i 
 
 
THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 CERF LIBRARY 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 REBECCA CERF '02 
 
 IN THE NAMES OF 
 
 CHARLOTTE CERF '95 
 
 MARCEL E. CERF '97 
 
 BARRY CERF '02 
 
THE MISERIES OF 
 
 FO H I 
 
 A CELESTIAL FUNCTIONARY. 
 
 TRANSLATED FHOM THE FRENCH OF 
 
 FRANCISQUE SARCEY, 
 
 BY H. R. H. 
 
 CHICAGO : 
 
 JANSEN, McCLURG & COMPANY. 
 1883. 
 
COPYRIGHT 
 
 BY JAN3EN, McCLURG & CO. 
 A. D. 1883. 
 
 Stereotyped and Printed 
 
 by the 
 Chicago Legal Mews Co. 
 
/ f?3 
 PREFACE. 
 
 This story comes straight from China 
 
 like the vases and images with which we 
 
 * 
 
 decorate our mantels. The manuscript 
 was found by a brave French officer in the 
 sack of an imperial palace, and was brought 
 home in his valise as one of the curiosities 
 of that remarkable country. The officer 
 sent it to a number of gentlemen, learned 
 in Chinese, all of whom translated it at 
 sight with the greatest ease. It is true that 
 no two of them made it read alike; but 
 that matters little. These slight differences 
 are of frequent occurrence among the pro- 
 found scholars who have studied Chinese 
 in our colleges. From these various ver- 
 sions I have chosen the one which seemed 
 to me the most diverting, and now give it 
 to the public. 
 
 3 
 
 M566951 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER. PAGE. 
 
 I. In Which it is Decided that Fo Hi's Son Shall 
 
 be a Mandarin 7 
 
 II. Young Fo Hi Enters College ... 14 
 
 III. An Edifying Conversation . . . .19 
 
 IV. Ycung Fp Hi Graduates with all the Honors 25 
 V. The King of the Future in a Quandary . . 29 
 
 VI. In Which Young Fo Hi Enters upon Public Life 44 
 
 VII. Fo Hi Starts out Splendidly . . . .52 
 
 VIII. A Frightful Catastrophe .... 62 
 
 IX. The Tide Turns . . . . * 7 1 
 
 X. The Story of the Shabby Old Man . . 89 
 
 XL Some Good Resolutions ..... 99 
 
 XII. How Fo Hi Kept his Position . . . 103 
 
 XIII. A Famous Lawsuit . . . . . . 115 
 
 XIV. The Oath of Allegiance . . . . 119 
 XV. The Same Subject Continued . . . .13$ 
 
 XVI. Fo Hi Vents his Spleen on the Grocer's Boy 141 
 
 XVII. A Family Reunion ... . 153 
 
 (5) 
 
6 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER. PAGE. 
 
 XVIII. In Which Old Li-jou-lin Turns up Again . 164 
 
 XIX. In Which a New Character Appears on the 
 
 Scene 178 
 
 XX. FoHi Finds Himself Bad Company . .188 
 
 XXI. What Fo Hi Thinks of the News . . 200 
 
 XXII. The Happy Le-hi-to 206 
 
 XXIII. Shall I Then Get Married? . . . 215 
 
 XXIV. In Which Fo Hi Meets with a New Adventure 236 
 XXV. In Which Fo Hi is Not Executed . . 246 
 
 Epilogue and Decalogue . . . .251 
 
THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 IN WHICH IT IS DECIDED THAT FO Hi's SON 
 SHALL BE A MANDARIN. 
 
 "WAHTEVER will become of us with a third 
 daughter on our hands ? " said Mrs. Fo Hi, 
 abruptly, to her husband. 
 
 "A daughter ! " answered Mr. Fo Hi, with 
 becoming dignity, " you don't know what you 
 are talking about, my good woman. Why 
 should it be a girl rather than a boy ? " 
 
 " Because " 
 
 "Because what?" 
 
 " Because I am sure of it." 
 
 "That is the way women reason in China, 
 (7) 
 
8 THE MISERIES OF FO ///, 
 
 is it ? Well, for my part, dearest soul of 
 my eyes, I don't pretend to be certain that 
 it won't be so. The wise man is never 
 certain of anything. But I think it will be 
 a boy." 
 
 "And why do you think so ? " 
 
 " I think so for the simple reason that I 
 do think so." 
 
 "What a difference there is, to be sure! 
 But may the Great Changhti hear you, my 
 dear. A boy would be just the thing for 
 us. We are both young yet, but twenty 
 years from now we shall begin to grow old, 
 and it will soon be time for us to step aside. 
 We can then give up the business, and our 
 son will succeed us just as you succeeded 
 your father." 
 
 " What ! My son a tradesman ! My son 
 sell rice, and pepper, and spices ! A de- 
 scendant of Fo Hi! Are you dreaming, 
 Madame ? " 
 
FO EPS SON A MANDARIN. 9 
 
 " Well, and why not ? Haven't we been 
 selling rice and spices all our lives? And 
 aren't we still selling them ? We are mak- 
 ing a good living, and every year are laying 
 up a few taels for our girls. We receive all 
 the attention in the neighborhood which 
 is usually shown to people who pay their 
 bills promptly. Everybody bows to me in the 
 street, and our acquaintances are all respect- 
 able people, like ourselves, who call in for a 
 quiet evening over a cup of tea or a glass 
 of rice wine. We have no quarrels with 
 anybody, and are perfectly independent, so 
 that when the day's accounts are made up 
 and our girls are in bed, we have nothing 
 to do but to go soundly to sleep. What 
 more do you want for your son, I should 
 like to know? 1 ' 
 
 " I want my son to be something in the 
 world." 
 
io THE MISERIES OF FO HL 
 
 "We are nothing', then, I suppose. Is that 
 what you mean ? " 
 
 "That's just it, Mrs. Fo Hi; we are noth- 
 ing, and it makes me mad to think of it. 
 Every week the Governor gives his recep- 
 tion, but have we ever been invited ? 
 Haven't you as fine a face and as pretty a 
 complexion and as small feet as the women 
 whom he does invite ? When the Emperor, 
 Son of Heaven, passes through the town, 
 will we be admitted to his presence to gaze 
 upon his august countenance ? Do we ever 
 have a reserved seat at the public cere- 
 monies? You know how handsome that cap 
 of yellow silk is, and how much it cost me. 
 Well, have I the privilege of putting a coral 
 button on it, even as small as a nut ? And 
 how, I should like to know, is one to live 
 without a button on his cap ? I am deter- 
 mined that my son shall have one on his 
 cap, at any rate. The Governor shall receive 
 
FO HPS SON A MANDARIN. n 
 
 him, and what is better, he shall himself be 
 a Governor. Just think of that, Mrs. Fo Hi ! 
 Our son a Governor, and talking with Min- 
 isters just as I am talking with you! How 
 much better that will be than weighing out 
 pepper and spices ! " 
 
 And Mr. Fo Hi pulled his silk night-cap 
 proudly down over his ears. But Mrs. Fo 
 Hi shook her head and said: 
 
 " People who can sell pepper can get along 
 without Ministers. I would rather be a minis- 
 ter in my own house than dance attendance 
 upon other people." 
 
 "How silly all that kind of talk is! I 
 tell you my son shall be a Minister, and 
 people shall dance attendance upon him." 
 
 Mrs. Fo Hi sighed but said nothing, for 
 she was a Chinese woman of excellent sense. 
 And it was not long before the prosperous 
 couple fell asleep under their orange- colored 
 coverlids worked with numerous birds of 
 
12 THE MISERIES OF FO HL 
 
 paradise. But their dreams on that memo- 
 rable night were very different. Mrs. Fo Hi 
 dreamed that some good genius had taken 
 her up on a high mountain, which turned 
 cut to be a mountain of first-class pepper. 
 There she was, selling the pepper to her 
 customers, and all the time sneezing tremen- 
 dously. But Mr. Fo Hi, meanwhile, saw 
 distinctly a bird of paradise with a splendid 
 yellow cap on his head, around which 
 sparkled thousands of buttons brighter than 
 the sun. The bird flapped his wings and 
 rose high up in the air, where he sat down 
 on a Mandarin's chair and crossed his legs 
 in a very dignified manner. Then with a 
 friendly wave of his wmg he asked Mr. Fo 
 Hi to take the place at his side. But just 
 as that gentleman was rising to his feet in a 
 state of unutterable delight he was awakened 
 by a vigorous sneeze from his wife. 
 
 " God bless you, my dear," he said to her, 
 
FO HI'S SON A MANDARIN. 13 
 
 V 
 
 cheerfully; " dreams don't deceive. My son 
 will certainly be a Minister." 
 
 " That's just the reason why he will have 
 to be a tradesman," replied the good lady. 
 
 And thereupon the dispute broke out again 
 with new vigor. 
 
 Ah ! marriage is a fine institution. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 YOUNG FO HI ENTERS COLLEGE. 
 
 AT last the happiness of Mr. and Mrs. Fo 
 Hi was crowned by the birth of the boy whom 
 they expected. When he had reached the age 
 of ten years, the first degree of life according 
 to Celestial ideas, his father determined to 
 take him to the Forest of Pencils. This is 
 the name which the Chinese in their poet- 
 ical language give to their colleges. Mrs. 
 Fo Hi immediately reported this resolution 
 to a certain bonze* to whom she was in 
 the habit of confiding her husband's business 
 as well as her own. This worthy gentleman 
 without a moment's delay rushed over to Fo 
 Hi's mansion in a state of great excitement 
 and said: 
 
 *A Buddhist priest. 
 
 (14) 
 
YOUNG FO HI ENTERS COLLEGE. 15 
 
 " May Tao pour out his blessings upon 
 you! You are very imprudent Your son is 
 lost if you take him to that Forest of Pen- 
 cils. Under the pretext of teaching him 
 Sanskrit and Prakrit they will corrupt his 
 young mind and fill it with poison. The 
 books which they will put into his hands 
 were written two thousand years ago. They 
 do not, therefore, tell of the true God, for 
 he had not then come into existence. They 
 are made up of abominable poems which 
 celebrate the Metamorphoses of Vishnu and 
 the superstitions of an idolatrous religion. 
 And for examples of piety they exalt those 
 absurd Fakirs who go about stark naked. " 
 
 "Oh, my ! stark naked ! " exclaimed Mrs. 
 Fo Hi, blushing. 
 
 "Yes, stark naked/' replied the bonze, 
 "and they drive nails into their legs, and 
 throw themselves under the car of Jugger- 
 naut. You know very well how contagious 
 
1 6 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 such things are ! Now, put your son in my 
 care. We will teach him a very different 
 kind of Sanskrit, and to much better pur- 
 pose. We will educate him in the fear of 
 Tao and of his representatives upon earth. 
 We will make him a young man after our 
 own heart, who will never eat unclean food, 
 who will give, through us, large sums of 
 money in charity, and who will never put 
 nails into his legs." 
 
 But Mr. Fo Hi was unmoved by this elo- 
 quent appeal, for he said in reply: 
 
 " It isn't likely that any such ambition will 
 get the best of him. It may have been the 
 fashion two thousand years ago to drive nails 
 into one's legs, but it has been out of date 
 too long to be revived in these days, all the 
 books in the world to the contrary notwith- 
 standing. I am not acquainted with any of the 
 poets of whom you speak, but however beau- 
 tiful their verses may be they don't have any 
 
YOUNG FO HI ENTERS COLLEGE. 17 
 
 effect upon anybody. No, I am not worried 
 about anything of that . kind, and you cer- 
 tainly love your ease too well to give your- 
 self any anxiety about it. I should be very 
 willing to put my son under your instruc- 
 tion if I intended to devote him to the 
 service of Tao. But I want to make a man 
 of him and not a bonze, and therefore it is 
 much better that he should be taught by 
 men, and that he should learn from the very 
 first how to act among men. I don't care 
 how much it will cost me. I have the great 
 honor of bidding you good-day and God- 
 speed ! " 
 
 And thereupon he took his departure, and 
 left the bonze alone with Mrs. Fo Hi, to 
 whom the wily priest thus poured out his 
 heart : 
 
 u Alas ! alas ! such blindness makes me 
 tremble ! Unfortunate Chinese ! Unfortunate 
 
 China ! Ah ! my dear lady, it is for you to 
 2 
 
1 8 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 atone for the errors of your husband, and to 
 invoke God's blessing on your son, for he 
 will have need enough of it. Our religious 
 houses are very poor. His Majesty, Son of 
 Heaven, who expends so much money on 
 his colleges, allows us also a small subsidy 
 which goes to keep up our rival institutions. 
 But the sum is insufficient, and it is neces- 
 sary that the pious should come to our as- 
 sistance. We are living on the charity of 
 the public." 
 
 "Here!" said Mrs. Fo Hi, "take this 
 and pray for my poor son, but don't say 
 anything about it to my husband, for he 
 would scold." 
 
 " Don't be alarmed, my lady," said the 
 bonze, bowing himself out, " I am the hum- 
 ble servant of him who said : 4 Let not your 
 left hand know the money which your right 
 hand receives.' " 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 AN EDIFYING CONVERSATION. 
 
 ONE of Mr. Fo Hi's neighbors was a 
 learned old man, whose name was Li-jou-lin. 
 He was a philosopher, very wise and very 
 shrewd, who spent his life in seeking the 
 truth, and who, when he believed that he 
 had found it, uttered it cheerfully. He had 
 some very original ideas upon certain del- 
 icate matters, and in his books boldly 
 made fun of bigots and fools. He had in 
 this way made a great reputation, and also 
 a great many enemies. He was disliked by 
 those who took him in bad part, and the 
 people who caught his meaning were pretty 
 sure to take him so. 
 
 But little did he care for that. He de- 
 spised honors and appointments, and with 
 
 true philosophical contentment he was sat- 
 (19) 
 
20 THE MISERIES OF FO HL 
 
 isfied to dine upon a crust of bread soaked 
 in a glass of water. 
 
 To this singular genius Mr. Fo Hi went 
 and said : 
 
 " Neighbor, I have come to ask your ad- 
 vice. I have a son who is a very bright 
 boy, and in mind far in advance of his 
 age. His mother is urging me to send him 
 to college, where he can study Sanskrit 
 and all those other fine things which are 
 taught there. You are a scholar, and I want 
 you to tell me what you think of it ?" 
 
 "First answer me a single question," re- 
 plied Li-jou-lin. " How much are you 
 worth ? " 
 
 " Oh ! don't trouble yourself about that, 
 my friend ! We can stand it. Of course we 
 shall have to pinch a little. But Mrs. Fo 
 Hi will get along with one gown the less, 
 and I will discharge one of my clerks and 
 
AN EDIFYING CON VERSA TION. 2 1 
 
 do his work myself. There is a great deal 
 of work in me yet." 
 
 " I don't doubt it, but that is not what 
 I asked you. How much of a fortune can 
 you settle upon your son when he shall 
 have completed his studies ? " 
 
 "What! how much of a fortune!" 
 
 " Yes, certainly. Only those who teach 
 Sanskrit make a living out of it. I have 
 eaten the bread which it brings in, and, 
 I can tell you, I don't wish any one such 
 a life as that." 
 
 " But I have always been told that San- 
 skrit is the road to everything." 
 
 " Very true! but one takes a great risk 
 when he enters upon a road which leads in 
 every direction but which ends nowhere. 
 Sanskrit is the ornament of a great fortune. 
 It is not the means of gaining a fortune. 
 It is certainly very difficult to keep one's 
 rank in good society without some little 
 
22 THE MISERIES OF FO HL 
 
 knowledge of that ancient language and of 
 the subjects connected with it. But then it 
 is impossible to get into good society at all 
 without new gloves and polished boots. Are 
 you able to keep him in boots ? " 
 " But he will have a position ? " 
 " Yes, but the position which he will get 
 will no more than supply him with bread, 
 while it will make the boots a necessity. The 
 Emperor has too many people in his service 
 to pay them much. He gives them just 
 enough to save them from starvation, but at 
 the same time he requires them to be lodged 
 and dressed, whatever their rank in the ser- 
 vice may be, in a manner worthy of him 
 whom they represent. You understand arith- 
 metic, my good friend, for you are a mer- 
 chant. Now what would you say to an 
 investment which would cost you ten thou- 
 sand taels, and would yield you only five per 
 cent., besides demanding every moment of 
 
AN EDIFYING CONVERSATION. 23 
 
 your time ? Wouldn't you call it a losing 
 business ? Well, it is the very thing which 
 you are now thinking of. The education of 
 a young man consumes fourteen or fifteen 
 years, ten of which are passed in college, 
 and the remainder in the professional schools. 
 Calculate now how much you will have to 
 lay out every year, then add the compound 
 interest, and at the end of the time you will 
 have a very handsome capital invested in 
 your son's head. If, upon his coming of 
 a g e > y u were to give him that amount in 
 money, or in land, it would be the founda- 
 tion of a large fortune and an influential 
 position in the community. On the other 
 hand, you give it to him in Sanskrit, and 
 what is the result ? He gets a place which 
 confines him from morning till night, which 
 shuts out every hope of fortune and inde- 
 pendence, and the money-return of which 
 scarcely equals the interest on the sum 
 
24 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 invested. That is plain enough, isn't it ? " 
 "And yet," said Fo Hi, the grocer, rub- 
 bing his ear, "the Rector of the College 
 
 where I took my son yesterday " 
 
 " Oh ! you took your son to the College 
 yesterday, did you ? " 
 
 "Exactly! To be sure I did!" 
 "Just the thing, just the thing. I advise 
 you to leave him there." 
 
 "Well! I am delighted that you think so. 
 Folks are right when they call you a clever 
 man. Whenever you need any rice or sugar, 
 just come to our place, You shall have the 
 best at the lowest price." 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 YOUNG FO HI GRADUATES WITH ALL THE 
 HONORS. 
 
 I AM vexed with the hero of this story. 
 He was neither a dunce nor a genius. He 
 hovered between the two, rather nearer the 
 one than the other. But as he was indus- 
 trious and docile, he was a favorite with his 
 professors, who spoke of him as a distin- 
 guished pupil because there was nothing to 
 distinguish him from his comrades. In a 
 class of sixty students, forty are always dis- 
 tinguished. Young Fo Hi was one of the 
 forty. During the nine years which he 
 passed at the Forest of Pencils he learned 
 everything which is taught there; that is, 
 very little of anything. A few words of 
 
 Sanskrit and Prakrit formed the most con- 
 
 (25) 
 
26 777^ MISERIES OF FO 777. 
 
 spicuous of his attainments. His father took 
 him occasionally to call upon the old scholar 
 Li-jou-Iin, who took a great deal of pleasure 
 in drawing the little fellow into conversation. 
 
 " My boy will some day be something," 
 the father would say, proudly. 
 
 " It would be much better if he were to 
 be some one? the old philosopher would 
 mutter in reply. 
 
 He discovered by questioning him that this 
 future savant had no very keen taste for his 
 studies. To be sure, he felt no very decided 
 dislike for them, but when he was told to 
 translate from Sanskrit into Chinese, and 
 from Chinese into Sanskrit, he did it with 
 the same supreme indifference with which 
 his father's clerk would have changed a 
 customer's order from a bag of prunes to a 
 ton of rice. 
 
 " What an excellent grocer this young im- 
 
YOUNG FO HI GRADUATES. 27 
 
 becile would have made ! " thought Li-jou- 
 lin. "Another vocation missed ! " 
 
 At length the year came round in which 
 the son of Mr. Fo Hi was to pass his final 
 examination before the literary tribunal. His 
 professors put into his hands a great book 
 in which a friend of youth and of science 
 had collected and admirably arranged every- 
 thing which had been said, done, and known 
 by men, since man made his appearance 
 upon the earth. This wonderful work the 
 young man learned by heart from beginning 
 to end, for he had an excellent memory. 
 And in this way he was enabled to astonish 
 his examiners by the quickness and the . 
 accuracy of his answers. He therefore re- 
 ceived the verdant palm-leaf of which a 
 celebrated Chinese has said elegantly : 
 
 11 It grows on the threshold of the Forest 
 of Pencils, and allows itself to be plucked 
 by those alone who have learned the magic 
 
28 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 words. Armed with this talisman, they go 
 forth into life, and every door opens before 
 them. They are the Kings of the Future.*' 
 
 When it was all over young Fo Hi went 
 back to the paternal mansion with head 
 erect, as became a king of the future, and 
 told the news to his father. That worthy 
 gentleman wept with joy, and made a great 
 banquet to which he invited his relatives and 
 friends without forgetting old Li-jou-Jin. 
 Everybody drank the health of the young 
 king of the future and predicted a most 
 brilliant career for him. The future always 
 looks bright when we see it across a glass 
 of sparkling wine. 
 
 About midnight nobody but Li-jou-lin was 
 in a condition to know what he was talking 
 about, and even he had nothing to say. So 
 he slipped out smiling under his beard. At 
 last the king of the future had a bad attack 
 of indigestion, and thus ended one of the 
 happiest days of his life. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE KING OF THE FUTURE IN A QUANDARY. 
 
 " AND what do you advise me to do 
 now ? " asked the young graduate one day 
 of Li-jou-lin. "All the professions are open 
 to me. Which shall I choose ?" 
 
 " The grocery profession," answered the 
 philosopher. 
 
 " What ? I a grocer ? Oh ! come now !" 
 
 " Why, it's your father's profession, young 
 man." 
 
 M But my father doesn't know a word of 
 Sanskrit. What was the use of losing ten 
 years in studying it, if I am only to follow 
 in his footsteps ?" 
 
 " A great deal of use. It will enable you 
 to enjoy your fortune when you have made 
 
 it." 
 
 But the king of the future screwed up 
 (-'9) 
 
30 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 his lips contemptuously, and concluded that 
 the old man was talking nonsense. So he 
 took his departure, still undecided as to his 
 future course. But as he was going down 
 the street he met one of his classmates, who 
 carried him off to his room, which was very 
 pretty and hung all round with opium pipes. 
 The young man was a law student, and it 
 was his room and his pipes which decided 
 Fo Hi's profession. His mind was niade up, 
 and forthwith he went to his father and said : 
 "I would like to study law." At this Mrs. 
 Fo Hi chimed in, and declared that it would 
 require at least three years more of large 
 outlay, and that there was no certainty that, 
 even after these new studies, still greater 
 sacrifices would not be necessary. She 
 added, too, that her girls were now of 
 marriageable age, and they must think of 
 getting husbands for them. Now the two 
 sisters were listening to the conversation 
 
IN A QUANDARY. 31 
 
 through the key-hole. They were good girls, 
 although a trifle too curious. But then no 
 one is perfect, as the wise Confucius says. 
 When, therefore, they heard what their 
 mother said about them, they walked in 
 boldly and joined in the conversation, both pf 
 them declaring that they were in no hurry, 
 and that they would very cheerfully wait 
 to enable their brother to set out suitably 
 on the road to distinction. They said, be- 
 sides, that they wanted to be married, not 
 'for their dot, but for themselves alone, which 
 is one of the prejudices of young Chinese 
 women. Tears rained in showers that even- 
 ing in the family of the estimable Mr. Fo 
 Hi. But at last, after a great many kisses 
 and more tears, it was decided that the 
 king of the future should have an allowance 
 from his father. 
 
 Of course the young fellow made all sorts 
 of fine promises, and to his credit it must 
 
32 THE MISERIES OF FO ///. 
 
 
 be said that he kept them as well as he 
 
 could. He was not bad, and he was not 
 lazy. His mind was of that medium sort 
 which follows with perfect docility the path 
 marked out for it. He went on in a me- 
 chanical kind of way wherever the gale of 
 circumstances impelled him, looking neither 
 to the right nor to the left. There are 
 more minds of this sort in the world than 
 we think, for as one of the most celebrated 
 philosophers of China has very justly said : 
 
 " Man in general is neither an angel nor a 
 brute." 
 
 During these three years of legal study, 
 young Fo Hi did not therefore lose himself. 
 He only lost his father's money. He passed 
 all his examinations with honor, won all the 
 degrees, and at last received a handsome 
 diploma, signed by the Minister and counter- 
 signed by the Emperor, by which he was 
 authorized to wear a crystal button on his 
 
IN A QUANDARY. 33 
 
 cap. And on that auspicious day Fo Hi 
 the elder felt himself compensated for all 
 his sacrifices, and even Mrs. Fo Hi allowed 
 herself to be dazzled by the brilliancy of 
 that button. She forgot, poor woman, that 
 for three years she had risen at four o'clock 
 in the morning, and had done the work of 
 two servants. But the diploma was suitably 
 framed and hung up in the best room in 
 the house. And it must be said that it was 
 a great consolation to the two sisters to see 
 it hanging there, for with all their gener- 
 osity they had not escaped some wakeful 
 and anxious nights. 
 
 And now at last the great Tao took pity 
 on their humdrum lives, and sent them 
 both husbands. Pe-ka o sued for the eldest 
 He was a good fellow, finely formed, broad- 
 shouldered, and had a laugh which could 
 be heard at a great distance. He belonged 
 to the agricultural class, and owned a farm, 
 
34 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 which he cultivated himself. He was told 
 plainly that he must expect no dowry with 
 his bride, but he did not frown. He re- 
 plied immediately that a good housekeeper 
 was the best of treasures on a farm, and 
 that Miss Fo Hi was rich enough in beauty 
 and goodness to dispense with any other 
 dowry. The compliment was, to be sure, 
 neither very new nor very elegantly ex- 
 pressed, but it was sincere, and was given 
 in the frank and whole-hearted manner which 
 dispels all doubt. It was enough that it 
 was a compliment. So Miss Fo Hi smiled 
 sweetly and accepted him. 
 
