Wang the Ninth

the acerbities of a life so close to Nature that the people seemed to lie on our great universal mother's very bosom-this child understood in a fl

g and starving-breaking down and dying before the obstacles of life. This little world of elementary beings, living on the

in which foreigners had stood suddenly disappear

m from force of habit. Were there many of them in the city-how did they live-why had

at they came from over the seas in vessels driven by steam, fire-wheel vessels they were called in the vernacular. He learnt the expression without knowing what i

mber of passers-by commended him for his talent. The huge man with the yellow beard had come on one such as these, he thought to himself; these ships travelled hundreds of thousands of li, the pedlar had said. They often co

or him to get closer to these men and their many inventions. He would like to see their cannon exploding in wrath, and destroying every one so that the waters were filled with struggling beings as in the pedlar's print; it would be a spectacle worthy of being looked upon. Then, presently, he would t

at capital frightened him and he ran back home. His father cursed him for playing truant in this way, saying ruefull

merely instilled in him greater caution and redoub

s good fortune, and many urchins imitated him. The foreigners were only irritated by these unaccustomed attentions and instead of giving money shook their whips at the pack at their heels and rode quickly away. Evidently

m. He stole empty tins from men who were careless, and with the aid of his father's tools made numerous holes so that his prey could be put inside and fed and properly exhibited. Soon he had a regular menagerie, properly housed. Then on the weekly ho

e carts approached he dashed up, exhibiting what he had and offering his captives for sale. Something in his eagerness and in his strange wares eviden

It was not wonderful as a sum of money. Still it was something. The s