Bright and early the next day,friends came from town,

bringing ropes and carrying poles.

Fleetmaster Shunshun, the horseman,Cuicui,the old Daoist,and the yellow dog followed behind as six bearers carried the old ferryman's small,unvarnished coffin to the hill behind the collapsed pagoda for burial.When they got to a pit that had been dug to reccive the body,the old Dao- ist priest jumped down into it and,according to custom, sprinkled fecks of cinnabar and white rice in the four corners and the center before burning a little spirit money.Then he crawled up out of the grave to let the bearers lower the coffin. Unable to summon up any more tears,Cuicui ctied hoarsely and threw herself across it,refusing to get up.The coffin could be moved only after the horseman forcefully drew her aside. After that the coffin was lowered,with the ropes being tugged this way and that to square it in the pit.Fresh earth was piled on top as Cuicui remained sitting on the ground,sobbing.

The Daoist priest had to hurry back to town via the ferry to perform rites for sending another dead soul up to heaven.The busy Heetmaster,after entrusting the affairs on this side of the stream to the old horseman,likewise hurried back to town. All those who had been helping out went down to the stream to wash their hands.Each houschold had its own affairs to tend to,and they knew it was not the time for more polite words that would upset the next of kin,so they took the ferry home,too.That left behind only three people at Green Creek Hill:Cuicui,the old horseman,and Baldy Chen,also known as Fourth of the Fourth from his birth date,whom the fleet- master had sent to temporarily tend the ferry.Having fet the sting of a stone cast by the bald man,the yellow dog,nursing his resentment,softly yelped to express his unhappiness.

Cuicui had a talk with the old horseman that afternoon. She pleaded with him to return to town and get someone else in camp to take care of his horses,so he could return to Green Creck Hill to stay with her.When the old horseman got back, Baldy Chen was dispatched back to town.

Cuicui and the yellow dog went back to operating the ferry,letting the old horseman amuse himself on the high bluffs or sing her songs in that old,gravelly voice of his.

Three days later,the fleetmaster came to propose that Cuicui come live in his house,but Cuicui,who wished to tend her grandpa's grave,wasn't ready to move.Instead she wanted the Heetmaster to speak to the government offices,to

ask that Horseman Yang be allowed to live with her for the time being.Fleetmaster Shunshun agreed and went on his way.

Well past ffty now,Horseman Yang was an even better storyreller than Cuicui's grandpa.He was neat and diligent in his work and conscientious about everything;he made Cui- cui feel that in losing a grandfather,she had gained an uncle. When the ferry passengers inquired about her poor grandpa, or when she got to thinking about him at nightfall,she felt miserable and dejected.But as the days passed,her misery weakened a lirtle.As the horseman sat with the girl on the high bluffs by the stream every evening in the dusk and in the darkness,telling her stories about the poor old man lying in the wet soil,many of which she had never heard before, Cuicui's heart was put at ease.And he told Cuicui about her father,the soldier who valued both romantic love and honor, and how he had turned the local girls'heads in that smart uniform of his,the outfit of a brave in the Army of the Green Standard.He also told Cuicui about her mother—what a wonderful singer she was,and how the melodies and lyrics she made up were repeated far and wide.

But times had changed,and with them,all the local customs.If the emperor no longer ruled over the hills and valleys,how tumultuous had it been for ordinary folk!Horse- man Yang recalled that when he was a young man and just a groom,he had led his horse to Green Creek Hill and sung to Cuicui's mother,but she paid him no attention.And now he was this young orphan's sole support and intimate.He couldn't suppress a knowing smile.

Because the two talked every evening at dusk,of Grandpa and everything about the family,and finally all that had happened before the old ferryman's death,Cuicui came to understand many things that Grandpa hadn't dared to men- tion while he was alive.No.2's singing on the bluffs;the death of No.1;the subsequent aloofness of Shunshun and his son toward Grandpa;the grain mill offered by the Middle Stockade captain as a dowry to entice Nuosong;how No. 2,remembering the death of his elder brother and feeling ignored by Cuicui,was pressed by his family to take the mill yet still preferred the ferryboat,until he Hed downstream in anger;and how her grandpals death had something to do with Cuicui...all that Cuicui hadn't been able to under- stand,now became clear.Once Cuicui understood,she cried the whole night long.

When the fourth week of mourning had passed,Fleetmas- ter Shunshun sent a man to ask the horseman back to town. He proposed that Cuicui come into his home,as the future wife of No.2.But since No.2 was in Chenzhou,they could not announce it;they would first have to ask No.2 how he felt.The horseman thought that they should ask Cuicui first. When Horseman Yang got back and told Cuicui of Shun- shun's proposal,he advised her not to move to a strangers house while her fate was so unsettled;best to stay at Green Creck Hill until No.2 sailed home,to hear his opinion.

That sertled,and the old horseman thinking that No.2 would soon return,he entrusted his horses to someone else at camp and stayed at Green Creek Hill to keep Cuicui com- pany.The days passed The white pagoda at Green Creek Hill was important to the feng shui of Chadong.It was,of course,imperative that a new pagoda be built there.The military camp,the revenue bureau,and all the shops and ordinary citizens contibured money.All the big stockades brought in money,too.The pagoda was meant to confer blessings and advantages not just on particular people;everyone should be able to accumulate merit by contributing,so everyone was given the opportunity. Therefore a big bamboo tube with knots at each end and a slot sawed into its middle was put on board the ferryboat,to let passengers contribute money as they pleased.When the tube was full,the horseman brought it with him when he went to town to see his superiors—and carried a new one on his way back.Passengers,taking note that the ferryman was absent and that Cuicui had tied up her pigtails with white mourning ribbons,realized that the old man had completed his work in this life and was lying at peace in a mound of earth to feed the worms.They'd look sympathetically at Cuicui as they scrounged up a few coins for the bamboo tube.“May Heaven protect you.The deceased has gone to the Western Paradise.

Eternal peace to the living"Grasping the compassion and sympathy in their words,but sick at heart,Cuicui was quick to turn away and tug the boat Come winter,the white pagoda that had collapsed was good as new.The young man who had sung under the moon- light,softly lifting up Cuicui's soul from her dreams,had not yet returned to Chadong.

He may never come back; or perhaps he will be back to-morrow!