166 ALL ABOARD FOR SUNRISE LANDS.

“ That mossy old’ character?” asked Ralph.

“Yes; and they have a man as old and mossy in Japanese
stories. What makes it more interesting is that the story first
came over from China, but is kept up by Japanese story-tellers ;
so that China and Japan both have a Rip Van Winkle. This one’s
name in the story is Lu Wen. He was a wood-cutter, and back
of his house was a big mountain, on whose shaggy sides were the
woods where Lu Wen used to swing his axe; and many a pile
he hacked out for the big, roaring fires on ‘the cold winter days.
One day, in a time of beautiful weather, he had gone into the
woods carrying his beloved axe. He thought he knew the paths
very well, but this time he lost his way completély. The flowers,
though, were beautiful and the day lovely, and as his poverty did
not allow him to indulge in many romantic walks, probably he
rather enjoyed this excursion and wandered on. Hark! What was
it he heard? Something was going through the woods and _ step-
ping on the twigs of the bushes. He looked again. There was
a fox. You will find out that the fox is a witchy kind of being
in Japanese opinion, and Lu Wen might have guessed that harm
was ahead. If he had only been one of the famous old-time
archers and shot the fox dead, how lucky! The fox ran, Lu Wen
following, and at last they came to an open place where Lu Wen wit-
nessed a sight that made him forget the fox and also lose his senses ;
for there were two very beautiful ladies squat on the ground, playing
checkers. How handsome they were! Lu Wen stared, and stared, and
stared, the ladies not seeming to notice him at all — the rogues!
‘What a nice game that is, and I wonder who will beat?’ he must
have said to himself. He kept watching the play and the players also ;
but he finally remembered that it would not do for him to stay
longer — especially, you know, as neither of the beautiful witches