Mary Hayes Davis

“ We are not fond of them, nor they of us.'
"'You are like me and mine,' I told them. And we looked at each other and saw the same feathers and the same color. Then they asked me where my home was and I told them under a rock of the Wu-Toa Mountain. So they went with me, and my house and my food were pleasant to them. In some way—though we could not tell how—we knew in our hearts that we belonged to each other. And we were happy, happy." ”

“ You give no great thing to the people. You have no beauty. You are not tall and grand. Your head is not higher than the clouds. You can not see the dark and secret caves of the thunder, and the hidden places of the beginning of the storm. You never gave feathers, more beautiful even than flowers, to a king. Why do the people worship you instead of me? The hunter [166] comes to me and the farmer takes my stones, but they forget me, the giver. ”

“ The snipe flies in the air, the bivalve swims in his home, the sea, and each has happiness according to his kind.
"Now you see these two creatures fought together, the snipe and the bivalve, and they did not succeed by fighting. The hunter is the only one that succeeded.
"It is so with the three nations now at war. They are like the hunter, the snipe, and the bivalve. They ought to live in peace. They are lost when they fight among themselves." ”

“ Your nature is not kind. The children can not play in your lap. In the summer time when the people come for the fruit and grain harvest, you give them nothing; and they can not come to you to choose the San-Da. It hurts their feet to walk among your rocks and stones. No one can visit you. You do not welcome them. How can they worship you?
"I am lower and of a gentler nature. The birds come to me to make their nests, and people always gather about me in the summer time. My heart is open and every one knows me well and loves me." ”

“ I am the lion. It is you that should go away, for I have come to drink. This is my wilderness, and I am king. Do you know, weak things, that when I come out from my place and send forth my voice, all the creatures of the wilderness shake like leaves and bow their heads to me? What are you that you should have a place you call your home and tell me that I may or I may not?’
“Then the mosquitoes answered, ‘You are only one. You speak as if you were many. Our people had this old well for a home before your roar was heard in the wilderness. And many generations of us have been born here. ”

“ The Mön-Tien-Sing's face was distorted with anger, and in great wrath she said to the Fa-Nien-Ts'ing, "If I were the Creator, I would not allow you to live. A year and a year passes by and you do not grow. You eat much food and you have more earth than I, and still you do not grow. I never heard that you did any good thing since you were born, and it is said you have lived here five hundred years. Your branches are crooked and your bark is rough.
"You are not even good to look upon. Do you think the children of men care for you? No, for you have neither flowers nor fruit. ”

“ To-day you come again; and to-morrow and many to-morrows will see generations and still more unhatched generations of chickens coming here to scold me, I fear; for the length of life of a cackling hen is as a day to me—a mountain turtle. I know the heaven is large, I know the earth is large and made for all creatures alike. But you think the heavens and the earth were both made for you and your chickens only. ”

“ We heard the earth king’s cry, and that night the mother of clouds said to us, ‘My children, you must go down to earth and help its people or they will perish.’ So we called all our brothers and sisters to go at the same time, and we went to earth and saved a million and a million lives. ”

“ We know that your elephant can not read the heart and mind of man. What kind of food do you give him and what do you teach him? Man himself lives only from sixty to one hundred years and he knows little. How could an elephant read the heart of man, a thing which man, himself, can not do? Did the spirit of a dead man grow wise and enter that elephant? ”

“ I know I am not large, and the birds do not build their nests with me. I can not grow so fast as you, but my children are known to the whole great world of mankind, and are called the sweetest of all flowers.
"And besides, I am independent. I do not lean upon other things. If your house or your fence falls down, where then will be your vain boastful head?
"I care not what you say of me, whether you think a rose is good or bad, strong or weak. I do not wish to lean on the fence or roof as you do. Some day, when the house and fence grow old, they will fall down, and what will you do then?" ”

“ So the mother went to many places daily and asked food for herself and child. For seven long years, every day in the cold rain or in the sunshine, this poor widow begged food and kept herself and child from starving.
She was a good woman and never complained even to the heavens, and in her heart she said many times, "No mother should be sorrowful when she has a good son. My boy is true without being taught. Many mothers have sons, but they are not as this one."
When Wong-Ziang was fourteen years old, he said to his mother, "Ah Ma, I will seek work and we will have food. ”

“ All mankind likes us and feeds us flowers. Do you think you are better than man?
“One day a bad boy tried to spoil our house, but his mother said, ‘You spoil many things, but you shall not trouble the bees. They work hard every day and make honey for us. If you kill one bee-mother, her children will all leave us and in winter we shall have no honey for our bread.’ And the boy obeyed. He might catch birds and goldfish, destroy flowers, do anything he wished, but he could not trouble us, because we are so useful. But you, slow creeper, are not good for anything.” ”

“ One favorite cousin, Woo-Lau-Chan, a very good woman who loved Woo-Liu-Mai like a sister, had a baby just the age of the one who had died, and when she heard the news, she thought much in her heart of her cousin's great sorrow. "How can my cousin find comfort in life any more?" she said in her mind. "She lost her husband when so young and now she has lost her only child. The first happiness lost—the second happiness lost. A widowed woman has nothing more to expect in life. Oh, I want to do something for her. Clothes, money, bracelets, jewelry, can not comfort her without her child." ”

“ He said, "I am a king—always a king. Do you know that? You bow your heads and think that pleases me. But what do I care? I should not care if there was never another chicken in the world but myself. I am king."
And he hopped up on a tree and sang some war songs. But suddenly an eagle who heard him, flew down and caught him in his talons and carried him away. And the chickens never saw their proud, quarrelsome king again.
Ee-Sze (Meaning) : No position in life is so high that it gives the right to be proud and quarrelsome. ”

