They spend the whole evening, and the several evenings after the first one, happily. Ayse is pleased. Her cunning plan has worked. This strange boy, who before seemed as bland as a blank piece of vellum, is finally gaining some colour in her eyes.

She and the women in her family introduce him to the tools of the trade and the process behind a carpet's becoming. They never before had such an interested onlooker, an outsider from a city faraway, who would ask them a hundred questions. Sometimes when words fail to describe the complexity of their work they let him discover the basics of the craft himself, beginning with the spindle.

On the first day, he is laughed at for his amateur skill at the spindle, which he doesn’t mind. He always had trouble with his big hands, and it is true that he isn't very good at spinning wool yet. Luckily, his lack of skill in one area is easily made up by his talent in another: his gift for story.