Exhausted by his work,the old feryman slept.Cuicui,

She could id nhetol iofo rget th

things Grandpa had spoken of.In her dreams,her soul drifted upon the strains of beautiful songs,seeming gently to foat all about,up to the white pagoda,down to the vegetable garden, onto the boat-then it few back,midway up the hanging blufs—but for what purpose?To pick the tigers'cars":sax- ifrage!While pulling the boat during the daylight hours,she looked up at those cliffs and became quite familiar with the huge saxifrage leaves there.The cliffs were thirty or ffty feet high,ordinarily too high to reach,but now she could pick the very biggest leaf and make an umbrella out of it.

Everything was happening just as in Grandpals stories. Cuicui drifted off as she lay on a reed mat inside the burlap mosquito netting,taking pleasure in the beauty and sweet- ness of her dream.Grandpa,however,lay awake on his bed,

straining his ears listening to late-night singing on the high

clifs across the stream.He knew who was singing;it was

No.1,Tianbao of River Street,making the horseman's move.

He listened,both troubled and excited.Having worn her-

self out from crying during the day,Cuicui slept soundly,so

Grandpa didn't disturb her

Cuicui and Grandpa rose at dawn the next day and

washed their faces in the creek to remove the taboo against

telling ones dreams the morning afier.Then Cuicui hastened

to tell Grandpa what she had dreamed the night before

“Grandfather,you told me stories about singing,and yes-

terday I heard the most beautiful songs in my dreams,soft

and sweet.I felt I was able to fly in the air with these songs,

to the face of the cliffs across the creck,where I picked a big

saxifrage leaf.But once I picked it,I don't know who I gave it

to.I slept wonderfully and dreamed magnificenty!"

Grandpa smiled gently in sympathy,but did not tell Cui-

cui what had gone on the night before

He thought to himsclf:“If only you could dream on

forever.Some people become the prime minister in their

dreams.”

The old ferryman still thought it was Tianbao,No.1,who

had sung the night before.In recent days he had asked Cuicui

to take charge of the ferry.Pretending to be delivering some

medicines in town,he set off to find out what River Street was

up to.There he ran into No.1.He drew the young man aside,

saying,cheerfully;

“No.1,you dog,now you've tried both the chariot's move and the horseman's move.You're a sly one!”

But the old ferryman was wrong-he had confused one brother with the other.The night before,the two brothers had come to Green Creek Hill together.Because the clder brother had already made the first move,in the role of chariot,he insisted on letting his younger brother sing first this time.Realizing from the moment the latter raised his voice in song that he could never match him,No.I was more reluctant than ever to sing himself. The songs that Cuicui and her grandpa heard that night were all sung by No.2,Nuosong As No.I accompanied his younger brother home,he decided to leave Chadong and go downstream on the family's new oil boat,the better to forget what had hap- pened.Just now,No.1 was thinking of going to the docks to see cargo loaded onto the new boat.Noring his cold expression,the old ferryman,misunderstanding,gave an amused winkto let on that he knew that No.I's cold-shouldering was pretend,and also to show that he had good news to impart.He clapped No.1 on the back and whispered,sticking his thumb up,

“You sang so well that someone heard your songs in her dreams.The songs carried her far,far away,on many jour-

neys!You're the best,the very best singer around!”

No.1 stared back at the old boatman's unabashed expres-

sion and whispered:

“Enough.You can keep your precious granddaughter for

some songbird.'

The old ferryman had no idea what he meant by that.

No.1 went down a path berween the stilt houses to the river,

with the ferryman following.Ar the river,numerous bam-

boo oil casks were on the bank,waiting to be laded onto the

new boat.A boatman was twisting strands of cogongrass into

sheaves to make bulwarks that would keep waves from wash-

ing over the deck.Another man was sitting on a rock by the

rivetbank,greasing the oars with his hands.The old feryman

asked the boatman making the grass bundles when the boat

would launch and who would pilot it.The boatman pointed

to No.1.The old ferryman rubbed his hands and said:

“No.1,let me speak seriously,the chariot's move is not

the right one for you.But yout'll succeed with the horseman's

move!"

No.1 pointed his finger at a window above and said

“Uncle,look up there.If you want a songbird for your grand-

son-in-law,there he is!"

The old ferryman looked up and saw No.2,who was

mending a fishnet by the window

When the ferryman reached the ferry at Green Creck

Hill,Cuicui asked him:

"Grandfather,you've been quarelling with somcone.You

look awful!”

Grandpa smiled,but said nothing about his trip to town.