 The younger daughter was scarcely a year 
 younger than her sister, and this approach- 
 ing wedding put some ideas into her head. 
 She went to her father and told him that 
 she was in love with Chi-kau go, and Chi- 
 kau-go she must many. 
 
 " Good gracious ! What !" exclaimed Mr. 
 
IN A QUANDARY. 35 
 
 Fo Hi in the greatest astonishment. " My 
 clerk ! But I can't throw my daughter at 
 his head. He will have to ask me for her 
 first." 
 
 " Oh ! he will never dare to do that. 
 You are so dignified, you know, papa !" 
 
 " But do you know whether he loves 
 you ? Has the rascal had the impudence to 
 tell you so?" 
 
 " He ! Why he doesn't even dare to look 
 at me." 
 
 " Well, well, I declare !" 
 The girl smiled, like her sister, only 
 much more mischievously. She sat down 
 on her father's knee and put her arms 
 around his neck, and then went on : 
 
 " You will take him into partnership, and we 
 will stay with you always. You will grow 
 old surrounded by your children and, Heaven 
 willing, your grandchildren, and we will all 
 be happy, for we shall all be together." 
 
36 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 "All right! Send him to me," said Mr. 
 Fo Hi, who already saw his grandchildren 
 climbing up his legs and shouting, " Grandpa ! 
 Grandpa ! " 
 
 Chi-kau-go made his appearance forthwith, 
 trembling like an aspen leaf, and with his 
 face as red as a peony. He was naturally 
 very timid, although he was nothing but a 
 rough workingman. But Mr. Fo Hi had 
 discovered that he was a man of good 
 common sense, and common sense is worth 
 much more in business than intellect. 
 
 Well, the whole thing was agreeably ar- 
 ranged, and the two weddings came off on 
 the same day. Doctor Fo Hi condescended 
 to honor the festivities with his crystal 
 button. He was, of course, a little ashamed 
 of the brothers in-law that his sisters had 
 brought him, but, upon reflection, he recol- 
 lected that he also was to blame for it, as 
 they had sacrificed their marriage portion 
 
IN A QUANDARY. 37 
 
 for him. He therefore promised himself that 
 some day he would take them from their 
 present low calling, and by his credit and 
 influence raise them to a position more 
 worthy of himself. He would be their 
 patron, and this flattering fancy reconciled 
 him to their present inferior condition. He 
 even composed four or five couplets in 
 honor of the two brides, which sounded 
 very pretty, but which we suppress lest the 
 reader should not get as much enjoyment 
 out of them as did Mr. Fo Hi. As for 
 Mrs. Fo Hi, she wept profusely when they 
 were sung, she wept again in the evening 
 when she had to give up her daughters to 
 their husbands, and she began to weep 
 again the next morning as soon as she 
 woke up. There is- something marvellous in 
 tears. They give relief to the greatest joys 
 as well as the greatest sorrows. 
 
 " Well, now, my boy," said Mr. Fo Hi, 
 
38 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 senior, to his son, clapping him vigorously 
 on the shoulder. "Your sisters are settled, 
 and now it is your turn. As the Govern- 
 ment has given you an education, it now 
 owes you a position. We will make an 
 application." 
 
 The grocer therefore became now a solic- 
 itor. The honeymoon of the two young 
 couples beamed gently on the long and 
 fruitless exertions of the worthy man, and 
 mitigated the annoyance which he suffered 
 in his failures. He went at first to the 
 Master of the Brazen Rod, who exercises 
 in China the same functions as the Minister 
 of Justice in France. For some months he 
 showered appeals and petitions upon this 
 official. These documents were of all possi- 
 ble kinds and styles. Some were polite and 
 dignified, some were alarmingly familiar, and 
 still others were pathetic and importunate. 
 Sometimes they appealed to the reason, and 
 
IN A QUANDARY. 39 
 
 sometimes to the heart of the dignitary. 
 They referred frequently to the services 
 which the family of Fo Hi, from generation 
 to generation, had rendered to the country 
 by selling pepper, and their unwavering 
 fidelity to the Emperor and his august con- 
 sort. Then the fine education and the per- 
 sonal merits of the candidate were exalted, 
 and especial emphasis was laid upon the 
 sums which his extensive preparation had 
 cost. At other times another vein was 
 struck, and the fate of the young man was 
 deplored, whose splendid powers could find 
 no employment, and whose only hope was 
 in the kindness of the Minister. 
 
 To all these petitions, which might have 
 moved the heart of a tiger, the Minister 
 sent no reply whatever. I have no doubt 
 that his mind was full of other business. 
 The grocer was not discouraged, however. 
 Among his customers, or rather his clients 
 
40 THE MISERIES OF FO HI k 
 
 as he called them, there were some very 
 influential people, and to these he went until 
 they were worn out. Some of them, to get 
 rid of him, endorsed his applications, which 
 were, however, no better received for that 
 Others promised to do something for him, 
 and then ordered the servants to shut the 
 door in his face if he should return. The 
 poor man, who, up to this time, had been 
 plump, fresh, and spry, and whose face had 
 beamed with health and happiness, became 
 now haggard and sallow. That bright and 
 blooming countenance grew sadly long and 
 bent downward to the grave. He neglected 
 his shop, and had fits of bad temper toward 
 his wife, and son, and everybody, but espe- 
 cially toward Ministers, of whom he spoke 
 with alarming freedom. For instance, he 
 said one day, in a confidential mood, to old 
 Li jou-lin: 
 
IN A QUANDARY. 41 
 
 " I'm sure I don't know what we pay 
 them so well for. They don't attend to 
 the business of the country, and meanwhile 
 my son is on the street with nothing to 
 do. That boy has cost me my very eyes, 
 and he is still costing me his weight in 
 money. He is endorsed by everybody, and 
 I have interested all the people whom I 
 know, as well as some whom I don't know. 
 A Mandarin of the first class, who took an 
 interest in him because he was at college 
 with his nephew, was to speak a good word 
 for him, but nothing ever came of it. The 
 Minister has made many fine promises, but 
 that is all very cheap. There is no sign of 
 any appointment yet. If I could get to the 
 Emperor I would tell him the whole story." 
 
 Now the old philosopher might have found 
 some malicious satisfaction in replying to 
 this tirade, " I told you so." But he was 
 a good-natured philosopher, and he knew 
 
42 THE MISERIES OF FO ///. 
 
 that it would not help matters any. So he 
 said quietly : 
 
 "What place would you like your son to 
 have ? " 
 
 " Oh, it doesn't matter what or where," 
 said Mr. Fo Hi. " Only let my boy get 
 a start, and he will make his way, I'll war- 
 rant." 
 
 " Very well. I will ask my old house- 
 keeper to use her influence for you." 
 
 At this the grocer opened his eyes wide 
 with surprise, and thought that Li-jou-lin 
 was making fun of him. But he was mis- 
 taken. The old man was in earnest. So 
 the housekeeper was called, and the whole 
 business was related to her. After she had 
 heard it she said, modestly, as she retired : 
 
 " I will try what I can do." 
 
 Now this old woman had an intimate 
 friend, an old rag-picker, whose son was a 
 soldier of the Imperial Guard. This valiant 
 
IN A QUANDARY. 43 
 
 young man was the lover of a cousin of 
 the lady's-maid whose business it was every 
 morning to dress the hair of the Minister's 
 wife. And thus it came to pass that eight 
 days after this conversation, Mr. Fo Hi 
 junior received a very large letter bearing 
 the Imperial seal. With trembling hands he 
 tore it open, and when he had hastily read 
 it through, he shouted : 
 
 " I have a place ! )J * 
 
 " He has a place ! " echoed the delighted 
 father. 
 
 " He has a place ! He has a place ! " 
 shouted everybody in the house. And soon 
 the neighbors, men and women, joined in, 
 and a single shout rang through the shop 
 and far out into the street 
 
 " He has a place ! He has a place ! " 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 IN WHICH YOUNG FO HI ENTERS UPON PUBLIC 
 LIFE. 
 
 "AND what place is it ? " everybody asked, 
 after the first outburst of delight. 
 
 Well, it must be acknowledged that it was 
 not a very brilliant place. It was of course 
 not worthy of the superior abilities of the 
 young man ; but then a beginning has to be 
 made somewhere. 
 
 It is well known that the Chinese con- 
 struct their roads, as we do here, by laying 
 a bed of broken stone, which is pressed 
 down firm and hard with a huge roller. 
 The Chinese are the real inventors of the 
 Macadam pavement, as they are also of the 
 mariner's compass and of gunpowder. The 
 laborers are stationed at intervals along the 
 
 (44) 
 
PO HI ENTERS PUBLIC LIFE. 45 
 
 road, and it is their business to break the 
 large stones into fragments, which they then 
 collect in heaps along the wayside. Now 
 the shape and size of these heaps of stone 
 were regulated at a very early date by the 
 founder of the twenty-second dynasty,' upon 
 whom Heaven bestowed the spirit of wisdom. 
 Two or three thousand years later the in- 
 comparable Se-i-ho covered himself with glory 
 by ordaining the exact number of small 
 stones which these heaps should contain. 
 He fixed upon the number 3333, because 
 three is a sacred number, and by repeat- 
 ing it three times we get the number nine, 
 which is the number of the celestial spheres 
 and of the attributes of the Omnipotent. 
 This ordinance remained in force for seven 
 hundred and fifty years, until the reign of the 
 wise Fisch-ton-kan, whose fame is universal. 
 This great monarch published a decree, in 
 which, while doing justice to the wise and 
 
46 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 exalted views of his predecessor, he declared 
 that his enactment evidenced gross supersti- 
 tion, and was no longer in accordance with 
 Chinese ideas. He therefore struck a mean 
 between the blind partisans of routine on 
 the one hand, who wanted to retain the 
 sacred number, and the rash innovators, on 
 the other hand, who demanded that the num- 
 ber should be reduced to three thousand. 
 He fixed the legal tale of stones at 3300, 
 and flattered himself that this reform, so 
 desirable and so necessary, would be final. 
 But one hundred and fifty years later, a pupil 
 of Confucius, the immortal Ka-o-li, made 
 another change in the heaps of stone. He 
 ordered that the tale of each heap should 
 never exceed 3000, and declared that this 
 number alone could insure the happiness of 
 China. A few grumblers found fault with 
 this change, but a grateful nation with one 
 voice bestowed on Ka-o-li the title, which 
 
FO HI ENTERS PUBLIC LIFE. 47 
 
 he so richly deserved, Father of his Country. 
 
 I can only speak here from memory, of a 
 vast number of regulations, some of which 
 prescribed that the small stones should be 
 round, so as not to hurt the horses' feet, 
 and others that they should be sharp at the 
 end so that they might be pressed in more 
 closely by the roller. The reader may con- 
 sult for himself, in the Archives of the Em- 
 pire, this great collection of decrees, which 
 fills no less than eighteen volumes, and which 
 remains as one of the most splendid monu- 
 ments of Chinese wisdom. 
 
 We see, then, that the construction of 
 Chinese roads must employ an army of 
 laborers and officials. There is, first of all, 
 the stone-breaker, who occupies the lowest 
 rank in this scale of preferment, who is re- 
 garded as a mere laborer, and who is despised 
 accordingly. Then comes the Master-Sur- 
 veyor, who arranges the heaps of stone in 
 
48 THE MISERIES OF FO III. 
 
 the desired shape; then the Controller, who 
 examines and counts them ; then the Auditor, 
 who recounts them; then the Inspector, who 
 supervises these different officers ; and last of 
 all the Director-in-chief, whose business is to 
 direct the whole department, in accordance 
 with his instructions from the Minister, to 
 whom they are communicated directly by 
 the Emperor. The heaps of stone are the 
 ornament and the pride of China, but she 
 pays dearly for them, as Panurge says in a 
 pious book written by a famous bonze. The 
 stone-breaker works all day, and barely earns 
 his living. The Master-Surveyor does a little 
 less, and is paid a little more, and so on, 
 up to the Director-in- Chief, who is paid a 
 very large salary for doing nothing but fold 
 his arms. 
 
 Good situations like these are very much 
 sought after, as we may well suppose, and 
 although the Emperor has again and again 
 
FO HI ENTERS PUBLIC LIFE. 49 
 
 increased the number of them, his subjects 
 are not yet satisfied. There are almost as 
 many Master- Surveyors in China as there are 
 heaps of stone, but the applicants for ap- 
 pointment are more numerous than the stars 
 of heaven. The government, therefore, being 
 desirous of doing something for them, has 
 created the position of Supernumerary. The 
 Supernumeraries are the people who are told : 
 " Be patient. The first vacant position shall 
 be yours. Just wait." And while waiting 
 they play with the buckles on their robes. 
 But as even this was insufficient to meet the 
 demands of the case, another position still 
 has been provided, that of Supernumerary- 
 Expectant. 
 
 The young and incomparable Fo Hi was 
 accordingly nominated as " Supernumerary- 
 Expectant Master-Surveyor of Stone Heaps/' 
 at the small town of Pi-ho. The whole 
 
 family immediately looked up the place on 
 4 
 
50 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 the map, and found that it was at the other 
 end of the Empire. Mrs. Fo Hi sighed as 
 she thought that she might never see her 
 son again. But the young man was trans- 
 ported with delight -at the prospect of seeing 
 the country. 
 
 By special favor, a few days before his 
 departure he had an audience with the Minis- 
 ter of Public Works. He was exceedingly 
 nervous as he entered the door, for he ex- 
 pected that the dignitary would receive him 
 coldly and haughtily. But he was greatly 
 mistaken. He found the Minister a plain, 
 easy, refined man, who received him with 
 as much kindness as dignity. He -talked 
 pleasantly with him for five minutes, gave 
 him some good advice, and concluded by 
 telling him that a bright future was opening 
 before him, and that with the education 
 which he had received he could not fail to 
 make rapid advancement in his profession. 
 
FO HI ENTERS PUBLIC LIFE. 51 
 
 The young man did not understand very 
 clearly of what use Sanskrit could be to 
 him in the work of surveying stones. But 
 he went away no less delighted with his 
 interview, and ordered immediately a superb 
 blue suit of clothes, embroidered with silver. 
 This was the uniform of his office. Mr. 
 Fo Hi, senior, had to pay for the suit, of 
 course. He also paid the travelling expenses 
 and such other sums as were necessary to 
 launch the young man upon his career be- 
 comingly. He did it all gladly, for he be- 
 lieved the time was not distant when he 
 would be richly rewarded for his many 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 FO HI STARTS OUT SPLENDIDLY. 
 
 THAT day of recompense came far more 
 quickly than any one could have expected. 
 Young Fo Hi was in luck. An obliging 
 attack of cholera took out of his path in a 
 few weeks two Supernumeraries-Expectant, 
 three Supernumeraries, and better still, a 
 full-blown official, who died, like any ordi- 
 nary mortal, of the colic. One hundred and 
 seventeen candidates for the position which 
 he had held sent in their applications, but 
 of that number only four or five were really 
 eligible. The Minister was eagerly solicited 
 in behalf of two of the rival applicants, by 
 two personages of equal importance, and 
 both of whom he feared to offend. There- 
 fore, that neither of them might feel slighted, 
 (52) 
 
FO HI STARTS OUT SPLENDID L Y. 53 
 
 he set aside both applicants, and chose a 
 third, at random, for the position. The 
 party whose good luck was born of this 
 accident was no other than our hero Fo Hi, 
 who was thereupon persuaded that in China 
 merit weighs vastly more than official favor. 
 He entered upon his new labors on the first 
 of April, 7961. He was young and enthu- 
 siastic, and ambitious to rise, and therefore ' 
 displayed remarkable zeal in the discharge 
 of his duties. He was always at his post 
 before the hour fixed by the rules, urging 
 on his laborers, counting his tale of stones, 
 and arranging his heap with a care and pre- 
 cision which the citizens of Pi-ho still re- 
 member with admiration. He passed his 
 evenings in preparing the daily reports which 
 every Surveyor had to make of. the day's 
 proceedings. These he handed to the Con- 
 troller, who sent them, without reading them, 
 to the Auditor, who in turn passed them 
 
54 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 on to the Inspector, who turned them over 
 to the Director-in-Chief, who forwarded them 
 to the Minister, who carefully deposited them 
 in a box, where scholars may still find them 
 in the thirty-eighth alcove of the Archives, 
 column No. 117, under title No. 1,285,000. 
 Mr. Fo Hi, junior, was very much sur- 
 prised that no one had ever complimented 
 him on these reports, into which he put his 
 whole soul, and which he embellished with 
 some telling Sanskrit citations. But he kept 
 on writing them in the same style, and con- 
 tinued to exert himself so earnestly to do 
 his work well, that he began to get the ill- 
 will of his comrades. The more sensible 
 of them excused him on the ground that 
 it was the enthusiasm of youth which would 
 soon pass off. But the majority of them 
 regarded him privately as an intriguer, who 
 was trying to distinguish himself to the in- 
 jury of his comrades by his new and dan- 
 
FO HI STARTS OUT SPLENDIDL K 55 
 
 gerous zeal in the service. They treated 
 him with cold reserve, and looked at him 
 askance with flashing eyes. But he consoled 
 himself with the thought that he had the 
 approval of his own conscience, and the 
 good opinion of his superiors. 
 
 When he had time, he wrote a long letter 
 to his father, in which he related all that 
 he had done and was doing. And when 
 this inspiring epistle was read to the family 
 it gave them all the liveliest pleasure. But 
 old Li-jou-lin did not share in the general 
 satisfaction. He shook his head slowly and 
 wisely, and said : 
 
 " That doesn't please me at all. It isn't 
 good for a young man to show himself too 
 capable in a subordinate position. People 
 will be too willing to let him stay there. 
 The wise Confucius was in the habit of say- 
 ing: 'No zeal! No zeal!'" 
 
 " No zeal ! " exclaimed Mr. Fo Hi, senior. 
 
56 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 "I .should like to see one of my clerks 
 shirking his work. I tell you he would very 
 quickly get his discharge," and grasping the 
 hand of his son-in-law, who was standing 
 by, he added : " You see here before you 
 an example of what a man gets by putting 
 his heart into his work." 
 
 " But you are not the Government," said 
 the old man, " and the Empire is not a 
 grocery-store. You have as many men in 
 your employ as you actually need, not one 
 more. You require them to do your work 
 for you, and you pay them in proportion 
 to their diligence." 
 
 "Yes, that's true. And the better they do 
 their work, the more I pay them." 
 
 "And you are perfectly right. The Gov- 
 ernment, however, does just the contrary, 
 and it is right, too. Just think of the con- 
 fusion which your son must introduce into 
 the machinery of the administration, with his 
 
FO HI STARTS OUT SPLENDIDL Y. 57 
 
 fine enthusiasm. At one stroke he makes 
 all his superior officers useless and unneces- 
 sary. For of what use is a Controller who 
 has nothing to control, or an Auditor who 
 has nothing to audit ? Do you suppose that 
 these gentlemen will, with their eyes open, 
 allow your young man to teach the public 
 that it can get along without them ? You 
 can make up your mind that they don't 
 like his performances any better than his 
 comrades. He is a young upstart, breaking 
 the peace of the City of God. Is there any- 
 thing finer or more marvellously ordered 
 than a Government in which each one gives 
 up a part of his work to his neighbor in a 
 spirit of broad public charity ? The Surveyor 
 does not survey accurately out of regard for 
 the feelings of the Controller, who in his 
 turn is a little lax in his duties out of re- 
 spect for the Auditor, who again permits him- 
 self a little carelessness in his work out of 
 
53 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 politeness to \he Inspector, who takes good 
 
 
 care not to supervise anything, lest he should 
 
 take the wind out of the Director-in-Chief 's 
 rails. And this dignitary, for his part, is 
 both blind and deaf to everything out of 
 thoughtfulness for the Minister. Thus you 
 have a courteous interchange of kind offices 
 all the way up, which is calculated to pro- 
 mote the harmony of the Empire. In this 
 way the work gets done leisurely, and, so 
 to speak, of itself, in the natural course of 
 things, without disagreeable haste or dan- 
 gerous enthusiasm." 
 
 " Oh ! " exclaimed the grocer. " You think 
 the work will get done of itself, do you ?" 
 
 " Well, it will not get overdone, at any 
 rate ! " 
 
 " Why, how is that ? " asked Fo Hi's son- 
 in-law, who seemed very much puzzled at 
 the philosopher's reasoning. 
 
 "Bless me!" replied Li-jou-lin. "It's 
 
FO HI STARTS OUT SPLENDIDLY. 59 
 
 plain enough. If the work isn't done, what 
 is there for the Emperor to do, to remedy 
 the matter, but to appoint a new batch of 
 Surveyors ? This, of course, will necessitate 
 the appointment of two or three Controllers, 
 for whom an Auditor must be provided. 
 Just think how many new positions are cre- 
 ated in this way, and how nicely it is all 
 managed ! Now your son is an interloper 
 who settles like a white frost upon this 
 fruitful process of official multiplication. He 
 will get himself into trouble if he isn't 
 careful. Write him that I say so." 
 
 Mr. Fo Hi did write, but his letter reached 
 its destination at an unlucky time. It was 
 the last day of the first quarter, and Fo Hi 
 junior had just drawn his pay. Those who 
 have had the unspeakable pleasure of holding 
 public office know the fascination and the 
 bliss of pay-day. Our hero jingled in the 
 palm of his hand the pretty taels, on which 
 
60 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 glittered the likeness of the Emperor, and 
 thrust his father's wise admonitions into his 
 pocket without a moment's thought. Four- 
 teen times he wrote his signature on the 
 fourteen receipts which the cashier handed 
 him, and he would have written it two hun- 
 dred times if it had been required. Five 
 per cent., however, was deducted from each 
 month's wages, besides twelve per cent, from 
 the first month's, which, he was told, was a 
 delicate bit of forethought on the part of 
 the Government for the purpose of accumu- 
 lating for him a reserve fund, which would 
 assure him a maintenance for his old age. 
 He thought this the best idea he had ever 
 heard of, and it gave him such a sense of 
 security that he invited all his comrades to 
 dinner. There he got them all tipsy, got as 
 tipsy himself as a bonze, spent in one night 
 the whole quarter's pay which he had drawn 
 
FO HI S7ARTS OUT SPLENDID L Y. 61 
 
 in the morning, and woke up the next even- 
 ing with a tremendous pain in his head, 
 and without a cent in his pocket. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 A FRIGHTFUL CATASTROPHE. 
 
 ^ 
 
 "POVERTY is not a vice," said some one to 
 a philosopher. " It is far worse," was the 
 reply. And young Fo Hi was not long in 
 finding out to his sorrow that this philoso- 
 pher was no fool. The expense of living 
 was not very great in the village where he 
 acted as one of the representatives of the 
 Emperor, but his salary scarcely exceeded 
 the small sum which he paid for his food 
 and lodging. Fortunately, he had a wtll- 
 stocked wardrobe. He took care of it him- 
 self; and no old maid, dependent on a rich 
 cousin, ever brushed, folded, examined and 
 kept in order her belongings with more mi- 
 nute care and precision. His fine blue suit 
 
 embroidered with silver was still fresh and 
 (62) 
 
A FRIGHTFUL CATASTROPHE. 63 
 
 bright, and in this he dressed on great oc- 
 casions. And the respectful salutes which 
 this striking costume won for him when he 
 promenaded the streets in it compensated 
 him for all his tribulations. For the mo- 
 ment, he could forget that he was sinking 
 step by step into that worst of all miseries, 
 misery in an embroidered suit. He was not 
 a man who could meet a creditor at every 
 street corner without blushing. He was as 
 honest at heart as he was narrow in mind. 
 In order to live and to maintain the dignity 
 of his position, without defrauding any one, 
 he inflicted the most cruel privations upon 
 himself. 
 
 " It will soon be over," he said to himself 
 one morning as he was soaking a cent's 
 worth of bread in a cent's worth of milk for 
 his breakfast. " My faithfulness, I am sure, 
 will soon be noticed by my superior officers, 
 and I shall then be promoted. I shall have 
 
64 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 a larger salary, and will live more comfort- 
 ably, and will then be repaid for all my sac- 
 rifices." 
 
 It was not long before he heard some 
 news which filled his heart with hope and 
 joy. It was announced to the inhabitants of 
 Pi-ho, that the Minister of Public Works had 
 been sent by the Emperor on a tour of in- 
 spection to the distant districts of the Em- 
 pire, and would honor them by entering the 
 gates of the town for a visit of a few hours. 
 Fo Hi had no doubt that he would be pre- 
 sented to His Excellency, the Minister, on the 
 day of his arrival, would be complimented 
 for his exemplary conduct, and that he 
 would then be promoted to the post which 
 he had so honestly earned. And so strongly 
 was he moved by these expectations that, 
 for three nights before the day of the Min- 
 ister's arrival, he did not sleep a wink. 
 
 At length the great dignitary came, in 
 
A FRIGHTFUL CATASTROPHE. 65 
 
 grand style, in a coach drawn by four white 
 horses at full gallop. By order of the Di- 
 rector-in-chief the road by which he was to 
 enter the town was strewn with leaves and 
 flowers. But by some accident, a large 
 branch of some tree had been thrown in the 
 street and now lay there concealed by the 
 leaves. The coachman who was driving the 
 gallopping steeds did not see the obstacle, 
 and the carriage, suddenly arrested, jolted ter- 
 ribly, and His Excellency, the Minister, who 
 was innocently looking out of the window, 
 was shot out forcibly right upon a heap of 
 stones, where he lay sprawled at full length 
 as if he had fallen into a feather bed. As 
 luck would have it, this particular heap of 
 stones was in Fo Hi's jurisdiction. 
 
