Page:Mrs. Spring Fragrance - Far - 1912.djvu/287

 ask your permission to allow me to disembark on the shore of this river on the edge of your forest."

The tiger prostrated himself, so also did his brother animals, and all shouted:

"Welcome, O most illustrious, most benevolent, and most excellent Chan Ah Sin the Ninth."

So Mai crept into the arms of her nurse and Ming hung on to his uncle's robe, and the other silk-robed man explained how and why they had come to the Forest of the Freed and the Moon-loved Pool.

A fairy fish, a fairy duck, a fairy butterfly, and a fairy bird, who had seen the children on the river when the cruel sailors were taking them from their home, had carried the news to the peasants of the rice fields, the tea plantations, the palm and bamboo groves. Whereupon great indignation had prevailed, and the people of the province, who loved well the Chan family, arose in their might and demanded that an investigation be made into the charges against that Chan who was reputed to have broken the law, and whose relatives as well as himself had been condemned to suffer therefor. So it came to pass that the charges, which had been made by some malicious enemy of high official rank, were