the ash for fertilizer.) He was to come for them with a boat before we started off on our journey.
In the evening we had another chat, about nothing in particular. He went away with Shui-sheng the following morning.
Nine days later we left our old home. Yun-t'u came early in the morning. He did not bring Shui-sheng with him but brought a five-year-old girl to watch the boat. We were busy all day and had little chance to talk. There were many guests, some had come to see us off, others to fetch things, still others both to see us off and to fetch things. When we finally embarked toward evening, the old house was cleared of everything that was of any possible use.
Our boat went slowly on, leaving behind the darkening green hills on either bank. Hung-erh, who had been watching the obscure landscape with me from a window, suddenly said to me, "Uncle, when are we coming back?"
"Coming back? But why should you be thinking of coming back when we have just started?"
"But Shui-sheng has asked me to visit him at his home," the boy said reflectively with his black eyes wide open.
Both mother and I were touched by the boy's remark and our conversation again turned to Yun-t'u. She said that Sister Yang had been coming to our house every day since we began to pack. Two days before we started she discovered some dishes and bowls in the ash pile, which she insisted had been hidden there by Yun-t'u so that he could take them away with him when he came to get the ash. Sister Yang was very pleased with herself for her discovery, and on the strength of it she helped herself to our "dog's-exasperation." (A contrivance used for feeding chickens in our native place. It consists of a wooden cage over a trough containing feed.
