you have eaten this peach, you will no longer feel hunger or thirst, and you will live forever,' he said.
"Again the God of the Neighborhood was commanded by the Emperor of Heaven to take the form of a tiger. Upon his back he carried Miao Shan safely on her long journey to a rocky island, called Pu To, that lies in the Southern Sea, where she found peace at last.
"For nine years there the maiden prayed. She thought only good thoughts, and at last she became perfect. Then one day spirits and gods assembled from all the corners of the earth. From the Eastern Mountain, from the Western Mountain, from the mountains of the North and the South, and from the mountain in the center of the world they came to honor Miao Shan. The Dragon Emperor of the Sea was there. The gods of the wind, the rain, and the thunder, the spirits of heaven and earth, all gathered to see her take her seat upon her golden throne, which was shaped like the lotus blossom.
"Then one day Miao Shan received a message from the Emperor of Heaven, telling her that she might now leave the earth and enter his kingdom. She was just about to set foot inside the shining gates of heaven when she looked back at the earth. She heard the cries of millions of poor people who were sad or in trouble, and she turned back to help them. From that time her name was changed from Miao Shan to Gwan Yin, which means 'She-Who-Hears-Prayers.'
For nine years Miao Shan thought only good thoughts and at last she became perfect.
"On her rocky island in the Southern Sea there is a tiny temple, so I have heard it told, called, 'The home of Gwan Yin, who would not go away.' It was built by a sailor whose life the goddess had saved. One day this sailor was out in his boat when he suddenly found it caught in a mass of lily blossoms that covered the sea like a carpet. So thickly they grew that he could not force his way through them. Like other wise seamen, this sailor had on his boat a statue of Gwan Yin. He kowtowed before this, saying, 'O gentle Gwan Yin, come to my aid! Open a way through these tangled lilies. If you would go with me to my own land, so be it. Or if you would that I go to your shores, show me the way.' A gentle breeze blew over the lilies. Their leaves rustled like silk as their blossoms closed tight. They sank beneath the clear water and a straight path was opened. The boatman followed its course which led to Gwan Yin's island of Pu To. There he built a little temple and put in it that statue of Gwan Yin which had saved his life."
Grandmother Ling often told the children stories of wonderful things that Gwan Yin had done. Everywhere through their land there were temples to this gentle goddess. Women brought her offerings of incense and paper money. They laid near her statues finely embroidered slippers and tiny dolls dressed like wee babies, in the hope that she would hear their prayers for children.
Ships came by the thousands every year to the island where Gwan Yin sat so long upon her lotus throne. Millions visited the temples built in honor of her. They prayed before her statues. They believed she would help them. The Chinese truly loved their gentle Goddess of Mercy.
The little prayer that Yu Lang whispered when she kowtowed to the gilt statue standing so calmly on the table in the family hall was that she might become beautiful. Sometimes her grandmother told the little girl that she was growing to look like Gwan Yin. This always filled Yu Lang with delight, for she knew that this goddess was the most beautiful as well as the most perfect woman who had ever lived.
As Grandmother Ling finished her story and rose from the table she made a last kowtow to the gilded statue. "Lady of Great Mercy and Great Pity," she prayed as her body swayed back and forth, "save us from sadness, save us from harm!" And the family went their ways with happiness and peace in their hearts.
V
THE GOD THAT LIVED IN THE KITCHEN
LITTLE PIG!"
"Greedy ox!"
The angry voices of the children rang loud across the courtyard. They did not often quarrel, and their cross tones sounded strange inside the peaceful gray walls that shut in the Ling homestead.
Old Wang Lai, their nurse, came hurrying out of their low house to see what the matter could be. At the same moment Huang Ying opened the door of the Old Old One's apartment.
"Old Mistress says Ah Shung and Yu Lang must come into her room," Huang Ying called out. The boy and the girl stopped their quarrel at once. As they crossed the veranda and entered their grandmother's room they looked sullenly at each other as if to say, "It was your fault."
"Sit down on that stool, Ah Shung, and you sit there, Yu Lang," the old woman said sternly as she laid her embroidery down on the bed where she was sitting. The day was cold, and she found its heated bricks the most comfortable seat.
"Now tell me what caused you to throw stones of unkindness into our calm stream of happiness?" she commanded, fixing her sharp black eyes upon the children.
"Ah Shung wanted my candied apricot, Lao Lao," Yu Lang began, hanging her head.
"She had more than she could eat, O Honorable Grandmother," Ah Shung said, shifting about on his stool.
"He pulled my hair," the little girl sobbed, and she held out the red cord with which her braid had been wound.
"She pulled my queue too," the boy said uneasily.
"Naughty children! You act like the dogs that slink through the streets and snarl at each other. Four horses cannot bring back cross words once they are spoken. Have you forgotten the God that lives in the Kitchen? This very night he flies up to heaven to make his report to the Emperor there. What tales he will tell about your behavior!"
The children looked frightened. They had indeed forgotten the Kitchen God whose picture hung in a nook up over the brick stove upon which the family cooking was done. They knew well that he watched everything that went on inside the red gate, in order to report to the Emperor of the Gods when he made his annual visit to heaven at this time of the Small New Year.
"I will tell you the story of the God of the Kitchen once more," said old Grandmother Ling. "Then perhaps you will not forget so quickly again. It was long, long ago that there lived in our land a very old man whose name was Chang Kung. Inside his family walls there dwelt his sons and his grandsons, his great-grandsons and their great-great-grandsons. So many people were there and so many houses that it was like a small city.
"But even with the hundreds of people living there together, all was quiet and peaceful. Never a quarrel was known. Never were there heard in the Chang courts cross voices such as those which we heard here today. Everyone was contented. The one hundred dogs that lived inside the Chang walls never ceased wagging their tails. Indeed, it is said that these dogs were so kind to each other that they would wait to begin eating if one of them was late for his dinner.
"The fame of this household spread as far and as wide over the land as the breezes blow in the springtime. And at last it reached the ears of the Emperor himself upon his Dragon Throne.
"Now it so happened that the Emperor was about to make his yearly journey to the great Eastern Mountain in order to send his prayers up to heaven from its high peak. So, having heard of Chang Kung, he decided to visit his remarkable household upon his way back.
"What a sight that must have been! The procession