 His Excellency took no time to admire 
 the art with which the heap was constructed. 
 He picked himself up bleeding, but dignified. 
 
 At the report of his horrible fall, the whole 
 5 
 
66 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 village, which was awaiting his approach a 
 little further on, raised a shout of dismay 
 
 .and ran to the spot. But the Minister beck- 
 oned to them to be quiet, after which he 
 listened to the five speeches which had been 
 prepared for him, and replied with a self- 
 possession which was praised in all the offi- 
 cial gazettes. He then went to the village 
 hotel, where all the government officials 
 passed in procession before his august 
 countenance, whose majestic grace was 
 heightened by a pretty plaster of English 
 taffeta. These rascally Englishmen manage 
 to get their goods in everywhere. 
 
 * Fo Hi appeared in his turn, bearing him- 
 self with a modest and yet confident 
 air, in his suit of blue embroidered with 
 silver. As he was passing, an official of 
 high rank bent towards His Excellency, the 
 Minister, and pointed the young man out 
 to him. . 
 
A FRIGHTFUL CATASTROPHE. 67 
 
 " Ah ! is this Mr. Fo Hi ? " asked the 
 dignitary. 
 
 " Yes, Your Excellency," answered the 
 young man, blushing to his very ears. 
 
 " Very well, sir, you shall hear from me," 
 replied the Minister, and the procession 
 passed on. 
 
 That night seemed incomparably long to 
 our young hero, who lay wide awake, haunt- 
 ed by dreams, brighter and more brilliant- 
 ly decorated than his best suit The next 
 morning he was ordered to report at the 
 house of the Director in chief, and obeyed 
 as speedily as he could. 
 
 "Sir," said the Director to him, putting 
 his hand into his vest in an exceedingly 
 dignified manner, " His Excellency, the Min- 
 ister, who is magnanimity itself, has seen 
 fit to give to you and to the public a new 
 proof of the greatness of his soul. He does 
 not discharge you." 
 
68 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 At these words Fo Hi started back in 
 astonishment, and the Director-in-chief con- 
 tinued : 
 
 " I see very plainly, sir, that this mark 
 of magnanimity astonishes you. I confess 
 that it is the very excess of kindness, and is 
 quite unheard of. But finally, His Excel- 
 lency grants you his pardon." 
 
 " Well ! but what have I done ? " exclaimed 
 poor Fo Hi. 
 
 His Honor, the Director-in-chief, let his 
 hand drop from his vest in amazement, and 
 casting upon the young man an indignant 
 look, said severely : 
 
 " What have you done ? You dare to ask 
 such a question, do you ? The stone which 
 so cruelly wounded the august cheek of 
 His Excellency, the Minister, was sharp and 
 pointed. Now, the regulations of the De- 
 partment provide that all the stones shall 
 be carefully rounded. How did it happen ? " 
 
A FRIGHTFUL CATASTROPHE. 69 
 
 "Your Honor will be so good as to 
 pardon me if I interrupt you, but the reg- 
 ulations of which you speak say exactly 
 the contrary." 
 
 " Well, this is pleasant ! " exclaimed the 
 dignitary, with a bitter sneer. " You give me 
 the lie, do you ? You have a peculiar idea 
 of the duties of a public officer ! I have 
 read some of the reports, sir, which you 
 send us daily, and I can tell you that if 
 you had attended to your work instead of 
 making phrases, all this would not have 
 happened. Your business, sir, is to count 
 stones and not to quote Sanskrit" 
 
 " It was not worth while then to make 
 me learn it," muttered Fo Hi, in a tone of 
 deep injury. 
 
 " What do you say ? I really believe you 
 are arguing the matter with me! His Ex- 
 cellency, the Minister, can forgive a fault, 
 however serious it may be. But for my 
 
70 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 part, I can not overlook an impertinence. I 
 suspend you from your office for six weeks, 
 without pay. Go, sir, and let this be a les- 
 son to you." 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE TIDE TURNS. 
 
 Fo Hi left the presence of the Director- 
 in-chief with the dazed and stupid air of a 
 man who has just been dealt a heavy blow 
 on the head. His eyes had a vacant stare, 
 and his ears rang strangely. From his ab- 
 sent manner, he might have been thought 
 tipsy. But he made his way to his room, 
 and found there awaiting him a letter from 
 his father, which ran as follows: 
 
 " My dear son : We are all well here. 
 Your two sisters have made me a grand- 
 father on the same day and at nearly the 
 same hour. You have two very pretty little 
 nieces, who bear a wonderful resemblance to 
 their grandfather. I confess that a boy 
 would have suited me much better, for you 
 
72 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 would, of course, have taken him under 
 your protection, and have advanced him to 
 the highest positions. I can see his fortune 
 already made. But nothing is lost by wait- 
 ing. I shall order a little nephew for you. 
 Your sisters will be willing, I am sure. 
 
 " Your brother-in-law Pe-ka-o is doing 
 splendidly. He has had very good crops, 
 and has just bought a fine piece of ground 
 which he has had his eye upon for a long 
 time. The good fellow is rapidly getting 
 rich, and, by the favor of Heaven, will be- 
 come one of the wealthiest farmers in the 
 country. 
 
 " I am thoroughly satisfied with your 
 other brother-in-law, Chi-kau-go. The boy 
 is not such a blockhead as I had supposed. 
 He has a genius for business. You, who 
 are in every way so superior to him, would 
 not think much of his ability, but it is just 
 the thing for the grocery trade. The amount 
 
THE TIDE TURNS. 73 
 
 of our sales has nearly doubled in the course 
 of six months. You would not know your 
 father's shop, for it is now a very fine 
 store, with bright glass windows, in which 
 the passers-by can see themselves. Our 
 neighbors are bursting with jealousy, which 
 gives me a great deal of satisfaction. 
 
 " My dear boy, I am as happy as a man 
 can be on earth. But you are still my 
 greatest joy and my highest pride. It is 
 you who make the family illustrious. We 
 owe it to you that the name of Fo Hi will 
 be spoken in the palaces of Ministers, and 
 will even fall upon the sacred ears of the 
 Emperor. We will all shine in the radiance 
 which you will shed upon us. But accept 
 this advice from your old father : Don't 
 be dazzled by prosperity. Don't spend your 
 money foolishly. Just send it to me. I 
 will invest it for you in our business, and 
 it will bring you in from eight to ten per 
 
74 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 cent. This is a good ending for my letter, 
 isn't it ? 
 
 "Adieu, my dear son. We all embrace you 
 v.'itli the warmest love, and pray that fortune 
 may always be faithful to you. 
 
 " Your father, Fo Hi." 
 
 As he finished reading, the young man 
 impatiently crushed the letter in his hand, 
 and exclaimed : " Money ! Money to invest ! 
 Fathers have strange ideas, to be sure! I 
 wonder if he thinks that I live on nut shells ! 
 I have not even a mouthful for my dinner 
 to-night." 
 
 He might easily have found shopkeepers 
 who would have trusted him, or some of his 
 comrades would have loaned him a little 
 money. But, as I have already said, he had 
 not as much breadth of mind as he had 
 loftiness of character. He was proud, and 
 did not want to be in debt to any one. He 
 preferred to pawn his property. 
 
THE TIDE TURNS. 75 
 
 Now in the neighboring village there was 
 a philanthropic institution which did poor 
 beggars the favor to advance funds on good 
 clothing at the rate of twelve per cent. It 
 was gradually growing rich off the spoil of 
 these wretches, but no one could take it ill, 
 for every year the surplus of its profits was 
 turned into the almshouse treasury. Thus it 
 drove people into the poorhouse for the pleas- 
 ure of providing for them there. It carried 
 on the business of usury in the spirit of 
 charity. 
 
 To this obliging pawnbroker our hero went 
 in his distress. He was very much ashamed 
 the first time he went. As he entered the 
 door he hung his head and blushed, and 
 looked about stealthily to see if any one 
 was observing him. But he soon recognized 
 the watch and charms of his Inspector in 
 the hands of one of the clerks, and the sight 
 gave him courage. He thought : " I am not 
 
76 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 alone, then." One by one then he pledged 
 all his things except what he actually needed. 
 Even his uniform, his best blue uniform em- 
 broidered with silver, was transferred from the 
 wardrobe where it slept carefully, folded be- 
 tween two napkins, to the pawnbroker's store- 
 room. Here it was hung up on an ignoble 
 nail, like the commonest of old clothes, be- 
 tween the stuffed ape of a mountebank and 
 the greasy cloak of a fakir. To such base 
 uses may we come at last ! 
 
 The last day of the month, the very day 
 on which his suspension was to come to an 
 end, Fo Hi received an invitation to attend 
 an evening party at the house of his In- 
 spector. But he was unable to go because 
 he had no uniform. His absence was ac- 
 cordingly noticed. The Inspector wrote to 
 the Auditor about it, who in turn forwarded 
 the complaint to the Controller, and this 
 official immediately sent for Fo Hi. 
 
THE TIDE TURNS. 77 
 
 " Sir," he said to the young man in a se- 
 vere tone, " it is very plain that you are 
 incorrigible. You seem to take delight in 
 exciting the displeasure of your superiors. 
 The Inspector requests me to ask an expla- 
 nation of your conduct in an important par- 
 ticular. Why, sir, did you deliberately absent 
 yourself from the ball, to which your supe- 
 rior officer in the Department did you the 
 great honor to invite you ? " 
 
 There was a long pause, during which 
 Fo Hi was intently studying the designs 
 traced on the floor of the apartment. He 
 would be killed on the spot rather than con- 
 fess the sad truth. But at last the Con- 
 troller broke the silence by going on an- 
 grily: 
 
 " You don't answer, eh ? Well, sure 
 enough, what answer could you give ? What 
 excuse could you make for such singular 
 behavior, which so clearly shows a spirit of 
 
78 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 insubordination ? You need not suppose that 
 the Inspector looked for your presence to 
 add to the attractions of his party. No, sir. 
 A soiree given by a superior is always a 
 brilliant affair, and it would be, even if no 
 one were there. It can easily dispense with 
 everything in the way of ordinary attraction, 
 without detracting from its dignity and brill- 
 iancy. At the Inspector's ball there were 
 neither orchestra nor refreshments. But was 
 it any less enjoyable, I should like to know ? 
 I was there, sir. I enjoyed myself, sir. It 
 was my duty to do so. And it was your 
 duty also. But you have failed in all your 
 duties. And why ? Out of contempt, I have 
 not the least doubt ! " 
 
 "But, sir!" stammered the poor young 
 fellow. 
 
 " You are answering me ! I declare, you 
 are answering me ! Was there ever anything 
 more disrespectful ! " 
 
THE TIDE TURNS. 79 
 
 " But you asked me a question," exclaimed 
 Fo Hi, now exasperated. 
 
 "Away, sir! away this moment. I shall 
 report your outrageous conduct to the proper 
 authorities." 
 
 A scathing report was forthwith sent to 
 the Minister at Pekin, in which the discharge 
 of Mr. Fo Hi junior was positively de- 
 manded. The Superintendent of the office, 
 who received the report, endorsed it carelessly 
 on the margin with a note of approval, and 
 sent it, with a number of others endorsed in 
 the same way, to the Secretary whose busi- 
 ness it was to prepare replies. Now it hap- 
 pened that this official was just at this time 
 very much pressed with work. So, in his 
 haste and confusion, he got two of the doc- 
 uments mixed, and in writing the answers 
 he inserted in the one intended for Fo Hi 
 the name of a poor wretch who had applied 
 for a promotion, and in the letter which 
 
So THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 was really intended for this unlucky wight 
 he inserted the name of Fo Hi. The Su- 
 perintendent signed both letters without read- 
 ing them, the Minister countersigned them, 
 and two months later the Director-in -chief 
 of the Department of Roads at Pi-ho re- 
 ceived an answer to his report. But as he 
 read the first words of the communication 
 he rubbed his eyes in amazement. Then he 
 scratched his ear and fell into a profound 
 revery. 
 
 " Who would have believed it ? " he mut- 
 tered. " This little Fo Hi is the godson of 
 a third cousin of an .Imperial Councillor. 
 They compliment him and appoint him Con- 
 troller of the first class. His patron must 
 have a great deal of influence. I have made 
 a mistake ! " 
 
 And thereupon he took his cane and went 
 as straight as an arrow to Fo Hi's apart- 
 ments. He mounted nimbly the six flights 
 
THE TIDE TURNS. 81 
 
 of stairs, entered without knocking, and 
 grasping the young fellow's hand, exclaimed : 
 " Well ! Good morning, my dear friend ! 
 I wanted to bring you some good news in 
 person. For a long time I have recognized 
 and appreciated your worth, but until the 
 present moment I have been unable to man- 
 ifest my appreciation in any substantial way. 
 You see, sir, you were rather young. But the 
 Minister has at last yielded to my urgent 
 entreaties, and rewarded your services. You 
 are appointed Controller of the first class in 
 one of the important cities in the south, at 
 Song-Kong-Chou. You are to leave in two 
 days. Possibly you are not very well sup- 
 plied with money. But here is an indem- 
 nity of one hundred taels, which I present 
 you from certain funds at my disposal. Go 
 to the bank and have it cashed to-morrow. 
 They will pay it at sight. Accept my 
 
 sincerest congratulations, my young friend, 
 6 
 
82 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 and do not forget that I shall always be 
 delighted to hear of your gcod fortune. I 
 have started you on the road to success, 
 and you may be sure that I will follow 
 your future with interest. Take heart, my 
 good fellow. Adieu ! " 
 
 But such was Fo Hi's bewilderment that 
 he could not say a word. " He is a very 
 deep fellow ! " thought the Director, who 
 mistook his silence for reserve. " But then he 
 is going a good way off a good way off ! " 
 
 But from this time Fo Hi saw around him 
 nothing but smiling faces and friendly looks. 
 His comrades were quite overpowering in 
 their marks of esteem, and his superiors 
 paid court to him as if they wanted to beg 
 his pardon for the past. His uniform, em- 
 broidered with silver, he now redeemed, paid 
 all his debts, and slept like a man whose 
 dreams are no longer haunted by his cred- 
 itors. 
 
THE TIDE TURNS. 83 
 
 The day of his departure, he went to take 
 leave of his Director-in-chief, and during the 
 interview said to him pleasantly : 
 
 " Really, sir, I can tell you all about it 
 now. The reason I did not go to the ball 
 to which you so kindly invited me, was 
 simply that my uniform was in pawn." 
 
 " Why, dear me ! " exclaimed the dignitary 
 regretfully. "If I had only known it!" 
 
 He gave his young protege a long and 
 hearty clasp of the hand, and even conde- 
 scended to accompany him to the carriage 
 where at parting he held him up as an ex- 
 ample to his comrades, all of whom had 
 come to bid him farewell. And thus Fo Hi 
 took his departure with a heart full of hap- 
 piness. 
 
 " My poor father ! How happy he will 
 be ! " he said to himself, as he rode along. 
 You see he was at bottom a good fellow. 
 All these sudden honors might excite his 
 
84 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 brain, but they could not corrupt his heart. 
 
 The next day, however, all the Surveyors, 
 Controllers and Auditors at Pi-ho received 
 an order to report at the office of the In- 
 spector, where that dignitary, in a quiet but 
 firm voice, read the following circular from 
 His Honor, the Director-in- chief: 
 
 " I have learned that certain of the em- 
 ployees in my Department do not hesitate to 
 compromise their uniform by putting it in 
 pawn. This is a very serious breach of dis- 
 cipline. It is highly improper that a costume 
 which the people .are accustomed to regard 
 as nothing less than an emanation from His 
 Imperial Majesty himself, should be hung 
 up promiscuously with the rags of the beg- 
 gar. Mr. Inspector, I order you to give 
 notice to all your subordinates that if I hear 
 again of such scandalous conduct, I shall feel 
 compelled to visit the full severity of the 
 Department upon the head of the offender." 
 
THE TIDE TURNS. 85 
 
 When he had finished reading the paper, 
 the Inspector folded it up respectfully and 
 added on his own account, by way of com- 
 mentary : " I trust, gentlemen, that you will 
 conform to the views of His Honor the 
 Director-in-chief. They are at once just and 
 paternal. I say they are just, for they bear, 
 like everything which His Honor does, the 
 stamp of justice itself. But I add further, 
 his views are paternal, for His Honor is 
 desirous I have it from his own lips, and 
 I am happy as well as proud to repeat his 
 words to you yes, His Honor has himself 
 condescended to tell me, with his own 
 mouth, that he is desirous that his subordi- 
 nates should never be subjected to the an- 
 noyance of being deprived of a costume 
 which is the ornament of their several 
 offices, and the honor of the body to which 
 they have the honor to belong. I am 
 further directed by His Honor the Director- 
 
86 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 in-chief to listen to any observations which 
 you may possibly wish to make on this 
 matter, and to transmit them to him. I have, 
 however, answered for you, in advance, to 
 His Honor. I have assured him that it were 
 impossible that any one could oppose an order 
 so reasonable and so explicit, and " 
 
 " Pardon, Mr. Inspector," interrupted a 
 very young man. " When we pawn our 
 clothes it is certainly not for our own 
 pleasure." 
 
 " No, sir, it is not, for it is a violation 
 of the rules, and that, to be sure, is no 
 pleasure. Or rather, it is a pleasure for 
 undutiful minds. But the Department has its 
 eye upon their^ and if it should be necessary ' 
 will treat them with a just severity. Let 
 them take notice ! Gentlemen, you are dis- 
 missed." 
 
 But meanwhile Mr. Fo Hi junior was 
 posting along the road to Song-Kong-Chou. 
 
THE TIDE TURNS. 87 
 
 A light heart goes with a full purse. His 
 journey was delightful. He surrendered him- 
 self without reserve to the pleasure of sur- 
 veying the strange scenes which the country 
 offered to his eyes. At evening he rested 
 from his fatigue and dined heartily at some 
 good inn, where he also drank and joked 
 with the servants to his heart's content. 
 Easy digestions make happy dispositions. 
 One day during a halt for refreshments, he 
 noticed at the door of the inn an old man, 
 bald and pale, whose singularly dignified and 
 yet shabby appearance attracted his attention. 
 He accordingly went up to him, and as trav- 
 ellers usually do, asked him whence he 
 came. 
 
 " From Song-Kong-Chou," said the old 
 man. 
 
 " Is that so ! " exclaimed Fo Hi. " Why, 
 that is just where I am going! I am ap- 
 pointed Controller of the first class in the 
 
88 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 Department of Roads at Song-Kong-Chou." 
 The old man in his turn was now very much 
 surprised, and looked so sadly at our hero 
 that the young man in pity asked him if he 
 had any great trouble. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE STORY OF THE SHABBY OLD MAN. 
 
 " ALAS ! " answered the old man. " I see 
 now. You are to fill the position for 
 which I applied, and which was due to me 
 for so many reasons. I haven't any ill-will 
 to you, sir, for you are ignorant of the 
 injury which you have done me. But the 
 sight of you revives the sense of my mis- 
 fortune and aggravates my grief." 
 
 And at this the old man burst into tears. 
 The great drops fell from his eyes and 
 rolled silently down his haggard cheeks. 
 The young man was deeply moved by this 
 spectacle, and asked the old man to take 
 dinner with him, after which, when the 
 dessert was brought on, he induced him to 
 tell his sorrowful story. 
 (89) 
 
90 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 " It isn't a long story, " said the shabby 
 old man. "I am the godson of the third 
 cousin of an influential personage. Under 
 the patronage of my godfather I got into 
 the Department of Roads. Oh ! how much 
 better it would have been for me if I had 
 remained in my father's shop and learned 
 his trade! Would to God that I had been 
 a shoemaker, instead of roving about on 
 the public highways ! The next thing I did, 
 sir, was to get married ; but it would have 
 been better for me if I had tied a stone 
 about my neck and jumped into the river. 
 My wife was a good woman. I haven't any 
 fault to find with her, and even now I 
 don't regret that I married her. She has 
 shared all my misfortunes, and has helped 
 to make them more endurable. But she 
 had very little in her own right. You see 
 it was purely what they call a love-match. 
 With provoking regularity she presented me 
 
THE STORY OF THE SHABBY OLD MAN. 91 
 
 with a child every year, until now I have 
 seven, sir. 
 
 "With the first we were overjoyed, and 
 gave thanks to Tao who had blessed our 
 union. The second was not unwelcome ; at 
 the third we began to think, and we were 
 both wild with vexation when the last one 
 made its appearance. We were unable to 
 feed the other six properly, and now it 
 seemed as if we must literally die of star- 
 vation. You know the salary which we get, 
 and you can see for yourself whether nine 
 persons can live on it. 
 
 " But my wife is a very courageous woman. 
 So she took it into her head to earn some- 
 thing. She opened a little millinery store. 
 Her two older daughters helped her as well 
 as they could, and the work began to come 
 in very well. But in some way or other, 
 I don't know how, the Director-in-chief 
 was informed that the wife of one of 
 
92 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. * 
 
 his subordinates was working with her 
 hands for a living. Ha immediately sent 
 for me and reprimanded me sharply, saying 
 that I was bringing disgrace upon the De- 
 partment. 
 
 "'But, sir/ I said to him, 'I have chil- 
 dren ! ' 
 
 " ' What on earth did you have them for ? ' 
 he replied, gruffly. ' A public officer ought 
 not to have more children than he can 
 feed/ 
 
 " He was partly right, I admit. But after 
 all, these poor little things had not asked 
 to be born; it was not their fault that 
 they were here. We certainly could not 
 kill them for the sake of the Department. 
 
 " I tried timidly to offer the Director some 
 good reasons for our course. But he as- 
 sured me, in a peremptory tone which ad- 
 mitted of no reply, that I must take my 
 choice. If I would not obey, he should 
 
THE S7ORY OF THE SHABBY OLD MAX. 93 
 
 give me my discharge. Now what was I 
 to do ? I had already been in the Depart- 
 ment for fifteen years, and if I were dis- 
 charged I would lose all my claim to a 
 pension for which I had already labored so 
 long. What employment could I have found 
 elsewhere, if I had abandoned the place 
 which I had taken so much trouble to get ? 
 I was too old to take any chinces, and I 
 was aware of my incapacity for business. 
 Therefore I submitted. My wife, with tears 
 in her eyes, sent away her customers, and I 
 went on in the old rut, for the sole reason 
 that I had been there for fifteen years. I 
 will not tell you all the humiliations to 
 which I have been subjected in order to 
 get an increase of salary. Fifty taels is of 
 itself a small thing, but even that small 
 amount would have saved us from starvation. 
 I renounced all my opinions and tastes, and 
 made a point of studying the weaknesses 
 
94 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 of my superiors, and flattering their vanity. 
 My wife waited humbly upon their wives, 
 and submitted quietly to all their petty 
 exactions. She voluntarily put herself in 
 chains, which grew tighter every day, with- 
 out the slightest show of gratitude from 
 these fine ladies for her services. She was 
 their servant-girl minus the wages. I blush 
 yet when I think of these indignities. My 
 heart is full of the mortifications which we 
 have had to put up with, to no purpose. 
 Oh ! if I could only spit in their faces ! 
 I have a kind heart, sir ; I would not harm 
 a fly. But if I had now in my hands 
 one of these heartless men, who take so 
 indifferently the injuries which we have 
 suffered at their hands, I should be de- 
 lighted to crush the life out of him in my 
 wrath. I would say to him : ' There, you 
 wretch ! Take that, for your consequential 
 airs and your bitter sneers. There! take 
 
THE STOR Y OF THE SHABB Y OLD MAN. 95 
 
 that, and that, and that, for your scorn, 
 your injurious reports, your absurd fits of 
 rage ! ' " The old man clenched his fists 
 savagely as he said this, the blood rushed 
 into his face and flamed from his cheeks, 
 and his eyes flashed with excitement, But 
 presently he drank a cup of tea, gradually 
 cooled down, and went on with his story 
 in a calmer tone: 
 
 " At last one day we found ourselves at 
 the end of all our resources, surrounded by 
 our children crying with hunger. We had 
 exhausted the means of all our relations 
 and friends, and we were head over ears in 
 debt. My wife and I looked wildly and 
 desperately into each other's faces. Then I 
 thought of my godfather, who fifteen years 
 before had been the cause of all my mis- 
 fortunes by getting me my position. He 
 felt that he had done all that could be ex- 
 pected of him at that time, and had never 
 
96 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 replied to my letters. I now made a last 
 attempt to attract his attention. I sent him 
 a petition which it seemed to me ought to 
 have softened a heart of stone. But fif- 
 teen days after I received notice that I was 
 discharged. 
 
 " Yes, sir, I was discharged, after fifteen 
 years of faithful service ! Discharged for no 
 reason which had any show of sense ! His 
 Excellency, the Minister, charged that I had 
 exhibited most remarkable insolence to my 
 superiors ! Think of it ! I, insolent ! alas ! I 
 had been only too polite, too humble ! My 
 wife was in delicate health, and you can im- 
 agine what a blow this was to the poor 
 creature. She immediately took to her bed 
 with a raging fever, but J was compelled to 
 leave her sick and destitute of money. I 
 am now on my way to Pekin, to beg an 
 audience of the Minister, to throw myself at 
 his feet, and to beseech him to grant me 
 
THE STORY OF THE SHABBY OLD MAN. 97 
 
 maintenance for my old age, and life for my 
 family." 
 
 Fo Hi was deeply affected by this tale. 
 He opened his purse and said to the old 
 man : 
 
 " Here ! This is Government money. You 
 have certainly a better claim to it than I, 
 who have received it without knowing how 
 or why. Half of it is enough to enable 
 me to finish my journey. Please accept the 
 rest. It is between comrades, you know." 
 
