Latest / Shen of the Sea- A Book for Children / 009 - That Lazy Ah Fun

Transcript

009 - That Lazy Ah Fun · Shen of the Sea- A Book for Children

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Section nine of Shen of the Sea, A Book for Children.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Sheen of the Sea, a Book
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: for Children by Arthur Booie Chrisman. That lazy ah Fun
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: doctor Chouping was a good man. He was clever and industrious,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: and wore his pigtail long. No one knows why he
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: was cursed with such an indolent offspring as that of
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: lazy a Fun. Perhaps the vice was inherited with a
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: skip from grandfather Chooping Fu. They do say in Lao
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Yashen that grandfather Chooping Fu was too lazy even to
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: burn yellow paper on New Year's Eve, or to beat
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: a copper pan in order to scare away the demons.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: But no matter about Chewping Fu. Let nothing more be
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: said of him, not Chewping Fu. But his graceless grandson
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: is herein to be held up for scorn. That lazy
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Ah Fun, for such every one called him, was nothing
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: if not a slugger, And so he had been from
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: the cradle. What a shameless creature he was a snail
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: a lame snail. At that doctor Chuping sent him with
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: a bamboo tube of brick dust to the house of
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Chang Chi, where missus Chang lay sick with a fever
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: and greatly in need of the medicine. And did off
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Fun hasten on his errand no a thousand times, No,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: he dawdled. He took his own, his very own time.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: That lazy af Fun, poor missus Chang, may she go
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: to a good reward, was three days dead and in
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: her paper coffin before our Fun finally arrived with the
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: medicine that was meant to save her. Now, that was
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: but a single instance, and a sad one of the
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: way in which aur Fun was wonted dilly and a dally.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Here is another illustration. Doctor Chuping despatched his son to
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: the pasture land there to find the cow and fetch
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: her home for milking. Doctor Chouping knew the boy's habit,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: so he sent him when the sun was highest at noon,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: in order that he might get the cow home before
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: darkness came. But a Fun went nowhere near the pasture.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: He sat in a shade, playing the noisy game of
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: guess fingers with a comrade in idleness, And when night came,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: he went to the yard of Lo Mu, his next
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: door neighbor, and drove the low cow into his own yard.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: It was so much easier than walking way down to
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: the pasture land for his own cow. Doctor Chiu Ping
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: had milked the cow, and the cow had kicked the
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: bucket over before Lomu came in tears, declaring that he
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: had been greatly wronged, and that al Fun should be
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: whipped with a bamboo. The other neighbors gathered round, and
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: without exception they said that lazy ha Fun, he is
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: no good. He should be beaten. But the doctor said
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: that al Fun meant no harm. He was merely too
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: tired to go to the pasture, and that some day
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: here he thumped vigorously on the bucket rum tum tom
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: one always makes a noise to scare the demons when
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: saying complimentary things. Some day a Fun would be a
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: very famous man and have a monument half a lee
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: in height covered with much carving to tell his praise.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Then the neighbors said humph. And the way they said
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: it was with the corners of their mouths turned down, sneeringly,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: clearly they disbelieved, and one said there's never been a
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Hyaena that didn't think his own son fair than the
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: king's child. The good doctor laughed heartily at that. He
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: turned off Fun and said, pounding on the bucket, Ah, Fun,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: treasure of my miserable heart. Take you the bucket and
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: go to the well. Fetch us home some water, for
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: there is no milk, the terrible cow having kicked it over.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Hence we can have only water with our evening rice.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: And be sure my chiefest comfort roum them went the
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: bucket to rinse the bucket thoroughly twice at least so
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: a Fun took the sweet tongue the bucket and pretended
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: he was going to the well. But the well was
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: a lee a third of em mile distant. The ditch
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: was only a few steps distant. That lazy af Fun
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: stopped at the ditch and filled his sweet tongue. He
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: came home with the bucket half full of green ditch water.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: And in the water was an old shoe, a discarded shoe,
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: a shoe that someone had thrown away as worn out
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: and utterly useless. Nor had the bucket been rinsed. But
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: doctor Chuping instead of scolding. A Fun scolded the excellent
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: people of Lao Yashen, saying, this town is getting very
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: very bad. One cannot walk decently and in peace from
