The Tax Collector

THE TAX COLLECTOR Pearl Buck The bus between Wang’s Corners & Li Family Village is always crowded, in spite of the fact that the road lies between mountains that are haunted by bandits. This is because at Wang’s Corners you can take another bus, which carries you to the nearest railway station. Wang’s Corners is a plebeian town & would be today the village it has been for centuries & still deserves to be, were it not for the spurious life it has taken on as a bus stop for the Lung Tan railroad. Like all such mushroom towns, most of the people are rogues in one way or another. Among all citizens of Wang’s Corners there was none so warmly hated & feared as Big Tooth Yang, the tax collector. In any region the tax collector is, of course, the worst man. Even were he not, the sight of him is hateful to all hard-working people, & Big Tooth would not have been handsome, even had he not been tax collector. The gods, in some freak of merriment, had caused him to have one large front tooth which outran all the others in its growth, & since he had a big mouth, opening as wide as window in his face, this tooth stared everyone out of countenance. It had amazed his parents when he was a child & had horrified his wife when she first saw him on their wedding night. It still horrified her, so that she had simply made it the rule of her life never to look at her husband. Since it is also good manners for a woman never to look at a man, this was not noticed. The tax collector himself had been deeply influenced by this big tooth of his. As a boy he had found that fear can become a substitute for liking, & when he realized that because of his grotesque appearance no one could like him without great effort, he allowed their fear to suffice him. His mother was a sensible woman, & she had tried to teach him that because he had this fearsome tooth, he must atone for it by more than usual goodness & kindness, in order to have the friends that all men need. But he found that it was hard to be good & easy to be evil, & to be continually kind made him irritable. Persuaded by the horror in the eyes of others when they saw him, he early gave up trying to obey his mother. Instead, he allowed his big tooth to shape him into a rough, harsh, cruel human being. As a boy he pushed other boys down into the dust of the road as he passed, grinning at them while he did so, & as a man he simply grinned at those he wished to subdue. It was natural, therefore, that he should apply to the provincial government for the post of tax collector in Wang’s Corners & inevitable that the post should be given to him. It must not be thought that the citizens of Wang’s Corners were so servile, however, as to suffer him without rebellion. The boys who had grown up with Big Tooth Yang never forgot that he had kicked them & pushed them as children, & when he became tax collector all their memories rose up against him. But who can be successful against a tax collector? He had the resources of the whole region at his hand. Let any man make a good bargain on a pig & Big Tooth stood in his doorway. ‘I claim the tax on your profit for the sake of the nation,’ he always said loudly. ‘What has the nation to do with my pig?’ the man might cry. ‘ My pig was my own, out of my own sow, reared on the leavings from my own harvests. 1

‘The government has commanded me to take one-third share of all business, ‘ Big Tooth declared: ‘I am allowed to use force if necessary.’ ‘Force’ meant that the Chief of Police in Wang’s Corners & his six policemen would march into the house & stay there to be fed & sheltered, to sleep on the beds & sit on the chairs. This was horrible, & if there were young women in the house it was shameful. So, groaning & cursing Big Tooth’s ancestors, the man would pour into the fat palm the tax money. It is doubtful whether these citizens of Wang’s Corners could ever have gathered the strength to free themselves of the curse of Big Tooth, if it had not been for some events which took place within a few days of one another, just after the harvesting of the rice. The whole countryside was goaded to a height of fury because Big Tooth had visited every house & demanded a share of one-third of the harvest for the nation. By this time the people heartily hated the nation, because to them it now meant only Big Tooth. ‘What is this “nation” he keeps talking about?’ they complained in loud voices to one another. ‘This nation does nothing for us. It does not feed our children or care for our old. It does not plough our fields or cut the sheaves. It does not even give us good roads, nor even so much as protect us from the bandits in the hills.’ For this was another grievance, that when Big Tooth had taken a share for the nation he talked about, the bandits also came down from the hills to claim their share. ‘I would be hard put to it,’ Old Li declared, at the Li Family Village, ‘to know which are the bigger bandits, Big Tooth & his Nation, or that yellow dog & his little dogs up there in the mountains. But even this might not have stirred the citizens to any action, so deeply peaceful were they. For when Big Tooth had gone away & they had sat & moaned a while, they wiped their faces on their blue cotton girdles, looked round at their wives & children, &, in spite of themselves, they began to smile. Life was still good. ‘Shall we allow rogues to make us always miserable?’ they asked themselves. ‘Come, there is only this one Big Tooth, & he cannot be everywhere at once, nor can he live for ever, & the bandits are in the hills, & when they have once come, they will not come again for a while.’ So life would go on again in Wang’s Corners, & in the Li Family Village, & the people who lived there followed the example of Big Tooth’s wife & turned their faces away from him. It might have gone thus for the rest of Big Tooth’s life, had he not decided one day to take a concubine. The one sorrow of his life was that he had no son. He was growing richer every day, & he had added courts to his house & put in a fishpond & a garden. He ate the food he liked best for every meal, so that a feast was no longer a feast to him. He had servants & he had even a motorcar. This was an old machine, it is true, but it still had its four wheels & the engine. Anyone could see the engine, for the cover to it was gone. When Big Tooth bought this machine, he had asked about the cover & its owner had replied, ‘It was a matter of continually opening & shutting that cover whenever the engine had to be fed & watered, so for convenience I had it taken off.’ This was reasonable & so Big Tooth had bought the machine. It extended the length of 2