 This offer was made with so much frank 
 cordiality that the old man had not the 
 courage to refuse. So he took the money 
 and exclaimed : " You are saving my life. 
 May you be as happy as you deserve ! 
 There are still some good-hearted people in 
 the public service ! " 
 
 " Oh, I don't pretend to very much in 
 that line ! " said the young man modestly ; 
 and grasping the poor fellow's hand, he took 
 
98 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 his seat in the coach. Two days later he 
 
 arrived at Song-Kong-Chou, and here we 
 
 shall meet him again in the next chap- 
 ter. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 SOME GOOD RESOLUTIONS. 
 
 SoNG-KoNG-Cnou is one of the finest 
 towns in the south of China. It is built on 
 a hill, and the houses descend along the 
 gentle slope to the broad plain below, which 
 is itself dotted with residences, scattered 
 here and there amid fruitful gardens which 
 from the distance, look like so many great 
 baskets of verdure. From the highest point 
 of the town the view extends over a wide 
 and rich landscape. One sees vast rice- 
 fields intersected by canals whose waters 
 sparkle in the sunlight like long silver 
 threads. Farms and villas springing up 
 here and there throughout the country re- 
 lieve and heighten the charm of the scene 
 
 with their air of rustic neatness. Along the 
 (99) 
 
loo THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 banks of the river the eye discovers spread- 
 ing meadows, great green spots in which 
 thousands of purple flowers are blooming. 
 The vision is arrested by a long range of 
 hills, beyond which the horizon widens until 
 it is lost in a shimmering haze. 
 
 "What a lovely spot!" cried Fo Hi, 
 charmed with the view. " One ought to be 
 happy here, certainly ! " 
 
 He was installed in his new office, with 
 all the fitting solemnities, by His Honor the 
 Director-in-chief. All the employees who 
 were to work under his direction were pre- 
 sented to him, and he received them with 
 that air of dignified benevolence which flour- 
 ishes so naturally on the faces of superior 
 officials. The same day he paid visits to 
 all his departmental chiefs, and to all the 
 upper officers of the other Departments ; and 
 when evening came it was with great sat- 
 isfaction that he reckoned that in his day's 
 
SOME GOOD RESOLUTIONS. 101 
 
 journey he had made one hundred and 
 fourteen reverences at the rate of two rev- 
 erences to each visit. And finally, he went 
 to sleep, with his spinal column somewhat 
 fatigued, but at any rate very well content- 
 ed with himself. 
 
 Another thing which he did at the be- 
 ginning of his new labors was to draw up 
 a code of conduct from which he determined 
 never to deviate. And to fasten it more 
 deeply in his memory, he reduced it to 
 aphorisms, which he took the trouble to 
 write down in the form of verses: 
 I. 
 
 To thy superiors homage pay, 
 
 And them profoundly do thou greet . 
 
 II. 
 
 All those who are beneath thy sway, 
 Harshly and mercilessly treat. 
 
 III. 
 
 No zeal nor energy display, 
 Nor work with unbecoming heat. 
 
102 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Refrain from wedlock till thou'rt gray, 
 Nor taste of love's delicious sweet. 
 
 V. 
 
 Temper thy taste for all things gay ; 
 Be in indulgences discreet. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Let bread and water be thy stay, 
 Nor rice-wine cause unsteady feet. 
 
 VII, 
 
 Think thou of nothing night or day 
 But thy advancement to complete - 
 
 Fo Hi wanted to increase the number to 
 ten, and then to sign his name to the 
 paper. But just then he could think of 
 no other injunction. He little thought that 
 events would soon furnish him with the 
 material out of which to complete his dec- 
 alogue/ But he who reads will see, as the 
 proverb says. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 HOW FO HI KEPT HIS POSITION. 
 
 IN the mean time the shabby old man 
 had arrived at Pekin. For fourteen days 
 in succession, he had gone every morning 
 to the palace of the Minister, and waited 
 in the ante-room. But the only effect of 
 this was that he became known to the at- 
 tendants, who showed him out, sometimes 
 with insulting speeches, and sometimes with 
 an air of commiseration more cruel even 
 than downright abuse. 
 
 At last the wretched man lost his wits. 
 He got it into his head that his only re- 
 course now was to the justice of the Em- 
 peror. He therefore took up his station on 
 the Imperial highway, armed with an im- 
 mense placard on which he had written 
 (103) 
 
104 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 in enormous letters : " Your Highness, Jus- 
 tice and Pity." And just as the Emperor 
 was passing, the poor fellow held it out be- 
 fore him, all the time shouting with all his 
 lungs. But at this demonstration one of the 
 attendants signed to two or three policemen, 
 who immediately laid hold of the old man 
 and carried him off to an officer of the 
 peace. Here he related his story with much 
 excitement. The officer apparently listened 
 to him and pitied him. He told him that 
 he would be taken before the Emperor, and 
 put him in charge of some men whom he 
 followed very quietly. One hour later he 
 was confined in a building very closely 
 barred and full of people with wild and hag- 
 gard faces. Here he was taken with a vio- 
 lent paroxysm of rage, shaking and gnaw- 
 ing at the bars, and howling in his mad- 
 ness. At this two strong men put on him 
 a jacket which confined his arms closely, 
 
HO W FO HI KEPT HIS POSITION. i o 5 
 
 and carried him under a sort of faucet from 
 which they turned a stream of cold water on 
 his head. This shower-bath quieted the 
 poor wretch, so that he watched in a 
 stunned sort of way what was going on 
 around him, and allowed himself to be 
 thrown without resistance upon a bed, where 
 he sank into a profound slumber. 
 
 Some few months later, a beautiful princess, 
 who was related in the thirty-fifth degree to 
 an uncle of the Emperor, was taken with a 
 fancy to visit a lunatic asylum. She was 
 escorted by a Minister, who supported her 
 very gallantly upon his arm. At the asylum 
 she was received by the Superintendent with 
 all the honors due to her rank and title. 
 She walked through the corridors, and even 
 spoke with some of the unfortunates whom 
 she met in the rooms. But the appearance 
 of the shabby old man especially attracted 
 her attention. At length she drew him into 
 
io6 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 conversation, and he told her his story so 
 clearly and rationally that the princess 
 seemed to be deeply impressed by it. 
 
 "And do you consider this man a luna- 
 tic ? " she asked, turning to the head physi- 
 cian of the institution. 
 
 The doctor bowed, and answered with a 
 very gracious smile: 
 
 " I am sure of it, madame, and I am 
 doubtful if he will ever be cured. Insane 
 people who talk rationally are nearly always 
 incurable." 
 
 "But I should very much like to make 
 sure whether or not the story which he has 
 told us is true." 
 
 " Nothing is easier, madame," replied the 
 Minister, whose turn it was now to speak. 
 
 So it was immediately ordered that the 
 archives should be consulted ; and there, to 
 the dismay of everybody, was discovered the 
 mistake of which the unfortunate old man 
 
HO W FO HI KEPT HIS POSITION. 107 
 
 had been the victim. When it was told to 
 the princess she was graciously pleased to 
 laugh very heartily at it, and that very 
 evening she spoke of it to her friends in her 
 drawing-room, all of whom found it exceed- 
 ingly entertaining. She, however, asked the 
 physician if the poor man could not be re- 
 leased from the asylum, but he protested he 
 could not discharge a patient until he was 
 perfectly and duly cured. She then urged 
 him to show the poor fellow every attention 
 in his power, and spoke of sending a dona- 
 tion of one hundred taels to the family as 
 indemnity. But the next morning she 
 thought no more about it. 
 
 The Minister, however, went home in a fu- 
 rious rage at the jokes of which he had 
 been made the butt. He sent immediately 
 for the Secretary who had made the mistake, 
 and had him impaled before his eyes, to 
 teach him to do his work more carefully. 
 
io8 7 HE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 Then without delay he wrote to Song-Kong- 
 Chou, commanding that a certain rascal by 
 the name of Fo Hi, who had treacherously 
 usurped another man's place, should be dis- 
 charged instantly. And now it would all 
 have been over with our hero, if his superi- 
 ors, by a peculiar series of circumstances, 
 had not found themselves compelled to sup- 
 port him, even against the wishes of His Ex- 
 cellency, the Minister. 
 
 The road upon which Fo Hi was em- 
 ployed formed at a certain point an angle 
 which was a great eye-sore. It went round 
 a garden which it ought to have crossed to 
 preserve its symmetry. This garden be- 
 longed to a well to-do citizen, who cultivated 
 it with his own hands. It was famous for 
 ten leagues around, for the beauty of its 
 flowers, nearly all of which were very rare 
 varieties. The owner was quite proud of his 
 garden, and would not have parted with it 
 
HO W FO HI KEPT HIS POSITION. 109 
 
 for all the gold in the world. He had only 
 enclosed it with a quickset hedge, so that 
 th passers might have the privilege of the 
 beautiful scene. His chief pleasure was to 
 stand at his window in the morning, looking 
 forth at his flowers sparkling with dew, 
 and breathing their rich perfumes. But one 
 day when he returned home after an absence 
 of a few weeks, he met with a great sur- 
 prise. He found a large part of his 
 hedge torn up, heaps of stones standing in 
 the midst of his flower-beds, and laborers 
 tearing up the soil with their picks, all for 
 the purpose of running the road directly 
 across his garden. He was so taken aback 
 by this . depredation that he thought he 
 should fall down. He rushed out and ex- 
 postulated vehemently with the laborers, who 
 only sent him to the Controller. 
 
 Now Ave must admit that Mr. Fo Hi, 
 junior, had given his orders rather hastily. 
 
no THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 But the indulgent reader must excuse him 
 for the sake of his intentions, which were 
 certainly good, This angle was an eye-sore 
 to him. He said to himself that it would 
 be a great advantage to the public and a 
 great triumph for symmetry, if the road 
 were straightened. And really there never 
 was anything easier. All that was needed 
 was to cut in two this unlucky garden, which 
 interfered so unpleasantly with the right 
 line of the highway. It was not his fault 
 that the owner was an ill-tempered man, who 
 preferred his flowery rubbish to the public 
 good. Thus Fo Hi had reasoned, and con- 
 sequently had, in the name of the Depart- 
 ment which he represented, ordered his men 
 to break through the hedge, and to carry 
 the road on in a straight line. The owner 
 accordingly went, pale with rage, to the Con- 
 troller's office. Here he was told, in a 
 careless sort of way, that he would have to 
 
HO W FO HI KEPT HIS POSITION. 1 1 1 
 
 apply to His Honor the Director-in-chief, 
 who alone was authorized to make expla- 
 nations. He therefore went to the Director's 
 mansion, and rehearsed to him, without in- 
 troduction, and in an excited voice, the sub- 
 stance of his complaint. The Director lis- 
 tened to him politely, and told him that he 
 would address a report to the Home Office 
 on the matter. 
 
 "A report ! " shouted the civilian, with ex- 
 asperation, " what do you want of a report ? 
 Your men are in my garden, the garden 
 belongs to me isn't that plain enough ? I 
 want none of your tricks ! Let them give 
 me back what they are stealing from me 
 yes, I repeat it, what they are stealing from 
 me ! Your Department is a very den of 
 thieves ! " 
 
 " Sir," said the Director, in a dignified voice, 
 " I will forget the remarks which have just 
 escaped your lips in a moment of anger, and 
 
112 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 which you already regret, I have no doubt. 
 You have insulted me in the exercise of 
 my functions, and it might be a very serious 
 matter if it were not that I can bear with 
 and forgive human infirmity. Remember, sir, 
 that the Government in China never com- 
 mits an error. If it has taken your garden, 
 it is undoubtedly because it has a right to 
 it. Nay, I may say further, because it is its 
 duty to take it." 
 
 "We will see about that!" roared the 
 civilian. " I am going straight to a sheriff 
 about it. There are judges in Pekin." 
 
 But the road through the garden had 
 already been finished two months, when the 
 Court which took cognizance of the com- 
 plaint gave its decision. It decided that the 
 affair was a purely governmental affair, with 
 which, consequently, the Court had nothing 
 to do, and that the plaintiff must appeal to 
 the Department of Roads itself to pass judg* 
 
HO W FO HI KEPT HIS POSITION. 113 
 
 ment upon the right and the wrong of its 
 action. It further suggested that no judge 
 could be found who would understand the 
 business so well as the departmental author- 
 ities, because it was entirely within the scope 
 of their jurisdiction, and finally that for esti- 
 mating clearly the merits of a suit at law 
 there was nothing like being one's self a party 
 to it. But the owner of the garden did not 
 concur in this opinion. He appealed from 
 the decision to the Imperial Council, urgently 
 requesting to be heard by some other tri- 
 bunal than one composed of the thieves 
 themselves. 
 
 Now it was at this very point in the case 
 that the letter reached Song-Kong-Chou, in 
 which the Minister commanded Fo Hi's dis- 
 charge. The Director-in-chief instantly replied 
 to His Excellency, begging him to reconsider 
 his decision. He explained, with much good 
 
 sense, that this discharge would have a very 
 8 
 
1 1 THE MISERIES OF FO ///. 
 
 bad effect upon the public, which would 
 attribute it to an entirely different cause. 
 He urged that the Department must back 
 Fo Hi to the very end in this matter, be- 
 cause he had acted as its representative, and 
 to throw him over now would be to throw 
 itself over. His Excellency the Minister 
 readily fell in with these very judicious views, 
 and thus Fo Hi was retained in office for 
 having done a foolish thing in a position 
 from which he was saved from being driven 
 by the foolish behavior of another man. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 A FAMOUS LAWSUIT. 
 
 THE people who want to know everything 
 will ask, probably, what was the conclusion 
 of the lawsuit about the garden. But I am 
 sorry that I can not g^tify their curiosity. 
 The suit is still in progress, and the most 
 eminent jurists say that it is nowhere near 
 being ended. The owner gained his cause 
 seven times during his lifetime, in seven dif- 
 ferent courts, but was never able to recover 
 possession of his property. The Department 
 was always ready with some technical objec- 
 tion, and would not let go its hold. Finally 
 the owner lost patience, and one night had 
 his workmen dig up the part of the road 
 which had cut his garden in two, and re-set 
 the hedge, which, ten years before, had been 
 
ii6 THE MISERIES OF FO ///. 
 
 illegally torn up. But this only made mat- 
 ters worse. For now the Department brought 
 an action against its adversary, in which it 
 was victorious, and the man was sentenced 
 to pay a fine and to go to prison. Me 
 paid the fine, and died in prison, leaving 
 to his children nothing of all the fortune 
 which he once had but a lawsuit to carry 
 on. His oldest son accepted this inheritance 
 piously, and bequeathed it to his daughter, 
 who is now eighty-two years of age, and 
 who is still prosecuting the case with more 
 bitterness and obstinacy than ever. Sixty- 
 eight Directors-in-chief have succeeded one 
 another during these three generations, and 
 not one has weakened for a moment in that 
 long struggle. One of them uttered this 
 memorable sentence, which ought to be in- 
 scribed in letters of gold on all the public 
 monuments : " The Department neither dies 
 nor surrenders/ 1 
 
A FA MO US LA WSUIT. 1 1 7 
 
 This suit yields an income to a certain 
 number of -lawyers, of whose assets it forms 
 an established part If all the papers which 
 make up the record of the case were to-day 
 gathered into a single pile, they would form 
 a mountain higher than the Altai itself. 
 If those who are now righting over that 
 piece of ground were to sell it for what it 
 has already cost them, they would have to 
 be paid fifty times its weight in gold. The 
 whole of China might be paved from one 
 end to the other with the taels which it 
 has cost in the Courts. And yet nothing 
 decisive has been reached ! But then it 
 is a matter "of principle. By this noble dis- 
 play of obstinacy the Department has in- 
 spired the country with a salutary awe. No 
 one dares any longer to oppose its demands. 
 For instance, some time ago it needed a 
 certain mansion to convert into a storehouse. 
 As soon as the owner of the premises 
 
ii8 THE MISERIES OF FO HT. 
 
 learned that his property was required, he 
 brought the keys to the Director-in-chief, on 
 a silver tray, and thanked him humbly for 
 not taking also the park back of the house. 
 To which that dignitary replied calmly : 
 " That will come bye-and-bye, perhaps." 
 
 Our friend Fo Hi was acquainted with no 
 more than the beginnings of this famous 
 suit at law. But he saw enough of it to 
 add to his code of conduct this rule, which 
 was not, however, to be the last: 
 
 All public wishes disobey, 
 
 And practice even the courts to cheat. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE OATH OF ALLEGIANCE. 
 
 THE year 7964 is famous in the annals 
 of China as a year of calamity. This great 
 Empire, which for so many centuries had 
 enjoyed undisturbed prosperity, was now for 
 the first time convulsed by revolution 
 and civil war. The Emperor Hu-o-li XXIV 
 died, leaving the throne to his son Hu-o-li 
 XXV, a young man seventeen years of 
 age, whom he placed under the guardian- 
 ship of Fi Ho, one of his most confiden- 
 tial councilors. This Fi Ho was noted for 
 his good looks and his great abilities ; but 
 he was eaten up with ambition. He had 
 married a niece of the late Emperor, and 
 cherished a secret desire to succeed to the 
 throne. 
 
120 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 The accession of the young sovereign in- 
 spired China with universal joy. The be- 
 ginning of a new reign has all the charm 
 of a fine morning with its promise of a 
 cloudless day. Throughout the Empire, the 
 heads of departments assembled all their sub- 
 ordinates, for the purpose of administering 
 to them the oath of allegiance to the new 
 Emperor, which they had formerly taken to 
 his father. 
 
 "With all my heart and with both 
 hands," said young Fo Hi. "The Emperor 
 is the Chief Magistrate of my country, 
 chosen by God, and accepted by the 
 nation. I respect him and love him, 
 as every good Chinaman ought. My oath 
 pledges me to nothing which I am not al- 
 ready disposed to stand by. And besides, I 
 can't see for my life why an oath should 
 be required of me more than of that la- 
 borer in the street." 
 
THE OATH OF ALLEGIANCE. 121 
 
 " What ! " they said to him. " But you 
 are an official ! You owe the Emperor a 
 special acknowledgment, for he it is who 
 pays and feeds you." 
 
 " Not at all ! " replied Fo Hi. " I give my 
 time and labor to the whole nation, which 
 me at the hands of the sovereign ; 
 is certainly a very different thing. 
 I am no more bound to the Emperor by 
 the money which he pays me for my la- 
 bor, than is yonder laborer to the cashier 
 who hands him his wages at the end of 
 the week. As to an oath, there is but one, 
 that I know of, in this world, which any 
 one has the right to ask especially of me. 
 It is the solemn obligation to do conscien- 
 tiously the work which is given me to do. 
 It is very evident that a silk merchant can 
 not be required to swear that he will keep 
 the roads in good order. But we all owe 
 a common allegiance to the Emperor, just 
 
122 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 as we all owe a common obedience to the 
 law. For my part, I am perfectly willing 
 to be faithful to him, and I am astonished 
 that any one should think it necessary to 
 bind me with an oath from which other 
 citizens are exempt." 
 
 Now these considerations were undoubt- 
 edly very reasonable. But Fo Hi mace 
 the mistake of expressing them freely in 
 the hearing of some of his comrades vith 
 whom he was intimate. Consequently vrhen 
 it came his turn to take the oath, His Honor 
 the Director-in-chief gave him a black look, 
 and said to him severely: 
 
 "Take care, sir! You reason too well 
 ever to- be a good official ! You do not 
 have for His Majesty the respect " 
 
 " What ! " exclaimed -Fo Hi vehemently, 
 " I not respect the Emperor ! I, who am de- 
 voted to him, body and soul ! I regard 
 him as the one man who represents my 
 
THE OATH OF ALLEGIANCE. 123 
 
 country to the eyes of foreign nations, and I 
 am as ready to die for him as I would be 
 to yield up my life for her." 
 
 "No, sir, " replied the dignitary, in a gen- 
 tler voice. " It is not enough that you 
 should love the Emperor as you love your 
 country, because he is its chief representative. 
 You should have for his person the same 
 devotion which the priest has for his God. 
 These are the sentiments which I profess, and 
 I am sure that no one in this presence will 
 repudiate them." 
 
 At these words the four or five hundred 
 officials who were listening attentively bowed 
 like one man, and broke into a simultaneous 
 smile. Those who were standing near Fo 
 Hi moved away one by one as if they 
 were afraid of catching the small-pox. He 
 was just about to launch out into a reply 
 to the position taken by the Director, when 
 
124 THE MISERIES OF FO LL 
 
 he very opportunely recollected one of old 
 Li-jou-lin's axioms: "The strongest reason 
 is always the best." He therefore con- 
 trolled his inclination to speak, and signed 
 in silence the form of oath which was placed 
 before him. 
 
 That very evening he was in his room 
 quietly smoking a pipe of opium, when the 
 Director's orderly came in and handed him 
 the following circular, to which many of his 
 comrades had already put their signatures : 
 
 " My dear Associates! the Providence 
 which guards the destinies of China with 
 such peculiar care has just given us a sig- 
 nal example of its kindness to our glorious 
 country. It has overturned the throne of 
 the late Emperor Hu-o-li, twenty-fifth of 
 that name, whose youth and inexperience 
 were rapidly leading China to destruction. 
 
 " For this great and memorable work it 
 has chosen as its instrument the illustrious 
 
THE OATH OF ALLEGIANCE. 125 
 
 Fi Ho. Our affection and our prayers had 
 long since designated him for the supreme 
 power, with which at last he has now 
 been invested by the righteous decree of 
 the Most High. The population of Pekin has 
 already manifested its joy by those shouts 
 and illuminations which mark the depths of 
 national emotion. Shall we, my dear as- 
 sociates, be the last to welcome a change 
 for which our secret wishes have been 
 clamoring for many years ? Shall we be the 
 last to attach ourselves proudly to the mag- 
 nificent destiny which God is preparing for 
 China ? No, gentlemen, the time has come 
 for us to show our devotion to the public 
 good and to the Emperor. I expect you 
 to-morrow to take a solemn oath of fidelity 
 to the elect of the people and of God, and 
 I do not apprehend that a single one of 
 you will be wanting in this urgent duty. 
 If among your number there could be 
 
126 THE MISERIES OF FO ///. 
 
 one man capable of such shameful treason, 
 it is very plain that he could not be al- 
 lowed to wear for another moment the 
 uniform and the insignia which are the 
 marks of honor and fidelity. " 
 
 "Anything!" exclaimed Fo Hi, with vio- 
 lent indignation, when he had read this doc- 
 ument " Anything ! Discharge ! Death itself, 
 rather than such baseness ! The wretches ! " 
 
 The blood boiled in his veins, and he 
 walked excitedly about his room, his eyes 
 flaming with resentment, his fists tightly 
 clenched, all the while talking wildly to the 
 furniture as if it could hear and answer him. 
 At length the heat of the room seemed to 
 stifle him. He wanted plenty of air and 
 space in which to vent his feelings. So he 
 went out and wandered about for a long 
 time in the fields, breathing into the air his 
 angry ejaculations and incoherent phrases. 
 
 " No," he shouted, " it is impossible. Is it 
 
THE OATH OF ALLEGIANCE. 127 
 
 indeed nothing but an oath which they ask 
 of me ? They are as ready to perjure them- 
 selves as to eat their meals ! Yesterday they 
 took one, and to-day they take another with 
 equal alacrity ! This Fi Ho requires us to 
 take an oath to him; but has he shown any 
 regard for his own ? Didn't he himself 
 swear fealty to his sovereign, the son of his 
 benefactor ? What faith can he have in these 
 empty forms, he who has so basely violated 
 the most sacred thing in all the world ? He 
 only wants to degrade us. He reHes upon 
 our cowardice. Oh yes, we are cowardly 
 enough ! But for my part, I will show him 
 that there are still some spirits whom nothing 
 can humble. I will refuse to take this oath ; 
 others will follow my example ; and thus the 
 opposition will gradually gain ground until 
 the usurper will tremble on his throne/ 1 
 
 The young fellow's imagination, having thus 
 been spurred into full gallop at the very start, 
 
128 THE MISERIES OF FO ///. 
 
 could no longer be controlled. He pictured 
 himself thrown into prison and subjected to 
 torture, but always firm. Then he saw him- 
 self led away to execution, and on the steps 
 of the scaffold delivering an impromptu 
 harangue to the populace. This last speech 
 was so touching that presently the mob, 
 wrought up to fury, flung themselves upon 
 the soldiers, rescued him from their custody, 
 and bore him away in triumph. 
 
 Fo Hi returned from his evening walk in 
 a very exalted state of mind, and strung up 
 to a high point of heroic sacrifice. He im- 
 mediately went to all his associates, one 
 after the other, to incite them to resistance, 
 to win them over to his view of the case, 
 and to organize a common opposition to the 
 new dynasty. But everywhere he was con- 
 fronted with hypocrisy or cowardice. The 
 first man to whom he appealed listened to 
 him distrustfully. He took him for a spy, 
 
THE OATH QF ALLEGIANCE. 129 
 
 and answered him in a cold and yet em- 
 phatic tone : 
 
 " My dear comrade, I honor and love the 
 great Prince who has just saved China from 
 destruction. I have, therefore, no repugnance 
 to taking the oath which he requires. I am 
 even waiting impatiently for the moment to 
 give a public testimony to my devotion to 
 the new dynasty." 
 
 When Fo Hi revealed his plans to another 
 employee, the lady of the house stopped him 
 at the first word. " I beseech you," she said, 
 "not to give my husband any bad advice. 
 The poor man would be only too willing to 
 follow it." 
 
