blood granduncle, the half-brother of his grandfather. Indeed, an inquiry into the family genealogy would reveal that fifteen-year-old Kyongson was the grand-nephew of a boy the same age.
