se to give him a pestle and mortar made
of jade.

"I never thought of that," said Pei-Hang.

"Never mind," said his mother, "I will give you a box containing six
white seeds. Cast one into each brook when you have crossed it on your
way home, and the brook will expand into a river again."

Early the next morning Pei-Hang kissed her and went on his way.

He rested during the midday heat, and continued his journey when it
grew cool again; and in this way, at the end of seven days, he came to
the Blue River.

It was a quarter of a mile wide, and as blue as the sky of midsummer,
and fishes were popping their heads out of the water in every
direction. The head of every fish was twice as large as a football,
and had two rows of teeth. But Pei-Hang threw a red seed into the
waves which were lapping the shore, and in a moment, instead of the
wide blue river, a little brook lay at his feet.

The huge fishes were changed into tiny creatures like tadpoles, and he
hopped across the brook on one foot.

Soon afterward he came to the White River, which was half a mile wide,
so rapid that it was covered with foam, like new milk, and full of
immense sea serpents. "I shan't be able to hop over _this_ on one
foot," thought Pei-Hang, throwing his red seed into the water.

But to his surprise the White River shrank just as rapidly as the Blue
River into a tiny rippling brook, with some wee wriggling eels at the
bottom.

Pei-Hang leaped lightly over it, and walked a long way before he came
in sight of the Red River.

This was three-quarters of a mile wide, and bright scarlet. It looked
like a flood of melted sealing-wax, and a row of alligators, with
their mouths wide open, stretched right across it like a bridge.

"Now for my little red seed!" said Pei-Hang, opening his box quite
cheerfully.

The nearest alligator made a snap at the seed as it sank in the river,
but he missed it, and the next minute he found himself no bigger than
a lizard, sitting at the bottom of a stream not half a yard across. At
the other side of it Pei-Hang was met by one of the Genii, who had
come down from his snow-peak to see who it was that had dared to play
such tricks with the three mighty rivers.

Pei-Hang showed him the round white seeds in his other box.

"It is all right," he said, "I can make them as large as they were
before, on my way back. But first I must find the home of the Genii,
and get a pestle and mortar of jade for my future mot