pt of inferiority which I should certainly be able to inflict
upon these native crickets before the eyes of their maidens, even
the accumulated impassiveness of thirty-seven generations of Kong
fore-fathers broke down for the moment, and unable to restrain every
vestige of emotion I crept unperceived to the ancestral hall of Sir
Philip and there shook hands affectionately with myself before each of
the nine ironclad warriors about its walls before I could revert to
a becoming state of trustworthy unconcern. That night in my own upper
chamber I spent many hours in testing my powers and studying more
remarkable attitudes of locust flight, and I even found to be within
myself some new attainments of life-like agility, such as feigning the
continuous note of defiance with which the insect meets his adversary,
as remaining poised in the air for an appreciable moment at the summit
of each leap, and of conveying to the body a sudden and disconcerting
sideway movement in the course of its ascent. So immersed did I become
in the achievement of a high perfection that, to my never-ending
self-reproach, I failed to notice a supernatural visitation of undoubted
authenticity; for the next morning it was widely admitted that a certain
familiar demon of the house, which only manifests its presence on
occasions of tragic omen, had been heard throughout the night in
warning, not only beating its head and body against the walls and
doors in despair, but raising from time to time a wailing cry of
soul-benumbing bitterness.

With every assurance that the next letter, though equally distorted
in style and immature in expression, will contain the record of a
deteriorated but ever upward-striving son's ultimate triumph.

KONG HO.

LETTER XI

Concerning the game which we should call "Locusts," and the
deeper significance of its acts. The solicitous warning of
one passing inwards and the complication occasioned by his
ill-chosen words. Concerning that victory already dimly
foreshadowed.

VENERATED SIRE,--This barbarian game of agile grass-hoppers is not
conducted in the best spirit of a really well-balanced display, and
although the one now inscribing his emotions certainly achieved a wide
popularity, and wore his fig leaves with becoming modesty, he has never
since been quite free from an overhanging doubt that the compliments and
genial remarks with which he was assailed owed their modulation to an
unsubstantial atmospher