superfluous individual will make it his especial care
that the brass of Wu-whei shall be answered with solid copper, and its
debased pewter with doubly refined silver."

With these encouraging words the very opportune Mandarin of the eighth
grade himself followed the story-teller's collecting-bowl, observing
closely what each person contributed, so that, although he gave nothing
from his own store, Kai Lung had never before received so honourable an
amount.

"O illustrious Kai Lung," exclaimed a very industrious and ill-clad
herb-gatherer, who, in spite of his poverty, could not refrain from
mingling with listeners whenever the story-teller appeared in Shan Tzu,
"a single piece of brass money is to this person more than a block
of solid gold to many of Wu-whei; yet he has twice made the customary
offering, once freely, once because a courteous and pure-minded
individual who possesses certain written papers of his connected with
the repayment of some few taels walked behind the bowl and engaged
his eyes with an unmistakable and very significant glance. This fact
emboldens him to make the following petition: that in place of the not
altogether unknown story of Yung Chang which had been announced the
proficient and nimble-minded Kai Lung will entice our attention with the
history of the Mandarin Chan Hung, to which reference has already been
made."

"The occasion is undoubtedly one which calls for recognition to an
unusual degree," replied Kai Lung with extreme affability. "To that end
this person will accordingly narrate the story which has been suggested,
notwithstanding the fact that it has been specially prepared for
the ears of the sublime Emperor, who is at this moment awaiting this
unseemly one's arrival in Peking with every mark of ill-restrained
impatience, tempered only by his expectation of being the first to hear
the story of the well-meaning but somewhat premature Chan Hung.

"The Mandarin in question lived during the reign of the accomplished
Emperor Tsint-Sin, his Yamen being at Fow Hou, in the Province of
Shan-Tung, of which place he was consequently the chief official. In his
conscientious desire to administer a pure and beneficent rule, he not
infrequently made himself a very prominent object for public disregard,
especially by his attempts to introduce untried things, when from
time to time such matters arose within his mind and seemed to promise
agreeable and remunerative results. In this manner it