his arm, for now he could go out into the country & collect tax to the distance of a hundred miles around him. He was no longer limited to the bus between Wang’s Corners & the Li Family Village. But none of these things took the place of the son. His wife, though she continued pretty & gentle, also continued barren, & no amount of scolding produced any change in her. At last she said one day with the patience which was habitual to her, ‘My husband, why do you not take a concubine? With your riches & position you could have any young woman in the town, & perhaps she will be luckier for you than I am.’ ‘Two woman under one roof always make trouble,’ he retorted. ‘Not under your roof,’ she replied sweetly. ‘I promise you I will welcome her & treat her as my sister.’ This put the idea into Big Tooth’s head. He found, as he remembered all the young girls he had seen lately, that a certain handsome young face was already in his mind, & that this face belonged to the only daughter of old Li, a farmer outside the Li Family Village. The two, father & daughter, lived in a small half-ruined house on a parcel of land to the south of the village; & since there was no son, the young girl helped her father in the field, & that was how Big Tooth had seen her. He had not noticed her until recently because he had seen her grown up from an unkempt motherless little girl, whose black hair was burnt tawny brown by the sun, into the young woman he had noticed only one day recently, while she had been beating out grain against the side of the threshing box. It was the day he had gone to collect the tax. Sitting in his garden he thought how healthy she had looked & how red her cheeks were. She was a tall girl, but then he was a tall man, & he was tired of small, puny women like his wife. ‘She’ll be hard to manage, but that is nothing to me,’ he thought, boastfully, ‘because I manage everybody.’ It was from such thinking that he sauntered out of the town a few days later & went in the evening to Old Li’s tiny farm. The young woman was sitting on a bench by the door eating a watermelon. She had a slice of the fruit to her mouth, & Big Tooth saw that it was the golden-hearted variety, which is sweeter than any other. Over it she looked at him with her large, lively black eyes. When she saw him she rose promptly, the fruit steel between her teeth, & went inside the house. Instantly, Old Li came out, buttoning his faded blue jacket about him. ‘You must excuse me that I was not at the door,’ he said to Big Tooth. ‘I was just washing myself after coming home from my field.’ Big Tooth sat down on the bench that was still warm from the young girl’s body. ‘That was a fine water-melon,’ he said; ‘I have not eaten watermelon in a long time. Give me a slice of it.’ Old Li called out at once to his daughter: ‘Bring some of the melon to our guest!’ The young girl’s voice came back clearly: ‘I can’t. I have eaten the last piece.’ And while they heard this, she added impudence to what she had just said. ‘It is one thing he can’t tax – it’s inside me.’ Then she laughed loudly. Old Li was struck with terror but Big Tooth laughed, too. ‘Now I could tax you just the same,’ he remarked. ‘ I can ask for the young woman herself.’ 3

