Spring came on and she
could hear the singing of the birds, she wished that she could go and
walk about the garden where she could see the sweet blossoms that hung
like a veil of pink over the peach trees. In her loneliness she wept,
and wrote sad poetry, which she threw into the water.

All this time Chang grieved for her, and sent her gifts to comfort her,
and when his work was done, he walked along the shore and thought of
her. But one day Kong Lee caught sight of him standing on the shore, and
she thought, "Chang will help me." So she took a cocoanut, and cut the
shell in two and made a little boat of half of it. Then she made a
little sail of fine, carved ivory, on the sail she wrote a message
asking Chang to help her and threw the boat out of the window. The
little skiff sailed out over the lake, then fell and splashed into the
water, the wind caught the sail and the small craft sailed bravely on.
Chang saw it, waded out, and caught it, read the message, and went to
find Kong Lee.

Kong Lee was waiting for him, and they fled in haste, taking her box of
jewels with them. The mandarin saw them, and taking a whip he hastened
after them to beat them back again, for he had great fear of his
friend's anger. But they were too swift for him, and reached the other
side, where Chang's boat was waiting to take them to his house.

There they were married, and lived in happiness until the mandarin's
wicked friend found where they were, and secretly, at night, sailed down
the lake and burned the house when they were sleeping. But their loving
spirits became two doves that rested in the trees and flew about the
places they had loved.

And if you look at a blue china plate you will see there the house where
Kong Lee was shut up, the willow tree she watched, Kong Lee and Chang
running across the bridge followed by her father with his whip, the
funny house-boat that carried them away to Chang's little house that
almost is hidden by the trees, and at the top, the pair of doves in
which the Chinese poet believed the spirits of Kong Lee and Chang still
lived.

[Illustration: "HA, HA, HA!" HE SAID TO HIMSELF. "HOW FOOLISH BROTHER
FOX IS"]

[Illustration: BRER RABBIT _and_ HIS NEIGHBORS]

BROTHER FOX'S TAR BABY[O]

TRANSLATED BY JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS

Once upon a time Brother Fox and Brother Rabbit lived near each other in
the woods. But they had to go a long way each morning to get water from
a spring