Page:Chinese Fables and Folk Stories.djvu/175

Rh "Never mind," said the aunt, "go to school and do not be so bad any more, and we shall see what happens. It may be your mother will live again."

For two days Kong-Hwa was good—no schoolmate complained, no neighbor complained. He studied his lessons and obeyed his teacher. Then he went again to his mother's house. He saw that she was alive, and in a few days he was again as bad as ever. "I can not teach him, he must learn things for himself," said his mother; "I do not know what else I can do."

And it was so until he was twelve years old. His mother tried to help him to do right, but it seemed of no use.

Shortly after he was twelve years old, he came home from school one day and said, "Mü-Ts'ing, I want to go to Siang-Sze. I will leave school. No one likes me; no one plays with me. I do not like school and I will not go anymore. I shall be a merchant and make money."

His mother thought he was too young to know what he wanted, and so paid little attention to him. But he insisted, and finally she said, "Go to your father."

His father was surprised and asked, "You wish to