It was the day of the festival.Grandpa and Cuicui had al- ready dccided three days before that he would tend the boat while Cuicui and the yellow dog would visit Shunshun's stilt house to enjoy the excitement.Cuicui hadn't agreed at first,but later she came around.Yet,a day later,Cuicui changed her mind again,insisting that they must both go to the races or stay with the ferryboat.The ferryman under- stood;she was at war with herself,torn between her own de- sire for fun and her love of him.But it wouldn't do at all if she missed the fun that was her due just because she was tethered to him!Grandpa said,with a smile,“Cuicui,what's wrong?

Going back on your word is not what one expects ofia Cha- dong girl.We stick to our promises,we don't give in to second thoughts.My memory's not so bad that I forget your promises to me as soon as you make them!"So he said,but Grandpa obviously was prone to see things however she saw them.Yet because he doted on her,her change of heart saddened him,

too.Seeing her grandpa fall silent,Cuicui asked him,“IfI go,

who will stay with you?"

“If you go,"he said,"the boat will stay with me!”

Cuicui knitted her brows and gave him a wry smile:“Oh,

so the boat will look afrer you.Is that right?”

Grandpa thought to himself,“You will leave me,one day.”

But he didn't dare bring that up.Grandpa didn't know what to

say next,so he went out back ofthe house to the garden beneath

the pagoda and checked on the scallions.Cuicui followed.

“Grandfather,Ive made my decision.I'm not going.If

someone has to go,let it be the boat.Ill take its place and

keep you company!”

“Cuicui,if you won't go then I will,with red Howers in

my hair,made up like an old country lady going to town on

her first trip!”

The two of them laughed at this for the longest time.They

left the dispute open to settlement.

While Grandpa tended his scallions,Cuicui plucked a

scallion with a big stem to use as a whistle.People on the

east bank called out to be ferried across.Cuicui hurried over,

blocking her grandpa's way.She jumped into the boat and

tugged it along the cable to the other side where the passen-

gers were.She yelled out to her grandpa:

“Sing for us,Grandfather,sing!”

But he didn't.He just stood on the high crag,watching

Cuicui and waving at her silently.

Grandpa was a little worried.

Cuicui was growing up,given to blushing now when certain things inadvertently came up in conversation.The passage of time was ripening her,as if urging her forward, making her pay attention to new things.She loved now to look at brides with their powder and makeup,to adorn her own hair with wildHowers,and to listen to songs.She was beginning to understand some of the sentiments in the local Chadong love songs.She seemed a litle distant sometimes; she liked to sit on the rocky bluffs,fixing her gaze on a patch of clouds or a star in the sky.Grandpa would ask,“Cuicui, what are you thinking about?”And she would whisper, embarrassed,"Cuicui's not thinking about anything"But at the same time she was asking herself,“Cuicui,what are you thinking about?”And she d answer,"T'm thinking about lots of things,things that carry me far away.But I don't know what they are.”She was indeed wrapped up in thought,in thought that even she could not identify.Her girl's body had now completely filled out,and she had reached the age when she experienced a miracle of nature each month.This set her to thinking all the more

Grandpa understood the impact of such things on a girl, and this in turn affected him.He had lived his full seventy years amid nature,but some natural happenings in human life were beyond his control.Cuicui's maturation made her grandpa recall events in the past.From stories buried in the

accumulations of time,certain things came back to haunt

him.

Cuicui's mother had once been just like her:long eye-

brows,big eyes,rosy complexion,and a winsome charm that

made you adore her.She was a clever one,knowing just how

to roll her ceyes and arch her eyebrows to the delight offamily

elders.One would have thought she,too,was incapable of

leaving the old man.But then misfortune came:she met the

soldier.In the end,she abandoned her elder and her young

one to die with that soldier.The old ferryman did not blame

anyone for these things;he chalked it all up to Heaven.Cui-

cuis grandpa never cursed Heaven,but in his heart he could

never completely accept its cruel disposition of things.He

was still young at heart.He said he had put it aside,yet it was

something that couldn't be pur aside,even though he must.

And then there was Cuicui.If Cuicui did as her mother

did,could a man of his age bring up another baby?The gods

would not necesarily consent,even if he were willing!He

was too old,ready for his rest.All the toil and hardship that

accompanied the life of a good and honest Chinese couatry

fellow,he had already experienced.If there really was a God

up on high,and this God had two hands that could dispose

of everything with perfect justice,He ought to take Grandpa

first,leting the young people enjoy all that was due them in

their new lives.

But Grandpa didn't think this way.He was concerned

about Cuicui.Sometimes he lay down on the bluffs under the stars to mull things over.He felt that death would be com- ing for him soon.The fact that Cuicui had grown up proved how old he was.Yet,whatever happened,he must get Cuicui settled.Cuicui's poor mother had given her to him.Now that she had grown up,he must pass her on to someone else before his work on earth was done!But who was the proper husband

for her?Who could he be sure would never hurt her?

A few days before,when the frank and outspoken Tian- bao,Shunshun's No.1,had crossed the stream and talked to Grandpa,the frst words out of his mouth were:

“Elder Uncle,your Cuicui has grown quite beautiful. She's a real Guan Yin.Two years from now,if I can take charge of business in Chadong instead of having to Hy over the landscape all day like a crow,I'll be coming by this stream every night to sing to Cuicui of my love.”

Grandpa smiled to encourage him to go on with this dec- laration.He looked at No.I with narrowed eyes while tug- ging the boat,as if to say,

“I catch the meaning of your foolish confession,and it doesn't anger me.Go on-what else have you to say?"*

Whereupon No.1 continued:

“Cuicui is so delicate,I worry that she may be suited to listening to our Chadong love songs but not the humdrum errands of an ordinary Chadong wife.I want a sweetheart who can listen to my songs but she also has to be a wife who

can manage houschold afairs.T want a horse I don't have to

feed,but I want it to run fast,too!?The ancestors must have

thought up that saying just for me,to show that you have to

feed a horse to make it run fast!”

Grandpa unhurriedly turned the boat around,putting

the stern in to shore,and said:

“No.1,anything can happen!Wait and see.”

After the young man left,Grandpa mulled over the boy's

frank words.He was happy and at the same time worried.

Cuicui had to be entrusted to a husband.Was this the best

one to take care of her?And if he did bequeath her to him,

would Cuicui be willing?