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: the well to one's house. But that's some scamp must
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: toss an old shoe in the water bucket. What a
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: deluded man was that doctor Chuping. When the spring rains
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: were at their heaviest, doctor Chuping was called from this
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: house to that house to visit the ailing. The rains
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: caused much sickness, and the doctor was out at all hours,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: no matter how foul the weather. In consequence, he was
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: more often wet than dry, and the wetness worked against
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: his health. One night, he came home dripping water from
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: every thread of his garments, and his teeth were chattering
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: upper against lower. He crawled upon the kang, which is
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: both stove and bed, saying, as well as he could, Ah, Fun,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: my blessing, most cherished, build a fire under the kang.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Your so miserable old father has a chill that no
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: doubt will end his holy, useless existence. Build a tremendous fire, Afun,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: my precious jewel, ayah I am corden ill afan tore
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: a few leaves of paper from a medicine book, and
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: inserting them under the kang, struck fire to them. Then
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: he resumed his play. After a while, doctor Chuping raised
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: the quilt from his head and hoarsely whispered, ah, I'm
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: still shivering. Ah a fan mummur wood a fun. Looked about,
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: but he saw no firewood, and he was too lazy
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: to go and search. However, the doctor's gold crested cane
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: stood in a corner. Well, why not it was bamboo,
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: It would burn into the kang went the cane, and
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: right pleasantly did it crackle. But after a time doctor
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Chuping again uncovered his head and begged weakly, mummore wood
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: of fun. Once more, afun looked round the room, there
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: was positively no firewood in sight. However, upon a shelf
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: lay half a hundred bamboo cylinders tubes that contained medicines.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: In one bamboo was cuttlefish bone, and another was kofen
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: powdered oyster shell. The doctor had used that on old
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: missus Fulung's rheumatism, with good effect too. In a third
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: were salt and chietsu. A fourth held chen pee and
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: shihui orange peel and lime. The fifth contained chang. Now
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: camphor and ash is all good medicines and valuable indeed,
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: But what did a fun do? He chucked the first
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: bamboo tube into the kang, and the tube crackled as
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: the flames bit through. Presently he cast in the second tube,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: followed the third and the fourth tube. After tube medicines
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: and all went into the kang, a top which lay
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: doctor Chooping. Now it so happened that the fiftieth tube
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: contained Huo yow the medicine, and Huoa yao is made
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: of sulfur, saltpeter and charcoal. Those three the very three
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: that combined to make gunpowder, as we call it. Nothing less.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: Doctor Chouping lay upon the kang, all a twitch with
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: the chill that had worsted him. His son, A Fun
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: threw into the kang a large tube of hu O yow.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: The fire cracked smartly, eating the tube. Then ooo oh,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: that terrible ah Fun, he has blown up the bed stove,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: to say nothing of his honorable father. It was raining heavily,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: but just the same, Missus Lomu came out and upbraided
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: the doctor unmercifully for coming down in and utterly havocking
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: her patch of huang yatsie, her tender pretty cabbages. She
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: told him her every thought upon that subject, with such
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: words as hun chang tung se stupid blundering old thing you.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: But doctor Chuping merely gazed sheepishly at the destroyed cabbages
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: and at the hole in the room through which he
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: had been blasted, and murmured, kaitan ah me, what a pity.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: And again came the other neighbors, the very kind people
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: who loved doctor Chuping and wished to help him in
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: his troubles. These well wishing neighbors came and said, beyond
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: a doubt, that boy is to blame, honorable doctor, why
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: do you not break many stout bamboo ohoz upon the
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: back of that boy, that lazy, good for nothing ah Fun.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: He will be the disgrace of and the death of you. Yet,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: But doctor Chupping rubbed his shoulder and said, what beat
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: af Fun? Why he is a good boy and a comfort.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: He just built me an excellent fire in the kang.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: Then the doctor limped into his house and awoke off
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: un asked him what had happened? Ah Fun? Though he
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: was bad, goodness knows terribly bad, yet was truthful reluctantly.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: We must give him credit for that. He told of
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: all that had happened, how he placed tube after tube
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: in the kang, being unable to discover any firewood, and
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: how the last tube had exploded. Hurling his father through