Old Li tried to make a laugh also, & then he said, ‘It has been a good day – not too hot, nor too cold.’ ‘Don’t talk about the weather,’ Big Tooth said. ‘I mean what I just told you. I want the young woman.’ Old Li grinned, & fright nailed the grin on his face. ‘You are joking,’ he said. ‘She’s – she’s betrothed.’ This was a lie, for his daughter, whose name was Liehsa, had steadfastly refused to marry until she found a young man who would take her surname for his, so that her father would have a son. But what young man wanted to be the son of a poor old widower with only a few hundred yards of land for a field? To find some one poorer than they, who was also strong & handsome, clever & good, was no small task. ‘He is in the army,’ Old Li said faintly of this young man who did not exist, ‘but he will come at any time & he would kill me, & his family would leave me unburied if he found I had not kept faith with him.’ ‘I will settle that,’ Big Tooth said. ‘He’ll be afraid of me.’ ‘Oh, no, he fears on one,’ Old Li said positively. ‘You forget he has been fighting the Jap devils & he has seen the red-haired Americans also, & he feared none of them.’ Big Tooth instantly began to burn with a raging jealousy. ‘Tell your daughter to come out,’ he commanded. Old Li called feebly, ‘Liehsa, come & see our guest!’ Liehsa called back pleasantly in the same clear voice. ‘I’m busy. I can’t come out.’ ‘Does she know who I am?’ Big Tooth asked loudly. ‘Do you know who he is?’ Old Li echoed. ‘The tax collector!’ Liehsa called back, laughing. ‘But I am not taxable!’ she added. ‘You see how spoiled she is,’ Old Li said eagerly. ‘She is all I have & she is lazy, disobedient, & dirty. She eats all the time & she does nothing. She would quarrel with your honorable lady & make a hell of your home.’ ‘She needs beating,’ Big Tooth declared, ‘and I would enjoy beating her.’ His big tooth gleamed out of his smiling mouth & Old Li shuddered. ‘Give me a few days to get her used to the thought,’ he begged. Big Tooth rose. ‘I will except her seven days from today,’ he announced, & went away. But at the edge of the threshing floor he paused. ‘If you arrange this affair well,’ he remarked, ‘I will allow you freedom from taxes so long as you live.’ He chuckled behind his big tooth. ‘And if there are taxes in the world beyond, as of course there are, I will speak for you myself to the head god in hell.’ Old Li tried again to laugh but no sound would come out of his dry mouth & so he only bowed. When Big Tooth’s heavy figure had completely disappeared from sight, he sat down on the bench & began to wail, & Liehsa at once ran out. She scolded her father heartily. ‘I heard every word that accursed one said, & I heard all you said, too. Father, I don’t know what your mind is, but I’ll tell you mine. I will not go to his house.’ ‘Wait…’ Old Man Li said. ‘I will wait for ever,’ she said, ‘but I will not go.’ ‘You must remember that we are helpless,’ the old man began. ‘I will not go,’ Liehsa said. ‘And he is the tax collector, the powerful one…’ ‘I will not go,’ Liehsa said. 4

