insatiable desire of all persons is towards a
draught of unusual length without much regard to its composition, the
sight of your goat-skins is indeed a welcome omen; yet when in the
season of Cold White Rains you chance to meet the belated chair-carrier
who has been reluctantly persuaded into conveying persons beyond the
limit of the city, the solitary official watchman who knows that his
chief is not at hand, or a returning band of those who make a practise
of remaining in the long narrow rooms until they are driven forth at a
certain gong-stroke, can you supply them with the smallest portion of
that invigorating rice spirit for which alone they crave? From this
simple and homely illustration, specially conceived to meet the
requirements of your stunted and meagre understanding, learn not to
expect both grace and thorns from the willow-tree. Nevertheless, your
very immature remarks on the art of story-telling are in no degree more
foolish than those frequently uttered by persons who make a living by
such a practice; in proof of which this person will relate to the select
and discriminating company now assembled an entirely new and unrecorded
story--that, indeed, of the unworthy, but frequently highly-rewarded Kai
Lung himself."

"The story of Kai Lung!" exclaimed Wang Yu. "Why not the story of Ting,
the sightless beggar, who has sat all his life outside the Temple of
Miraculous Cures? Who is Kai Lung, that he should have a story? Is he
not known to us all here? Is not his speech that of this Province, his
food mean, his arms and legs unshaven? Does he carry a sword or wear
silk raiment? Frequently have we seen him fatigued with journeying; many
times has he arrived destitute of money; nor, on those occasions when a
newly-appointed and unnecessarily officious Mandarin has commanded
him to betake himself elsewhere and struck him with a rod has Kai Lung
caused the stick to turn into a deadly serpent and destroy its master,
as did the just and dignified Lu Fei. How, then, can Kai Lung have a
story that is not also the story of Wang Yu and Hi Seng, and all others
here?"

"Indeed, if the refined and enlightened Wang Yu so decides, it must
assuredly be true," said Kai Lung patiently; "yet (since even trifles
serve to dispel the darker thoughts of existence) would not the
history of so small a matter as an opium pipe chain his intelligent
consideration? such a pipe, for example, as this person beheld only
today exposed for