Page:Leaves from my Chinese Scrapbook - Balfour, 1887.djvu/220

 eventually attain to the immortality of the genii. Tsiu prostrated himself for the third time; and when he raised his head the fairy visitor was gone. But looking upward, he saw her hovering in mid-air and waving her hand in sign that he should follow her.

Tsiu accordingly pulled himself together and began to clamber up the wall of the prison-yard. When he had got half-way he felt his strength beginning to fail; but he made a tremendous effort, and managed to scramble on to the top. No sooner had he gained this point of vantage, however, than he heard a deafening noise below; every gong in the place was being banged, and shouts were raised on all sides that one of the prisoners had escaped. This put Tsiu into a dreadful state of trepidation; his hands grew numb, his legs shook, and all of a sudden he tumbled violently off the wall, struck his head upon the ground, and awoke!

He was still in the prison; the whole thing had been a dream. But as he lay on his hard couch he reflected seriously about the matter; he turned it over and over in his mind, and tried to find out the meaning and interpretation of it; arriving at last at the satisfactory conclusion that everything would end happily, and that he need give himself no more anxiety at all.

When Chang saw that the magistrate treated Tsiu as a wizard, he was immeasurably delighted. " Ah," said he, chuckling, "the old wretch was always after something or other which nobody could understand. Well, to-night he'll sleep on the prisoners' bed, and I shall enjoy myself in his garden." "Yes," replied his friends; "the day before yesterday it belonged to him, and now it is your worship's; so it is only proper you should enjoy