hough her sire was a dragon, yet one who
traced his descent from gods of the elder days, and so it was that she
went in all her ways divine, like the earliest ones of her race, who
were holier than the emperor.

She had come down one day out of her little land, a grassy valley
hidden amongst the mountains; by the way of the mountain passes she
came down, and the rocks of the rugged pass rang like little bells
about her, as her bare feet went by, like silver bells to please her;
and the sound was like the sound of the dromedaries of a prince when
they come home at evening--their silver bells are ringing and the
village-folk are glad. She had come down to pick the enchanted poppy
that grew, and grows to this day--if only men might find it--in a
field at the feet of the mountains; if one should pick it happiness
would come to all yellow men, victory without fighting, good wages,
and ceaseless ease. She came down all fair from the mountains; and as
the legend pleasantly passed through his mind in the bitterest hour of
the night, which comes before dawn, two lights appeared and another
hansom went by.

The man in the second cab was dressed the same as the first, he was
wetter than the first, for the sleet had fallen all night, but evening
dress is evening dress all the world over. The driver wore the same
oiled hat, the same waterproof cape as the other. And when the cab
had passed the darkness swirled back where the two small lamps had
been, and the slush poured into the wheel-tracks and nothing remained
but the speculations of the shepherd to tell that a hansom cab had
been in that part of China; presently even these ceased, and he was
back with the early legends again in contemplation of serener things.

And the storm and the cold and the darkness made one last effort, and
shook the bones of that shepherd, and rattled the teeth in the head
that mused on the flowery fables, and suddenly it was morning. You
saw the outlines of the sheep all of a sudden, the shepherd counted
them, no wolf had come, you could see them all quite clearly. And in
the pale light of the earliest morning the third hansom appeared, with
its lamps still burning, looking ridiculous in the daylight. They came
out of the East with the sleet and were all going due westwards, and
the occupant of the third cab also wore evening dress.

Calmly that Manchu shepherd, without curiosity, still less with
wonder, but as one who would see whatever life h