d like that of an old man.
K'ang-p'u looked round in amazement, first at the stone columns, then
at the arch above. No one was to be seen. Had he been dreaming?

Just as he lay back to sleep once more, the voice sounded again very
faintly, "K'ang-p'u! K'ang-p'u! why don't you let me out? I can't
breathe under all these feathers."

Quick as a flash he knew what was the matter. Burying his hand in the
basket, he seized the wooden tablet, drew it from its hiding-place, and
stood it up on the stone base. Wonder of wonders! There before his very
eyes he saw a tiny fellow, not six inches high, sitting on top of the
wooden upright and dangling his legs over the front of the tablet. The
dwarf had a long grey beard, and K'ang-p'u, without looking twice, knew
that this was the spirit of his dead grandfather come to life and
clothed with flesh and blood.

"Ho, ho!" said the small man, laughing, "so you thought you'd bury your
old grandfather in feathers, did you? A soft enough grave, but rather
smelly."

"But, sir," cried K'ang-p'u, "I had to do it, to save you from the
soldiers! They were just about to burn our house and you in it."

"There, there, my boy! don't be uneasy. I am not scolding you. You did
the best you could for your old gran'ther. If you had been like most
lads, you would have taken to your heels and left me to those sea-devils
who were sacking the village. There is no doubt about it: you saved me
from a second death much more terrible than the first one."

K'ang-p'u shuddered, for he knew that his grandfather had been killed in
battle. He had heard his father tell the story many times.

"Now, what do you propose doing about it?" asked the old man finally,
looking straight into the boy's face.

"Doing about it, sir? Why, really, I don't know. I thought that perhaps
in the morning the soldiers would be gone and I could carry you back.
Surely my father will be looking for me."

"What! looking for you in the ashes? And what could he do if he did find
you? Your house is burned, your chickens carried away and your cabbages
trampled underfoot. A sorry home he will return to. You would be just
one more mouth to feed. No! that plan will never do. If your father
thinks you are dead, he will go off to another province to get work.
That would save him from starvation."

"But what am I to do?" wailed poor K'ang-p'u. "I don't want him to leave
me all alone!"

"All alone! What! don't you count your old grand-daddy?