‘He will free us from taxes,’ Old Li pleaded. ‘I will not go,’ Liehsa said. Old Li grew a little angry now on his own account. ‘Stop saying that & tell me how I can prevent it,’ he said. Liehsa opened her big black eyes at him widely. ‘You have nothing to do with it,’ she said. ‘I just will not go.’ ‘He said you need a beating, & so you do,’ Old Li retorted. ‘No one can beat me,’ Liehsa retorted, ‘& certainly not he.’ Upon this their day ended most unhappily & they went to their rooms, & the old man turned a hundred times on his bed & Liehsa sat up, thinking hard. When morning came they both had come to no conclusion except that they must go to all the people they knew in Wang’s Corners & ask for help. They had decided upon Wang’s Corners because Liehsa was ashamed for any of her relatives in the Li Family Village to know, even, that Big Tooth wanted her for his concubine. They set out to go by bus as soon as they had tasted the breakfast for which they had no appetite. At the doorstep they had a discussion. Liehsa had put on her best blue jacket & white cotton socks & new cloth shoes. She had, beyond that, put on her silver earrings, which she wore only at New Year. ‘Do you think it well,’ Old Li now asked, looking at her, ‘to dress yourself up to look your best? Oughtn’t you to look ugly so as to appear as miserable as you are?’ ‘I thought of that,’ Liehsa replied, ‘but then it occurred to me that men will be more sorry for me if I look beautiful.’ ‘True, true…’ Old Li said, & so they set forth on their mission. Alas that Old Li was a widower & that Liehsa was motherless! For had the good wife & mother been alive, she would have told them that it is not the men who decide matters even in Wang’s Corners, but the women. When pair came to the doors of the houses of such families as they knew, when they were invited in, it is true that the men, looking at Liehsa’s fresh & pretty face, felt an instant new range against Big Tooth. ‘This is really too much,’ each declared in his own way. ‘We have endured enough from Big Tooth in his robberies of whatever belongs to us, but if he is going to begin to take concubines from among our best-looking young women, then it is time for him to be put to death.’ This was most comforting to Old Li & Liehsa. But, sadly enough, it was the women who spoke next & what each said in her own way was something like this: ‘I don’t see that it would be so bad for Liehsa to be the concubine of Big Tooth. He is rich & he has the biggest house in town, & it is well known that his wife is good-tempered. After all, what is Liehsa? Nothing but a girl from the Li Family Village. She could do much worse than to be the concubine of a man in Wang’s Corners.’ The men heard their wives speak thus –when they were ill-tempered they said it at once, & when they were kind they spoke in pitying voices to Liehsa & Old Li, & waited until they were gone, but what they said amounted to the same thing. The men were prudent, & now to the trouble of fighting against Big Tooth they had the trouble also of

5

arguing with their wives & maintaining that Liehsa was nothing to them-that they had not even seen that she was pretty. By the end of the day, half the homes in Wang’s Corners were in a state of irritation because husband & wife were angry with one another, & all sorts of irrelevant things were being said. For example, Mrs. Ying at the street of the Three Ghosts said to Mr. Ying, as they lay on opposite sides of their big bed, ‘I cannot understand why anybody in Wang’s Corners has to undertake a matter for someone surnamed Li, who does not live here but belongs to the Li Family Village. Why didn’t they go to their own village instead of coming over here to town?’ ‘I suppose they thought we would have more power over our own townsman, the tax collector.’ Mr. Ying replied. ‘Anyway, I have told you that I will have nothing to do with the matter, & I wish you would let me go to sleep.’ ‘But the way you stared at the girl!’ Mrs. Ying cried, beginning to sob. Mr. Ying bounced out of bed. ‘I am tired of hearing you say that!’ he shouted. ‘I didn’t stare at her! I presume she has black eyes & hair, since she is a Chinese. Beyond that, I know nothing. I am going to sleep in the main room on the couch, which is as hard as the bottom of the creek.’ This sort of things went on in a score of houses that night. As for Liehsa & Old Li, they had returned by bus & sat mournfully in their little house, & Liehsa talked about running away. ‘Where would you run?’ Old Li inquired. ‘I could run away & join the Women’s Army,’ Liehsa said. ‘If you do that, I will swallow poison,’ Old Li declared. This sort of talk went on until they were both exhausted & went to bed. ‘At least,’ Old Li said as they parted, ‘let us wait until after the Fair tomorrow.’ The next day was the Fair at the Li Family Village. It came only once a year & the whole village prepared for it for days. Farmers came from miles around & brought their produce, their pigs & chickens, their largest melons & radishes, their longest turnips & greenest cabbages. Usually, the citizens from Wang’s Corners would not have come to this rustic occasion, but so many of the husbands had been made miserable the night before, that when the bus left Wang’s Corners the next morning it was quite full of men who had said to their wives, ‘I am going to be late at work tonight.’ They were anxious for a day’s rest from their wives & also for recreation. All sorts of jugglers & dancers attended the Fair. Two or three men of Wang’s Corners honestly wanted to help Liehsa & Old Li, & had made up their minds to see if some of the citizens of the Li Family Village could take up their defense. There were also two or three who simply & secretly wanted to look at Liehsa again. The bus had started just after dawn when, suddenly, it was called to a halt by a loud horn, which all the citizens in the bus recognized at once as belonging to Big Tooth. They looked out of the door less back of the bus & there he was, being driven along the rough road by a poor relation. Big Tooth would have felt it beneath him to drive his own car, & so he had a dozen or so of his poor relatives taught to do the menial task.

