gh the tree tops trying vainly to clutch the friendly
branches. Then with a loud scream he struck the ground, and his long
journey was ended.

[Illustration: "AH," SIGHED THE TURTLE, "IF ONLY THE GOOD GOD, P'ANKU,
WERE HERE."]

"Come out from under that turtle, boy! What are you doing inside the
temple in the dirt? Don't you know this is not the proper place for
you?"

Bamboo rubbed his eyes. Though only half awake, he knew it was his
father's voice.

"But didn't it kill me?" he said as his father pulled him out by the
heel from under the great stone turtle.

"What killed you, foolish boy? What can you be talking about? But I'll
half-kill you if you don't hurry out of this and come to your supper.
Really I believe you are getting too lazy to eat. The idea of sleeping
the whole afternoon under that turtle's belly!"

Bamboo, not yet fully awake, stumbled out of the tablet room, and his
father locked the iron doors.

THE MAD GOOSE AND THE TIGER FOREST

[Illustration]

Hu-lin was a little slave girl. She had been sold by her father when
she was scarcely more than a baby, and had lived for five years with
a number of other children in a wretched houseboat. Her cruel master
treated her very badly. He made her go out upon the street, with the
other girls he had bought, to beg for a living. This kind of life was
especially hard for Hu-lin. She longed to play in the fields, above
which the huge kites were sailing in the air like giant birds. She liked
to see the crows and magpies flying hither and thither. It was great fun
to watch them build their stick nests in the tall poplars. But if her
master ever caught her idling her time away in this manner he beat her
most cruelly and gave her nothing to eat for a whole day. In fact he was
so wicked and cruel that all the children called him Black Heart.

Early one morning when Hu-lin was feeling very sad about the way she was
treated, she resolved to run away, but, alas! she had not gone more than
a hundred yards from the houseboat when she saw Black Heart following
her. He caught her, scolded her most dreadfully, and gave her such a
beating that she felt too faint to stir.

For several hours she lay on the ground without moving a muscle, moaning
as if her heart would break. "Ah! if only someone would save me!" she
thought, "how good I would be all the rest of my days!"

Now, not far from the river there lived an old man in a tumble-down
shanty. The only compan