"It is that known as 'The Willow,'" replied Kai Lung. "There is a
story--"

"There is a story!" exclaimed the maiden, loosening from her brow the
overhanging look of care. "Thus and thus. Frequently have I importuned
him before whom you will appear to explain to me the meaning of the
scene. When you are called upon to plead your cause, see to it well
that your knowledge of such a tale is clearly shown. He before whom
you kneel, craftily plied meanwhile by my unceasing petulance, will
then desire to hear it from your lips . . . At the striking of the
fourth gong the day is done. What lies between rests with your
discriminating wit."

"You are deep in the subtler kinds of wisdom, such as the weak
possess," confessed Kai Lung. "Yet how will this avail to any length?"

"That which is put off from to-day is put off from to-morrow," was the
confident reply. "For the rest--at a corresponding gong-stroke of each
day it is this person's custom to gather fruit. Farewell, minstrel."

When Li-loe returned a little later Kai Lung threw his two remaining
strings of cash about that rapacious person's neck and embraced him as
he exclaimed:

"Chieftain among doorkeepers, when I go to the Capital to receive the
all-coveted title 'Leaf-crowned' and to chant ceremonial odes before
the Court, thou shalt accompany me as forerunner, and an agile tribe
of selected goats shall sport about thy path."

"Alas, manlet," replied the other, weeping readily, "greatly do I fear