Page:Frank Owen - The Scarlett Hill, 1941.djvu/237

RV 232 (LI PO) he imagined he was a bird flying across the snow. Occasionally, it is true, his feet got a little mixed up and he crashed down in an undignified heap.

He rose, groaning. "I have so many cuts and bruises," he cried, "I look as though I were tattooed." But that did not deter him from climbing the hilltop once more, for another snow-flight.

As for Ho Chih-chang, he, too, occasionally met with disaster. There was scarcely a snow bank along the way which he had not explored headfirst.

Afterwards they went to a tavern and sat down to gargantuan feasts. Li Po was an enormous eater. After skiing, his capacity was one with the crater of a volcano. They drank wine until it almost flowed from their ears.

Yang Kuei-fei heard of this new sport. She begged the Emperor to go with her to watch. Their sedan chairs were lined with ermine.

As he observed the antics of Li Po, the mighty athlete, he could not help smiling. Truly Li Po was a man to match the mountains and the sea. Master of everything he touched, except Hanlin College, and even the Hanlin he had made appear ridiculous. Ming was not offended because Li Po made so little effort to make friends among the members of the Court. Most of them, he appraised at their true value.

"Rather," he once exclaimed, "would I make friends with the monkeys in the stables."

Li Po hated the eunuchs. He believed that they were the real power behind the throne. Even Li Lin-fu with RV 232 (232)