thing, and so when the Changs want me to plough a piece of land, it's all right with me; when the Lis want me to take a turn at the mill, it's all right with me, too. I am willing to give in without protest even when the Chaos want me to stand in front of their shop with a sign stuck on my back saying: "We sell high-grade pasteurized milk from our own fat cows," that is, so long as their milk is safe and uncontaminated, although I know very well that I am terribly lean and that I am a bull at that and have no milk. For I can appreciate the fact that business must go on. But I won't stand for it if they try to work me too hard, for I have to have time to breathe and to look for grass to eat. It won't do either if they try to make me their exclusive property and shut me up in their cowshed, for I may want to help some one else who has grain to be ground. If they should go so far as to want to cut me up and sell me for meat, it certainly won't do for reasons too obvious to go into.
In conclusion let us quote the last article of Lusin's "testament," written in jest shortly before his death. It will make explicit what I have already implied in the foregoing pages—his deep hatred of all forms of hypocrisy.
"You must under no circumstances have anything to do with those who profess opposition to revenge and advocate forgiveness, even as they are engaged in the act of doing harm and injury to other people's eyes and teeth."
Translating from the Chinese is a difficult task at best. Lusin offers special difficulties as the humor and the effectiveness of his style depends so much upon the ironical twists and turns that he gives to classical allusions and contemporary slogans. It is hoped that the present translator has succeeded in conveying some of these effects here and there, though he realizes only too well that to render Lusin effectively into English requires greater resources than he has at his command.
