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127 A CHINESE STUDIO 127

to give him anything to eat. Quite overcome with hmiger, Na went in and lay down ; and when Ch'eng came back •from school, and saw the state he was in, he asked him if he was ill. Na replied that he was only hungry, and then told his brother the whole story ; whereupon Ch'eng coloured up and went away, returning shortly with some cakes, which he offered to Na. " Where did you get them?" asked the latter. "Oh," replied Ch'eng, "I stole some flour and got a neighbour's wife to make them for me. Eat away, and don't talk." Na ate them up ; but begged his brother not to do this again, as he might ■get himself ihto trouble. " I shan't die," added he, " if I only get one meal a day." " You are not strong," re- joined Ch'eng, " and shouldn't cut so much wood as you do." Next day, after breakfast, Ch'eng sUpped away to the hills, and arrived at the place where Na was occupied with his usual task, to the great astonishment of the latter,
 * who inquired what he was going to do. " To help you

cut wood," replied Ch'eng. " And who sent you ? " asked his brother. " No one," said he ; " I came of my own accord." " Ah," cried Na, " you can't do this work ; and even if you can you must not. Run along home again." Ch'eng, however, remained, aiding, his brother •with his hands and feet alone, but declaring that on the morrow he would bring an axe. Na tried to stop him, and found that he had already hurt his finger and worn his shoes into holes ; so he began to cry, and said, " If you don't go home directly, I'll kill myself with my axe." Ch'eng then went away, his brother seeing him half-way home, and going back to finish his work by himself. He also called in the evening at Ch'eng's school, and told the master his brother was a delicate boy, and should not be allowed to go on the hills, where, he said, there were fierce tigers and wolves. The master replied that he didn't know where Ch'eng had been all the morning, but that he had caned him for playing truant. Na further pointed out to Ch'eng that by not doing as he had told him, he had let himself in for a beating. Ch'eng laughed, and said he hadn't been beaten ; and the very next day off he went again, and this time with a hatchet. " I told you not to come," cried Na, much alarmed ; " why have you done sq ? " Ch'eng made no reply, but set to work chopping wood