 "What!" cried the young man, sadly, "do 
 you, too, talk so you, who ought to inspire 
 him with courage ? Where is the magnanim- 
 ity of sentiment which is so natural to the 
 feminine heart ? It is from you women that 
 man draws his strength and pride ! Shall he 
 
130 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 then hear from you no more than the advice 
 of a pitiful prudence ? " 
 
 "Alas, sir ! " answered the woman, " that is 
 all very fine talk for you ! " 
 
 On her lap was a little boy whom sue was 
 undressing, and two little girls were cling- 
 ing to her skirt, looking on with big won- 
 dering eyes, without understanding the con- 
 versation. The poor mother looked down at 
 the little creatures, and stroking their hair 
 gently, said softly : 
 
 " Poor little cherubs ! When you become 
 a father, sir, you will listen much more 
 readily to the advice which these dear little 
 curly-heads will give you. If there is any 
 wrong in taking this oath, let it be visited 
 upon those who demand it!" 
 
 Fo Hi went away broken-hearted. He suc- 
 ceeded not much better with the rest of his as- 
 sociates. Some of them shared his indignation, 
 but they were all afraid to go any farther. 
 
THE OATH OF ALLEGIANCE. 131 
 
 "A pretty move, indeed ! " they said, in re- 
 ply to his entreaties. " How much weaker 
 will the Government be when we have been 
 thrown out of work ? Our resistance will 
 help nobody, and it is certainly very danger- 
 ous to ourselves." 
 
 " But suppose we should all unite in the 
 opposition ? " exclaimed Fo Hi, mournfully. 
 
 " Oh, that is a different thing ! If every- 
 body resists, then I resist too ! " There was 
 no one, however, who wanted to bell the cat. 
 But among Fo Hi's associates there was an 
 old fellow who was very well preserved, and 
 who had always shown great freedom of 
 opinion. To him our hero now went, and 
 said : " You, at least, will not forsake me ! " 
 But the, old man replied : " My dear boy, I 
 like to see your spirit. It proves to me that 
 we are not yet so utterly rotten as my ex- 
 perience in the service would lead me to 
 think. That is far from disagreeable to me. 
 
132 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 I don't know what I might have done at 
 thirty. I was very hot-headed, and it is very 
 likely that I should have acted just as you 
 propose to act. But I should have made a 
 mistake.'' 
 
 " You would have made a mistake ? " asked 
 Fo Hi, incredulously. 
 
 " Why, to be sure ! my dear boy. It 
 would have been better, perhaps, to have 
 chosen a private profession, instead of accept- 
 ing employment from the Government. But 
 when the choice is once made, you must 
 submit to the consequences of a position 
 
 from which there is rio escape. After all, 
 
 
 the ruling power asks of you only what it 
 
 is very natural it should ask. It does not 
 want its employees to exert themselves to 
 undermine and destroy its existence. It re- 
 quires you to promise under oath that you 
 will not be hostile to it. And it is right, 
 and there is no dishonor in your taking the 
 
THE OATH OF ALLEGIANCE. 133 
 
 oath which it asks. Have you any hostile 
 designs upon the Government ? Of course 
 you haven't. You don't like it, you have a 
 very low opinion of it, but you don't intend 
 to overthrow it. You can do nothing either 
 for it or against it. Why refuse, then, an 
 oath which you must necessarily keep, even 
 if you don't take it ? " 
 
 "And why, then," exclaimed Fo Hi, "if 
 this oath is as indifferent a thing as you 
 say, why has the mere thought of it stirred 
 up my feelings so strongly ? " 
 
 " Because you are only thirty. I am 
 very nearly sixty, and I estimate things by 
 reason more than by sentiment. I shall take 
 the oath which they demand, without enthusi- 
 asm and without indignation. It is simply 
 an empty formality to which I am submit- 
 ting, I have no idea of losing all my rights 
 to a pension which I have earned by forty 
 years of hard work. The Government, which 
 
134 THE MISERIES OF FO HL 
 
 has my money in its pocket, will not 
 pay it to me unless I pronounce a certain 
 word, which is nothing but a mere ceremony 
 to me. Therefore I say it without parley- 
 ing, with the pistol at my head. I prefer 
 to do that rather than be compelled some 
 day to die of starvation, while shouting 
 1 Stop, thief! ' I certainly couldn't shout very 
 loud in that condition. Go, my dear boy, 
 and follow my example, and pocket your 
 scruples, as Panurge says." 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. 
 
 Fo Hi returned to his lodgings with 
 his determination greatly shaken. Night, 
 that mother of sage counsels, suggested some 
 thoughts to him which were the reverse of 
 heroic. He said to himself that an in- 
 dividual display of resistance would amount 
 to nothing, and that it would be very fool- 
 ish to sacrifice everything to a mere point 
 of overstrained honor. He asked himself 
 what would become of him after this new 
 freak. Penniless, friendless, with no protect- 
 or, two hundred leagues from his family, 
 unfitted for manual labor, and not knowing 
 what to do, he would be an object of de- 
 rision, or of pity. And then what would 
 his brothers-in-law, to whom he had so 
 
136 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 magnificently promised his protection, think 
 of him ? 
 
 And so when morning came he was very* 
 much cooled down Nothing remained of 
 the. extraordinary excitement of the evening 
 before but that tired feeling which follows 
 the great tempests of the soul. With a de- 
 jected air he went to the official mansion 
 where the ruin of his honor was to be con- 
 summated. His Honor the Director-in-chief 
 waited until all the officials had assembled, 
 when he entered, radiant and dignified, and 
 read in a loud voice the form of oath to 
 which each one had to respond in turn with 
 the sacred words " I swear it" It was very 
 curious to see the different ways in which 
 the various officials pronounced this short 
 sentence. Some rolled it out in a strong, 
 bold voice, which seemed charged with con- 
 viction; others uttered it in a nonchalant 
 sort of way, as if it were a matter of as 
 
THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. 137 
 
 little importance as asking the time of day 
 of one of their associates ; while still 
 "others pronounced it in the surly tone of a 
 man who is performing a disagreeable task. 
 When Fo Hi's turn came, he felt the in- 
 ward mutterings of a final protest, and it 
 was only by a strong effort of will that he 
 was able to lift his hand and hold it out. 
 The perspiration poured down his forehead in 
 great drops, and it seemed as if those three 
 unlucky words would tear his throat out, as 
 he uttered them in a choking voice. And 
 when at last they were spoken, he fell back 
 in his seat, and hid his face in his hands 
 as if to hide from his sight the shame of 
 what he had done. His vexation was so 
 marked that everybody noticed it, and es- 
 pecially the Director-in-chief. 
 
 They had all signed their names to the doc- 
 ument, and the assembly was about to be dis- 
 missed, when a messenger came in with a letter 
 
138 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 for His Honor the Director. The dignitary 
 took it and opened it immediately, and as he 
 read it a remarkable change cam,? over his face. 
 But he gradually recovered his self-possession, 
 and at length said: 
 
 " Gentlemen, I bless the good fortune 
 which assembles you about me at this 
 time. I am proud to be the first to 
 announce to you an item of intelligence 
 which ought to overwhelm us all with delight. 
 The Providence which watches with such 
 special care over the destinies of China, has 
 just given us a signal example of its 
 kindness to our glorious country. It has 
 overturned the throne of the usurper Fi Ho, 
 whose violence and audacity were rapidly 
 leading China to destruction. It has re- 
 stored the sceptre to the legitimate hands of 
 our young Emperor, the incomparable Hu- 
 o-li XXV. The population of Pekin has al- 
 ready manifested its joy by those universal 
 
THE SAME SUBJECT CON11NUED. 139 
 
 shouts and illuminations which mark the 
 depths of national emotion. Shall we, my 
 dear associates, be the last to welcome a 
 change toward which all our hopes went 
 out ? Shall we be the last to attach our- 
 selves proudly to the magnificent destiny 
 which God is preparing for China ? No, 
 gentlemen, the time has come for us to 
 show our devotion to the public good and 
 to the Emperor. Let us all, on the spot, 
 enthusiastically swear allegiance to our sole 
 legitimate sovereign." 
 
 And thereupon the whole company took 
 the oath again. But as the irrepressible 
 Fo Hi was about to affix his signature to 
 this new document, he observed to the 
 Di rector-in-chief: 
 
 " Your Honor, would it not simplify mat- 
 ters to have a form of oath with a movable 
 heading? This could be changed with each 
 revolution, and we should thus be saved 
 
140 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 the inconvenience of re-signing our names 
 so frequently, " 
 
 " Really, sir," roared the dignitary, who was 
 now fairly furious ; " really, sir, you are 
 animated by a most detestable spirit ! You 
 trifle with the most sacred things. I do de- 
 clare, sir, you are making sport of an 
 oath ! " 
 
 And so Fo Hi, when it was all over and 
 he was safe in his room, added to his 
 code of conduct the following aphorism, 
 which the circumstances of the day had am- 
 ply illustrated: 
 
 With every change of rulers, say 
 New oaths, their favors to entreat. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 FO HI VENTS HIS SPLEEN ON THE GROCER'S 
 BOY. 
 
 AT the end of eight days Fo Hi received 
 a letter which he recognized by its shape 
 and seal as an official communication. He 
 therefore opened it with trembling hands and 
 read as follows : 
 
 "Sir: His Excellency the Minister directs 
 me to inform you that you are dismissed 
 from the position which you now hold. 
 You will go to Fei-out-chi, as a Surveyor 
 of the third class, as you can see by the 
 enclosed appointment. I hope, sir, that this 
 punishment may be a lesson for you, by 
 which you will profit. You have not that 
 submissive spirit which is the chief merit of 
 a public official. In all your acts, and even 
 in your most ordinary utterances, you affect a 
 ('40 
 
142 THE MISERIES OF FO III. 
 
 systematic contempt which amounts almost 
 to rebellion. I give you notice, in the name 
 of His Excellency the Minister, that if you 
 do not make a change in your behavior the 
 Department will be forced to use extreme 
 measures with you and dismiss you forever 
 from its employ. " 
 
 The letter was signed by His Honor the 
 Director-in chief. Fo Hi squeezed it dis- 
 respectfully into an unrecognizable mass, sat 
 down at his writing-desk, and without a 
 moment's delay prepared the following reply : 
 
 " To His Honor the Director-in-chief : I 
 will save the Department the trouble which 
 it would most certainly have to take in a 
 few months. I send you herewith my resig- 
 nation. You have expressed it very well : 
 I have still a little spirit left, and I 
 am not cut out to be a public official. 
 I have acted in that capacity already too 
 long. It is much better to die of hunger 
 
FO HI VENTS HIS SPLEE.\ 7 . 143 
 
 than to eat bread so hard and purchased 
 so dearly." 
 
 This he signed, and without giving him- 
 self time for reflection, sent it off. That 
 very evening he was sent for by the Director- 
 in chief, who received him with great affa- 
 bility, and said to him : 
 
 " My young friend, in the first heat of 
 passion you have written me a letter which 
 is not very becoming. I might have sent it 
 directly to His Excellency the Minister. But 
 I preferred to show some leniency in the 
 case, for you are not bad at heart. Here 
 is your letter. I give it back to you. I 
 consider your resignation as not having been 
 presented." 
 
 Mr. Fo Hi, junior, made a motion as if to 
 refuse it, but the Director went on x in the 
 tone of a kind-hearted patron : 
 
 " Listen to me, my young friend. There 
 is still time enough to send in your resig- 
 
144 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 nation. If you persist in your resolution, 
 bring it back to me in two days from now. 
 I hope that you will have thought better of 
 it by that time. I know very well that the 
 life of a Government officer has its annoy- 
 ances, and just now you are experiencing 
 them a little too keenly. But you forget the 
 bright side of official life, which you will 
 see better when your mind is more com- 
 posed. The advantage of belonging to a 
 powerful body, which never leaves you in 
 the lurch, the respect which is called forth 
 by your uniform wherever you go, the com- 
 fort of an existence insured against all acci- 
 dents by a modest but regular salary, the 
 certainty of a pension which will put your 
 last days beyond the reach of want, the very 
 hope of advancement which one always gets 
 when he deserves it here certainly are more 
 than enough advantages to outweigh all the 
 annoyances. Think of all this, my young 
 
FO HI VENTS HIS SPLEEN. 145 
 
 friend, before taking a resolution which your 
 own family would probably not sanction, and 
 which you will be sorry for at some future 
 time. You know very well what you lose 
 by quitting us ; and on the other hand, do 
 you know what you will meet with outside 
 of the service ? Weigh carefully all these 
 considerations, and come and see me again 
 in twenty-four hours. And meanwhile I will 
 tear up your letter, since you will not take 
 it back." 
 
 " My resolution is irrevocable," said Fo 
 Hi. 
 
 "Very well! very well!" replied the Di- 
 rector, with a smile. " We shall see ! " And 
 he dismissed the young man in the most 
 amicable manner. 
 
 Now Fo Hi was in the habit of passing 
 every day, on the way to his office, a 
 grocery store which reminded him of his 
 
 father's. In the store there was a boy with 
 10 
 
146 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 a good-natured face, who had gotten into the 
 habit of saluting our hero every morning. 
 Fo Hi returned his politeness with a slight 
 nod, and sometimes even condescended to 
 speak to him, when he found him on the 
 doorstep, and when he was himself in a 
 good hurnor. 
 
 " Fine weather," he would say to him. 
 
 "Yes, fine weather, Mr. Fo Hi," the boy 
 would answer. " But the air is quite sharp." 
 
 The boy was very proud of this distinction. 
 He respected Fo Hi and envied him at the 
 same time. The wonderful coral button hurt 
 his eyes at the same moment that it fasci- 
 nated them. In the way in which he lifted 
 his fur cap, one could see very clearly great 
 deference mixed with something of vexation. 
 
 There was no mistaking the meaning of that 
 
 
 salute. The boy meant to say : " The happy 
 
 man, who draws his pay every month with- 
 out fail, and who never puts up packages 
 
FO HI VENTS HIS SPLEEN. 147 
 
 of pepper ! This evening he will go to the 
 ball at the Governor's, and probably will be 
 allowed the honor of tapping him on the 
 stomach, as is done in the higher classes. 
 He has his particular place in the public 
 ceremonies and in the procession of Jugger- 
 naut. He is something in the world, and I 
 lift my fur cap to him instead of his lifting 
 his silk cap to me. Happy man ! " 
 
 Now ordinarily the boy's salutation pleased 
 Fo Hi. But he was in such a state of mind 
 on his return from the interview with the 
 Director, that the sight of this silly fellow 
 raising his cap to him gave him a sharp 
 pang; so he went up to him, and in a very 
 exasperated tone, as if he were talking to 
 himself, said to him : 
 
 " You bow to me, do you ? You bow to 
 me! What a mockery! Keep your hat on, 
 my friend. It is I who ought to take off my 
 cap, and bow to the very ground to you." 
 
148 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 At this singular speech the boy opened 
 his big eyes very wide, and continued standing 
 with his hat in his hand, his mouth open, 
 and a look of amazement on his face. And 
 Fo Hi went on, with much energy : " Yes, 
 it is for me to bow to you, for you are free 
 and I am not. When your work is done, 
 you owe nothing more to your employer, 
 and can go to bed and sleep peacefully. But 
 I ! I have twenty employers, twenty superi- 
 ors who are paid by the Emperor to tor- 
 ment me. They all want to earn their wages, 
 and they do their work zealously. Dynasties 
 change without requiring anything of you. 
 You go on selling your rice and your pep- 
 per, without troubling yourself about them. 
 But they have a claim upon my allegiance 
 because they support me. They compel me 
 to swear my fealty, and I have taken three 
 oaths in the same day. No, don't bow to 
 me, my friend. Keep on your cap. For the 
 
FO HI VENTS HIS SPLEEN. 149 
 
 work which you are doing is of some use. 
 You know it is useful, and the knowledge 
 encourages and sustains you. You believe 
 in the sugar which you crush, and so you 
 go on crushing it the more heartily. But 
 as for me, my friend, I am weighed down 
 every day with a task which is consuming 
 my strength, and yet which is of no use to 
 anybody. I am passing the best days of my 
 life, these days which are gliding by to re- 
 turn no more, I am passing the flower of 
 my life in counting stones by the roadside, 
 and in blackening reams of paper for the 
 rats to gnaw. I am only a machine which 
 goes round and round to no purpose. 
 
 " You don't know anything, do you ? You 
 have scarcely been taught to read and write. 
 Well, console yourself. Ignorance is not 
 stupidity. Every day I am sinking lower 
 than the most ignorant. I am turning into 
 an idiot. I am conscious of it, and I 
 
150 THE MISERIES OF FO LI. 
 
 with rage over it. All the petty passions 
 are getting possession of me. I am acquir- 
 ing a taste for paltry artifices. Yes, I am 
 lost. I dare not look my conscience square- 
 ly in the face, because I should recognize 
 there a horrible depth of hatred. Hatred of 
 whom ? Oh ! Good Heavens ! Hatred of 
 anybody and everybody, hatred of these 
 Directors, who torment me with their miser- 
 able arrogance, and pass on to me, with such 
 manifest satisfaction, the kicks which they 
 themselves have already received, hatred of 
 my work, which I do without pleasure, 
 because I do it without definite purpose 
 hatred of you, sir! yes, even of you, you 
 great simpleton, who are silly enough to bow 
 to me every morning. No, indeed, don't 
 salute me. Keep your cap on. You envy 
 me for going to the Governor's ball. But 
 do you know that I am not at liberty to 
 stay away if I feel like it ? Do you know 
 
FO HI VENTS HIS SPLEEN, 151 
 
 if I were not there to put up smilingly with 
 the little patronizing attentions of Madame, 
 the Governor's wife, there are kind souls 
 who would take quick note of it, and that 
 their note of it would be bad? I have my 
 own place in the procession of Juggernaut. 
 But don't you see that I am between two 
 rows of soldiers, just like a criminal who 
 is being taken to prison ? It is for me to 
 salute you, my friend. You were born in 
 this district, and you will make here a 
 respectable fortune. Here also you will die, 
 surrounded by your own people, and mourned 
 by some of them. But I wander about from 
 town to town unable to stay anywhere. 
 Without notice I am sent from one end of 
 China to the other, without the first cent 
 with which to pay my travelling expenses. 
 And I shall die as I live, wretched .and 
 friendless, at a hundred leagues from the 
 town in which I was born. Pity me, my 
 
152 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 good fellow. I am more to be pitied than 
 envied. Or rather, pity us. For all of us, 
 poor officials, are in the same predicament. 
 Look at that magistrate who is now passing. 
 He is a Councillor. Your employer bows to 
 the ground for him, but he would not trust him 
 for a dollar. Do you see that splendid look- 
 ing officer yonder ? His epaulettes alone cost 
 him a whole year's salary. He will never buy 
 a villa with his savings. He makes a very fine 
 show, but the people with whom he trades 
 can tell you something about that. The Gov- 
 ernment crumbles its budget for the Public 
 Service very fine, that it may go further. But 
 in the end nobody is satisfied^ neither the 
 employees nor the Government. The scanty 
 salaries on the one hand are responded to 
 by scanty work and scanty gratitude on the 
 other hand. Don't ever ask for your piece 
 of the cake, and just put your cap on your 
 head and keep it there." 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 A FAMILY REUNION. 
 
 THERE is nothing for relieving vexation 
 like giving vent to it in words. One of the 
 illustrious talkers of the Western World, 
 the great Cicero, consoled himself for the 
 death of his daughter, whom he loved de- 
 votedly, by writing a great book on his 
 sorrow. So our hero experienced a sense 
 of comfort when he had poured his troubles 
 into the large ears of the grocer's boy. 
 He began to look less bitterly at the _des- 
 tiny which had fallen to him. Little by little 
 he became reconciled to the idea of remain- 
 ing an official. He did not re-write the let- 
 ter which his Director had destroyed, but 
 after having thanked him for his leniency 
 he started for his new post of duty. 
 (>53) 
 
i.S4 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 To reach Fi-out chi, his future home, he 
 had to pass through the district in which he 
 was born. He had at first made up his 
 mind not to stop, for he felt a secret humil- 
 iation at exposing his disgrace to the eyes 
 of those who had seen him depart full of 
 hope and expectation. But when he saw 
 in the distance the "gilded roof of the pagoda 
 which had cast its shadow upon the sports 
 of his childhood, he could not withstand 
 the sight. His heart melted, and turning 
 into the town he leaped from the coach, 
 and in a few moments fell into his father's 
 arms, who hugged him in amazement. Fo 
 Hi junior did not dare to confess the sad 
 truth to the old gentleman who looked so 
 proud of him. He talked to him vaguely 
 of a change of place, and of promotion, but 
 the old fellow was too elated not to take 
 his word for it. He took his son around 
 to all his neighbors, friends, and acquaint- 
 
A FA MIL Y RE UNION. 1 5 5 
 
 ances without exception. And the admira- 
 tion and envy which the poor boy saw re- 
 flected on everybody's face, were balm to 
 his wounded pride. His sisters and brothers- 
 in-law naively regarded him as a superior 
 sort of man, and showed him a great deal 
 of deference. Pe-ka-o, especially, was over- 
 joyed when he heard that so important a 
 personage as Fo Hi junior was actually 
 coming to spend eight days at his farm, 
 and it afforded him much satisfaction to 
 take him over his estate which was of 
 considerable extent. 
 
 " You learned fellows have other pleas- 
 ures, " he said to the young man, " but I 
 doubt if they are any keener than ours. It 
 is a great and .deep pleasure to know that 
 the ground on which you are walking be- 
 longs to you. I am absolute master here. 
 These fields belong to me just as China be- 
 longs to the Emperor. I can do whatever 
 
156 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 I please, and am accountable to God alone 
 who is the Lord of all men. And then I 
 have another pleasure, at which undoubtedly 
 you will laugh. But it is really a pleasure 
 to see my land steaming under the plough- 
 share which turns over the sod in wide 
 furrows. The first little spears of green 
 grass which break slowly through the black 
 clods, throw me into ecstasies of which you 
 can have no idea. I go out very early in 
 the morning when the blue mists are still 
 hanging over the land, and take a look at 
 my fields and meadows. They all know me 
 and smile when they see me, for they are 
 my friends. I look about to see how many 
 fresh stalks have come up in the night, 
 and everything sends forth a rich fragrance 
 which intoxicates my senses. My neighbor's 
 land has not for me that sweet and whole- 
 some smell. No, it is the peculiar fragrance 
 of ownership. Then again the harvest is 
 
A FAMILY REUNION. 157 
 
 a time of festivity with us. The farm is 
 full of laborers who cheer each other on, 
 alike in their work and in their mirth. I 
 take the lead proudly in everything. The 
 sun beats hotly on the reaper as he swings 
 his sickle through the tall wheat, but he 
 wipes the perspiration from his forehead with 
 his sleeve and keeps at it, and when evening 
 comes, he breathes with full lungs the cool 
 breeze which dries and refreshes him. 
 You see those oxen down there lazily 
 feeding in the high thick grass which almost 
 buries them. It is a fine sight when they 
 come home, drawing with their strong necks 
 the heavy wagon on which the yellow 
 sheaves are piled high. Behind walk the 
 harvesters with their sickles on their shoul- 
 ders shouting and singing cheerily. The 
 good wife has the supper ready for them in 
 the farmhouse, and I sit down at table 
 with them and make them merry with a 
 
158 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 glass of wine. And then they sleep as 
 heartily all night as they have mowed all 
 day. You would hardly believe how fond 
 these people are of me. Next to the Em- 
 peror they think more of me than of any- 
 body on earth. I am always looking after 
 their wants, and am fully repaid for my pains 
 by their respect and affection. I am a little 
 ashamed to say it, but I am King on my 
 estate, and I am as happy as a king. My 
 neighbors' affairs do not trouble me, and 
 those of the Empire interest me only in so 
 far as I am, above all things, a good China- 
 man. I confess that I don't care much 
 whether it is John or Paul who governs the 
 country. Rulers have often changed, for- 
 tunately, but the sun never changes. No, 
 he is always on hand at the right time to 
 ripen my grain, and that's all that I ask. 
 And your sister thinks just as I think. She 
 appears to be very happy, and her happiness 
 
A FA MIL Y RE UNION. 1 59 
 
 adds still more to my own. She has already 
 twice made me a father, and we have not 
 enough of the little fellows yet. Children 
 are no expense in the country, you know. 
 But the oldest one belongs to you, my 
 friend. You understand very well that we 
 don't want to make a farmer of him like 
 ourselves. You shall take charge of his edu- 
 cation, and you shall then start him and 
 lead him onward in the splendid career 
 which you are yourself pursuing so honor- 
 ably." 
 
 " Oh ! certainly, certainly," answered poor 
 Fo Hi in a slightly patronizing tone. " Of 
 course this kind of life would not be suit- 
 able for my nephew. Don't be uneasy. I 
 will see to it." 
 
 Now the oddest thing about this conver- 
 sation is that both men were in earnest. 
 Neither of them saw how monstrously foolish 
 it would be, on the one hand for a father 
 
160 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 to drive his son away from a life, the com- 
 forts of which he knew so well, and on the 
 other hand for an uncle to launch his 
 nephew into a profession in which he had 
 himself found nothing but thorns. But the 
 human mind is so constituted that it moves 
 with the greatest ease in the midst of the 
 most stupendous contradictions without ever 
 seeing them. 
 
