Chinese Noah, coming out of
the Lo river, while he was draining off the floods. On its back was a
design which he used as a pattern for the nine divisions of his empire.

These two incidents are referred to by Confucius, and are among the
first learned by every Chinese child.

I looked through the book and noticed that many of the designs were for
the amusement of the children, as well as to develop their ingenuity.
In the two volumes of the T'ao he had only the outlines of the pictures
which he readily constructed with the blocks. But he had with him also
a small volume which was a key to the designs having lines indicating
how each block was placed. This he had purchased for a few cash. Much
of the interest of the book, however, attached to the puzzling
character of the pictures.

There was one with a verse attached somewhat like the following:

The old wife drew a chess-board
On the cover of a book,
While the child transformed a needle
Into a fishing-hook.

Chinese literature is full of examples of men and women who applied
themselves to their books with untiring diligence. Some tied their hair
to the beam of their humble cottage so that when they nodded with
sleepiness the jerk would awake them and they might return to their
books.

Others slept upon globular pillows that when they became so restless as
to move and cause the pillow to roll from under their head they might
get up and study.

The child once more took the blocks and illustrated how one who was so
poor as to be unable to furnish himself with candles, confined a
fire-fly in a gauze lantern using that instead of a lamp. At the same
time he explained that another who was perhaps not able to afford the
gauze lantern, studied by the light of a glowworm.

"K'ang Heng," said the child, as he put the blocks together in a new
form, "had a still better way, as well as more economical. His house
was built of clay, and as the window of his neighbor's house was
immediately opposite, he chiseled a hole through his wall and thus took
advantage of his neighbor's light.

"Sun K'ang's method was very good for winter," continued the child as
he rearranged the blocks, "but I do not know what he would do in
summer. He studied by the light reflected from the snow.

"Perhaps," he went on as he changed the form, "he followed the example
of another who studied by the pale light of the moon."

"What does that represent?" I asked him pointing to a ch