All night the two sisters could be seen in their palace garden, stitching away by the light of the moon
"The fame of the beauty of the sisters in the moon spread over the land. Each clear night people gathered in their gardens and climbed the high mountains to gaze up at the moon for a sight of their loveliness. From their palace in the sky the moon sisters could see clearly what went on upon the earth so far down below them.
"Now these sisters knew well the rules for maidenly conduct. Like all Chinese girls they had been taught that it was not fitting that men should gaze upon them. Each night, as more and more people stared up at the moon, they became more and more unhappy.
"'We cannot stay here, my sister,' said one of the moon maidens at last.
"'I have thought of a plan,' said the other as she embroidered the tail of a dragon on the front of her new robe. 'We shall go away from here. We shall change homes with our brother. He shall live here in the moon and we shall take his place in the sun.'
"The moon maidens put on their handsomest red robes and went to seek help from their brother in the sun.
"'O Venerable Brother,' they said when they came to his shining palace, 'we are in great trouble and only you can help us. Each night, down on earth, people gaze up at the moon and their eyes fall upon us. That should not be. We are very unhappy.'
"The brother who lived in the sun was as distressed as his sisters, but he laughed when they told him they wished to live in the sun.
"'Silly creatures,' he scoffed, 'in the daytime when the sun shines in the sky there are a hundred times more people abroad than there are in the night, when the moon can be seen. You will have more eyes than ever upon you if you change places with me.'
"'Ai-yah, Honorable Brother,' they cried, 'if you will but change with us, indeed all will be well. Into our unworthy minds the gods have sent a plan which we are sure will succeed.'
"The maidens wept. The brother was fond of his sisters and at last he agreed to change places with them. He left his palace in the sun and took up his abode in the moon. Joyfully the sisters gathered together their beautiful robes and their other belongings. They did not forget to pack in a shining red chest their embroidery silks and their seventy needles. In less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea they were comfortably settled in the sun palace.
"Down on the earth when men could no longer see the sisters in the moon, they wondered. 'The moon princesses have disappeared!' they exclaimed. 'A man sits there in their place. Where can they have gone?' Then somehow or other the word went around that the beautiful maidens now lived in the sun.
"But the sisters' plan worked. They were safe at last from the eyes of the people on earth. For as soon as anyone turned his gaze full on the sun he felt tiny pricking pains in his eyes. Some said that it was only the strong rays of the sun. But my nurse always declared that it was the seventy embroidery needles of the two beautiful sisters, who pricked the eyes of any person who was so bold as to stare at them."
Ah Shung and Yu Lang looked at each other. Only that day they had dared each other to gaze straight at the sun. They had found out for themselves what the pricking of the sun sisters' needles felt like in their eyes.
"Ai, the sun is our friend," Grandmother Ling told her grandchildren between her puffs at her bubbling water pipe. "I remember one time when the Heavenly Dog almost ate the sun up. How frightened we were! I was about the age of Yu Lang when it happened, but I can still see it all with the mirror of my mind."
The old woman was remembering a day when the moon passed between the sun and the earth and for a few minutes shut off its light. We should call that an eclipse, but the Chinese believed that the sky dog which lived upon a certain star was trying to swallow the sun.
"The Son of Heaven, our Emperor, sent forth a warning from his dragon throne," said the Old Old One. "From the soothsayers he had learned that the sun was to be eaten, and he told us what to do. Well I remember the day. All the servants inside our walls, and indeed in all the courts of the city, brought forth drums and brass cymbals, rattles and pans. We kept watch, and as soon as the sun began to disappear down the throat of the wicked dog of the sky they beat on the drums. They whirled the rattles and they knocked on the pans. They clashed the brass cymbals together. What a noise they did make! I grew frightened and cried and hid behind my old nurse. Ai-yah, the sky dog almost succeeded in swallowing the sun that time. It grew very dark, and only a rim of light showed in the heavens. The servants beat the drums harder. The cymbals clashed louder. At last the sky dog took fright. He coughed up the sun, which shone bright again in its place overhead in the sky."
IV
GENTLE GWAN YIN
IT WAS THE EIGHTH DAY of the cold Twelfth Moon. A film of ice covered the goldfish pool in the bare Garden of Sweet Smells. Lines of fine white snow lay between the broad paving bricks of all the courtyards within the red gate. In the family hall a little fire of glowing bails of coal dust burned in the iron stove on the floor near the Old Mistress' chair.
The Ling family was gathered beside the tables with their red cloths already spread for the midday meal. All eyes were fixed upon Grandmother Ling. The old woman, in one of her finest gray silken gowns, walked to the high narrow table of shining carved wood which was placed against the back wall of the hall. With slow, careful movements she lighted the incense sticks in the brass burner upon it. A spicy smell drifted through the room as the smoke rose and floated in a thin blue cloud about the gilded statue that stood in the center of the table.
"On this day of the year the gentle Gwan Yin left the world behind her and went to dwell with the holy women in the Nunnery of the White Sparrow," old Wang Lai, the nurse, had told Ah Shung and Yu Lang as they came across the courtyard to the family hall.
Yu Lang thought that this statue of Gwan Yin, the Chiness Goddess of Mercy, was the most precious thing in all the Ling houses. Its gilded wood carving showed a slender woman, holding a baby close to her breast. Her face was calm and kind as well as beautiful. Her long flowing robes swirled about her feet, which were set upon the heart of a lotus blossom.
Huang Ying, the maid, steadied the Old Mistress as she got down on her knees before the likeness of Gwan Yin. Lao Lao bent her head and swayed forward and back, forward and back, forward and back. This way of showing respect is known as a "kowtow. " Grandmother Ling said a little prayer each time she bowed. Then the other members of the family kowtowed in their turn before the gilt statue.
"There is la-pa-chou in our bowls today," Ah Shung whispered to Yu Lang when the children took their places at the table. They were especially fond of this dish, which was always served on this particular day. They often counted upon their fingers all the good things in it. Five kinds of grain, beans, peanuts and chestnuts, walnuts and dates, lily and melon seeds, several different fruits, as well as sugar and spices! Twenty different things were always mixed together to make Gwan Yin's porridge.
"Truly there is no stove so powerful as a full stomach," said Grandmother Ling as she laid her ivory and silver chopsticks across her empty bowl. She sat back in her chair with a sigh of content.
"Let the children come nearer," the old woman commanded, "and I will tell them the story of the gentle Gwan Yin.
"In earliest times, my little ones, there lived an Emperor whose name was Po Chia. With his Empress he ruled the land wisely and well. But because of some wrongdoing of the past the gods sent them no sons. There was no one to sit upon the dragon throne when Po Chia should be called to be a guest in heaven.
"So Po Chia and