 Fo Hi junior was to remain a whole 
 week in the country. The novelty of things 
 made the first day agreeably short. The 
 second, however, seemed a little long to 
 him and a little dull. On the third day he 
 grew restless, and on the fourth he began 
 to yawn. At last, on the fifth day he 
 stretched his limbs wearily and said to him- 
 self: " Really, one must be accustomed to 
 the country to find much pleasure in it. I 
 should die of ennui in this land of boors." 
 So he packed his trunk, bade the family an 
 
A FA MIL Y RE UNION. 1 6 1 
 
 affectionate farewell, and returned to the city 
 to visit his brother-in-law, the wholesale 
 grocer. He found this worthy man nailing 
 up some large boxes, and all the while sing- 
 ing at the top of his voice. Chi-kau-go 
 usually sang at his work to keep up his 
 spirits. 
 
 " Well, I declare ! Is this the way you 
 do business ? " said Fo Hi to the merry 
 fellow as he slapped him on the shoulder. 
 
 " Is this the way we do it ? Well, I 
 should say it was! We are not strong- 
 handed enough, and so your father and I 
 work nights. We are in want of good clerks 
 and we have to pay absurd prices for them. 
 I have just engaged one who has no ex- 
 perience at all, and yet I give him a thou- 
 sand taels a yean" 
 
 At this figure the young official started 
 in surprise, for it was just double the 
 
 amount of his yearly salary, and he a 
 11 
 
1 62 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 man with a coral button, and an ex-king of 
 the future. 
 
 "And I shall soon have to raise his 
 wages," continued Chi-kau-go. " But I don't 
 complain. I would give him one half more 
 if I could only trust him thoroughly. Oh 
 yes, there is money to be made in our 
 business ! But then you must work for it. 
 Now, how much better off you are. You 
 live at your ease, without much of anything 
 to do. You have a good salary, regularly 
 paid, and you haven't to lie awake thinking 
 of bills falling due. And besides, you can 
 wear a silk cap, which, to my mind, is one 
 of the most desirable things in the world. 
 But see here, I want that last little fellow 
 of mine to do as you have done. He is a 
 bright boy, full of spirit and ready with all 
 sorts of funny speeches which make his 
 mother and myself split our sides laughing. 
 Of course I don't mean to say that he 
 
A FAMILY REUNION. m 163 
 
 will get as high up as you. But if you 
 will give him a shove, he will make his 
 way with the best of them. It's for him 
 that I am working. Twenty years from 
 now the business will be worth a good 
 deal of money, and then we shall sell out. 
 And as sure as I live it shall all be his 
 some day. " 
 
 " Very good ! You can count on me to 
 do the right thing by him, " said Fo Hi 
 with an assuring gesture. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII.;, 
 
 IN WHICH OLD LI-JOU-LIN TURNS UP AGAIN. 
 
 * 
 
 " WELL, I declare ! Is that you ? " ex- 
 claimed Mr. Fo Hi, senior, one day as he 
 let in old Li-jou-lin. " How long it is since 
 we have had a sight of you! Where have 
 you come from now ? " 
 
 " From Japan," answered the old philoso- 
 pher. 
 
 " From Japan ? What an idea, to go to 
 Japan ! " 
 
 "Well, there was a very handsome young 
 man in Pekin, who parted his hair in the 
 middle so beautifully that he was a particu- 
 lar favorite of the wife of a high officer of 
 the Imperial Household. He had but a 
 single fault. He was rather too fond of the 
 
 society of some young ladies who were not 
 (164) 
 
OLD LI-JOU-LIN TURNS UP AGAIN. 165 
 
 received at Court. This displeased the great 
 lady, and she spoke about it to the Minister. 
 This dignitary, with his usual fatherly be- 
 nevolence, sent for the young man, gave 
 him a scientific mission to Japan, and 
 selected me to accompany him. I did the 
 work, and the young man drew the salary. 
 He was rewarded for the journey with the 
 Cross of the Order of Merit, and I with a 
 book in which he will sign his name. I am 
 delighted that I have been able to study so 
 closely the customs and the laws of a people 
 with whose great writers only I was for- 
 merly acquainted. Even the admirers of 
 female beauty have their good points, and 
 the Ministers who reward them are very 
 obliging gentlemen ! " 
 
 This speech was not very clear to Mr. Fo 
 Hi, who was listening with his mouth wide 
 open. But when two persons are conversing, 
 if one of them understands, that, of itself 
 
i66 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 makes things very entertaining. But Li-jou- 
 lin turned the conversation by asking : "And 
 how are matters with your son, Mr. Fo 
 Hi?" 
 
 At this question the worthy tradesman 
 jerked up his head like a horse who feels 
 the cut of the whip and starts into a 
 quick trot. For half an hour without stop- 
 ping he went on talking about the merits, 
 the virtues, the success, and the hopes of 
 his son. When the good soul once took a 
 start, it was for no short run. The old 
 philosopher had no thought of stopping him. 
 He was busy trying to make out the truth 
 amidst this torrent of words, all the time 
 rubbing his chin with the palm of his hand, 
 while his little eyes sparkled maliciously. 
 
 " What a happy father you are ! " at length 
 he broke out. "A truly happy father! Do 
 let me have a little conversation with this 
 dear child." 
 
OLD Ll-JOU-LIN TURNS UP AGAIN. 167 
 
 So he carried Fo Hi off for a walk, for 
 the young man was not unwilling to go. 
 He took him to a hill from which the 
 eye commanded an extended view. On one 
 side could be seen the busiest streets of the 
 town, in which the old man pointed out to 
 his companion the inhabitants, who looked 
 like so many little black ants, hurrying about 
 in every direction, each intent upon his own 
 business. On the other side the vision 
 ranged over the open country where in a 
 secluded ravine could be descried a large 
 building from which, at intervals, the wind 
 brought the sound of machinery in motion. 
 Here Li-jou-lin pointed out the laborers who 
 were coming out of the building, bending 
 under the weight of the heavy burdens 
 which they were carrying on their shoulders. 
 And here and there in the spreading plain 
 were men holding the plough and guiding 
 the bright share through the steaming earth. 
 
1 68 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 " Does not this scene of busy activity give 
 you pleasure ? " he asked of the young man. 
 
 "Oh! certainly, certainly!" answered Fo 
 Hi, who was, really, quite indifferent to the 
 whole thing. 
 
 " Yes," continued the old man, u labor is 
 beautiful. There is nothing so good and so 
 beautiful on earth." 
 
 Then turning suddenly to the young man 
 he asked him point-blank : 
 
 " Why is it that you do nothing ? " 
 
 " Nothing ? Why, I have a profession 
 which does not leave me a single spare 
 moment!" 
 
 " Yes, you are busy but you do not work. 
 To work is not merely to fill a few hours 
 of life with some kind of occupation. In 
 that sense, of whom could it be said, that 
 he does not work ? We are always doing 
 something, even if it be no more than 
 threading pearls. That only is work, in the 
 
OLD LI- JOU- LIN TURNS UP AGAIN. 169 
 
 true sense of the term, which has an end 
 in view, and that end the highest which 
 could be presented to human activity, the 
 great end of making free both him who 
 works, and those who are born of him. To 
 emancipate one's self and one's posterity from 
 the miseries of servitude, that is the true 
 and only work. Look at that man down 
 there who is bending over the soil, and who 
 appears to be working in it so industriously. 
 I am acquainted with him. He commenced 
 life as a farmer's boy. He drudged long for 
 other people that he might lay up, little by 
 little, enough to buy a bit of land. At last 
 he accomplished his object and became a 
 landed proprietor. And now he is anxious 
 to enlarge his estate. He is thinking of his 
 oldest son, who will take up the work where 
 the father lays it down, and who by con- 
 tinually adding to it will make of this little 
 corner a great and rich domain. This man 
 
1 70 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 \ 
 
 is laying the foundation of an estate and a 
 dynasty. He is becoming a king, and a 
 father of kings. He is working. 
 
 "And your father is working also, my 
 dear boy. He began in a stall, where I saw 
 him for many years engaged in selling rice 
 by the handful to the passers. The stall at 
 last changed into a shop, and then the shop 
 into a large store, and now Mr. Fo Hi, 
 senior, is one of the principal merchants ot 
 the place. He has established a large busi- 
 ness. He is thinking that one of these 
 days his son-in-law, instead of his son, will 
 inherit it to pass it on down to his grand- 
 children. Thus he has, little by little, risen 
 out of servitude, and is at the same time 
 emancipating his posterity. This again is 
 real work. 
 
 " But as for you, my friend, what end have 
 you in view? You will do to-morrow just 
 what you did yesterday. You will do the 
 
OLD LI-JOU-LIN TURNS UP AGAIN. 171 
 
 same thing again every day in the week, 
 and will still be doing it ten years from now, 
 with no hope of any good result. What do 
 you expect to found ? Will you ever be 
 free ? If you should ever have children will 
 you bequeath them that inestimable good, 
 liberty ? No, they will enter upon the career 
 which you have pursued, at the very point 
 from which you yourself started, and with 
 just as little result for themselves and for 
 their children. You will have passed through 
 the world like a summer torrent which 
 leaves behind it a dry bed. The life which 
 you are leading is of no use to anyone. It 
 is disastrous to yourself, for it is undermin- 
 ing and gradually destroying the intelligence 
 which God has given you." 
 
 Just here Fo Hi made a motion as if to 
 interrupt him, but the old philosopher con- 
 tinued with an air of authority : 
 
 " Let me finish what I am saying. Yes, 
 
172 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 my dear boy, your faculties are growing 
 
 
 
 weaker every day. In the end they will be 
 completely extinguished, and you will .have 
 come to that point of moral insensibility, 
 where you will not even regret the loss. In- 
 dependent work refreshes and nourishes the 
 soul. It requires the continuous exercise of 
 originating power, and the unceasing appli- 
 cation of all the energy of the will. And 
 this vigorous exercise makes the mind grow, 
 and preserves the flexibility and vigor of 
 that active energy which is within the man, 
 and which spurs him on to great enterprises. 
 But what you are doing requires from you 
 no effort of the mind, nor even of the body. 
 You are harnessed to your work, and you go 
 on your way, with your head down, looking 
 neither to the right nor to the left, with 
 melancholy indifference performing your day's 
 work, which rolls on without a jolt in an 
 interminable rut. Is this what it is to work ? " 
 
OLD LI- JOU- LIN TURNS UP AGAIN. 173 
 
 " Now, don't you know very well," replied 
 Fo Hi, with a forced smile, "that if every 
 one were to reason as you do the Gov- 
 ernment would have no one to attend to its 
 business ? " 
 
 "Would to God! Would to God!" ex- 
 claimed Li-jou-lin. " Then, perhaps, the 
 Government would not meddle with what 
 does not concern it. It would not assume 
 charge, at so much expense of time and 
 money, of so many enterprises which it con- 
 ducts with such poor success. It would 
 leave to the citizens the business of con- 
 structing roads, of digging canals, of mak- 
 ing cigars, of teaching children, of preach- 
 ing morality to men, and of doing a thou- 
 sand other things which they understand 
 infinitely better than does the Government'. 
 It would not look after everybody's cows, 
 and the cows would be all the better taken 
 care of, for that very reason. It would be 
 
174 THE MISERIES CF FO III. 
 
 satisfied to regulate and to maintain the dig- 
 nity of the Empire abroad, and its tran- 
 quillity at home. And for this, its legitimate 
 business, only a small number of employees 
 would be necessary. These it would find 
 readily among those, who, having no longer 
 any need to devote their energies to their 
 own private affairs, would be free to devote 
 themselves to the affairs of the public. It 
 would intrust them with important and dif- 
 ficult business, and would pay them accord- 
 ingly. And these men would be the chief 
 men in the State, not merely for the honor 
 which would attach to their functions, but 
 for their own personal merits. It would be 
 understood that to fulfill their trust, to render 
 to the country the services which she ex- 
 pects of them, they would need more intel- 
 ligence, more courage, and more energy even 
 than their ancestors had shown in setting 
 them free by making them rich." 
 
OLD LI- JOU- LIN TURNS UP AGAIN. 175 
 
 " What a dream ! " said Fo Hi, shrugging 
 his shoulders. 
 
 " Do you think so, my friend ? And yet, 
 I tell you, I have just come from a country 
 where this dream is a great and beautiful 
 reality. We are separated from the Japanese 
 people by a mere arm of the sea. But to 
 see how different their ideas and methods 
 are to ours, one would say that the vast 
 Pacific lay between the two countries. There 
 men have a single thought in life. It is to 
 found an estate and a dynasty which will 
 keep it. They work with their eyes fixed 
 on the future. The son succeeds the father, 
 and continues his work, as he perpetuates 
 his name with unconquerable perseverance 
 from generation to generation. Thus it is 
 that the great houses rise little by little 
 from nothing. The labor of generations ac- 
 cumulates gradually until the happy day 
 when the whole family is concentrated in one 
 
176 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 scion, in whom are collected the rich re- 
 sults of three or four centuries, and who, 
 liberated henceforth from his own affairs, 
 devotes himself to the public, and has no 
 longer any other interest than that of the 
 state." 
 
 "Ah! hold on there!" objected Fo Hi, 
 "Your Japanese are then assured, by some 
 special favor, of never having more than one 
 child, are they?" 
 
 "Not at all. But they have but one heir." 
 "And do you think that just?" 
 "This is the price at which alone you can 
 have liberty," said the old man, solemnly. 
 " Is it too dear a price to pay for that most 
 precious of all good things ? It is folly of 
 the worst kind to think that liberty can 
 balance itself in the air like the sparrows, 
 without anything to rest upon. If it has no 
 support in men whose sole business it is to 
 defend and maintain it, it falls to the ground 
 
OLD LI-JOU-LIN TURNS UP AGAIN*. 177 
 
 and is shattered into fragments. There is 
 no liberty without an aristocracy." 
 
 "All men are equal," said the young man, 
 in an oracular tone. 
 
 " Yes. But true equality does not neces- 
 sitate the abolition of privileges. Some of 
 these are indispensable, and some are only 
 expedient; but true equality asks that all 
 privileges should be accessible to all men 
 
 alike." 
 12 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 I XT WHICH A NEW CHARACTER APPEARS ON THE 
 SCENE. 
 
 THE next time Li-jou-lin called on Mr. Fo 
 Hi, senior, he found there a man whose 
 appearance and dress at first surprised 
 him. It was easy to see, by the whiteness 
 of his skin and the peculiarity of his 
 features, that he was a European. He had 
 a hat with a brim which was very wide 
 at the front and back but which curled up 
 at the sides, and when he took off this 
 hat a shining bare spot was seen on the top 
 of his head, as round and white as a double 
 tael of silver. The hair grew thickly all 
 around it, and reached down to the forehead, 
 which was quite covered when the locks 
 were smoothed down. He was dressed in a 
 (178) 
 
A NEW CHARACTER APPEARS. 179 
 
 long black robe, and had a kind of bib 
 hanging about his neck, which could hardly 
 be of any other use than to wipe his mouth 
 upon. He spoke Chinese with difficulty. 
 But old Li-jou-lin, who had lived in Canton 
 for two years, knew enough English and 
 French to make himself understood in both 
 of these languages. After thinking for a 
 few moments, he concluded that this strange 
 guest must be one of those Catholic Mis- 
 sidnaries of whom he had frequently heard 
 and of whose doings he had read in the 
 French newspapers. So he greeted him cor- 
 dially. For he liked anything which looked 
 like courage, and it certainly requires cour- 
 age to cross the seas, and to go, sustained 
 by faith alone, to preach an unknown God 
 to people who are regarded as barbarians. 
 The missionary quickly saw that he had to 
 do with an honest and educated man, and 
 began to converse frankly with him. He 
 
i So THE MISERIES OF FO III. 
 
 complained of the persecutions inflicted upon 
 those who were bringing" the Gospel to the 
 Celestial Empire, and in vigorous terms 
 taxed the Emperors with blindness, in- 
 justice, and cruelty. 
 
 " But/' said old Li-jou-lin, in answer to 
 these complaints, "if I should take a no- 
 tion to go to your country with a dozen 
 Chinese priests, for the purpose of preaching 
 our God openly to your people, how would 
 you receive us ? " 
 
 " Oh ! the case is not supposable ! " was 
 the priest's reply. 
 
 " Let us, however, assume it, and answer 
 my question." 
 
 " Alas ! " said the man in the black 
 robe, raising his eyes to heaven. " Now- 
 adays they would merely throw you into 
 prison. But two hundred years ago, in 
 the good old times, they would very justly 
 have burned you alive in the public square, 
 
A NEW CHARACTER APPEARS. 181 
 
 for the glory of God and the edification of 
 your fellow-creatures. It would have been a 
 very cheering spectacle to the eyes of the 
 
 faithful." 
 
 
 
 "I don't doubt it at all," replied the 
 philosopher. " But you ought not to think 
 it strange if you are treated here as we 
 should be treated in your country ! " 
 
 "Oh! But it is a very different thing! 
 We are bringing you the truth ! " 
 
 "The truth! How do you know that?" 
 
 " Because God himself has revealed it to us." 
 
 "What! Do you think that God has not 
 revealed it to us also ? " 
 
 "How can you talk of your God, who 
 is only a false God ? " 
 
 " Well, I will not say as much of 
 yours," responded Li-jou-lin, very politely, 
 "for I regard all the Gods as true who 
 counsel men to live rightly, and I know 
 of none who give any other counsel." 
 
1 82 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 " Is this what your God does ? " cried the 
 missionary, " when he teaches you to throw 
 your new-born children to the swine ? " 
 
 Now Li-jou-lin was a philosopher, but he 
 could not suppress a sign of indignation at 
 this horrible charge. Indeed, his countenance 
 showed his feelings so plainly that all 
 those who were sitting by eagerly asked 
 him what it was that the man in the black 
 robe could have said. So he translated to 
 them the missionary's words, at which they 
 were all filled with horror and disgust. 
 But when the first rush of feeling had sub- 
 sided, the philosopher replied, in a calmer 
 but still agitated voice : 
 
 " This is a terrible calumny, and very 
 easily charged upon a people with whom, 
 you are but imperfectly acquainted. May 
 your God forgive you for it ! It is true, 
 there are unnatural mothers in China, as 
 there are everywhere else. Have / you none 
 
A NEW CHARACTER APPEARS. 183 
 
 in your country ? Alas ! I used to read 
 your newspaper sometimes when I lived in 
 Canton. And what did I see ? How many 
 poor children drowned, smothered, roasted, 
 buried alive, and even thrown to unclean 
 animals ! How many mothers guilty of 
 slaughtering their offspring! How many 
 murders committed in cold blood, and some- 
 times with the most refined ingenuity of 
 barbarity and with the most incredible 
 cruelty! The records of your courts are 
 crimson with the blood of these poor little 
 things ; and if one can judge by the num- 
 ber of the guilty who are brought to jus- 
 tice, how many more there must be who 
 escape the hands of the law ! For this 
 kind of crime easily hides itself in the dark, 
 and many of them will never break the 
 silence in which they lie buried until the 
 moment when God will bring them to light 
 at the last great day. But is it right, 
 
1 84 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 because in a nation of a hundred millions 
 of people there are a few monsters, to ac- 
 cuse the whole nation of such crimes, and 
 include all its inhabitants in one sweeping 
 aspersion of guilt ? Believe me, sir, the 
 women of our land have feelings as well 
 as your women in Europe. They also look 
 upon it as a blessing from Heaven, when 
 they have the happiness of becoming moth- 
 ers. They would give their lives for the 
 children whom they have brought into the 
 world. Those who have told you different 
 have deceived you abominably." 
 
 "You are vexed with them unjustly, " re- 
 plied the missionary, in a benevolent and 
 penitent voice ; " those who have brought 
 these reports are pious people, who were 
 inspired only by a praiseworthy charity. 
 Their stories have excited the compassion 
 of Catholic nations. And all the faithful 
 have banded together to rescue these poor 
 
A NEW CHARACTER APPEARS. 185 
 
 children who are devoted, by the misfor- 
 tune of their birth to the tusks of the 
 swine and the flames of hell. Every week 
 they give a small sum of money for their 
 poor little fellow creatures in China. These 
 small contributions are continually accumu- 
 lating in our hands, and at the end of the 
 year they amount to a very considerable 
 sum. We use it, in accordance with the 
 intention of the contributors, to buy up 
 those of your children whom their mothers 
 abandon." 
 
 " And have you bought many of them ? " 
 " Well, no, I have not yet had that 
 pleasure." 
 
 "And I hope that you will never have 
 it. Let me tell you, sir, to keep your pity 
 and your money for your own unfortunates. 
 I am told you have not a few of them at 
 home. You will have enough to do to 
 feed your own poor. After you have done 
 
186 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 that, you may think of ours if you want to ; 
 but meanwhile we will take care of them 
 ourselves. As for our children, we do not 
 sell them at any price, and the money 
 which is given for that purpose is money 
 thrown away." 
 
 " It is not thrown away on everybody, 
 however," muttered the missionary. 
 
 Fc Hi, junior, at the end of this remarkable 
 conversation went up to the philosopher, 
 and pointing to the man in the black robe, 
 who had taken his hat and was bow- 
 ing himself out, said in a low voice : 
 
 "This man, who crosses the sea, who ex- 
 poses himself to a thousand dangers and 
 faces a thousand privations to carry to stran- 
 gers the Gospel of his God do you dare to 
 say that this man is not working ? And 
 yet he is founding nothing. He has no 
 family, and never will have any." 
 
 "Yes," said Li-jou-lin, "there are men 
 
A NEW CHARACTER APPEARS. 187 
 
 who have no family but humanity. They 
 are artists, scholars, priests. They are found- 
 ing the kingdom of justice and truth among 
 the nations of the earth. I know of no 
 grander nor better work ! " 
 
 " Suppose, then, that I should become an 
 artist ? " asked the young man eagerly. 
 
 But the philosopher smiled, and tapping 
 him playfully on the cheek, replied : " Be- 
 come your brother-in-law's clerk ! That is 
 the best advice I* can give you." 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 FO HI FINDS HIMSELF BAD COMPANY. 
 
 A __ 
 
 IT was too late to follow Li-jou-lin's ad- 
 vice. After one has once become a public 
 official, it is very difficult ever to be any- 
 thing else. For in this line of employment 
 the mind loses all its elasticity and force. 
 It forgets to depend upon itself, and gradu- 
 ally grows unaccustomed to personal effort. 
 What is more agreeable than to leave to 
 others the tiresome task of thinking and 
 willing, and merely to draw one's salary 
 regularly on the last day of the month ? 
 What is more delightful than to be exempt 
 both from hope and fear alike ? The Public 
 Service is a very comfortable pillow for a 
 sluggish mind. And the man who enters 
 
 upon it is soon reduced to that state of 
 (iSS) 
 
FO HI FINDS HIMSELF BAD COMPANY. 189 
 
 enervating security, so that when the 
 time comes for him to assert his inde- 
 pendence he has no longer the power to 
 shake off the lethargy with which his 
 whole being is benumbed. He dares not 
 look steadily into the future, and with closed 
 eyes gives himself up, passively, to the 
 current of events. The worst effect of serv- 
 itude is, that, in the end, it renders man 
 incapable of liberty. The negro learns at 
 last to like the bread of slavery, and to 
 want no other. 
 
 Fo Hi junior put on again the yoke 
 which he had thus far worn, and started for 
 his new post. It was at a very little town 
 on the sea-shore. It is so unimportant and 
 so little known, that the Memoirs from which 
 this veracious story is abstracted, have not 
 so much as taken the trouble to tell us its 
 name. The first few days of our hero's 
 sojourn here were filled up with the initia- 
 
190 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 tory duties of the position, which were 
 very laborious. 
 
 It was the time when the illustrious Fou- 
 ya-no, Governor of Pekin, had taken it into 
 his head to demolish three-fourths of the 
 city for the purpose of rebuilding it more 
 conveniently and beautifully. The most of 
 the provincial Governors followed his ex- 
 ample, and it seemed as if they would all 
 be taken with this craze for demolition. Fo 
 Hi, therefore, found half of the population 
 camping out in the midst of the ruins of 
 their former habitations. He started out at 
 once to find apartments, but there were none 
 to be had. 
 
 "And where do you live ? " the Governor 
 asked him when he went to call on him, 
 according to etiquette. 
 
 " On the public square for the present," 
 answered Fo Hi. " There are no more 
 houses." 
 
FO HI FINDS HIMSELF BAD COMPANY. 191 
 
 "Just so," responded the dignitary. "They 
 would hinder you from seeing the town. 
 But just wait ten years, and you shall have 
 some palaces to choose from." 
 
