fied footsteps to converse with outcasts so
illiterate as ourselves?"

"The reason," admitted Lao Ting frankly, "need not be buried in a
well. Had I avoided the encounter you might have said among
yourselves: 'Here is one who shuns our gaze. This, perchance, is he
who of late has lurked within the shadow of our backs to bear away our
labour.' Not to create this unworthy suspicion I freely came among
you, for, as the Ancient Wisdom says: 'Do not adjust your sandals
while passing through a melon-field, nor yet arrange your hat beneath
an orange-tree.'"

"Yet," said the leader of the band, "we were waiting thus in
expectation of the one whom you describe. The incredible leper who
rules our goings has, even at this hour and notwithstanding that now
is the appointed day and time for the gathering together of the
Harmonious Constellation of Paste Appliers and Long Brush Wielders,
thrust within our hands a double task."

"May bats defile his Ancestral Tablets and goats propagate within his
neglected tomb!" chanted the band in unison. "May the sinews of his
hams snap suddenly in moments of achievement! May the principles of
his warmth and cold never be properly adjusted but--"

"Thus positioned," continued the leader, indicating by a gesture that
while he agreed with these sentiments the moment was not opportune for
their full recital, "we await. If he who lurks in our past draws near
he will doubtless accept from our hands that which he will assuredly
possess behind our backs. Thus mutual help will lighten the toil of
all."

"The one whom you require dwells beneath my scanty roof," said the
youth. "He is now, however, absent on a secret mission. Entrust to me
the burden of your harassment and I will answer, by the sanctity of
the Four-eyed Image, that it shall reach his speedy hand."

When Lao Ting gained his own room, bowed down but rejoicing beneath
the weight of his unexpected fortune, his eyes were gladdened by the
soft light that hung about his books. Although it was not yet dark,
the radiance of the glow seemed greater than before. Going to the spot
the delighted student saw that in place of one there were now four,
the grateful insect having meanwhile summoned others to his cause. All
these stood in an expectant attitude awaiting his control, so that
through the night he plied an untiring brush and leapt onward in the
garden of similitudes.

From this time forward Lao Ting could not fail to be aware that the
f