Page:Chinese Fables and Folk Stories.djvu/108

104 time and told him that the teacher could tell him everything he would like to know.

When he saw a queer bird flying around he asked his teacher, "What kind of thing is that in the air?" His teacher told him, "A bird," and that to be a bird meant to fly around and sing in every place and make music for the people.

The boy said, "Can I not do it?" His teacher said, "Yes, you can sing music for the people, but you can not fly unless you get wings."

Tsing-Ching replied, "Yes, I can do that, too. My grandmother told me about a spirit with wings."

His teacher said, "If your grandmother told you that, you can try and see. You may be a man with wings sometime."