Chinese Literature

“How dare you come here and cry, and bring us bad luck, you old devil!” said the hired hand fiercely, banging the door in his face.

Dragging his feet along one after the other, Uncle Yun-pu made his way home. He muttered recriminations against himself, reproaching himself for not saying the things he had planned to say and for not broaching the subject gradually step by step. Now he had bungled the whole thing and got nothing out of his visit. j

At the foot of the Square Pond he suddenly stopped in his tracks. Gazing longingly at this dark green pond, he was seized with a strong impulse to take a simple little jump into the water and thus end the remaining sad bit of his life. But the thought of his family, the old and the young, kept him-from taking the plunge.

Aunt Yun-pu and the children stood by the entrance of the ancestral temple, anxiously waiting for the appearance of Uncle Yun-pu, who, they trusted, would bring them good news. Pangs of hunger burned within them like a consuming flame. Their eyes were red and they felt dizzy.

Ching-ching, otherwise known as Baldy, came into the room, accompanied by a man with a thick beard. Immediately, Uncle Yun-pu felt as if a thousand sharp daggers had been thrust into his heart. His legs and hands shook nervously, and tears streamed down his face. Having ushered the guests into the front‘room and seated them on a bench, he took himself into a corner and stood there. Aunt Yun-pu was still hiding inside. Her eyes had long since become red and swollen from weeping. The two younger children, too weak to get up, were still in bed; their thin pale faces were as yellow as wilted cabbage leaves.

Li-chiu stood near the door with Shao-pu behind him. The eyes of both were wet. They looked at the bearded man dully and quickly turned their heads away. ;

' After a few minutes of silence the bearded man said impatiently: “Baldy, where is the child?”

“She’s still inside. A ten-year-old called Ying-ying.”’ The baldheaded man nodded as if to tell him not to be impatient.

Aunt Yun-pu emerged from the back room, walking as if her feet were dragging a half-ton weight, and holding in her hands a little suit of clothes, newly patched. She was trembling so much she was hardly able to make her way across the room. Catching sight of the bald-headed man, she somehow managed to address him. Then hot tears welled out of her eyes and she was unable to go on. Yun-pu quietly hid his face in his sleeves and both Li-chiu and Shao-pu hung their heads and wept silently.

The bald-headed man became worried. Glancing quickly at his companion, he turned to Aunt Yun-pu and said comfortinegly:

“Why should you feel so heartbroken, Sister? Won’t Ying-ying be better off to go along with Mr. Hsia than at home? She’ll have plenty

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