Page:Chinese Fables and Folk Stories.djvu/118

114 When Wong-Ziang reached the river, he saw it was covered with ice. He made a great hole in the ice and went in, and after swimming and diving for some time, he caught a fish for his mother.

But his breath almost left him in the cold water, and when he came out, he could not stand on the ice.

He fell down, and his clothes froze to the ice with the net and the fish he had caught.

"He is gone a long time," thought his mother. She called a servant girl who was passing, and said, "Ah Moi, will you go down to the River Ching-Ki, and see if my boy is there?" Ah Moi went and saw the boy and the fish in the net lying frozen on the ice together.

She called, "Wong-Ziang," but when no answer came back to her, she thought, "He is dead," and ran in fear. But she met a farmer who was riding a cow and she told him, "Wong-Ziang is dead on the ice." The farmer left his cow and went with her to see.

The farmer took off his own coat and wrapped it around the boy. He carried him in his arms and said to the servant. "I think he is not dead. Take the fish and net at once to Wong-Ziang's mother."

In an hour Wong-Ziang came to life again. He arose