**Ranjha stood before the Five Pirs with folded hands and weeping eyes, and he prayed, ‘For God’s sake, help me, or my love will be ruined.’ They said, ‘Ask any favour of us and we will give it up.’ Ranjha replied, ‘Admit me to your holy order, make me Malang and give me Heer as my Malangan and Mate.’ **
**Ranjha and Heer took counsel how they might conceal their plans from Heer’s parents, so they decided to take mithi, the barber woman, into their confidence so that they might meet in Mithi’s house. Mithi’s house was near the watering place of the cattle. **
**Heer used to come during the night and stay till one watch of the night remained and then slip back to their own house. In the morning Ranjha drove the buffaloes out to graze in the forest. Under the pretence of bathing, Heer and her friends used to meet him in the forest on the banks of the Chenab. **
**But the shephards heard of these things and came and told the news to Kaidu, and Kaidu told Milki. Milki sent for Heer as Kaidu went about the village saying, ‘I tell you the girl walks arm in arm with Ranjha all day in the forest.’ **
**Heer thrashes Kaidu and Kaidu complains to the village elders **
**Heer’s girl frienhds came to her saying, 'Your evil uncle is stiring up the whole assembly of elders against you. So Heer took counsel together with her girls, and at her bidding they waited for an opportunity and caught Kaidu and surrounded him. They tore off his beggars girdle and threw him on the ground. Their blows resounded like the hammers of the coppersmiths. They then burnt his hut and let the dogs and chickens loose all over his property. **
**So Kaidu resolved in his own mind how he might catch Heer and Ranjha in the forest, and bring Chuchak to see them. The next morning Ranjha drove the cattle intot he forest, anda fter two watches of the day had gone, Heer and her companions in their scarlet clothes came into the forest. The girls played together and then went back to their homes. Ranjha and Heer stayed behind and slept together peacefully in the forest. Kaidu ran off to the village as fast as his cripple legs would carry him, and said to the Assembly of Elders, ‘Come and see the strange things in the forest.’ **
Chuchak muttered to himself, ‘We have been dishonoured before the whole assembly.’ He saddled his horse and took a spear in his hand. Heer heard the noise of the oncoming horse, and said to Ranjha, ‘Get up, my father is coming.’ Then she wept and said, ‘I shall not come here again, so forgive me.’ And she hurried from Ranjha’s side. **
**Mihr Chuchak was tortured with rage and said, ‘I will break your legs in two and cut off your head. Only thus will the scandal be stopped.’ Heer turned towards Ranjha and said, ‘Shepherd, leave your buffaloes and go away to your home. No one in future will care for what has happened. I am your own dear daughter and it is not meet for men of gentle birth to bring their own disgrace by publishing abroad their daughters’ defects.’ Chuchak bewildered and bethought that Heer ought to be given away in marriage soon. **
**When Ranjha became a shepherd, news was taken to his brethren in Takht Hazara. The brothers of Ranjha wrote to the Sials. ‘Ranjha has cut off our nose by becoming a grazier of buffaloes. We shall be grateful to you if you will send him back; otherwise we shall have to come with a special embassage to lay our request before you.’ **
**Chuchak replied, ‘We have employed Ranjha as Heer’s servant. Why have you turned such a young man as this out of your house? He is neither lame nor lazy nor clumbsy fingered. We will not turn him over, but if he wishes to see his brothers no one will prevent him.’ **
**Ranjhas brothers and their wives wrote tauntingly to Heer. Heer had the letter read out to her and she told the contents to Ranjha, and after consulting him, she caused the following answer to be written on her behalf. ‘Your letter has been recieved. We are shocked at its contents. We have employed Ranjha as a grazier of buffaloes and we will not let him go.’ **
Chuchak was determined to marry Heer somewhere to avert disgrace, and his brethren agreed with him, but they urged that the Sials had never given their daughters tot he lwly Ranjha tribe and that they would be disgraced if they gave their daughters to such lowly and needy folk. The brotherhood recommended an alliance with the house of the Kheras as being Jatts of good lineage whom Chuchak would be proud to won as relations. So CHuchak took the advice of the brotherhood and announced the betrothal to his friends and relations. They sang songs and made merry. The Kheras recieved the news with great joy. They assembled in crowds and danced with delight. But when Heer and Ranjha heard the merriment, Heer was angry with her mother for betrothing her against her will and said she would never go with the Kheras however much her mother tried to make her. **
**Heer said to Ranjha, 'Great tyranny has fallen upon us. Let us go away to some distant part of the country, for when once I am admitted into the house of the Kheras they will never allow me to come back. Ranjha replied, ‘Love does not taste well if it is composed of theft and stealth and abduction.’ **
**The girls of the Jhang Sial assembled together and came before Ranjha and asked, 'How fares it with you now? You should say to her, “If you intended to turn your face from me why did you make me undergo such hardships?” Ranjha replied to the girls and said, ‘The uttering of many words is folly; all ills must be borne with patience. If God is good, the Kheras and Heer Sial will never mate together. The patience of the heart is victorious over the world. Those who keep silent always succeed.’ **
**Heer’s girls came and said to her, ‘You have been insincere and have deserted your faith. If you intended to break faith with him why did you first encourage him and then break his heart? He has borne the taunts of the whole world for your sake and you have been a great tyrant. Remember that the throne of God trembles when a man is deprived of his right.’ **
**Heer replied to the girls, ‘Hide him under your sheet and bring him to me disguised as a girl, but do not let my parents know.’ So one night the girls brought Ranjha disguised as a girl, and Heer and Ranjha once again pledged their troth to be true to one another.
**