What shall be done

With the tree

Which hung Ch'ung-chen?

Which dared

Bear such imperial fruit?
Shall it be spared,

Or grubbed up by the root,
And die with the dynasty?

The tree that has gained

Such unholy renown
Shall not be cut down;

Let the culprit be chained.*

It thus shall remain

Till the end of time,

Bound with a chain

For its awful crime.

The rebel Li-tzu-ch'êng lived in the palace eighteen days. He had sufficient respect for the deceased Emperor to place him in his coffin and sacrifice to him.

* Shun-chih, the first Emperor of the Ch'ing dynasty, ordered the tree to be chained. He also granted permission to inter the body of the Emperor in the family tomb.

When the old fir tree

Shall be freed from its thrall,

The Ch'ing dynasty

Will totter and fall.*

May such a catastrophe never occur

As removing the chain from the Wry-necked Fir.

*It is believed that should the tree be ever unchained, great calamity would befal the reigning dynasty. To this day the tree remains chained, but it has almost fallen to the ground.

DAME KUO'S VISIT TO HSI-TING FAIR.

Dame Kuo was a matron, close verging on fifty,
Reputed to be, too, remarkably thrifty;

She had money galore, but knew how to enjoy it—
Her thriftiness being how best to employ it

So as to get all the good she could out of it—
And she fully succeeded-there can't be a doubt of it.

The buxom Dame Kuo

Made her mind up to go

To the fair which is held once a year at Hsi-ting *
A place of resort

For religion or sport

A temple, in fact, fifteen li from Peking.

***. This is a temple, in which a fair is held every year from the 1st to the 15th of the fourth moon.

Dame Kuo mounted her cart,
Gave the signal to start,

After seeing her hand-maidens carefully put

Into carts standing near,

Which now followed in rear ;

She'd a guard too, comprising both mounted and foot.

These numbered a score:—

Some behind, some before;

While some to the shafts of the carts lent their aid,*
Lest the ladies inside

Should feel terrified.

Thus they formed, altogether, a grand cavalcade.

What giggling and tittering took place within those carts!

What sheep's-eyes thrown at passer's by-more deadly far than darts ;

Inflicting wounds incurable on many throbbing hearts. What a constant munching too there was of apples, cakes, and tarts!

* It is common to see servants running by the side of a cart with one hand on a shaft-probably assisting themselves by this process, rather than to be at hand lest the occupant of the cart should call them.

Dame Kuo had got a "sipping flask,"* but as she rode alone,

How many sips she did take is not accurately known;

But that she had required a sip her beaming features

showed;

For when she reached the fair with benevolence they glowed.

En passant, too, inside her cart, a hamper had been stowed

Lest she should want substantial creature-comforts on the road.

When they came to the temple a servitor ran
To inform the old Abbot-and he, worthy man,
Bade tea be served up in the flick of a fan-
With the best that his larder could boast.

He invited the matron to enter and rest;
And proud at receiving so welcome a guest―
(For she was a "patron "-and one of his best)
He at once commenced duty as host.

*This is made of pewter, and has a sipper" screwed on, similar in use and shape to those on babies' sucking bottles. These "

sipping flasks can be

slung over the shoulders on a journey.

. Made of wicker work, and not much

unlike a very large "sandwich case." These can also be slung over the shoulder.