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: the roof, Doctor Chupping wrinkled his brow till it was
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: all hills and hollows. He pulled his long and neatly
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: braided hair in a highly meditative manner. He felt first
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: his right shoulder, then his left. He rolled his eyes
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: upward to the limit of their travel. He gazed at
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: the hole in the roof, where still fluttered a fragment
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: of clothing on a jagged edge. He rolled his eyes
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: downward and scrutinized the ruined kang. He felt of his
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: two ears that still reverberated with the enormous explosion. Then
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: he spoke, My son said he it strikes me that
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: we are on the verge of a great discovery. One
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: of those medicines, though Gracious knows which one, seems to
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: be more than a medicine. It is good for something else,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: though dear knows what, Perhaps to grow wings so that
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: men may fly it certainly enabled me to fly. We
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: must make more medicines and experiment. The next day, doctor
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: Chuping opened his Book of Instructions for the Compounding of Medicines,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: a book which he himself had written, beginning at the
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: very beginning, which of course was on the last page.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Good doctor Chew studied the first formula, red pepper and
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: alum and toad claws, so he read. The three ingredients
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: were found and mixed in the specified proportions. The mixture
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: was poured into a bamboo tube, and the tube was
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: placed in a fire for an hour. Doctor Chuping stirred
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: the fire and fanned it into furious blazing. Nothing but
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: much heat and much smoke resulted. There was no noise
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: and no flying. Clearly, the combination of pepper, alum and
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: toad claws was quite worthless, except in the treatment of
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: scarlet fever, for which it is intended. The doctor made
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: a careful writing of the experiment and turned another page.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: Next came oyster shell and ginsing worthless. That also shark
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: fins and turmeric. Doctor Chuping marked that likewise worthless. So
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: the experimenting continued day after day. It took a great
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: deal of time. The doctor was a most thorough man
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: as well as brilliant. One couldn't find a more thorough
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: or brilliant in all Kung Su or Kung Si, or
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: even in Quang Sea. Methodically, he tried his medicines in
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: the fire. By one and one he tried them. And
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: thus he came to the mixture of who yah which
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: to repeat is sulfur and saltpeter and charcoal, and which
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: the fan kwei or foreign devils with their white faces
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: called gunpowder. Doctor Chuping placed a long tube of whoa
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: yao in the fire. He leaned over it, fanning vigorously.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: For a moment. The tube lay on the coals, sizzling
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: and swelling, seeming to gather its breath for a supreme effort.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: Zzzzzze and up went doctor Chuping. Now it's so chance
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: that a moment before the explosion, old man Lomu was
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: milking his cow. A moment after the explosion, he was
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: not milking his cow. He was running for dear life
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: in an orderly direction. His cow was running for dear
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: life in a southerly direction. And doctor Chu Ping sprawled
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: upon the flattened bucket and the smashed stool where he
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: had fallen. The doctor came to in five minutes. Old
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: doctor Lo Mu came back in half an hour. The
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: cow has never since been seen. It is doubtful if
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: she will ever return. No sooner did doctor Chiu Ping
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: revive than he hobbled into the house, where a fun
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: sat calmly playing with a panpoo taw, a little toy
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: man who has round feet and always regains an upright
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: position no matter how often he is knocked over. What happened,
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: my father asked a fun. Doctor Chuping beamed upon him. Ah, Fun,
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: my pearl, my jade, my orange tree. It is discovered
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: Ho yow is the great medicine, and it is good
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: for scaring demons. Old man Lomu, as everyone knows, is
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: possessed of demon and he was frightened horribly. And his
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: unkind cow, which is guided by at least four and
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: twenty demons, has been frightened completely out of the country.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: There can be no doubt Ho Yao is a frightener
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: of demons, and you and I are the discoverers. Oh,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: my precious one, we shall be famous a thousand thousand
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: years from now. Men will still use hoo yao to
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: scare the demons, and that was a very good prediction.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: Whoa yao is still placed in tubes, little paper tubes,
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: and the fuses are lighted and sput sput, the firecrackers explode,
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: and a thousand demons tremble and flee, reviling the names
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: of our fun and doctor Chuping who invented gunpowder. End
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: of Section nine.