enabled him to take
advantage of any trade-opening that presented itself, and as he had a
genial and happy disposition, everyone who had had any business
relations with him was glad to do all in his power to give him a lift
in the upward road along which he had made up his mind to travel. The
result was that before many years had passed away he had established
himself in a very lucrative line of business which brought a steady
flow of wealth into his coffers.

In time he opened branches in distant cities, and his fame reached the
far-off provinces in the East, where the merchant-princes who had
dealings with him counted him as one of the most trustworthy of their
clients, to whom they were glad to give as much credit as he might
desire.

There was one delightful feature about Meng, and that was the intense
sympathy he had for his fellow-creatures. He had a heart of gold that
no prosperity could spoil; no one who ever applied to him for relief
was sent away empty-handed. The struggling shopkeeper made his humble
appeal when fate seemed determined to crush him, and the substantial
loan that Meng made to him without hesitation kept him from closing his
shutters and once more set him on his feet to commence the struggle
again. The widow who had been left in absolute poverty had but to
state her case, when with a countenance beaming with compassion and
with eyes moist at her piteous story, Meng would make such arrangements
for her and her children that the terror of starvation was lifted from
her heart, and she left his presence with a smiling face and with
heart-felt words of praise for the man who by his generosity had given
her a new glimpse of life.

The character of Meng's mind may well be discovered from the manner in
which he distributed a considerable portion of his riches amongst those
who had been born under an unlucky star, and upon whom an unhappy fate
had pressed heavily in the distribution of this world's goods and
favours.

The generous men in China are not the rich. It is true that
occasionally one does hear of a munificent donation having been made by
some millionaire, but the public is never deceived by these unusual
outbursts of generosity. There is a selfish motive at the back of
nearly every one of them, for the hope of the donors is that by gaining
the favour of the mandarins they may obtain some high official position
which will enable them to recoup themselves most handsomely for any
sums