Page:The Chinese Boy and Girl.djvu/131

"finds it very difficult to thread her needle by the pale light of the moon," which fact, few, I think, would question.

In one of the pictures "a beautiful maiden, in the bright moonlight, came beneath the trees." This is evidently

contrary to Chinese		ideas of propriety,
for the Classic for		girls tells us that a
maiden should not		go out at night except
in company		with a servant
bearing a lantern.		As it was bright
moonlight, however		let us hope
she was excusable.

This sauntering about in the court is not uncommon if we believe what the books say, for in the next picture we are told that:

As near the middle summer-house,
The maiden sauntered by,
Upon the jade pin in her hair
There lit a dragon-fly.

The next illustration represented the wife of the famous poet Ssu-Ma Hsiang-Ju in her husband's wine shop.

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