THE LAND OF PEACH BLOOM 111 



At last he stood before the opening; it was the mouth of a 

 tunnel, lit up by sunshine that entered from the far end. 



"This surely is very strange," thought the fisherman; 

 "I'll go in and see where it leads to." 



Accordingly, he entered the tunnel and walked boldly 

 forward, wondering all the while where the light could come 

 from, now that behind him the sun had set and night was 

 creeping on. 



The tunnel was not big, though sufficiently high to 

 enable him to walk erect without touching the top ; the sides 

 were rough, and rugged rock protruded everywhere; under 

 foot it was very uneven and strewn with loose sharp stones of 

 all shapes and sizes which made progress extremely difficult. 

 Had it not been for the daylight that lit up the whole length 

 of the tunnel, the fisherman would indeed have found it no 

 simple matter to make his way through; but, he deftly 

 avoided every obstacle barring his way, and safely came to 

 the far end. 



Emerging from the tunnel he was astonished to behold 

 a beautiful undulating country stretching far away for miles 

 before him. Billowy, fleecy clouds flecked the sky above, 

 and the sun, set in the purest azure, beamed upon a land 

 such as he had never dreamed of. There were fields upon 

 fields of golden corn, and fruit orchards with abundance of 

 luscious fruit, such as he had never seen before; and peach 

 trees bearing peaches of astounding size, all covered with 

 that wondrous bloom that the art of man can never reproduce 

 in paintings or on porcelain vases. Lofty palm trees in 

 clumps stood here and there waving their feathery heads in 

 the breeze, and there were weeping willows, majestic oaks, 

 and shady trees he could not name. Flowers grew every- 

 where in all their resplendent colours, and filled the air with 

 exquisite fragrance. Monster butterflies with irridescent 

 wings flitted hither and thither; birds of gorgeous plumage 

 sang on every bough, and a crystal brook rippled and gurgled 

 in the distance. It was a new world, infinite, magical, 

 supernatural; a veritable paradise, fairer by far than the 

 fairest land in China. Wonder-stricken, and utterly be- 

 wildered, the fisherman stood rooted to the ground before 

 the enchanting landscape, unable to explain how he had 

 never heard of this wonderful place before, and baffled to tell 



where he was. 



When he had sufficiently recovered from his amazement, 

 he noticed in front of him a narrow path -leading to the stream. 

 Following this path he crossed the stream over a pretty 

 willow pattern bridge and found quite an extensive village 

 hidden behind a bamboo grove close by. To this village he 



