1935-12-17 — Page 19

CHINA MAIL CHRISTMAS SUPPLEMENT

A CHRISTMAS M

By PHYLLIS JUBY

AUL King got up from his

PAUL

Christmas Eve supper. It. had been a lonely affair this sup- per and he was glad now to move over to the comforting warmth of the fire. Well be reflected, since he had decided to spend this evening alone he would make himself really comfortable. He turned off the bright light and sank into an easy chair beneath the soft glow of the reading Jamp The silver-lettered title of a book caught his eye: "Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan" Yes, he mused as be settled down more comfortable into his chair. I must certainly visit Japan on my first short leave. He : his cigar, wondering whether he had been wise to turn down the in- vitations he had received to dize out on this night. After all. was not Christmas Eve a time-to enjoy gay company and dancing? Yet somehow he felt too con- scious of the strangeness of this. first Christmas in Hong Kong: he missed the congenial friends he had left at home, and the quiet, intimate company that pleased him. No. he was quite content to be sitting here before his £re, alone with his bock and his musings..

The stone Kwan Yin seemed to smile at him as the firelight flickered over her handsome. solid face, and the little blue boys on the plate of the "Hun- dred Boys" pattern over the dark mantel-piece were friendly in their gestures. His eyes wan- dered on to his old favourite, the willow pattern plate. There was the dainty lady on the bridge, the house across the waters.... how bright the china gleamed in the firelight; how real and alive the patterned plate appeared. Fascinated he stared, while the plate seemed to grow larger and larger until it dominated - the wall: round and gleaming. Was not the little lady in her poetic surroundings like the Chinese goddess in the moon?

Laughing, Paul leaned for... ward to stir up the fire. He would read now instead of in- dulging in these ridículons fancies. Slowly he turned over the pages of his book: Moon" An essay written by a young Japanese boy. Interested, he read:

"The

"The Moon appears melan- choly to those who are sad, and joyous to those who are happy... The Moon makes memories of home

travel to those who and creates homesickness...."

Am I homesick? he wondered. No, surely....after all I came out here by my own wish to do work that Interests me and be hear those things of China for which I have always cared. No, just a little melancholy perhaps, but not homesick

*The sight of the Moon-makes- an immeasurable feeling in our bearts when we look up at it through the clear air of a bean- teous night...

#

Paul's eyes were once more upon the willow pattern plate He saw the bamboos and the dis-

M

a

tant pagoda, and all the land- scape behind was

far-away blue stretching out into immea- surable space.

"The refined man amuses him- self with the Moon...."

Quaint thought that-he amuses himself with the Moon.

"He seeks some house looking out upon the water, to watch the Moon, and to make verses about it....

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4 house looking out upon the water there it was across the river on the willow pattern plate. There it stood. tall and lonely... How large the plate gleamed; yes, it was growing bigger; bigger and bigger....The water ripp'ed beneath the moonlight and the girl on the bridge moved softly- The wind was playing gently with her long bine sleeves.... Bigger and bigger and big- ger.

"O stranger!" the willow pat- term girl exclaimed, "What are you doing here?"

:

"I seem to have heard some- where that the refined amuses himself with the moon." Paul replied. And he went on dreamily, "he seeks some house looking out upon water, to watch the Moon, and to make verses about it." The girl laughed "How sentimental men are!? she exclaimed. "And when you have made your verses, what next?"

"Well I hadn't thought of that yet

But do you not like poetry? Girls usually do. Why I knew a girl at home who used to cut out all the verses she found in' papers and paste them in album,"

"The old-fashioned type," said the willow pattern girl, dismiss- ing them with a wave of her long blue sleeve.

Paul looked surprised. "You are the willow_pattern_girl, are you not?" he asked

**Yes I am," she said **Why?**

"'il "am thinking of your story; your fight with your lover from an enraged father, and all that happened afterwards.--It is so full of poesy.”

"Yes, because it is A story created by men of course," the willow pattern girl laughed. “In reality it was all very prac- tical My young man is very capable and will soon be earning good money! He will keep me well. All the rest is just the creation of poets. They must write poetry you know."

"This is queer," said Paul re- flectirely."You see, I've had such sympathy with you. I've even anvied you your life together-in the house across the water. Don't you ever make verses to- gether about the Moon?"

The girl laughed again. "Not often," she said. "But why have you envied us?":

"Well," said Paul speaking dreamily and gazing out over the water, "there was a girl....I wanted her to marry me "and come out here, but she wouldn't do it. She wouldn't leave her home and all that was familiar to come out with me into a strange land. I felt that if she really loved me she would follow me to the ends of the earth. I would do that, and more. for ber."

"The sentimental man again!

But you really managed that very badly." the girl said. "You should have married-her first and then talked about com- ing out here; she would have followed you then alright.”

That idea had not struck Paul He gazed at the girl in admira-

tion.

“But as I said," she went on, "you men are always too senti- mental; you thrive on dreams, but when it comes to realities your ideas are most inadequate.”

"Perhaps you are right," said Paul "If I had married her first we should have been here together now. How simple! Why didn't I think of #2 Its all very well to have books and warm fire, but that i't enough. The important thing is to have someone to share them with

2

"Well its too late now," the willow pattern girl was saying, "you'll have to think of another ides as good."

But Paul was not listening,

N

Once more his eyes were on the house across the water. "Yes," he marmured, "we would have had a home here together and

"And children I suppose," the girl finished for him "Children are very important to Chinese men at any rate."

"Oh, yes I've always liked children," Paul found himself saying, though he could not re- member ever giving the matter a thought before.

Eloquent, he

went on, "Yes, we would cer- tainly have had children; it's al- ways good to have them around. climbing on your knee and ask- ing amusing questions with big serious eyes."

"What au ideal picture! Children perhaps are not always the blessing you imagine. But if I had known you felt that way about them," the willow pattern of girl began; them instead finishing her sentence she turn- ed to the piate of the "Hundred Boys" pattern. Paul turned too. The plate. was growing mid growing; large and round it gleamed, and its reflection danced on the water like a big white Moon.

"Come along young ones!" the girl cried, beckoning with her arms and laughing merrily.

And all of a sudden the hun- dred stout little Chinese boys came rushing with the force of a flood: falling, rolling and tum- bling. They ran and they kick- ed and they somersaulted to the very edge of the bridge.

Paul was surrounded by the clamour- ing, crying little boys. They touched him with sticky little hands, they called-and-shouted at him, they climbed on his back, searched pulled his hair and eagerly in his pockets. He felt pinned down, crushed and over- whelmed by all these children. *Their round shaved heads bobbed up and down before hìm'; boyuant, numerous, astonishing in their energy. He tried to move but his limbs were bound by this weight and force of children; he looked beseechingly in the direction of the willow pattern girl, but she was laugh-

He ing too much to notice. must escape! One last desparate effort!..

Paul was sitting bolt upright. in his chair as he opined his eyes. It was cold. The fire had burned low and the wind clinked

He the plates upon the wall: looked down again at the book

upon his lap.

""The Moon"

That beautiful Lamp is neither yours, nor mine, but everybody's..

Well, I've certainly shared it to-night, Paul thought, and smilingly he look- ed up at the willow pattern lady and the "Hundred Boys" still friendly in their gestures.