Page:Leaves from my Chinese Scrapbook - Balfour, 1887.djvu/199

 THE STORY.

Now I daresay, remarks our author, that all you gentlemen look upon what I have written about flower-fairies and the Goddess of the Wind as so much incoherent nonsense. I grant that they are things which nobody in the world appears ever to have seen or heard of, and that they are not mentioned in any historical records or classical writing; but strange and supernatural as they are, the world is full of them, though only a very small proportion of them find their way into books; so when they do occur it is not a matter to be wondered at.

Now in the reign of Jên Tsung, of the Sung dynasty, there lived at a village in Kiang-nan an old man named Tsiu Hsien, who belonged to a literary family and possessed a few acres of land. His wife was dead, and had left him without children. He spent his whole life in the cultivation of a handsome flower-garden, for flowers were his very special hobby. He loved them as he might have loved his children had he been blessed with any. He was an indefatigable collector of rare specimens and exotics, which he valued far more than any jewels; and whenever he passed any gay gardens, during his constant rambles, he would insinuate himself into them with a benignant smile, whether he were invited or not. If the flowers were familiar to him, he would trot out again; but if they were at all unique, nobody would be able to drag him away the whole day long. People said that he was flower-mad. If he met with any for sale he always bought them, whether he had any money or not; and when he had none about him, he would just strip off his coat and give it to the seller in payment. Of course