Chinese Literature

most difficult to maintain a household for six during those years of hard luck. :

“T must find a way out somehow!”

Uncle Yun-pu had never completely given up hope. Whenever a tough problem confronted him he would repeat this sentence over and over again in his mind, and sometimes he would be able to think of a good solution. This time, he knew that the crisis was an extremely difficult one, so he was again turning the words over in his mind.

“There’s Mr. Ho, Mr. Li, Mr. Chen. . . .’ He paced back and forth at the foot of the stage, and one by one the figures of these men floated before his eyes. But how harsh and unrelenting were their faces! They inspired him with uneasiness and dread. He shook his head and sighed, casting the thought of these people aside, and turning his mind in another direction. Suddenly he remembered a person who was of a different sort.

“Ti-chiu, will you go right away to see Uncle Yu-wu?”

“What for, Dad?” asked Li-chiu nonchalantly from the door-step, where he sat cutting bamboo.

“Tomorrow the weather will be really fine and warm; everyone is planning to go into the fields. We have to start too. And the first day we should at least have a full meal. It will be a prediction of better things to come and will give us strength to do our work. but there’s no more rice in the house, therefore. .. .”

“T don’t think Uncle Yu-wu can do anything about ite

“Still, it won’t do any harm if you go and see, will it?”

‘Why bother to go there for nothing? I don’t think they’re any better off than we are.”

“You're always talking back to your father. How do you know whether they are like us or not? I told you to go and see.”

“But Dad, it’s true. They are probably harder up than we are.”

“Nonsense!”

Recently, Uncle Yun-pu had often felt that his son was not as obedient as before. He seemed to want to argue over everything. Lichiu had guarreled many times with his father over ordinary household affairs. He was often quite indolent and unwilling to work, and sometimes be-

_ haved like an utterly rebellious, unfilial creature.

Uncle Yu-wu was not necessarily in such drastic straits as he, because there was only Yu-wu and his wife in the family, no one else. The year before, when all the peasants in the village had left and become refugees, Yu-wu had stayed at home. All by himself, he had managed to eke out a living for his family of two. Furthermore, he never bor-

- rowed from anyone. Three days before, he had heen seen with a basket in front of the butcher shop near the ferry. He had bought a piece of i meat and some wine, and had walked on, quite pleased with himself. How could anyone say he also had no way out?

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