6

The bus stopped & Big Tooth climbed aboard in fury. ‘I sent word I wanted to go by bus this morning to the Li Family Village,’ he bawled at the driver. ‘I am short of car drink.’ ‘I didn’t get any word,’ the driver retorted. He was afraid of Big Tooth, but he was not afraid to lie. It was true that one of the poor relations had sent word through a watercarrier, who had relayed the word by a manure picker who was going along the road towards the bus station, & the manure picker had told the bus driver, who had then pretended he was deaf. ‘Just shut your mouth & go on!’ Big Tooth shouted. Everybody had stood when he got in, & he chose the seat he liked best at the back of the bus, & he sat down where he could feel the cool air, not speaking to anybody. All sat down, & each man hated Big Tooth freshly, not only for all the taxes he had collected in the past, but because he had looked at a handsome young girl & wanted for his concubine, & beyond that they hated him because he had been the cause of trouble in their homes & a sleepless night. When hearts are full of hatred, which they dare not vent, silence is best. All were silent, all looked out of the windows from which the glass had long since disappeared. But this was only an advantage, for had there been glass it would have been too dirty for them to see the freshly mown fields & the flocks of white geese & ducks that were wandering over them, picking up the fallen grain. Be sure that Big Tooth saw every duck & every goose & counted the stacks of grain. He was coming today to the Fair to watch the business that was done & to take his toll. Before the day was over he planned also to go to see Old Li, & he had made up his mind that he would not take ‘no’ for an answer. By this time, seven days hence, Liehsa would be in his house as a concubine. He had already told his wife. She had taken the news in silence & without surprise, almost, indeed, as though she did not care, & this had encouraged him. ‘You show no shame that I have to bring another woman into the house,’ he scolded at the breakfast table where he ate alone, while she served him. ‘I am as the gods made me,’ she sighed. What he could not know was that as soon as he had gone she sat down in what appeared to be complete idleness & thought about the young girl Liehsa whom she had never seen. She felt fond of her already & grateful to her, & then she felt sorry for her. It was so terrifying to be married to Big Tooth. There were no compensations, unless one had a child, but what if the child were like Big Tooth? In her agitation at this thought, she grew quite ill, & felt that she must take steps. But what could a weak woman do? ‘I can only pray,’ she thought. So she washed herself & brushed hair & put on a clean coat & with her maid -servant she walked by side streets out of the town & to a temple outside. There she slowly climbed the three hundred stone steps that led to the temple, & she paid the priest who welcomed her & went in to the goddess who sat in a little crypt in the solid rock of the mountain. She liked this little goddess because she looked shy, sitting there in the half darkness, & as if she would perhaps understand shy & sad-hearted women.

7

There, alone with the goddess, she lit the two candles & explained the situation in halfwhispering words, & the goddess looked down at her through the flickering light & seemed to listen. ‘You know, Lady, I should like to have the young girl in the house,’ Mrs. Big Tooth Wang said earnestly. ‘It would be nice to have someone with me all the time, & we could talk everything over together. It would be wonderful if she had a baby for me. We could be mothers together. But what if the child turned out like Big Tooth? Could you prevent that, do you think?’ She went on with this sort of talk for an hour or so, until she felt comforted, & then she went home again, only saying to the goddess as she went, ‘I will leave everything to you.’ Whether the goddess took any steps cannot be known. If she did, it is not to say she came down from her fixed place in the crypt. Gods & goddesses do not communicate by such means. It is matter of flying thoughts, feelings, wings in the air, spirit touching spirit. Probably some such glancing brightness brushed the being of the great grayfaced god that stood at the gate, that god who protects all good men & punishes the evil ones. But such things cannot be known except that when the good pray, strange benefit may come of it. While one cannot be certain that in this case, what happened was the result of the visit to the goddess in the crypt, yet it can be said certainly that Mrs. Big Tooth Wang was a good woman, Whether her visit to the goddess in the crypt was useful or not. It was a glorious day, & everybody who had anything to do with the Fair in the Li Family Village was glad of this. It was so fine a ay that up in the mountains the air was stinging with energy & the bandits could not sit still. They were playing about in the little bowl-like valley, which was their lair, punching one another & pretending to make battles. ‘Why don’t we go to the Fair at the Li Family Village?’ the younger leader exclaimed. ‘Leave that village alone,’ the elder leader replied. The bandits had always the two leaders, the younger to think of new & daring attacks & the elder to add prudence. ‘Only good farmers & such will be at that Fair,’ the old bandit went on. ‘It is shameful for decent bandits if they begin to rob the good beyond what can properly be taken after harvest.’ ‘Then let’s go & rob the bus,’ the younger one urged. ‘None of the farmers will go by bus. Likely, the passengers will just be gamblers & thieves & pickpockets, who always travel in luxury.’ The old man had nothing to say to this, but he begged to be left behind, since he was tired & preferred to keep his strength for bigger matters than holding up the bus. The other older bandits chose to stay with him, & so it came about that only the younger bandits ran down the stony mountain path, shouting & singing as they went. They had a pair of field glasses they had taken from a rich German they had once robbed, & through it they searched for the bus in the foothills below. Each of the twenty or so young men took a look through the glasses & saw it crawling along the road some miles away. ‘It looks like a beetle!’ 8

