Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1883-09-06
LY YUNG, THE WOOD-CUTTER.
a Chinese Legend.

"A OAAASso ASSeAOs
Ly Yung lived all alone in small
hut at the base of the majestic and holy
mountain Tendai, the most glorious
peak of the Nanlin range in China. He
was wood-cutter, and every day went
into the, forest on the hillside to cut
wood, which he transported on the back
of an ass to the city that lay few miles
below his bamboo hut on the mountain.
Although only a poor wood-cutter,
Ly Yung was very tall and handsome.
When he went to the market he looked
nobler than the mandarins who came to
buy his wood, though they wore long
robes of silk and caps with silken
fringes and red and blue balls, and he
had on the large cotton trousers with a
shirt over them, and the broad bamboo
hat of the laborer. Even the stately
guards who stood at the city gates were
not so tall and handsome as Ly Yung
the wood-cutter.
He had been carefully and piously
reared, for though they had been only
humble peasants, Ly Yung's father and
mother had said to each other, eve
will learn our son to revere the gods
and to read and write, for some day he
may be kali or q mandarin - SO he
had been taught to read in the volumes
of COnfucius and Mencius, till he knew
the Conversations and the Give
Classics by heart. He was as virtuous
as he was learned. He observed all the
feast days, paid offerings at the temples,
and twice a year visited the tombs of
his departed parents to make sacrifices,
sweep the tombstones, and clear away
any weeds that had grown near them.
Ly Yung loved his occupation, and
never murmured at his lot. He rose
early and worked late, and dinner of
boiled rice was all he cared for. If on
feast days some of the good mothers of
the hamlet gave him a cup of tea or
broiled fish he felt as cOntented as a
King. In the forest he always sung or
whistled as he toiled. There were so
many beautiful things in the depths of
the wood; the startled deer flying
through the glades, the bulbuls singing
from the swaying boughs, and the flow
-ers bursting through the sward, all
spoke to Ly Yung of the jOyOusness of
life.
He uniformity sold his bundle of wood
at a good price. He was so pleasant
and handsome, and withal so lively of
speech, that he always found bidder.
To be sure there was not much money
left after he paid for his rice and his
ass keeping, and the offerings at the
tombs of his parents. But what of that,
he was young and strong, and would
not have exchanged his health and free
dom for all the gold in the treasury of
the Emperor Hwang-ti itself.
One day, however, he failed to find a
purchaser for his load of wood. He re-
manned until night in the market-place,
but no buyer came 1t was the first
time in his life that it happened SO. The
fact made him very thoughtful AS the
darkness closed over the market-place
the young man YEARLY drove his loaded
ass homeward. On the way he passed
the cabin of an old woman who had
often befriended him.
''Good mother" he said, 81 could
not sell my ass load of wood to-day.
You are welcome to it, if you will give
me drink of goats milk and hand
full of rice"
''Nay, my son, thou art welcome to
the rice and the goats milk, for happily
l had some left over from supper, but
thy wood thou hadst better carry as an
offering to the temple of the God of
Plenty. If thou hast been unlucky it is
thy fault; and not the gods
Ly Yung thanked the dame for her
advice, and rising early the next morn
ing he led his ass back to the city. He
did not, however, take his wood to the
market-place to sell, but to the temple
of the idol called the God of Plenty,
where he gave it in charge to the
priests.
The temple, as he entered it, was
filled with an agreeable odor diffused
from the burning joss-sticks set in jars
OF earth which were always kept lighted
before the idols. On a dais beneath
canopy of crimson silk were three
gigantic figures seated in arm-chairs,
with large lanterns suspended before
them. They were hideous-looklng
monsters with double faces and mis-
'shapen bodies, but Ly Yung thought
they were handsome.
He Frustrated himself before the larg-
est and most hideous one, which sat in
the middle. After a short prayer he
arose. On long table beautifully
carved were placed a great many jars
with joss-sticks burning in them, be-
sides several porcelain vessels filled
with flowers; and what was still more
remarkable, at each corner of the table
was a jar filed with sticks on which
characters were engraved referring to
certain books hung against the wall,
which are often consulted by the
Chinese.