Page:Gems of Chinese literature (1922).djvu/188

 appearance of a double ear of corn. An emperor named a period of his reign from the discovery of an ancient bronze; and a case is on record of one who named his children after prisoners taken captive in war. The joy in each instance was hardly the same; but the principle of commemoration was uniformly applied.

So I spread a feast there, and invited a number of guests, of whom I enquired, “What would have happened if the rain had held off five days longer?” “There would have been no wheat,” was the answer. “And what if it had been ten days?” I continued; to which they replied that then there would have been no crops at all. “And had there been harvest neither of wheat nor of other grain,” said I, “a famine must inevitably have ensued. The law courts would have overflowed with litigation. Brigandage and robbery would have been rife. And you and I would have missed the pleasant meeting of to-day beneath this arbour. But God did not leave the people to perish. Drought has been followed by rain; and to rain it is due that we are enjoying ourselves here to-day. Shall we then let its remembrance fade away? I think