A SHORT TRIP. 169

had: asked him to sit down and have a gime with her. As he
tried, however, to go away, what was the matter with his legs and
with his hands? He felt stiff all over. The handle of his axe
suddenly began to rot and crumble. He bent to pick up the pieces,
when, to his surprise, he saw dangling from his once shaven chin,
and hanging upon his bosom, a long hoary beard, white as the
snow on the mountain in winter! What had happened? He dared
not think, I imagine, but concluded that he would go home—a safe
place to retreat to in trouble. So with his stiffened limbs he went
hobbling along, hobbling along, and came down the mountain to
the neighborhood that had been his home. There were the houses,
but a new set of people was in them, and everybody was greatly
exercised over this strange old white-bearded, hobbling man. The
dogs barked at him and the children poked fun at Lu Wen. Iu
Wen’s heart sank within him. Did no one know him? He asked
about his family, and then the neighborhood concluded he must
surely be a fool, as no one knew anything of such a strange family.
By and by up tottered a venerable lady who testified that away
back in the history of her family there was a man by the name
of Lu Wen, but that was six generations before her day. I
seem to hear her say, ‘He was my great, great, great, great, grand-
father !’. It must have. frightened him to hear the old lady, for he
turned away, — went back to the mountains, —and was never heard

of again.”