Woman's chronicle. (Little Rock, Ark.) 1888-1???, 1889-02-02

wine, than to stay here and smell the vile odour Oh
the sea!' The others all responded, every true,
so it is, there is nothing to make a fuss about IN
smelling; let us all come!' Then softly and
gently cleaving the waves they arrive at the side OF
the wine jars and look round. Now this again was
something far better than they had experienced at
the bottom of the sea, so they all said: "Ihis is
indeed a lovely odour it is quite too delightful
And soon all were circling in a giddy way round
the wine jars shifting again and again. At last one
of the Shoio said, cit is really intolerable to go
on merely smelling the wine, suppose we each just
take a ladleful, Ell p "No, no." replied another;
s'all the Shojo who have been captured up to the
present time, every one of them hurriedly seized
the Iadle and drank greedily. Then getting intox-
icated they were all killed. Do not let us stretch
out a careless hand. eyes, yes!' they all cried,
''it will be a bad job if we drink from the ladle;
but if we just dip in a finger each for a taste-a
thimbleful all round will do us no harm Shall we
not all try it," And at once a finger was stretched
out from every hand and each took just a taste.
This, too, they found was much better than merely
smelling, as one and another went backwards and
forwards, circling round the jars, tasting and
s%macking their lips. At last one Of them said,
"Why are we only slipping it in this way? Just one
drink is not enough to harm us, let us take the
ladle and each of us have a draught. If we take
care not to drink our fill there's no fear of our be-
ing intoxicated. 1t will do us good to drink a little
each all round quite in a temperate way" Again
they all cried, eyes, yes, that is sop and taking
the ladle in hand, they went on drinking q little
each. AS this was going on, one OF their number
said, cit is no use drinking wine of any kind I'M
less you take a good lot Of it and get merry
moreover these Shojos who up to this time have
been killed and had their life blood squeezed out,
were not slain simply through drinking too much;
look there, under your feet, how many shoes there
are, made of the growing grass-it was owing to
putting on those boots and dancing useless dances
that they at last fell dow and were slain. But it
is not such a terrible thing just once in a way to
take a drop too much" The rest of the company
rejoined, "Ah, ali! that is so, indeed! If we got
merry-but do not put on shoes, there's no fear Of
our being killed" So at it they went, drinking
till they were merry; and as they kept on drinking,
cup after cup went gurgling down until they began
to get quite queer and to long to put on those grass
shoes, until at last they felt they must, do so. Then
all said, "Shall we not put on these shoes just for
a while? If we only put them on, but do not at
tempt to dance in them, there is no fear of our
falling down. But it will be capital if we join in
singing d song Each one lWlneulaCely sHpped
his feet into the shoes, and kept time with the song
by clapping his hands. Whilst doing this they
said, ''Do we not also want to keep time with our
feet! we must indeed" Therefore one of them
exclaimed, GLOW will it be if without falling down
we just keep time with one step?' and all together
cried, ''That will be capital! Now then, all to-
gether, without falling, let us give one!' And
raising their feet all fell down, and were soon killed,
and their blood carried off for the dyer-at least
so the story goes.
Still this is an old tale from China of ancient
things which may or may not have really taken
place-this cannot say, but this l do know that
there are in this land Of ours a good many people
of the Shojo class.
Both lust and drink, greed and pride are all ter
rible things. But who is there who abstains from
these because he discerns plainly the truth of such