"As for me, I'm quite an old fossil," dowager lady Chia observed. "I'm no good whatever. My eyesight is dim; my ears are deaf, my memory is gone. I can't even recollect any of you, old family connections. When therefore any of our relations come on a visit, I don't see them for fear lest I should be ridiculed. All I can manage to eat are a few mouthfuls of anything tender enough for my teeth; and I can just dose a bit or, when I feel in low spirits, I distract myself a little with these grandsons and grand-daughters of mine; that's all I'm good for."

"This is indeed your venerable ladyship's good fortune!" old goody Liu smiled. "We couldn't enjoy anything of the kind, much though we may long for it."

"What good fortune!" dowager lady Chia exclaimed. "I'm a useless old thing, no more."

This remark made every one explode into laughter.

Dowager lady Chia also laughed. "I heard our lady Feng say a little while back," she added, "that you had brought a lot of squash and vegetables, and I told her to put them by at once. I had just been craving to have newly-grown melons and vegetables; but those one buys outside are not as luscious as those produced in your farms."

"This is the rustic notion," old goody Liu laughed, "to entirely subsist on fresh things! Yet, we long to have fish and meat for our fare, but we can't afford it."

"I've found a relative in you to-day," dowager lady Chia said, "so you shouldn't go empty-handed! If you don't despise this place as too mean, do stay a day or two before you start! We've also got a garden here; and this garden produces fruits too; you can taste some of them to-morrow and take a few along with you home, in order to make it look like a visit to relatives."

When lady Feng saw how delighted old lady Chia was with the prospects of the old dame's stay, she too lost no time in doing all she could to induce her to remain. "Our place here," she urged, "isn't, it's true, as s.p.a.cious as your threshing-floor; but as we've got two vacant rooms, you'd better put up in them for a couple of days, and choose some of your village news and old stories and recount them to our worthy senior."

"Now you, vixen Feng," smiled dowager lady Chia, "don't raise a laugh at her expense! She's only a country woman; and will an old dame like her stand any chaff from you?"

While remonstrating with her, she bade a servant go, before attending to anything else, and pluck a few fruits. These she handed to Pan Erh to eat. But Pan Erh did not venture to touch them, conscious as he was of the presence of such a number of bystanders. So old lady Chia gave orders that a few cash should be given him, and then directed the pages to take him outside to play.

After sipping a cup of tea, old goody Liu began to relate, for the benefit of dowager lady Chia, a few of the occurrences she had seen or heard of in the country. These had the effect of putting old lady Chia in a more exuberant frame of mind. But in the midst of her narration, a servant, at lady Feng's instance, asked goody Liu to go and have her evening meal. Dowager lady Chia then picked out, as well, several kinds of eatables from her own repast, and charged some one to take them to goody Liu to feast on.

But the consciousness that the old dame had taken her senior's fancy induced lady Feng to send her back again as soon as she had taken some refreshments. On her arrival, Yuan Yang hastily deputed a matron to take goody Liu to have a bath. She herself then went and selected two pieces of ordinary clothes, and these she entrusted to a servant to hand to the old dame to change. Goody Liu had hitherto not set eyes upon any such grand things, so with eagerness she effected the necessary alterations in her costume. This over, she made her appearance outside, and, sitting in front of the divan occupied by dowager lady Chia, she went on to narrate as many stories as she could recall to mind. Pao-yu and his cousins too were, at the time, a.s.sembled in the room, and as they had never before heard anything the like of what she said, they, of course, thought her tales more full of zest than those related by itinerant blind story-tellers.

Old goody Liu was, albeit a rustic person, gifted by nature with a good deal of discrimination. She was besides advanced in years; and had gone through many experiences in her lifetime, so when she, in the first place, saw how extremely delighted old lady Chia was with her, and, in the second, how eager the whole crowd of young lads and la.s.ses were to listen to what fell from her mouth, she even invented, when she found her own stock exhausted, a good many yarns to recount to them.

"What with all the sowing we have to do in our fields and the vegetables we have to plant," she consequently proceeded, "have we ever in our village any leisure to sit with lazy hands from year to year and day to day; no matter whether it's spring, summer, autumn or winter, whether it blows or whether it rains? Yea, day after day all that we can do is to turn the bare road into a kind of pavilion to rest and cool ourselves on! But what strange things don't we see! Last winter, for instance, snow fell for several consecutive days, and it piled up on the ground three or four feet deep. One day, I got up early, but I hadn't as yet gone out of the door of our house when I heard outside the noise of firewood (being moved). I fancied that some one must have come to steal it, so I crept up to a hole in the window; but, lo, I discovered that it was no one from our own village."

