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012 - I wish It would Rain · Shen of the Sea- A Book for Children

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  Speaker 1: Section twelve of Shen and the Sea, a Book for Children.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information nor to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Shen of the Sea, a Book
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  Speaker 1: for Children by Arthur Bowie Chrisman. I wish it would rain.
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  Speaker 1: It rains and rains in Kiong Sing and then it
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  Speaker 1: rains some more. No sooner is one cloud pass than
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  Speaker 1: another comes treading on its heels by day, and by
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  Speaker 1: night the rain drops patter and kotsu from his lily
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  Speaker 1: pad croaks. More rain, more rain. Old men going to
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  Speaker 1: bed wear their way lee rain hats instead of tasseled nightcaps.
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  Speaker 1: Many young people have only a hazy idea as to
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  Speaker 1: what the word sun means. Pour and beat and drizzle,
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  Speaker 1: drizzle and drive with the gale, and that is Kiong
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  Speaker 1: singh Three reasons are given by the people of kiog
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  Speaker 1: Sing for their extremely weepy climate. Some say that the
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  Speaker 1: shen Yu she who lords over the clouds, lives near
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  Speaker 1: by on the Daylight Mountain. Others are firm in their
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  Speaker 1: declaration that mu Ye, the mighty archer, and the naughty
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  Speaker 1: fellow withal shot. The sky above Kiang sing full of
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  Speaker 1: arrow holes. Naturally, a sky full of arrow holes is
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  Speaker 1: bound to leak. There are still others, and very learned
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  Speaker 1: folk among them, who declare that may lie weeping for
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  Speaker 1: her lost hero Way Sheng is responsible for the torrents.
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  Speaker 1: Deer only knows which is the correct theory. May be
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  Speaker 1: that all three are to blame. The only certainty is
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  Speaker 1: that Kioang Singh has a very heavy rainfall, and that
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  Speaker 1: Tiao Fu lived there and learned to love wet weather,
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  Speaker 1: to love it, she hated it. Tiao Fu was a
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  Speaker 1: very pretty maiden. No gainsaying that she had the most
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  Speaker 1: wonderful black long hair and all Kiang Singh. But beauty
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  Speaker 1: was her one and only possession. She had no skill
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  Speaker 1: with the needle, whether to sew or embroider. Her cooking
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  Speaker 1: was more than a disgrace. When her fingers touched the
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  Speaker 1: pea pa, that usually sweet toned instrument gave out a
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  Speaker 1: demon's wail. She could not even smooth a quilt on
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  Speaker 1: the kang. The beds were all hills and hollows. How
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  Speaker 1: could she make beds when her hair needed burnishing? She
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  Speaker 1: scarce knew which end of a broom was meant for
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  Speaker 1: the floor. How could she sweep when her hair required glossing?
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  Speaker 1: New matting would cover the floor's disarray. Kaufu smoothed her
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  Speaker 1: hair and dreamed of the time when she would marry
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  Speaker 1: a rich Mandarin and be carried in glory away from
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  Speaker 1: kiang Sing in its terrible rains. The hateful rains of
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  Speaker 1: kiang Sing No wonder her father, Chiang Chi, became so
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  Speaker 1: poverty stricken. Gradually his fortune slipped away, until his only
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  Speaker 1: property was the large and poorly furnished, extremely ill kept
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  Speaker 1: house in which he lived. Even so, this house, when
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  Speaker 1: viewed from the street, appeared superior to its fellows. It
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  Speaker 1: was the handsomest and most considerable yamen in Pingjen village.
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  Speaker 1: The size and appearance of the yamen accounts for what
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  Speaker 1: happened one fiendish night. In a mighty drumming of rain,
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  Speaker 1: there came a more noisy drumming of maces upon Chang
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  Speaker 1: Chi's door open in the King's name, commanded voices outside.
