more forgivable than they, for it is they that have corrupted and subverted morality. They should be punished . . . "
"That's right. It is bad enough to have men cut their hair off like monks without the women trying to imitate the nuns."
"Hsueh-cheng!"
The boy had at that moment come in with a small, thick volume with gilt edges, which he held up to Ssu-ming and said pointing to some page: "This looks like it, this one here."
Ssu-ming took the book, which he knew to be a dictionary, but the print was very small and the lines ran sidewise. He took it over to the window and squinted at the line which Hsueh-cheng had pointed to and read: "'The name of a coöperative society founded in the eighteenth century.' Mm, that's not it—How do you pronounce this?" he asked, pointing to the foreign words.
"O-do-fo-lo-ssu."[1]
"No, no, that's not it," Ssu-ming became angry again. "Let me tell you that it is a bad word, a curse word, something applied to one like myself. Do you understand now? Go and try to find it!"
Hsueh-cheng looked at him but did not move. "What sort of riddle is this? You must explain it more clearly so that he can look it up," Mrs. Ssu interceded, taking pity upon Hsueh-cheng's helplessness and showing some dissatisfaction at her husband's behavior.
"It happened while I was buying the soap at Kuang Yun Hsiang's," Ssu-ming responded, turning to her. "There were three students besides myself in the shop. From their point of view I was, of course, somewhat troublesome. I looked
- ↑ Odd Fellows.
