Here it was his presumptuous intention to learn
the art of drawing figures in order that he might illustrate printed
leaves of a more distinguished class than those which would accept
what true politeness compels him to call his exceedingly unsymmetrical
pictures of birds and flowers. Accordingly, when the time arrived, he
disposed of his Hereditary Instructorship, having first ascertained in
the interests of his pupils that his successor was a person of refined
morals and great filial piety.
Alas! it is well written, "The road to eminence lies through the cheap
and exceedingly uninviting eating-houses." In spite of this person's
great economy, and of his having begged his way from Kia-Lu to Peking
in the guise of a pilgrim, journeying to burn incense in the sacred
Temple of Truth near that city, when once within the latter place his
taels melted away like the smile of a person of low class when he
discovers that the mandarin's stern words were not intended as a jest.
Moreover, he found that the story-makers of Peking, receiving higher
rewards than those at Kia-Lu, considered themselves bound to introduce
living characters into all their tales, and in consequence the very
ornamental drawings of birds and flowers which he had entwined into a
legend entitled "The Last Fight of the Heaven-sent Tcheng"--a story
which had been entrusted to him for illustration as a test of his
skill--was returned to him with a communication in which the writer
revealed his real meaning by stating contrary facts.
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