“ We do our duty, we work all the day and twinkle in the dark night to make the skies more beautiful.—But that is all we can do," they added, as they smiled coldly at the sorrowful Moon.
Then the flowers smiled sweetly and said, "We do not know how we can help you. We live always in one place—in a garden near the most beautiful maiden in all the world. As she is kind to every one in trouble we will tell her about you. We love her very much and she loves us. Her name is Tseh-N'io." Still the Moon was sad. So one evening he went to see the beautiful maiden Tseh-N'io. ”

“ One day a fox said to a crab, "Crawling thing, did you ever run in all your life?"
"Yes," said the crab, "I run very often from the mud to the grass and back to the river."
"Oh, shame," said the fox, "that is no distance to run. How many feet and legs have you? I have only four. Why, if I had as many feet as you have, I would run at least six times as fast as you do. Did you know that you are really a very slow, stupid creature? Though I have only four feet I run ten times as far as you do. I never heard of any one with so many feet as you have, running so slowly." ”

“ Confucius answered, “Tsze-Lu, you have a wrong idea about your body. It is not the study, not the work in school, but your great anger that causes the trouble.
“I will help you to see this. You remember when you and Nou-Wui quarreled. He was at peace and happy again in a little time, but you were very long in overcoming your anger. You can not expect to live long if you do that way. Every time one of the pupils says a thing you do not like, you are greatly enraged. There are a thousand in this school. If each offends you only once, you will have a fit of temper a thousand times this year. ”

“ We must bring more and more flowers into the world, for there are not enough even yet.
“But we that live under your shade are not happy. You take away the sun so that he never shines on us, and when the rain comes, not a drop can reach our throats. The breeze comes, but never into our house—no fresh air, no sunshine, no rain, until we fear that we shall die. ”

“ And to-morrow, I shall forget that I drank to-day.'
"'Boastful one,' said the mosquitoes, "we do not believe that you have the power to destroy all our people. If you wish battle, we shall see. We know your name is great and that all animals bow their heads before you; but our people can kill you.'
"The lion jumped high in his rage and said, 'No other creature in the wilderness has dared to say these things to me—the king. Have I come to the vile well of the silly mosquitoes for wisdom?' And he held his head high, and gave the mighty roar of battle, and made ready to kill all the mosquitoes. ”

“ And Ko-Kio-Yong, the wise judge, laughed and said, "My elephant eats and drinks as other elephants do. I think he surely does not know a robber from an honest man, but this is a belief among our people. The honest man believes it and has no fear, because he has done no wrong. The thief believes it, and is filled with terror. Trial before the elephant is only confession through fear." ”

“ And, daughter, do you not know how many people are frozen and die by the wayside in the cold winter? The New Year brings them two or three days of happiness, then all the rest of the year they are hungry and sad. ”

“ Our Master never sends our people to work as he does the horses and oxen. He sends us food and allows us to play a year and a year the same, because he likes us best.
“You see the horses and oxen are always at work. Some pull wagons, others plow land for rice; and they must work—sick or well.
“Our people never work. Every day at happy time we play; and do you see how fat we are?
“You never see our bones. Look at the old horses and the old oxen. Twenty years’ work and no rest!
“I tell you the Master does not honor the horses and oxen as he does the pigs. ”

“ Contemplative, gentle, and metaphysical in their habit of thought, the Chinese have reflected profoundly and worked out many riddles of the universe in ways peculiarly their own. Realization of the value and need to us of a more definite knowledge of the mental processes of our Oriental brothers, increases wonderfully as one begins to comprehend the richness, depth, and beauty of their thought, ripened as it is by the hidden processes of evolution throughout the ages. ”

“ You have done wrong."
"Why, teacher, I told you that I wanted to be a fish," said Tsing-Ching. "I do not want books or exercises. I am going to be a fish and I will not go to school. Mother said you teach everything; now teach me to be a fish."
His teacher said, "How foolish you are, Tsing-Ching; you are a boy, a man. You can learn many things better than to be a fish. Come with me now."
That night when Tsing-Ching was walking with his mother and nurse out by the water, he saw the summer moon shining in the lake. ”

“ And the fence likes me, because I cover it so thickly that I protect it from the children and the pigs. The birds build their nests high in my arms and they like me also. The bugs like me, because I give them a home and they feed upon my leaves. So the master knows that I am good for many things.
“The birds would not go to you, because you are so small; they can not build a nest upon you. The master’s wife does not care much for you, because you have so many thorns that she finds it hard to gather your flowers. You are pretty, but who cares about that? The fence is high and no one sees you. ”

“ Now will you be a better boy?” And he promised. Then she ran to her sister’s home to see if she was dead.
Kong-Hwa stayed outside trembling with fear, while his aunt went in. She soon saw that her sister was not dead and told of the promise of Kong-Hwa.
“Did my boy think I was dead?” asked his mother. “Well, keep him at your house for two or three days and send him to school. Let him think, and think, and he may be a better boy.”
Kong-Hwa’s aunt told him that if he learned his lessons and obeyed his teacher, it might be the gods would allow his mother to stay with him after all. ”

“ But the dog pulled his clothes and growled so fiercely that the boys scattered and ran home.
One of the boys, Ah-Gum, told his mother what had happened, and how angry they all were at the dog, who needed a beating, as they thought. "When Yiong-Yueng has visitors, Hsi-Long kneels and bows and does all his tricks for him; why would he not do them for us, Ah-Ma? How can we make him do the tricks for us?"
"Well, my son," said his mother, "you wanted the dog to do many things for you. Have you ever done anything for the dog? You are a stranger to him. ”