"It must have been," interposed dowager lady Chia, "some wayfarers, who being smitten with the cold, took some of the firewood, they saw ready at hand, to go and make a fire and warm themselves with! That's highly probable!"

"It was no wayfarers at all," old goody Liu retorted smiling, "and that's what makes the story so strange. Who do you think it was, venerable star of longevity? It was really a most handsome girl of seventeen or eighteen, whose hair was combed as smooth as if oil had been poured over it. She was dressed in a deep red jacket, a white silk petticoat...."

When she reached this part of her narrative, suddenly became audible the voices of people bawling outside. "It's nothing much," they shouted, "don't frighten our old mistress!" Dowager lady Chia and the other inmates caught, however, their cries and hurriedly inquired what had happened. A servant-maid explained in reply that a fire had broken out in the stables in the southern court, but that there was no danger, as the flames had been suppressed.

Their old grandmother was a person with very little nerve. The moment, therefore, the report fell on her car, she jumped up with all despatch, and leaning on one of the family, she rushed on to the verandah to ascertain the state of things. At the sight of the still brilliant light, shed by the flames, on the south east part of the compound, old lady Chia was plunged in consternation, and invoking Buddha, she went on to shout to the servants to go and burn incense before the G.o.d of fire.

Madame w.a.n.g and the rest of the members of the household lost no time in crossing over in a body to see how she was getting on. "The fire has been already extinguished," they too a.s.sured her, "please, dear ancestor, repair into your rooms!"

But it was only after old lady Chia had seen the light of the flames entirely subside that she at length led the whole company indoors. "What was that girl up to, taking the firewood in that heavy fall of snow?"

Pao-yu thereupon vehemently inquired of goody Liu. "What, if she had got frostbitten and fallen ill?"

"It was the reference made recently to the firewood that was being abstracted," his grandmother Chia said, "that brought about this fire; and do you still go on asking more about it? Leave this story alone, and tell us something else!"

Hearing this reminder, Pao-yu felt constrained to drop the subject, much against his wishes, and old goody Liu forthwith thought of something else to tell them.

"In our village," she resumed, "and on the eastern side of our farmstead, there lives an old dame, whose age is this year, over ninety.

She goes in daily for fasting, and worshipping Buddha. Who'd have thought it, she so moved the pity of the G.o.ddess of mercy that she gave her this message in a dream: 'It was at one time ordained that you should have no posterity, but as you have proved so devout, I have now memorialised the Pearly Emperor to grant you a grandson!' The fact is, this old dame had one son. This son had had too an only son; but he died after they had with great difficulty managed to rear him to the age of seventeen or eighteen. And what tears didn't they shed for him! But, in course of time, another son was actually born to him. He is this year just thirteen or fourteen, resembles a very ball of flower, (so plump is he), and is clever and sharp to an exceptional degree! So this is indeed a clear proof that those spirits and G.o.ds do exist!"

This long tirade proved to be in harmony with dowager lady Chia's and Madame w.a.n.g's secret convictions on the subject. Even Madame w.a.n.g therefore listened to every word with all profound attention. Pao-yu, however, was so pre-occupied with the story about the stolen firewood that he fell in a brown study and gave way to conjectures.

"Yesterday," T'an Ch'un at this point remarked, "We put cousin Shih to a lot of trouble and inconvenience, so, when we get back, we must consult about convening a meeting, and, while returning her entertainment, we can also invite our venerable ancestor to come and admire the chrysanthemums; what do you think of this?"

"Our worthy senior," smiled Pao-yu, "has intimated that she means to give a banquet to return cousin Shih's hospitality, and to ask us to do the honours. Let's wait therefore until we partake of grandmother's collation, before we issue our own invitations; there will be ample time then to do so."

"The later it gets, the cooler the weather becomes," T'an Ch'un observed, "and our dear senior is not likely to enjoy herself."

"Grandmother," added Pao-yu, "is also fond of rain and snow, so wouldn't it be as well to wait until the first fall, and then ask her to come and look at the snow. This will be better, won't it? And were we to recite our verses with snow about us, it will be ever so much more fun!"

