Page:Frank Owen - Rare Earth, 1931.djvu/175

 done. Then as ever Hung Long Tom with his suggested trip solved the difficulty.

Nobody ever argued with Hung Long Tom, perhaps because he refused to argue with anyone. He went through life softly and serenely. He had learned to subdue his own great grief. In a measure he was content Somewhere among the 'Essays of Montaigne' is written: "Life in itself is neither good nor evil: it is the place of good or evil, according as you prepare it for them. And if you have lived one day, you have lived all: one day is equal to all other days. There is no other light, there is no other night. This sun, this moon, these stars and this disposition is the very same which your forefathers enjoyed."

Hung Long Tom had lived his day, had lived it to the full, years and years before in the Chinese garden. Now there was only memory and Scobee. Often he had liked to think that Scobee was his own boy, son of Lotus Blossom. It was a delightful pretending. It had sweetened the hours of his life.

Of course Jethro made no opposition to