Page:Leaves from my Chinese Scrapbook - Balfour, 1887.djvu/211

 with their own eyes, that they may be made thoroughly ashamed of themselves."

"Nay, nay," said Tsiu; "not I, indeed. Men of their stamp are like vicious dogs, which, when they are seen at a distance, must be avoided. Why should I go out of my way to ask them here again?"

"You're right, you're right," nodded the two old fellows. Then Tsiu, who had never been in such spirits before, proposed a cup of wine in honour of the occasion; and the three friends sat drinking and hobnobbing till long after sunset, when the visitors got up to go away, leaving the old gentleman as happy and light-hearted as his previous visitors had left him miserable and sad.

The news of the prodigy spread like wildfire over the village, and next morning, as soon as it was light, the people came in crowds to see and hear all about it. They were not at all sure that Tsiu would let them in; none of them knew what a change had come over him since the visit of his fairy benefactress. He had not slept the whole night, but had sat in his garden in the still moonlight meditating upon the events of that most eventful day. Suddenly the thought flashed across him that perhaps all this had happened to him because he had been a little mean and selfish in never permitting any one else to enjoy his garden with him, and he considered how different it might have been if he had had rather more of the liberal, kindly, generous spirit of the fairies. So the next day he flung open his garden-gate, that anybody might come in who wished to, and gave a kindly welcome to the first visitors who presented themselves. The news that the place was free to everybody passed from mouth to mouth, and the long-closed garden