"To hum verses in the snow," Lin Tai-yu speedily demurred with a smile, "won't, in my idea, be half as nice as building up a heap of firewood and then stealing it, with the flakes playing about us. This will be by far more enjoyable!"

This proposal made Pao-ch'ai and the others laugh. Pao-yu cast a glance at her but made no reply.

But, in a short time, the company broke up. Pao-yu eventually gave old goody Liu a tug on the sly and plied her with minute questions as to who the girl was. The old dame was placed under the necessity of fabricating something for his benefit. "The truth is," she said, "that there stands on the north bank of the ditch in our village a small ancestral hall, in which offerings are made, but not to spirits or G.o.ds. There was in former days some official or other..."

"While speaking, she went on to try and recollect his name and surname.

"No matter about names or surnames!" Pao-yu expostulated. "There's no need for you to recall them to memory! Just mention the facts; they'll be enough."

"This official," old goody Liu resumed, "had no son. His offspring consisted of one young daughter, who went under the name of Jo Yu, (like Jade). She could read and write, and was doated upon by this official and his consort, just as if she were a precious jewel. But, unfortunately, when this young lady, Jo Yu, grew up to be seventeen, she contracted some disease and died."

When these words fell on Pao-yu's ears, he stamped his foot and heaved a sigh. "What happened after that?" he then asked.

Old goody Liu pursued her story.

"So incessantly," she continued, "did this official and his consort think of their child that they raised this ancestral hall, erected a clay image of their young daughter Jo Yu in it, and appointed some one to burn incense and trim the fires. But so many days and years have now elapsed that the people themselves are no more alive, the temple is in decay, and the image itself is become a spirit."

"It hasn't become a spirit," remonstrated Pao-yu with vehemence. "Human beings of this kind may, the rule is, die, yet they are not dead."

"O-mi-to-fu!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed old goody Liu; "is it really so! Had you, sir, not enlightened us, we would have remained under the impression that she had become a spirit! But she repeatedly transforms herself into a human being, and there she roams about in every village, farmstead, inn and roadside. And the one I mentioned just now as having taken the firewood is that very girl! The villagers in our place are still consulting with the idea of breaking this clay image and razing the temple to the ground."

"Be quick and dissuade them!" eagerly exclaimed Pao-yu. "Were they to raze the temple to the ground, their crime won't be small."

"It's lucky that you told me, Sir," old goody Liu added. "When I get back to-morrow, I'll make them relinquish the idea and finish!"

"Our venerable senior and my mother," Pao-yu pursued, "are both charitable persons. In fact, all the inmates of our family, whether old or young, do, in like manner, delight in good deeds, and take pleasure in distributing alms. Their greatest relish is to repair temples, and to put up images to the spirits; so to-morrow, I'll make a subscription and collect a few donations for you, and you can then act as incense-burner.

When sufficient money has been raised, this fane can be repaired, and another clay image put up; and month by month I'll give you incense and fire money to enable you to burn joss-sticks; won't this be A good thing for you?"

"In that case," old goody Liu rejoined, "I shall, thanks to that young lady's good fortune, have also a few cash to spend."

Pao-yu thereupon likewise wanted to know what the name of the place was, the name of the village, how far it was there and back, and whereabout the temple was situated.

Old goody Liu replied to his questions, by telling him every idle thought that came first to her lips. Pao-yu, however, credited the information she gave him and, on his return to his rooms, he exercised, the whole night, his mind with building castles in the air.

On the morrow, as soon as daylight dawned, he speedily stepped out of his room, and, handing Pei Ming several hundreds of cash, he bade him proceed first in the direction and to the place specified by old goody Liu, and clearly ascertain every detail, so as to enable him, on his return from his errand, to arrive at a suitable decision to carry out his purpose. After Pei Ming's departure, Pao-yu continued on pins on needles and on the tiptoe of expectation. Into such a pitch of excitement did he work himself, that he felt like an ant in a burning pan. With suppressed impatience, he waited and waited until sunset. At last then he perceived Pei Ming walk in, in high glee.

"Have you discovered the place?" hastily inquired Pao-yu.

"Master," Pei Ming laughed, "you didn't catch distinctly the directions given you, and you made me search in a nice way! The name of the place and the bearings can't be those you gave me, Sir; that is why I've had to hunt about the whole day long! I prosecuted my inquiries up to the very ditch on the north east side, before I eventually found a ruined temple."