 But meanwhile Fo Hi found no other 
 palace than a little ugly room furnished with 
 some old second-hand furniture. But the 
 window opened on the sea, and the fine view 
 pleased him so much that he was reconciled 
 to the rest. When he could get away from 
 his daily tasks, he leaned on the railing of 
 his balcony, and there remained for hours at 
 a time, lazily looking out over the vast waste 
 of waters, and lost in vague reveries. But 
 soon he got tired of this spectacle which, at 
 first, had delighted him. It was the only 
 pleasure he had, and it soon ceased to be a 
 pleasure. He began to be awfully bored. 
 For a long time he had ceased to take any 
 pleasure in his work, and now had a perfect 
 disgust for it. He dragged himself to it 
 
192 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 from a mere blind sense of duty, and the 
 sight of a heap of stones was enough to 
 make him sick. He took his meals, with the 
 rest of his associates who were unmarried, in 
 a miserable cook-shop, where they were poi- 
 soned with the horrible cooking, with every 
 mark of the highest respect. Here he lin- 
 gered as long as he could over each meal, 
 not because he found anything entertaining 
 in the company of his fellow- officers. He 
 knew by heart the conversations which were 
 repeated again and again every day. They 
 never talked of anything but professional 
 trifles, day after day going into endless dis- 
 cussions over a stone. He could tell before- 
 hand all the jokes and puns which would 
 be brought forth to garnish and enliven the 
 hour's discourse. And yet he dreaded the 
 moment when he would be left alone with 
 himself. He went back to his room impelled 
 by no other motive than that he was tired 
 
FO HI FINDS HIMSELF BAD COMPANY. 193 
 
 of remaining out of doors. He threw him- 
 self upon an old settee and tried to kill time 
 by going to sleep, but sleep would not come 
 at his call. Then he got up, and walked 
 around his room, arranging, disarranging, 
 and fidgetting about. At last, moved by a 
 secret and irresistible restlessness, he went 
 out, but the ennui which had driven him 
 from home soon drove him back again. 
 Then he took up a book and tried to read. 
 But he was no longer capable of the long 
 and close attention demanded by serious 
 works, and novels only sickened him. Then 
 he yawned at the top of his voice. People 
 who were in the habit of passing under his 
 windows had sometimes heard strange noises, 
 something like the creaking of a rusty 
 weather-vane. It was Mr. Fo Hi amusing 
 himself by reading aloud. At last the vol- 
 ume fell from his hands, and he looked at 
 
 it without seeing it, with a dull eye and 
 13 
 
194 THE MISERIES OF FO ///. 
 
 pouting lips. His brain buzzed like a bee- 
 hive with the idle thoughts with which it 
 was full. Then he lighted his pipe and 
 smoked for two or three hours without stop- 
 ping. Then he felt his head grow heavy', 
 his eyelids closed, and his mind subsided 
 into vacancy. At last he was happy. 
 
 But a year of this kind of life made a 
 frightful change in Fo Hi. His eyes had 
 been bright and sparkling, but they gradually 
 grew dull and lifeless. His face became 
 bloated, and took on that sallow hue notice- 
 able in old maids who are tired of single 
 blessedness. Sometimes his features wore an 
 expression of idiotic bliss, and at other times 
 looked strangely emaciated, wrinkled, and 
 anxious. His temper turned sour, and he 
 became sensitive and irritable. He took fire 
 from his miseries, and frequently acted with 
 singular harshness toward his inferiors. One 
 day when he was going along the street in 
 
FO HI FINDS HIMSELF BAD COMPANY. 195 
 
 all the glory of his best blue suit em- 
 broidered with silver, a subordinate forgot to 
 raise his cap to him. Fo Hi followed the 
 matter up with an obstinacy which can only 
 be explained by the emptiness of his exist- 
 ence, for he was not of a malicious dis- 
 position. He even thought of having the 
 poor wretch discharged, who threw himself, 
 at length, at his feet and implored his for- 
 giveness. One of his associates, a good man 
 and burdened with a family, obtained a 
 gratuity of fifty taels. At another time Fo 
 Hi would have been delighted at this piece 
 of good luck falling to a comrade. But 
 now he resented it bitterly, and for fifteen 
 days talked about it continually in an envi- 
 ous tone, all the while denouncing the in- 
 justice of it. He ill-treated the people who 
 had business with him, and tried to exas- 
 perate them, and to wreak upon them the 
 sufferings of his own mind. It was a kind 
 
I9<3 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 of revenge which relieved and gratified him. 
 The mean and base passions were growing 
 luxuriantly in his bosom, like weeds in a 
 fertile soil which is no longer cultivated. 
 
 But Fo Hi had not yet reached the point 
 of insensibility to his condition. He saw 
 himself sinking, little by little, into the abyss, 
 and sometimes he excused himself, saying 
 flippantly : " Oh, pshaw ! what do I care ! " 
 But more often he was furious with himself, 
 called himself a fool and a knave, and 
 worked himself to a high point of good 
 resolution. But these better moments did not 
 last long, and he fell back again into the 
 depths of his misery. 
 
 One morning a young man called on him 
 whose face he did not recognize, but who 
 said to him: 
 
 " I have just come from your family, who 
 gave me this letter and charged me to de- 
 liver it to you personally." 
 
FO HI FINDS HIMSELF BAD COMPANY. 197 
 
 "Are you acquainted with my family?" 
 asked Fo Hi, in a voice tremulous with feel- 
 ing. 
 
 " I am a commercial traveller. Mr. Fo Hi, 
 senior, with whom I have business relations, 
 knew that I would pass through your town, 
 and asked me to bring you some good 
 news." 
 
 " Well, what is it ? " said the young man. 
 
 " Why, everything is turning out splendidly. 
 Do you know that your father is getting to 
 be a great man ? The Emperor actually 
 wanted to appoint him a member of the 
 Municipal Council. He refused the honor 
 on the ground that he was too old/ but 
 recommended his son-in-law, who has been 
 very graciously accepted as a substitute by 
 His Majesty. The family made a great ban- 
 quet in honor of the appointment. They had 
 kept one empty place at the table. It was 
 for you. By chance I called upon your 
 
198 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 father that very day, and the empty 
 place was immediately given to me. We 
 all drank your health, and in the evening 
 we danced far into the night. I danced 
 with Madame Chi-kau-go, your sister, who 
 seemed to be the happiest of wives. Ohl 
 that house doesn't breed sorrow, I can tell 
 you ! " 
 
 "But Pe-ka-o, my other brother-in-law, was 
 he at the reunion ? " 
 
 " No. He sent his wife. But he was not 
 able to be there himself. He was engaged 
 on an inspection." 
 
 "An inspection! Inspecting his farm, I 
 suppose ? " 
 
 " Bless you, no ! He is inspecting other 
 people's farms, in the name of the Emperor, 
 to whom he reports the condition in which 
 he finds them. He is a very skilful agri- 
 culturist, and has made a great reputation 
 in the country by his enterprise in trying 
 
FO HI FINDS HIMSELF BAD COMPANY. 199 
 
 new methods of culture. He is a great 
 favorite with the Minister." 
 
 " A favorite with the Minister ! " 
 
 u Of course. The Minister of Agriculture 
 has already sent for him frequently to con- 
 fer with him on subjects in which he is in- 
 terested. He can not fail to reach a high 
 position. Next year it is very probable that 
 he will get the Cross of the Order of Merit 
 But how are you getting on, my boy ? " 
 
 " Oh ! very well, very well, indeed. It 
 couldn't be better," said Fo Hi. But he 
 said it in so piteous a voice that anybody 
 else would have guessed the truth. But 
 this commercial traveller was a good fellow, 
 with whom it was a principle that it is 
 quite enough to take care of one's own 
 affairs without worrying about other people's. 
 
 "Good! that's the thing!" he shouted, 
 and squeezing Fo Hi's hand warmly, he took 
 himself off, whistling a gay hunting air. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 WHAT FO HI THINKS OF THE NEWS. 
 
 WHEN his visitor had gone Fo Hi threw 
 himself on the settee, while great tears 
 rolled from his eyes, tears of rage and 
 jealousy. He struck the table violently with 
 his fist and exclaimed: 
 
 " Look at me ! What had I done that 
 my father should put me to college ? It is 
 all his fault, the whole of it! Could I 
 know what this useless and absurd educa- 
 tion would at last do for me ? Ought he 
 not to have looked ahead, and found out 
 about it ? Oh ! Father, father ! what an 
 injury you have .done me! My misery 
 is all your work ! Did you hate n:e ? 
 If you had loved me, would you not 
 have let me live near you, rich, happy 
 
 and honored, as you are ? You have 
 (200) 
 
WHAT FO III THINKS OF THE NEWS. 201 
 
 plunged me into the most awful wretchedness ! " 
 He pulled open the drawers of his dress- 
 ing-case, one after another, with savage 
 violence, and burst out again : 
 
 " Not a single tael ! And so it will al- 
 ways be ! I shall live to the very end, poor, 
 without family, and without comfort, every- 
 body's slave, and, worst of all, the envy of 
 fools ! Oh my father ! my father ! " 
 
 He was extremely excited, and ran on 
 in a loud voice, with his fists savagely 
 clenched. The old habit of filial respect 
 held back upon his lips the curses which 
 came very near escaping. But they boiled 
 up in his heart if he did not speak them. 
 At last, however, his eyes fell on the letter 
 which he had left open. He had only run 
 through it hastily, but now he took it up 
 and read it again with more care. His 
 father, after some items of news from the 
 family, ended by saying: 
 
202 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 "I am very old, my dear boy, and the 
 day is not distant when I shall have to 
 give an account to the great Tao of what 
 T have done here below. But I shall ap- 
 pear boldly before him with my hands 
 filled with the benedictions of my children. 
 Every year of your lives will plead for me 
 in that day. Your mother and I have 
 given our lives to make yours more comfort- 
 able. We have forgotten ourselves for you 
 all, but especially for you, my dear boy. 
 You have always been our best loved child, . 
 and we sacrificed for you even your sis- 
 ters' future. Perhaps it was wrong, but 
 God has not punished us for this excessive 
 love. He has blessed the marriage of our 
 daughters, as he has watched over you. I am 
 a happy father, and I shall die without regret, 
 if, before I pass into the other world, I 
 can embrace you once more, and hear from 
 your lips your last words of gratitude.'* 
 
WHAT FO HI THINKS OF THE NEWS. 203 
 
 "Poor father!' 1 said Fo Hi, deeply touched 
 by these kind words ; and he burst again 
 into tears. But this time they were real 
 tears which fell, drop after drop, upon the 
 wicked words that he had uttered, and 
 washed them out of the book of his life. 
 
 " And why should I not be happy ? Is 
 it then absolutely impassible ? Are not 
 these torments which I am enduring, the 
 results of my character rather than of my 
 circumstances ? Is there not a man among 
 my associates who is contented with his 
 lot ?" He passed them all in review before 
 his mind. With some of them he was not 
 well enough acquainted to know whether 
 they were really contented or not. 
 
 " It is true they haven't the appearance 
 of suffering. But then who would think 
 from my looks, that twenty times a day I 
 have a great mind to throw myself into 
 the sea ? When I walk about the streets 
 
204 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 in my uniform embroidered with silver, 
 what do they see but a smiling face ? 
 Who can say positively that they do not suf- 
 fer the same torments as I, or even worse ? 
 For the most of them have wives and 
 children on their hands, and thus their pos- 
 sibilities of suffering are vastly greater 
 than mine/' 
 
 As for others, he had no doubt of the 
 state of their minds. Day after day he had 
 heard them complaining, and cursing their 
 superiors. He knew that they, like himself, 
 were the prey of all those petty and vile 
 passions which bury their stinging points 
 so deeply in human life. " No,' 1 he said 
 with bitter satisfaction, "we are all convicts 
 chained together in the same galley. Some 
 sit nearer the keeper than others and so 
 feel more frequently the weight of his 
 cudgel, but it is the same cudgel which 
 falls upon us all." 
 
WHAT FO HI THINKS OF THE NEWS. 205 
 
 But all at once he struck his hand to 
 his forehead, like a man who suddenly calls 
 up something which he had forgotten, and 
 exclaimed : " Oh ! Yes. Le-hi-to ! I forgot 
 Le-hi-to!" 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE HAPPY LE-HI TO. 
 
 THIS Le-hi-to was a big bachelor, who was 
 always contented and always singing, and 
 whose jovial face Oriental poets might very 
 well have likened to the full moon. He 
 lived by himself in a very retired way, and 
 had but few acquaintances among his asso- 
 ciates. And yet he was on the best of 
 terms with them all, and ready to do them 
 a kindness whenever it was needed. Every- 
 body liked him. His big, ruddy, good- 
 natured countenance, beaming with mirth, in- 
 spired confidence and good-will. No one did 
 his work better or with an air of greater 
 satisfaction. He paid no obsequious atten- 
 tions to his superiors, but when his work 
 was done, made his bow to them, and had 
 (206) 
 
THE HAPPY LE-HI-TO. 207 
 
 nothing more to do with them. But he also 
 never spoke ill of them, and judging from 
 his perfectly frank face it was difficult to 
 believe that he could have hard feelings 
 toward anybody. And yet he had been in 
 the Department for twelve years, and had 
 never obtained the slightest advancement, 
 although he had always conducted himself 
 in a most exemplary manner. But it never 
 seemed to trouble him. He bore philosoph- 
 ically the injustice with which he was treated. 
 In fact it might even be questioned whether 
 he so much as suspected the injustice which 
 was done him. 
 
 " Well, to be sure ! " said Fo Hi, " there 
 is a happy man, or I am greatly mistaken. 
 I must go and see him, and get him to tell 
 me his secret." 
 
 Now Le-hi-to lived on the remote out- 
 skirts of the town, in a little house of 
 which he was the sole occupant. And as 
 
2o8 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 he had no housekeeper, he opened the door 
 himself for Fo Hi. 
 
 "Why! good morning, comrade!'* he ex- 
 claimed cheerily, giving Fo Hi a warm grasp 
 of the hand. "I am happy to see you. I 
 have found it! It was hard work, but I 
 have found it at last!" 
 
 And he rubbed his hands with as much 
 satisfaction as if he had at last solved the 
 problem of squaring the circle. 
 
 " What on earth have you found, to give 
 you so much delight ? " asked our hero, in 
 astonishment. 
 
 " Hush ! Don't say a word ! Just come 
 with me!" 
 
 So he took Fo Hi by the arm, and led 
 the way through two rooms, which were so 
 carefully washed, waxed, and set in order, that 
 they might have been taken for the apart- 
 ments of some old maid. Then he threw 
 open the door of a little cabinet, and 
 
THE HAPP Y LE-III- TO. 209 
 
 exclaimed triumphantly: "Look! Look ! " 
 
 Fo Hi looked with all his eyes. The 
 cabinet was surrounded with large panes of 
 glass set in painted wooden frames, and on 
 the shelves within, which rose up some five 
 or six feet from the floor, a great number 
 of shells were arranged in the most perfect 
 order, all labelled and numbered. In the 
 middle of the room was a little table on 
 which were a glue-pot, some little slips of 
 paper, a pair of scissors, some thread, some 
 fragments of shell, and writing materials. 
 
 " Bless my soul ! What's all this ? " asked 
 Fo Hi, with an inquiring look. 
 
 "What's this?" replied the jolly fellow, 
 cheerily. "Why, this is my collection of 
 shells. What do you think of it ? " 
 
 " Oh ! it's very fine, very fine indeed ! " 
 
 said Fo Hi, who really felt very little inter- 
 
 % 
 
 est in the matter. 
 
 "You would better say that it is the very 
 14 
 
210 THE MISERIES OF FO ///. 
 
 finest in China. It is not yet quite com- 
 plete. But I am adding to it all the time, 
 and this very day, my friend, this very day, 
 see the priceless treasure which I have suc- 
 ceeded in getting." And as he said this, 
 he took carefully from its box a shell in 
 which Fo Hi could not see anything peculiar. 
 So he said indifferently: 
 
 " What ! That ? " 
 
 " That ! " exclaimed Le-hi-to, skipping 
 about gleefully. " That! You profane fel- 
 low! You don't know that that is one of 
 the most marvellous shells now in existence, 
 and that probably you could not find another, 
 even in the Imperial Museum. It has taken 
 me ten years to find that! In shells of 
 this kind there are usually but eight reddish 
 lines traced on the valve you understand, 
 of course, the valve ? There are a few with 
 
 nine lines, and a very few have ten. Of 
 
 
 this last variety I own two specimens which 
 
THE HAPPY LE-HI-TO. 211 
 
 are very valuable. But this one, which you 
 have so contemptuously called that look at 
 it, my dear fellow, and count them for 
 yourself! this one has eleven lines ! The 
 eleventh is undoubtedly not very clear, but 
 it is there. It is a rare treasure, and I 
 would not take a thousand crowns for it. 
 The famous scholar, Pont-cho-ki, claims to 
 have seen one in which as many as twelve 
 lines were visible. The one thing necessary 
 to complete my collection is one- of these 
 shells with twelve lines. But I will find it. 
 One always finds what one looks for. Yes, 
 even if I have to dive into the deepest sea 
 for it, that shell must be mine. I will have 
 it, and then I can die contented." 
 
 "Do you intend to write a book on this 
 subject ?" asked Fo Hi. 
 
 "I? Oh, not at all! I should like to, 
 but I could not find the time." 
 
 " Is it for your own instruction, then, that 
 
212 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 you are putting yourself to so much trouble ? 
 Are you searching for some great truth, the 
 key to which lies in the lines of these 
 shells?" 
 
 " Not in the least ! I am collecting them 
 for the sole pleasure of having the finest 
 collection in China. You see by the empty 
 spaces that I still lack a number of pieces ? 
 These spaces are so many eye-sores to me, 
 and I would make the tour of the world to 
 fill them." 
 
 "And are you happy ?" asked Fo Hi, 
 with a deeply thoughtful air. 
 
 "Perfectly happy! Can there be a happier 
 man in this world than a collector of shells ? 
 Just you begin at it once, and you will say 
 the same thing ! " 
 
 " Perhaps he is right," said the young man 
 to himself, as he returned home. " It is ab- 
 solutely necessary to have a passion and an 
 object in life. A passion for shells is cer- 
 
THE HAPPY LE-H1-TO. 213 
 
 tainly not very exalted, and their collection 
 is not a very useful occupation. But even 
 this is far better than to care for nothing 
 and to do nothing. But the mischief of it 
 is that you can't take a passion as you can 
 take a cold." 
 
 Then he thought over all the things which 
 he might take up and pursue as Le-hi-to 
 pursued the collection of shells. But he 
 could think of nothing which was to his 
 taste, and at last said to himself: 
 
 "Ah ! the best thing undoubtedly would 
 be a passion for one's profession. " 
 
 He went home and sat down in a corner 
 near the fireplace. The dog-days were at 
 their height, and consequently there was no 
 fire on the hearth. 
 
 "What a miserable season of the year 
 summer is ! Fire keeps a man company, 
 and cheers him up. When one hears it 
 flaming and crackling, one is no longer alone. 
 
214 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 There is nothing sadder than an empty 
 chimney, an empty purse, an empty heart, 
 and an empty life. Nature abhors a 
 vacuum." 
 
 He cast his eyes about him, and his room 
 had never seemed so large. He yawned 
 wearily two or three times, and said: 
 
 " Really, this life is only supportable when 
 there are two to bear it! When God put 
 Adam in the earthly Paradise, with nothing 
 to do but to walk about, the first thing he 
 did was to supply him with a wife.' 1 , 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 SHALL I THEN GET MARRIED ? 
 
 " A WIFE ! " Fo Hi repeated to himself. 
 "A wife!" 
 
 And immediately the fourth command- 
 ment of his code flashed before his mem- 
 ory in letters of fire : 
 
 Refrain from wedlock till ihou'rt gray, 
 Nor taste of love's delicious sweet. 
 
 But he was disposed to argue the mat- 
 ter, and went on: 
 
 " And why not ? Why should I be de- 
 barred from the only true happiness I, 
 who need it more than anybody ? Two un- 
 happy wretches together might make a very 
 endurable existence of it. 
 
 " I should have near me a being who 
 
 would love and comfort me, and divert my 
 (215) 
 
216 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 mind from my troubles. We should cling 
 close to one another, so as to carry together 
 the burden of life. Then we should have 
 children, and they would fill the room with 
 dhouts and kisses. We should educate 
 them, and our lives would have an object. 
 And thus at last I should learn the 
 pleasant torture of hoping and fearing." 
 
 This idea Fo Hi went on turning over in 
 his mind for a long time. It rose and 
 curled about in the air with the smoke of 
 his pipe. He conjured up a charming pict- 
 ure of his future happiness, and asked him- 
 self with surprise why he had not thought 
 of it sooner. He had been invited to a ball 
 to be given that very evening by His 
 Honor the Governor of the town. So. he 
 spread on the pomade with extra care, 
 and put on his full-dress suit embroidered 
 with silver, for which he had paid with the 
 happiness of his life, and which was now to 
 
SHALL I THEN GET MARRIED ? 217 
 
 repay him abundantly. With incomparable 
 grace and ease, he made his entree to the 
 Governor's parlors. A large number of 
 young girls in white and rose-colored dress- 
 es were ranged in two rows on opposite 
 sides of the room for the admiration of sus- 
 ceptible young men. In the rear the moth- 
 ers and the aunts of the pretty creatures 
 formed a sombre background. Fo Hi passed 
 along between this double row of marriage- 
 able young women, without the slightest 
 idea of the emotions which he was exciting 
 in the breasts of these aunts and mothers. 
 
 He begged one of the young ladies to be 
 kind enough to do him the honor to dance 
 with him. But I am compelled in the inter- 
 est of truth to say that he chose this par- 
 ticular one for the sole reason that she was 
 nearest him to the right. I know very well 
 that the ladies will have a grudge against 
 my hero for his indifference to female charms. 
 
218 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 But it can't be helped. The truth 
 must not suffer. Fo Hi was not a very 
 brilliant dancer, but he got through with it 
 at last. He tried to be very witty, and he 
 succeeded or at least he thought he did. 
 He saw the young lady's lips part frequent- 
 ly in an appreciative smile, and he had 
 the opportunity to notice that she had pretty 
 teeth. He asked the privilege of the next 
 quadrille, and she very politely* accepted him 
 for the seventeenth. So he leaned gracefully 
 against a mantel at the end of the room, to 
 watch her more at his ease while she was 
 dancing the intervening sixteen. Here he 
 was standing, lost in thought, when he felt a 
 hand laid on his shoulder. It was the Con- 
 troller, who greeted him pleasantly, and 
 struck up a conversation. 
 
 " Aha, my boy ! we are in love, are we ? 
 Do you want some one to ask her hand 
 for you ? I am a friend of the family. 
 
SHALL I THEN GET MARRIED ? 219 
 
 Shall I speak for you ? No ? Ah ! I see you 
 are moving cautiously. Well, I wash my 
 hands of the matter, then ! There is nothing 
 that I abominate so much as mixing up in 
 other people's affairs. I only warn you that 
 your esteem for the young lady is creating 
 a scandal. Oh, don't be alarmed ! I mean 
 in the good sense of the word. That is, 
 it is all the talk in the ball-room. In fact, 
 they are already talking of marriage. Well, 
 it would not be so bad a bargain ! She is 
 pretty, has fine blue eyes, and a small 
 hand. You might do much worse. The 
 family stands very high in these parts. I 
 know her father. He is a man of fortune, 
 and is not likely to live long. Just think 
 of it! A beautiful girl and a hand- 
 some dot ! On the whole, it isn't so bad to 
 take, is it ? All right ! Come along and 
 let me present you to her mother. " 
 
 Fo Hi, quite * deafened by this flow of 
 
220 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 speech, was unable to get in a word. He 
 did not so much follow his self-imposed 
 patron as he allowed himself to be dragged 
 along, and was received with a most en- 
 gaging smile by an extremely faded old 
 lady. She complimented him on his me- 
 thodical habits, which were so well known, 
 and told him that nothing in the world 
 would induce her to give her daughter to 
 a man of objectionable character. She had 
 always dreamed of having a Government 
 officer for a son-in-law. They afforded so 
 many guaranties of good behavior to the 
 family into which they had the honor to be 
 admitted. They were usually economical, 
 sensible, domestic, and disinclined to wild 
 and adventurous notions. The very ardu- 
 ousness of their duties necessitated a regular 
 life, without which happiness was quite im- 
 possible. They had a settled income, and 
 a mother could die in peace when she had 
 
SHALL I THEN GET MARRIED ? 221 
 
 confided to such a man her dearest earthly 
 treasure. Wherever they went they com- 
 manded respect, and there was no greater 
 happiness in store for a young woman than 
 that of entering a drawing-room escorted by 
 a splendid blue uniform embroidered with 
 silver. 
 
 As Fo Hi listened to these flattering 
 words, he almost burst with pride and sat- 
 isfaction, and forthwith asked leave to call 
 upon the faded old lady. The next day 
 he went, and two days after he went again, 
 and then fell into the agreeable habit of 
 going every evening. Sorrow and ennui 
 took their flight. He was in love. Father, 
 mother, brothers, and even the house-dog, 
 received him with great consideration. The 
 young lady herself, alone, no longer smiled 
 upon him, although her mouth still con- 
 tained those thirty-two bewitching teeth. 
 But Fo Hi attributed her sadness to mod- 
 
222 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 esty, and made his proposals to her father. 
 The Controller had talked about a dowry of 
 twenty thousand taels, but the father, in a 
 very magnificent manner, stipulated for but 
 ten thousand. Fo Hi did not dare to ob- 
 ject, although his plans were somewhat dis- 
 arranged by this reduction. The next week 
 it was intimated that he would receive but 
 one half the amount in cash, and that the 
 income of the remainder would be paid an- 
 nually. Again our hero submitted without 
 an objection. Then five or six days later 
 the mother declared that she should die 
 if she were to be separated from her 
 daughter, and that she would give up a 
 part of her house to the young couple 
 and the rent could be deducted from the 
 income of the dowry. 
 
 " Do whatever you please," said Fo Hi, 
 gallantly. "I am too happy to object_to any- 
 thing." 
 
SHALL I THEN GET MARRIED ? 223 
 
 " Give me your hand, my son-in-law," an- 
 swered the old lady. " You are a noble fel- 
 low, and I confide to you my daughter's 
 happiness without the least fear." 
 
 But on the morning of the day on which 
 the contract was finally to be signed, Fo 
 Hi received a call from a young man whom 
 he did not know but whose honest face 
 and hearty way pleased him from the first. 
 
 " Sir," said the stranger, " I am about to 
 speak of a very delicate matter, and I en- 
 treat you to take it in good part. Do 
 you love passionately the young person 
 whom you are about to marry ? " 
 
 " Why, of course," replied Fo Hi, in 
 amazement. 
 