‘It goes slowly because it is so heavy laden!’ ‘It will be lighter when we get through our work!’ So they talked & joked & they went over the countryside, their strong brown legs marching together in unison. Before them people disappeared, & it was as though they walked through an uninhabited land & this, too, they joked about. It was all as easy as play, & indeed it was play. They waited until the bus came into a hill, which had been cut in two to allow the road to pass through, & then they swarmed around, yelling & waving their old guns. The bus could only stop. No one thought of resisting. Bandits were accepted as thunderbolts from heaven & every man yielded himself to what seemed inevitable-every man, that is, except Big Tooth. The hearty young men climbed into the bus & all stood except Big Tooth. Since each passenger had known privately that he was going to the Fair, it was only natural that all had some extra money on their persons. The bandits went down the crowded aisle, pushed into each pocket & felt all the trousers & sleeves, except those of the women, from whom they took only their rings. Behind all who were standing was Big Tooth, still sitting. The bandits could not see him, for the others unwillingly shielded him, until they came upon him at the end of the best seat. ‘Here is a fat man!’ they roared. ‘Up with you, Elder Brother!’ Big Tooth did not rise. He showed his great white teeth at them. ‘Keep your hands off my person,’ he said in a majestic voice. ‘I am the tax collector, I represent the nation.’ While he said these words he reached into his bosom & brought out a folded sheet of paper, & this he opened before them. Upon it was a sign, some names, & a great seal. ‘Here in my authority,’ he said. ‘My person is sacred.’ Had the elder leaders been with these young bandits they might not have been afraid of Big Tooth. But the younger bandits knew that ‘nation’ meant ‘government’ & ‘government’ meant soldiers, & perhaps the destruction of their comfortable lair. Their elders were continually preaching to them about keeping out of trouble with the government. ‘It never pays to arouse the government,’ their elders preached. ‘Be polite to officials, never rob them; pay out money to them freely in order to live in peace. Besides, we can always get it back again.’ So now they bowed to Big Tooth. ‘Excuse me, sir,’ the young leader said. ‘We are so ignorant,’ & with this he turned & shouted to his men to get off the bus. But Big Tooth was made bolder than ever by this success. He swelled himself up, & glanced around at the staring eyes of the robbed & helpless people in the bus. Then he roared at the young bandit leader. ‘Do not think you can escape the law so easily,’ he bellowed. ‘I tell you, I am the tax collector!’ His voice halted all of those young men as they stood on the road. ‘What do you want of us?’ their leader faltered. 9