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  Speaker 1: Forthwith Chang Chi flung open the door, he beheld runners
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  Speaker 1: dressed in the royal livery, and in their hands the
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  Speaker 1: gold banded staves of their authority, Prepare to receive and
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  Speaker 1: entertain the illustrious person of Ho Chu. The King, His
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  Speaker 1: most gracious majesty will arrive at Shashi Chen within a
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  Speaker 1: slight shower's time. Therefore prepare. It is a command far
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  Speaker 1: from entertaining royalty. Old Cheng Chi had never so much
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  Speaker 1: glimpsed a king. Heart and knees failed him utterly. He
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  Speaker 1: could only growl upon the floor and mutter weakly of
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  Speaker 1: his unworthiness. Tao Foo, however, was not so deeply affected
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  Speaker 1: a king. Let him enter, Say what you please. Kings
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  Speaker 1: are mortal men. No food in the house, Yeah yah, pey,
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  Speaker 1: pish pooh. And the tradesmen refused all credit. What of it?
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  Speaker 1: No tradesman in his senses would refuse a bargain, And
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  Speaker 1: what would the bargain be? Tao Fou snatched up her
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  Speaker 1: little used embroidery scissors. Snip snip, snip. Down fell a
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  Speaker 1: cataract of her long black hair. Snip snip again and again.
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  Speaker 1: The hair that was her vanity lay upon the floor,
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  Speaker 1: her lustrous hair sacrificed to make a feast for the king.
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  Speaker 1: Hastily donning her father's way lee, she dashed from the
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  Speaker 1: house there was no trouble in making a bargain. The
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  Speaker 1: tradesman's first offer was almost within reason, and Tiao Fu
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  Speaker 1: had no time to wrangle. She bartered her hair for
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  Speaker 1: cooked fowls and rice and all that goes to make
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  Speaker 1: a dinner. King Ho Chu arrived betimes the weather. Despite
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  Speaker 1: he was in good spirit. He was such a considerate
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  Speaker 1: and jolly monarch that he soon had old Chang Chi
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  Speaker 1: at perfect ease. The dinner was a delight to eye
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  Speaker 1: and tongue. It was the best meal that had been
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  Speaker 1: served in Chang Chi's home for many a moon, and
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  Speaker 1: Tiao Fu's hair bought it. After the cups were turned down,
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  Speaker 1: King ho Chu inquired about his horse. To reiterate he
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  Speaker 1: was a most considerate sovereign. He wished to feel sure
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  Speaker 1: that his steed was housed from the rain and shouldered
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  Speaker 1: deep in a well filled manger. Chang Chi beamingly affirmed
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  Speaker 1: that the horse had been provided for lavishly. What else
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  Speaker 1: could he say, However, he would make sure, doubly sure,
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  Speaker 1: by going to the stable again. Of course, the poor
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  Speaker 1: horror had not a mouthful. There was not so much
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  Speaker 1: as a wisp of hay in the stable. Not so
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  Speaker 1: much as a bean or a stock. Cheng Chi was
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  Speaker 1: sunken in weepy despair when the girl Tao Fou appeared
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  Speaker 1: with a matting from her bedroom floor. It was a
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  Speaker 1: newly made matting of bright, clean straw. Tau Fu tore
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  Speaker 1: it into shreds and filled the manger heaping. Thus was
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  Speaker 1: the king's horse supplied with food. Food, none to nourishing,
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  Speaker 1: but food. Nevertheless, there are many channels through which kings
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  Speaker 1: may receive news in rumors, in tittle tattle, what with
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  Speaker 1: the secret police and the mandarins who wish to gain favor,
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  Speaker 1: and the sparrows, the Royal palace keeps well informed. Besides,
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  Speaker 1: one historian takes several pages to prove that Taufu possessed
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  Speaker 1: a tongue and could use it to her advantage. However
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  Speaker 1: that may be, the news spread. Within a day. King
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  Speaker 1: ho Chu learned how the maid tau Fou had provided
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  Speaker 1: a yeast at the expense of her hair. He learned
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  Speaker 1: all about the shredded matting, and his laughter shook the throne.
