harden properly? A heavy sigh escaped
him as at last he looked up at the thing he had created. Something had
indeed gone wrong; he knew in the flash of an eye that misfortune had
overtaken him.

Yes! sure enough, when at last the earthen casting had been broken, even
the smallest child could see that the giant bell, instead of being a
thing of beauty was a sorry mass of metals that would not blend.

"Alas!" said Yung-lo, "here is indeed a mighty failure, but even in this
disappointment I see an object lesson well worthy of consideration, for
behold! in yonder elements are all the materials of which this country
is made up. There are gold and silver and the baser metals. United in
the proper manner they would make a bell so wonderfully beautiful and so
pure of tone that the very spirits of the Western heavens would pause to
look and listen. But divided they form a thing that is hideous to eye
and ear. Oh, my China! how many wars are there from time to time among
the different sections, weakening the country and making it poor! If
only all these peoples, great and small, the gold and silver and the
baser elements, would unite, then would this land be really worthy of
the name of the Middle Kingdom!"

The courtiers all applauded this speech of the great Yung-lo, but
Kwan-yu remained on the ground where he had thrown himself at the feet
of his sovereign. Still bowing his head and moaning, he cried out:

"Ah! your Majesty! I urged you not to appoint me, and now indeed you see
my unfitness. Take my life, I beg you, as a punishment for my failure."

"Rise, Kwan-yu," said the great Prince. "I would be a mean master indeed
if I did not grant you another trial. Rise up and see that your next
casting profits by the lesson of this failure."

So Kwan-yu arose, for when the King speaks, all men must listen. The
next day he began his task once more, but still his heart was heavy,
for he knew not the reason of his failure and was therefore unable to
correct his error. For many months he laboured night and day. Hardly a
word would he speak to his wife, and when his daughter tried to tempt
him with a dish of sunflower seed that she had parched herself, he would
reward her with a sad smile, but would by no means laugh with her and
joke as had formerly been his custom. On the first and fifteenth day of
every moon he went himself to the temple and implored the gods to grant
him their friendly assistance, while Ko-ai added her prayers