e a man?"

"I, a man!" thundered the other, lashing the water with his tail. "How
dare you suggest such a disgraceful change! Can it be that you do not
know my rank? Why, my fellow, you behold in me a favourite nephew of
the king!"

"Then, may it please your lordship," said Mr. Li, softly, "I should
be exceedingly grateful if you would speak a kind word for me to your
master. Do you think it possible that he could change me in some manner
into a fish and accept me as a subject?"

"Of course!" replied the other, "all things are possible to the king.
Know you not that my sovereign is a loyal descendant of the great water
dragon, and, as such, can never die, but lives on and on and on, for
ever and ever and ever, like the ruling house of Japan?"

"Oh, oh!" gasped Mr. Li, "even the Son of Heaven, our most worshipful
emperor, cannot boast of such long years. Yes, I would give my fortune
to be a follower of your imperial master."

"Then follow me," laughed the other, starting off at a rate that made
the water hiss and boil for ten feet around him.

Mr. Li struggled vainly to keep up. If he had thought himself a good
swimmer, he now saw his mistake and every bit of remaining pride was
torn to tatters. "Please wait a moment," he cried out politely, "I beg
of you to remember that I am only a man!"

"Pardon me," replied the other, "it was stupid of me to forget,
especially as I had just been talking about it."

Soon they reached a sheltered inlet at the farther side of the pond.
There Mr. Li saw a gigantic carp idly floating about in a shallow pool,
and then lazily flirting his huge tail or fluttering his fins proudly
from side to side. Attendant courtiers darted hither and thither, ready
to do the master's slightest bidding. One of them, splendidly attired in
royal scarlet, announced, with a downward flip of the head, the approach
of the King's nephew who was leading Mr. Li to an audience with his
Majesty.

"Whom have you here, my lad?" began the ruler, as his nephew, hesitating
for words to explain his strange request, moved his fins nervously
backwards and forwards. "Strange company, it seems to me, you are
keeping these days."

"Only a poor man, most royal sir," replied the other, "who beseeches
your Highness to grant him your gracious favour."

"When man asks favour of a fish,
'Tis hard to penetrate his wish--
He often seeks a lordly dish
To serve upon his table,"

repeated the king, smili