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  Speaker 1: He bestowed more than a passing thought upon tau Fou
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  Speaker 1: of the quaintly bobbed locks. The maiden a thousand years
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  Speaker 1: ahead of her time, and having thought, he acted. He said,
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  Speaker 1: to the Minister of Domestic Affairs, prepare a room with
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  Speaker 1: hangings of orange colored silk. To the Minister of the Treasury,
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  Speaker 1: he said, bestow a dozen or so bars of gold
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  Speaker 1: upon the Mandarin Chang Chi. The Minister of Matrimony received
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  Speaker 1: his command, arrange me a wedding with the maid Taufu
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  Speaker 1: of Kyung Singh. So all things were arranged and came
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  Speaker 1: to pass. King Ho Chu was well pleased. Old Chang
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  Speaker 1: Chi was the happiest man living. The maid Tao Fu
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  Speaker 1: was quite content for a space. She had gowns of
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  Speaker 1: gorgeousness undreamed. She had slaves to kneel and knock their
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  Speaker 1: heads whenever she beckoned. She had priceless jewels and food
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  Speaker 1: of the rarest. Incidentally, she had in the king a
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  Speaker 1: doting husband. She had everything, everything except rain. Is it
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  Speaker 1: not hard to believe that tau Fou grew homesick for
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  Speaker 1: the reiins of Kiung sing It is a strain upon belief,
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  Speaker 1: Yet it is true. Indubitably Taufou longed for the reins
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  Speaker 1: of her drenched and soggy, much bedrizzled Kioung Singh. Did
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  Speaker 1: the king present her with a new necklace, she threw
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  Speaker 1: it petulantly away, exclaiming that she wanted rain. Oh I
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  Speaker 1: wish it would rain, said Tiao Fou. Why don't you
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  Speaker 1: make it rain? Then I will, said the king. He
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  Speaker 1: installed a myriad of high spouting fountains at no slight
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  Speaker 1: drain to the treasury. Are you pleased, my beauteous chaufou? No, fretfully,
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  Speaker 1: it is not like the rains of Kiong sing. Why
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  Speaker 1: are the trees not green? The trees are bare and brown? Oh,
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  Speaker 1: I wish it would rain a green bringing rain. The
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  Speaker 1: trees might very well be bare and brown. Winter's greedy
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  Speaker 1: fingers had stripped them thoroughly. King ho Chu gazed at
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  Speaker 1: the barren limbs for a lengthy period before his mind
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  Speaker 1: hit upon a scheme for bringing back the green. At length,
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  Speaker 1: he summoned the royal tailor and to him said, take
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  Speaker 1: many bales of green colored silk and cut leaf shaped pieces.
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  Speaker 1: Dip the pieces in wax, then sow them upon those
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  Speaker 1: bare branches, and use such artistry that no eye can
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  Speaker 1: discover they are not true leaves. Soupu, be quick the
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  Speaker 1: Cheng' make clothes hastily employed all the city's master workmen,
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  Speaker 1: some cutting and many sowing. Over night, the trees took
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  Speaker 1: on a color. Indeed, the tailor went beyond his orders,
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  Speaker 1: for on the peach trees he sowed lovely pink blossoms,
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  Speaker 1: and some blossoms he tracked to the ground, as if
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  Speaker 1: in their ripeness they had fallen. For a few days,
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  Speaker 1: Taufu was in somewhat better humor once she actually smiled,
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  Speaker 1: But all too soon those few days were over and
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  Speaker 1: her crossness returned. What now, my pearl of southern seas,
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  Speaker 1: said the king? Have the leaves lost their freshness? Do
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  Speaker 1: they no longer? Please? Oh? Pout, It isn't the leaves,
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  Speaker 1: they are quite home like. It's the wind that I miss.
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  Speaker 1: I longed to hear, the shrieking wind of Kiong Singh
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  Speaker 1: hurling its rain against my lattice. Oh I wish it
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  Speaker 1: would rain. Poor King ho Chu was hard put wind
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  Speaker 1: wind by the uprooted pine tree of Mount Thaie. How
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  Speaker 1: was he to produce the wind? A good half hour
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  Speaker 1: sixty minutes in that land passed before he had an
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  Speaker 1: inspiration again. He called for the Royal Tale procure, He
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  Speaker 1: told the tailor, many bales of the stoutest silk. Then
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  Speaker 1: place some of your brawniest men outside yonder lattice, and
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  Speaker 1: have them rip the silk, tear it into strips with
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  Speaker 1: all the noise possible, with which King ho Chu entered
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  Speaker 1: the treasury to see how his gold was dwindling. Huge
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  Speaker 1: armed stalwarts stood outside Taufu's window. Their hands clutched the
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  Speaker 1: woven silk. A pull, shriek, pull, shriek. For two days,
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  Speaker 1: the brow of Taufu was smooth and untroubled. She actually
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  Speaker 1: spoke kindly to the king. He poor soul didn't hear it.