‘You have just done business,’ Big Tooth declared sternly. ‘It is your trade & you have made a profit. Upon that profit I claim a just tax.’ ‘A tax?’ faltered the young bandit leader. ‘One-third,’ Big Tooth announced, & held out his hand. Those who watched could not believe what they saw. But what they saw was plain enough. The young bandits hurriedly cast up all the money they had taken from them & divided it into three piles there on the lonely road, & one of them was put into Big Tooth’s outstretched hands. This gain Big Tooth stowed in his huge inner pocket, which hung like an apron over his belly. ‘Now you may go,’ he said. ‘I will report to the nation that you are honest bandits & have paid your taxes.’ ‘Thank you Elder Brother,’ the bandits said feebly. Big Tooth went back to his seat, brushing everybody aside as he went, & behind him the young bandit leader looked at his fellow. ‘ Did we rob them, or did that big-toothed fellow rob us?’ he asked in a puzzled voice. None of the other bandits could answer. They stood shaking their heads, their eyes dazed, & then they turned back to the mountain, resolved to say nothing to their elders, But only to report what money they had left. In the bus, however, the citizens of Wang’s Corners knew perfectly what had happened. They had been robbed & a third of their loss was in Big Tooth’s great pocket. They sat down while the bus went on its rocky way, & to all that had happened was now added this final outrage. They turned & stared at Big Tooth, & Big Tooth stared impudently back at them, without a word. Under his dirty gray silk gown was their money, but he had taken it as his, & the law, he would have said, was on his side. Each man in himself turned over what could be done. Then, as one man, they rose & surged upon Big Tooth. Ahead of them, & who did not know it, was the great Dragon Gorge, where the precipice rolled down a thousand feet into a deep river. The bus driver drove on, not turning his head, & the women looked away. Between them & the end of the bus where Big Tooth had chosen to sit so that he might not be hot, there was a crowd of men. What went on who could know? A dozen girdles were loosened, hands covered the mouth with its big tooth, hands pinched the nostrils & bent the head. Big Tooth felt himself tied in the twinkling of a goddess’s eyelash, knees to chin, hands under the knees, head bent back, & a thick girdle of cloth between his teeth. Hands emptied his pocket bag. The next instant he was rolling down the mountainside, bouncing like a ball from rock to rock. The Great Dragon Pool lay at the bottom, the bottomless pool, in which no man dared to swim or to fish, even on the hottest day. He clove the waters & went on into the abyss. In the bus the men counted out their money. Each took a third of what he had brought, & put it back into his own pocket, & a third of what he had was given to the driver. He did not turn his head for the bus was late, & while time did not matter to anyone, it was a matter of pride for the driver to be at the Li Family Village before noon. Besides, he was young & always hungry.

10

It was a successful Fair, & nearly everybody had a good time. Old Li wandered mournfully about the streets, but of all the citizens of Wang’s Corners none said anything to him, except Mr. Ying, who was kinder than the rest & perhaps a little more brave. ‘As to the matter spoken of yesterday,’ he said to Old Li, ‘give it no more thought. The gods take care of such things.’ Old Li thanked him without being reassured, since the gods had failed him too often for him to have any confidence in their good sense or even in their kindness. But as time went on he had to acknowledge that for once he had been mistaken. No one ever saw or heard of Big Tooth again. After a while there came rumors that bandits had tumbled him over the precipice, but who dared to go down into the abode of dragons to see? Mrs. Big Tooth waited for him faithfully for a whole month, then she sold the house & became a nun to the little goddess in the crypt, & kept her shined & polished as if every day were a feast day. Liehsa married a year later. As it happened, she married the young bus driver, who told her the truth about Big Tooth Wang when they were admiring their first-born son. They had first met, simply enough, because the bus broke down one day & the Old Li’s house was the nearest one. It was pure chance, for the bus always broke down two or three times on each trip. Liehsa had made tea for the passengers while they waited for the driver to mend the engine, but she & that driver had fallen in love at first sight. The goddess of course could have had nothing to do with this, except that Mrs. Big Tooth Wang, now the nun called Snow Purity, prayed often that the young girl could find a really good husband & have a son. This son was born promptly ten months after their marriage, & it was while admiring his perfection one warm summer evening, when Liehsa was bathing him by pouring cool water over his fat, naked body, that the young bus driver felt compelled to tell his wife just what had happened. Liehsa paused in the delightful rite she was performing. ‘Was that what became of the old devil?’ she exclaimed. ‘I couldn’t stop the bus,’ he said. ‘Of course not,’ she agreed. They fell silent, contemplating the end of evil men. Then Liehas began her work again, & they watched the clear water coursing down the beautiful small brown body they had made. The child, feeling the water running down his body, laughed, & they laughed with him. ‘What has happened is heaven’s will,’ Liehsa said cheerfully. ‘Entirely,’ the young bus driver said, looking at his son.

11