 " That is unfortunate, for it makes my 
 errand so much the more painful. I will 
 not keep you in suspense. In a word, the 
 business is this : I also am in love with 
 your intended, and she is in love with me." 
 
224 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 "What? She is in love with you?" 
 
 "Yes, and she has been for a long time. 
 Oh, don't be uneasy ! She is as chaste as 
 she is beautiful, and I am an honorable 
 man. You can imagine, sir, what a blow 
 to me is this approaching marriage, which 
 is to destroy all my hopes." 
 
 " But why have you never proposed to 
 her father for her? I have not stood in 
 your way. I think " 
 
 " Oh, I did propose to him a long time 
 ago, but I was refused. I am not a Gov- 
 ernment officer, sir; that was the mischief of 
 it. I had not the right to wear, like you, 
 the livery of the Public Service. We both 
 received the same education, but, unlike 
 you, when I left college I did not ask a 
 position from the Emperor. I tried to make 
 one for myself by hard work. There were 
 some oil-wells in this region which had 
 been allowed to fall into neglect. These I 
 
SHALL I THEN GET MARRIED? 225 
 
 bought very cheap, for they were of no 
 value in their neglected condition. I re- 
 opened and worked them, and the result 
 is that I laid the foundations of a new 
 business, which will add to the wealth of 
 this whole country, and which, I have great 
 hopes, will also some day make me a 
 rich man. In a few years I shall have 
 made a large fortune, and will then be able 
 to marry to my taste, without anxiety about 
 the amount of the dot. I shall simply ask 
 my wife to bring joy and domestic bliss to 
 my hearth. Such, sir, were the thoughts 
 with which I consoled and encouraged my- 
 self. Well, just then by chance I met the 
 beautiful creature whose eyes have con- 
 quered you. I could not see her without 
 loving her. I asked her consent, which I 
 hold to be the first duty of every hon- 
 orable man, and she graciously gave it. 
 
 Then I went to her family, and explained 
 15 
 
226 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 my position and my hopes. But the very 
 arguments which I thought ought to plead 
 for me, were turned against me. The father 
 was averse to giving his daughter to a mer- 
 chant, and the mother contended that fort- 
 unes based upon trade were insecure, and 
 that her grandchildren might die in the 
 work-house for all that she knew. Both of 
 them declared that a young person like 
 their daughter was not fitted to apply her- 
 self to the details of business. In vain did 
 I assure them that she should have no 
 care of my business, except so far as she 
 voluntarily chose, for the purpose of giv- 
 ing employment and object to her life. 
 All my entreaties and even my tears 
 were in vain. I had to withdraw. Then I 
 heard of your proposal, and my first im- 
 pulse was to cut your throat. But I 
 thought over it, and restrained myself. I 
 determined to let the matter pass in 
 
SHALL I THEN GET MARRIED ? 227 
 
 silence; and that silence I never would 
 have broken, believe me, if I had not 
 this very day received this letter, which 
 I beg you will read." 
 
 Fo Hi read the letter with great agita- 
 tion. The young lady w r as his betrothed. 
 He saw clearly that she did not love him, 
 and that she was being married to him by 
 force, and, worse still, she was begging anoth- 
 er tp take any necessary means to hinder 
 the marriage before it was consummated. 
 
 We have already noticed that energy of 
 character was not the ruling trait of our 
 hero. Trie desperate nature of the situation, 
 which nerves up other men, was calculated 
 only to dishearten him. He quickly pict- 
 ured to himself all the annoyances of 
 the marriage which he was contemplating: 
 a wife who would only hate him, and a 
 dowry which would not be paid, the tor- 
 ment of a mother-in-law with whom he 
 
228 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 would be obliged to live, and the wretch- 
 edness which would result from it all. 
 
 " But what is there that I can do ? " 
 he exclaimed, in the voice of a man who 
 is drowning and cries out for a rope. 
 
 "Write a very polite letter to your ex- 
 pected father-in-law, in which you tell 
 
 him whatever you please ; that his 
 
 daughter does not seem to be very eager 
 to marry you, and that you are afraid you 
 may not make her happy, which is really 
 the truth." 
 
 " The deuce ! the deuce ! " growled Fo Hi, 
 rubbing his ear. But the young man fell 
 on his knees, and urged him so strongly, 
 with such hearty and passionate assurances 
 of eternal gratitude, that our hero had 
 not the heart to refuse. So he wrote the 
 letter, and regretted it ten minutes after, 
 
 when it was too late to recall it. 
 
 %t 
 
 He went to the window to collect his 
 
SHALL I THEN GET MARRIED? 229 
 
 ideas a little, and as he looked out he saw 
 on the beach a very pretty young woman 
 who was gathering the shells which the 
 waves had washed up. Her dress was 
 tucked up to her knees, exposing her well- 
 made limbs. When Fo Hi saw her he 
 put two fingers to his lips and gallantly 
 threw her a kiss, to which bit of politeness 
 the young woman responded with a loud 
 laugh. She then took up a little pebble 
 and roguishly made believe to throw it at 
 him; to which pretty trick Fo Hi respond- 
 ed again by opening his coat as if to re- 
 ceive it. The result of it all was that ten 
 minutes later he was on the beach in full 
 conversation with the pretty flirt. He dared 
 not offer her his arm in open daylight, but 
 he said he would be extremely pleased if she 
 would bring him some shells some day at 
 dusk ; and after giving her some directions 
 as to where he lived, he went back to his 
 
230 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 room, looking about stealthily to see if any 
 one had observed him. But this little 
 flirtation cost him much dearer than he 
 thought. For he was observed ; and when 
 the father of his intended received the letter 
 breaking off the match which had been an- 
 nounced everywhere and was already nearly 
 concluded, he reported in the town that 
 this Fo Hi was a scamp, who was leading 
 a very scandalous life, and that he had 
 found himself compelled at the last moment 
 to refuse him his daughter. Fo Hi was 
 accordingly sent for by the Director-in-chief, 
 and asked for an explanation of his behav- 
 ior. But Fo Hi very curtly replied that 
 he did not consider that the Department 
 had any right to inquire into the motives 
 of an act which affected himself alone. He 
 showed by a very strong argument that 
 His Honor the Director-in-chief had the 
 right of control only over the heaps of 
 
SHALL I THEN GET MARRIED ? 231 
 
 stones and not over the marriages of his 
 subordinates. But the dignitary retorted 
 sharply: "That is where you are mistaken. 
 I am the father of my subordinates. I am 
 responsible for their conduct, and whatever 
 may affect their character affects me me, 
 who am their chief and representative. I 
 do not admit the subtle distinction which 
 you make between the official and the 
 man. Bear in mind, sir, that always and 
 everywhere you are an official. It is an 
 indelible character which you can not sep- 
 arate from yourself like a cloak which you 
 can put on and off at your convenience. 
 Every step which you take, every word 
 which you speak, reflects upon the Depart- 
 ment, and I must give an account of it to 
 the Emperor. The office of an employee 
 of the Government is a sacred thing a 
 fact which you seem too often to forget. 
 I have not been willing, by inflicting pun- 
 
232 THE MISERIES OF FO ///. 
 
 ishment immediately, to add to the scan- 
 dal which you have already caused a still 
 greater scandal. But if I am lenient, it is 
 not for your sake, for you scarcely deserve 
 bo much consideration, but for the sake of 
 a respectable family whom you have plunged 
 
 into sorrow and tears. Go, sir, but re- 
 
 
 
 member that the Department has its eye 
 upon you !" 
 
 Fo Hi left the presence of the Director 
 very much crestfallen. He tried to console 
 himself for this terrible rebuke by court- 
 ing the company of the pretty flirt whom 
 he had met on the beach. But he soon 
 found out that she was ignorant and ill- 
 bred. She threatened to compromise him, 
 however, if he jilted her, so he was forced 
 to submit to her odious ways. But at last 
 he revolted against this intolerable tyranny, 
 and after a painful scene, which lasted for 
 two hours, left her forever. She followed 
 

 SHALL I THEN GET MARRIED ? 233 
 
 him to his apartments, but he put her out 
 of doors. Then she held on to the balus- 
 trades and screamed at the top of her 
 voice, until all the neighbors were aroused, 
 and a large number of people ran to the 
 spot to witness this lovers' quarrel. And 
 this last development did the business for 
 Fo Hi. Two days later he received an or- 
 der of transfer. 
 
 It was the fourth time in six years that* 
 he had changed his residence. He had 
 come to such a pass, however, that these 
 changes no longer disturbed him. The life 
 which he was leading was so insipid and 
 disgusting to him, that he no longer 
 took the trouble to be irritated by the 
 misfortunes with which it was so thickly 
 strewn. He was like the negro slave, who 
 has no ambition to exert himself, because he 
 has no power to change his fate. 
 
 Fo Hi was packing his trunk for the 
 
234 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 new departure, when the young merchant 
 who had taken his betrothed from him 
 came in: 
 
 "Sir," he said, "I owe to you my happi- 
 ness. Your withdrawal has compelled the 
 old man to give his daughter to the only 
 son-in-law available. I shall never forget 
 the service which you have done me, and 
 I am here to acknowledge it, and to pay 
 you back, if I can. My business is con- 
 tinually extending itself. But I am about 
 to advance in a new direction. Thirty leagues 
 from here I have discovered an'l bought 
 a new oil-well. I want an intelligent and 
 trustworthy man to take charge of it. I 
 will take you into partnership, and you 
 can make your own fortune while helping 
 me to make mine/ 1 
 
 "I a merchant! I sell oil!" shouted Fo 
 Hi. 
 
 " Oh, I beg your pardon ! " said the 
 
SHALL I THEN GET MARRIED? 235 
 
 young man, with a shade of sarcasm in 
 his voice. " I beg you to excuse my offer. 
 I see very clearly that it was improper/' 
 
 For a single moment Fo Hi had a 
 strong inclination to throw himself into the 
 young fellow's arms and cry : 
 
 "No! No! Your advice is that of a 
 sensible man and a true friend. I am only 
 a proud idiot, a miserable fool saturated 
 with ridiculous prejudices. Let us go in- 
 to the oil business together, and par- 
 don me for my silliness." But a petty 
 sense of shame held him back. The pre- 
 cious opportunity, which he ought to have 
 seized, slipped by and falling into a chair 
 he burst into tears. But he quickly re- 
 covered himself and said : " Oh, pshaw ! It's 
 silly to weep. That never cures anything. 
 Let's get the trunk packed and be off. I 
 will do like that fellow Le-hi-to. I will 
 make a collection of shells ! " 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 IN WHICH FO HI MEETS WITH A NEW AD- 
 VENTURE. 
 
 Fo Hi found once more, in the town to 
 which chance now brought him, the ever- 
 lasting apartments which he had already 
 seen everywhere, with dirty paper on the 
 walls and second-hand veneered furniture. 
 He took possession of them with a heavy 
 heart and some such thoughts as these: 
 
 " Just think of it ! there isn't a thing here 
 that knows me or cares for me ! Here I 
 come like a traveller to a hotel which he has 
 to leave the very next day. He finds no- 
 where a memory or a thought to cheer and 
 console him. Everything around stares indif- 
 ferently and vulgarly at him, and chills him 
 to the bone. Yes, in this room, which be- 
 (236) 
 
A NEW ADVENTURE. 237 
 
 longs to nobody because it belongs to every- 
 body, I am nothing but a transient guest, 
 like so many others who have gone before 
 me without leaving a trace of themselves. 
 It will be just so with me. There will never 
 be a single radiant spot in this room into 
 which I can put a part of my heart and 
 life. I am pitching my tent here to-day. 
 To-morrow I shall have to refold it, and 
 not a thing that I see here now for the 
 first time, will rise up to hold me back and 
 cry out : ' Stay with us ! Haven't we always 
 been good friends to you ? Where will you 
 find a more comfortable arm chair to sleep 
 in and to think of your sweetheart ? Don't 
 you remember how faithfully this secretary 
 has guarded your little savings ? Where 
 will you find a better friend and a wiser 
 counsellor ? ' No ; these w^lls upon which 
 generations have left their finger-marks, this 
 worn-out and broken furniture which seems 
 
238 777^ MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 to be yawning with listlessness and fatigue, 
 nothing here has anything to say to me. I 
 could remain here ten years, and still be 
 nothing but a stranger. Government officers 
 are the nomads of civilization, and the only 
 home which a nomad has is that which he 
 carries around on the back of his pack- 
 horse. 
 
 "And you, my poor trunk," he went on 
 again, as he was undoing the straps of his 
 luggage, "are my only faithful friend. Old 
 and dilapidated as you are, I still love you. 
 We have never forsaken one another. You 
 recall to my mind my father's house, from 
 which I started out with you, young, hand- 
 some, and beaming, and then again the many 
 journeys which we have made together 
 since. I have no doubt we shall make 
 many more, but I shall not mind them so 
 much if you go with me. When I raise 
 your lid, it seems to me that I can see all 
 
A NEW AD VENTURE. 239 
 
 the memories of my life thronging out of 
 you. They stream before my eyes, and I 
 find a melancholy pleasure in surveying 
 them. You are the one point in this room 
 at which my past joins on to my present 
 life." 
 
 The town to which Fo Hi had this time 
 been sent was situated in the extreme south 
 of the Empire. The minds of the inhab- 
 itants, heated by the fierce rays of a tropical 
 sun, were naturally passionate, and more 
 than once terrible quarrels, in which much 
 blood was shed, had arisen over matters of 
 religion. The bonzes and fakirs were the ab- 
 solute rulers of the district, and there never 
 was a more jealous and insolent dynasty. 
 They had organized a vast association, partly 
 lay and partly clerical, membership in which 
 was intended to be the only alternative to 
 death by impalement or fire. The society 
 was named after the great Pa-o-li, one of 
 
240 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 the most illustrious fakirs of China. It was 
 founded under the pretext of assisting the 
 poor and the sick, but was secretly working 
 to undermine the power of the Emperor, 
 whom it hated, because on his accession he 
 had said that he should keep the priests 
 well in check and compel them to keep their 
 place as citizens and subjects. This priestly 
 association therefore hated him cordially, 
 although it did not scorn to make use of 
 him whenever it was advantageous to do 
 so. It acknowledged but one master the 
 Grand Lama, who claimed to be God's rep- 
 resentative on earth. From him it received 
 its watchword, and accepted it with implicit 
 obedience. Its members mutually sustained 
 one another, and persecuted with relentless 
 hatred all who did not belong to the soci- 
 ety, whether they were merely indifferent to 
 it or open enemies. They had adopted as 
 their motto the celebrated saying of a cer- 
 
A NEW ADVENTURE. 241 
 
 tain sage, " He who is not with me is 
 against me," and unfortunately for those who 
 were guilty of the folly of standing in op- 
 position to it, it launched against them its 
 infallible curse. All expedients were allow- 
 able to compass the ruin of these heretics. 
 When the judges could not be influenced 
 against them and their destruction thus be 
 accomplished at a blow, they were sur- 
 rounded by an invisible net of injurious 
 insinuations and petty annoyances, and were 
 thus gotten rid of gradually, by slow and 
 gentle but no less irresistible means. These 
 religionists had great power over the Gov- 
 ernment employees, whom, in fact, they ad- 
 vanced or discharged at their pleasure. 
 
 Fo Hi was not slow to discover this state 
 of things. He had never professed hostility to 
 religion. He held that one should respect 
 the religious views of others, even if he 
 
 lived up to his own imperfectly. But our 
 16 
 
242 THE MISERIES OF FO ///. 
 
 hero was endowed with a certain contrariness 
 of disposition which led him inevitably to 
 take views exactly the opposite of those 
 which were being forced upon him. Now 
 lie had no sooner arrived in the country 
 than he was seized with a burning desire 
 to break lances with the bonzes and their 
 party. He was never seen at any of the 
 religious ceremonies, and he allowed no op- 
 portunity to escape of assailing those whom 
 he called bigots and hypocrites. When he 
 was warned of the risk which he was run- 
 ning, he replied : " What have I to fear ? 
 Are not these people the furious enemies of 
 the Emperor who pays me and to whom I 
 have sworn obedience ? I hate them, of 
 course, but is it not my duty to hate them ? 
 Is it not the duty of every loyal citizen to 
 detest them ? If they dared to attack me 
 should I not be protected by the name of 
 the Emperor, whose cause I am maintaining 
 
A NE W AD VENTURE. 243 
 
 
 
 against his bitterest and most implacable 
 enemies ? " 
 
 You see Fo Hi was still very youthful in 
 his views. He was always imagining that it 
 is logic which governs the world. He had 
 no idea that the agents of the Emperor 
 would be the first to denounce and sacrifice 
 him, and that the Emperor would never 
 know anything about it. But the catastrophe 
 came much more quickly than even old 
 Li-jou-lin could have predicted. 
 
 The Society of Pa o-li had made arrange- 
 ments for a great public procession to the 
 temple of Ja-ghi, for the purpose of invok- 
 ing the blessings of Heaven upon the per- 
 secuted Grand Lama. But by whom was he 
 persecuted ? No one, of course, would say, 
 although it was everybody's secret. All the 
 Government officers received an invitation to 
 honor this religious demonstration with their 
 presence. It was an invitation and a com- 
 
244 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 mand in one. Fo Hi could not have had 
 a better opportunity to display his blue 
 uniform embroidered with silver. But he 
 was exasperated against the bonzes. So he 
 refused to attend, and did not even take the 
 trouble to offer an excuse for the refusal. 
 But he did still more. He .stationed himself 
 insolently in full view of the procession and 
 watched it with a proud and scornful coun- 
 tenance. 
 
 When the procession reached the temple 
 of Ja-ghi, one of the priests mounted a 
 platform, and drawing from his pocket a 
 great roll of paper proceeded to read a ful- 
 some and violent discourse, in which the 
 Emperor himself was roundly abused. As 
 Fo Hi listened to the disloyal words of the 
 speaker, he fairly boiled with wrath and in- 
 dignation. He could no longer contain him- 
 self, and springing to his feet suddenly in 
 the midst of a profound pause, he shouted 
 
A NEW AD VENTURE. 245 
 
 at the top of his voice, like a blast from 
 the last trump : " It's an infamous lie ! " 
 
 This of course threw the whole assembly 
 into indescribable confusion. But Fo Hi re- 
 mained standing, with a bold and aggressive 
 look. He did not, however, remain long, 
 for the police rushed upon him and secured 
 him, and took him off to the lock-up. His 
 trial was conducted with surprising dispatch, 
 for he had to do with men who never 
 allow a revenge to loiter, except when they 
 can not effect it otherwise. He was unani- 
 mously condemned and sentenced to be im- 
 paled. And now the prisoner was seen to 
 take out his note-book and write something 
 in it, which was found to be this maxim, 
 with which his decalogue was at last com- 
 pleted : 
 
 Before the priests thy offering lay 
 Of worship that to God is meet. 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 IN WHICH FO HI IS NOT EXECUTED. 
 
 THE presiding judge asked Fo Hi if he 
 had anything to say why the sentence 
 should not be enforced. To which formal 
 question he replied : 
 
 " Yes, your Honor. I am a Government 
 officer, and I claim all the rights which 
 this title gives me. My position gives me 
 the right to be impaled on a stake of gold, 
 and I believe that this demand can not be 
 refused." 
 
 The judges thereupon retired to their pri- 
 vate apartment to deliberate, and in a few 
 minutes returned to their places on the 
 bench. 
 
 "Prisoner Fo Hi," said the Chief-Judge, 
 " however unworthy you have shown your- 
 self of the privilege which the law accords 
 (246) 
 
FO HI IS NOT EXECUTED. 247 
 
 you? we do not wish to deprive you of it. 
 You shall have the honor of being impaled 
 upon the golden stake, with the usual solem- 
 nities." 
 
 Now this method of execution was one 
 of the finest ceremonies of which China has 
 preserved the memory. Fo Hi was arrayed 
 in his blue uniform embroidered with silver, 
 and marched to the place of execution with 
 as much serenity of manner as he would 
 have gone to a ball at the Governor's. 
 
 The drums beat the march, and bands of 
 
 * 
 
 music, stationed along the route, filled the 
 air with martial music. The crowd was 
 enormous, and the platforms which had 
 been erected for the occasion were filled 
 with the most beautiful ladies of the town, 
 who were dressed in all their finery as if 
 for a fete. 
 
 All this splendor was calculated to flatter 
 the vanity of Fo Hi; but as he caught 
 
248 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 sight of the stake in the distance, rising up 
 in the public square, he was disturbed by 
 some reflections which were not so gay as 
 they might be. 
 
 " What strange ideas my father must have 
 had," he thought, "to make a Government 
 officer of me! Ah! if they ever catch me 
 again ! But come, come ! No weakness. 
 Everybody is looking at me." He pushed 
 back his hair, and went on resolutely and 
 smilingly. As he was passing along he 
 overheard a civilian in the crowd saying to 
 his neighbor : 
 
 "What lucky fellows these Government 
 officials are to be impaled on such a splen- 
 did instrument ! Such luck will never fall 
 to us poor wretches ! They wouldn't show 
 so much ceremony in putting us out of the 
 way ! " 
 
 This envious speech gave poor Fo Hi a 
 great deal of satisfaction; but it was the 
 
FO HI IS NOT EXECUTED. 249 
 
 last satisfaction he was to get out of the 
 imposing ceremony. For he was already in 
 the hands of the executioner, when a horse- 
 man was seen approaching at furious speed, 
 shaking a paper in his hand, and shouting : 
 " Pardon ! Pardon ! " 
 
 "Come, come ! Hurry up, my * friend ! " 
 said the bonze, who acted as Master of 
 Ceremonies, to the executioner. " We are 
 not here to trifle away our time." 
 
 But Fo Hi was in no haste to be done 
 for, and managed to delay the proceedings 
 until the horseman reached the square. It 
 turned out to be Pe-ka-o, who brought a 
 pardon signed by the Emperor himself. And 
 Fo Hi fell into his arms, quite beside him- 
 self with joy. 
 
 " How on earth did you do it ? " he 
 asked, when they were once more alone. 
 Pe-ka-o then told him that he had come to 
 be one of the great landholders of the Em- 
 
250 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 pire, and that he was in a fair way to 
 be Minister of Agriculture some day. 
 He said that he saw the Emperor frequent- 
 ly, and was consulted by him on a number 
 of subjects. As soon as he heard of the 
 conviction of his brother-in-law he went 
 directly to the palace. There he had been 
 received by the Emperor, who said to him 
 that he could refuse him nothing. 
 
 "What! the Emperor can refuse you 
 nothing ? " asked Fo Hi. 
 
 " Well, he said so, at any rate." 
 " So much the better ! You shall ask him 
 to give me an appointment ! " 
 
EPILOGUE AND DECALOGUE. 
 
 THE family of Fo Hi was thus reunited 
 once more after so many years, and now 
 the young official was quite dazzled by the 
 luxury with which he found his father sur- 
 rounded. His two brothers-in-law also had 
 become very rich, and were authorized to 
 wear three coral buttons on their caps. But 
 between themselves they smiled at these 
 distinctions, which really bring with them 
 no happiness. They were prouder of their 
 children, who were growing up about them 
 like so many rosebuds, than they would 
 have been of all the coral buttons in the 
 world, The oldest of these little treasures 
 was now ten years of age; and as Fo Hi, 
 junior, passed his hand over the boy's hair, 
 
 he said gayly : 
 
 (250 
 
252 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 " We will make an official of this little 
 fellow ! " 
 
 " No, thank you ! " exclaimed the young- 
 ster's mother. " I don't care to have him 
 impaled." 
 
 "Tut! tut! my girl," said Fo Hi, senior, 
 who was not yet cured of his pld notions. 
 "It is a great thing to be impaled on a 
 golden stake to the sound of martial 
 music!" 
 
 Fo Hi, junior, also promised that he 
 would give his nephew the benefit of the 
 experience which had cost him so dear, and 
 would thus smooth the way for the young 
 aspirant for political honors. "I have," said 
 he, "reduced the principles of conduct in the 
 Public Service to ten rules, which are to be 
 learned by heart, and are always to be ob- 
 served." 
 
 "I should like to know what they are," 
 said Li-jou-lin. 
 
EPILOGUE AND DECALOGUE. 253 
 
 The young man accordingly drew a paper 
 from his pocket and read aloud his code 
 of conduct as follows: 
 
 I. 
 
 To thy superiors homage pay, 
 
 And them profoundly do thou greet. 
 
 It 
 
 All those who are beneath thy sway 
 Harshly and mercilessly treat. 
 
 III. 
 
 No zeal nor energy display, 
 Nor work with unbecoming heat. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Refrain from wedlock till thou'rt gray, 
 Nor taste of love's delicious sweet. 
 
 V. 
 
 Temper thy taste for all things gay' 
 Be in indulgences discreet. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Let bread and water be thy stay, 
 Nor rice-wine cause unsteady feet. 
 
254 THE MISERIES OF FO HI. 
 
 VII. 
 
 All public wishes disobey, 
 
 And practice even the courts to cheat. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 With every change of rulers, say 
 New oaths, their favors to entreat. 
 
 IX. 
 
 Before the priests thy offering lay 
 Of worship that to God is meet. 
 
 X. 
 
 Think thou of nothing night or day, 
 But thy advancement to complete. 
 
 "Very good, indeed," said Li-jou-lin, when 
 the young man stopped reading; "but in- 
 stead of these ten rules, I will give you 
 one which is worth them all." 
 
 "What is it? What is it?" they all 
 shouted together. 
 
 "Keep out of office; and thus may 
 Thy years in independence fleet." 
 
 And assuredly this old Li-jou-lin was no 
 fool! 
 
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