Page:Chinese Fables and Folk Stories.djvu/110

106 to climb up the ladder and asked, "What are you doing, Tsing-Ching?"

He answered, "I want to be a bird; wait, I will try again. I know that birds fly in the air, not on the ground. I can not fly on earth. If I get up high in the air, then I know I can fly."

His mother thought he wanted to climb up and get a bird; she looked all around and said, "There is no bird up there now."

"But, Ah-Ma, I want to be a bird."

The servant Lau-Mai came just then and explained to his mother. His mother said he was a foolish boy, and gave him food and sent him to school again.

In two hours the teacher sent all the boys out to play. They ran to the pond where the gold-fish were, for they liked to watch them swim in the water.

After exercise, they all went into the schoolroom and Tsing-Ching told his teacher, "I saw many goldfish swimming in the pond. Did you know that, teacher? A man fed them rice and they all came out for him. They seemed so happy, they shook their tails and waved their fins and swam up and down and all around in the cool water. Oh, I should like to be a fish."

His teacher said, "Learn lessons now." But Tsing-Ching could not study; he could only think, think