Morris tribune., 1899-08-05

~:In Vain He Thought to Hold one..'
heavenly regions he stole the golden
peaches Of Paradise and loosed the
steeds of the immortals. Journeying
westward, he knows not where to
lodge, but this wonderful companion
says: my father, ne who has left
home and become priest must dine on
the wind and lodge in the water, lie
down under the noon and sleep in the
frost; everywhere is his home. Why
then ask where snail we rest?" They
see a grove of cypress trees around a
palatlal mansion. Sun Shing Che en-
ters. finding no one, and reads upon q
scroll: Gentle willows hung with
floss, and on the bridge the level sun
at eve. In snowy flakes the scattered
bloom has filled the court with spring. .
While the travellers are marveling at
the magnificence around them wo-
man of middle life, but stately and
charming, steps from an inner room
and asks: who is it that has ven
tured to fntrude upon the household
Of widow" Explanations follow,
while Pa Chieh, the burden bearer,
glances slyly at the woman, thus de-
scrIbed:
The clouds of hair upon her brow a.
slant like phoenix wings,
And set with many a precious pearl her
pendant earrings.
No artifiee of paint" she needs her
natural charms to aid,
Yet gay and winsome is she still as any
youngest maid
The widows tale runs that he rhus-
band is dead leaving her with three
beautiful daughters-Truth, Love and
Pity. In a business like way she sug-
gests that the :four. pilgrims marry her
and these daughters, holding out the
inducements .ofe-broad fields OF. grain
and flooded fields Of rice, In ali 10000
acres. She has horses and oxen and
silver and gold; more than can be spent
in two iifettmes.
Shuen Tsang is angry at this propo-
sal, and discusses with her the adyan-
tages Of celibate devotion over life OF
worldly ease. the woman retfres in
wrath, slamming the door behind her.
Pa Chieh 10 tempted and steals round
to the back. secures Z private inter-
view and arranges marriage on his
own account. But there are dificui-
ties in the way. Pa Chieh wears pigs
face and ais long snout and big ears
are Objectionable. The widow 1is will
Ing to give him one OF her daughters.
but which shall It be? II she weds him
to Truth, Love will feel neglected, and
II to Love or to Pity, Truth will feel
aggrieyed. She solves the dificulty by
blindfolding him and turning the three
girls into the room, he to have the one
he catches Blindfotded, he hears the
sound Of tinkling tr' akets, he scents the
odor of musk. Right and left, to and
fro, he groped and fumbled. More fe-
male forms than he could count were
round him, but in vain he thought to
hold one. One way and another he ran.
till he was too giddy to stand and could
only stumble helplessly about East
ward, 1t was pillar he embraced: |:
westward, ,rhe ran against q wooden
partition; forward. agai6st the leaves
Of the door: backward into the wall,
bumping and banging, head and heels.
until with swollen toa9ne aad bruised
head ne could only sit down, painting.
"rhey are t00 slippery FOR me-" he
cried. but their mother said Il was
not their slipperiness but their extreme
m0desty. Pa Che becomes importu-
nate, saying, Give me one of your
daughters, any one, or all three, or
yourself and them" A new criterion CT
choice Is suggested by the widow. Each
daughter wears an inner vest ernbrnid.
cred in jewels and gold. He Is to try
on one or these and RI he can got II