So all day long thousands of coolies, water-jars yoked to their shoulders, tramp out the river gate and back.

I became one of these, until Chong Mong-ju sought me out, and I was beaten and planked and set upon the highway.
Ever it was the same.

In far Wiju I became a dog-butcher, killing the brutes publicly before my open stall, cutting and hanging the caresses for sale, tanning the hides under the filth of the feet of the passers-by by spreading the hides, raw-side up, in the muck of the street.

But Chong Mong-ju found me out.

I was a dyer's helper in Pyonhan, a gold- miner in the placers of Kang-wun, a rope-maker and twine-twister in Chiksan.