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  Speaker 1: He was too busy wondering what the next task would
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  Speaker 1: be and how expensive. Scarcely a hundred bales of silk
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  Speaker 1: had been torn when Taufu hurled her crown across the
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  Speaker 1: room and began to weep. My dear, what's the trouble?
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  Speaker 1: What is the trouble? Questioned Hochu. Is the wind too violent?
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  Speaker 1: Oh no, the wind is natural enough, and it pleases me.
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  Speaker 1: I miss, oh, how I do miss the rumbling thunder
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  Speaker 1: of kyung Singh and the fall of lightning shattered trees.
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  Speaker 1: I miss them, and oh, I wish it would rain,
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  Speaker 1: real rain. The tears fell faster with each word. Now
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  Speaker 1: King Ho Chu had a tremendous army encamped on the
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  Speaker 1: palace grounds. He summoned General Chang and explained matters with
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  Speaker 1: an order. No sooner ordered than accomplished. The soldiers in
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  Speaker 1: the heaviest shoes marched ponderously beneath the latticed window. Boom, boom, broom, broom, brump,
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  Speaker 1: And how do you like our thunder? Little drums and
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  Speaker 1: great they rattled and roared, rap, boom, boom, an endless line.
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  Speaker 1: The soldiers marched one day, two days, three days, four.
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  Speaker 1: Some of them slept, while the others marched boom, boom, boom.
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  Speaker 1: The sun on their spears blazed and flickered the lightning.
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  Speaker 1: By night there were flashing fires. It is gratifying to
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  Speaker 1: relate that Tao Fu was moderately pleased. Her appetite returned,
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  Speaker 1: and the tears were withheld. She spoke to the king
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  Speaker 1: with kindness several times. All might have gone well, had
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  Speaker 1: not some malcontents down Kung Su way started a rebellion.
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  Speaker 1: Off went the army. General Chang waving his sword, and
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  Speaker 1: the smallest drummer boy thumping with glee. That was at midnight.
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  Speaker 1: The dawn was at its breaking when beacons along the
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  Speaker 1: line of march flared up. Halt was a signal. The
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  Speaker 1: army halted again. The beacons flared, they spelled the word return.
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  Speaker 1: Tao Fu was not so well. She longed for the
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  Speaker 1: role of the drums to remind her of Kiong Sing's thunder.
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  Speaker 1: What could the poor king do but recall his army.
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  Speaker 1: The rebellion in Kan Su continued merrily, and General Chang,
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  Speaker 1: who was in old time sig soldier, expressed his opinion
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  Speaker 1: rather explosively to a sympathetic staff officer. But never mind that,
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  Speaker 1: let the drums sound. When the rebellions spread to Kan Si,
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  Speaker 1: the king felt that things had gone quite far enough.
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  Speaker 1: It was time to teach those rebels a lesson. Away
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  Speaker 1: went the army again. A whole day passed and no
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  Speaker 1: return order was signaled. Night came and the army tramped onward.
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  Speaker 1: A pillar of flame shot up from a hilltop. It
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  Speaker 1: was a beacon, return, said the beacon. Not I said
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  Speaker 1: General Chang. I've had enough of the Queen's whims. Besides,
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  Speaker 1: it's raining right now. Forward March the army entered Cansu,
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  Speaker 1: and there encountered the rebels. It is better that the
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  Speaker 1: fight go undescribed. Here suffice it to say that if
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  Speaker 1: so much as one rebel escaped, he took pains to
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  Speaker 1: keep the fact secret. There is no mention of him
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  Speaker 1: in the books. General Chang was jubilant. Surely the king
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  Speaker 1: would be highly pleased. The King, good, gracious King Ho
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  Speaker 1: Chu himself, on a breathless steed, stumbled across the battlefield.
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  Speaker 1: Why didn't you return, panted the king. I I I
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  Speaker 1: stammered General Chang. But the King said more. The tartars
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  Speaker 1: swooped down just a few hours ago, carrying off my queen,
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  Speaker 1: raiding my treasury though it was empty, and forcing me
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  Speaker 1: to flee for my life. They carried off the queen.
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  Speaker 1: How terrible, exclaimed General Chang, looking into his sleeve. And
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  Speaker 1: my army is so tired that it can't march a step. Besides,
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  Speaker 1: the roads will soon be Poo nang Chu can't go
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  Speaker 1: with the rein end of Section twelve.