Chinese Literature

mutual-aid team. So how could I run off on my own, as in the old days? Where is my granddaughter ?”

Then she took her grandson in her arms, asked what his name was and whether Kuei-chieh had enough milk to feed him. But, somehow, Mother Wang suddenly remembered the little boy who had carried her basket part of her way. He was too fond of playing, of climbing trees and catching birds. Wouldn’t he lose his way outside the village?

“What good wind blew Mother Wang here, at last?” Kuei-chieh’s sister-in-law had just come into the yard too. “No wonder the magpie cried early this morning, here is the guest!”

“Just look at my mother!” Kuei-chieh said to the women oi the

neighbourhood who had followed her sister-in-law into the yard. “Put- |

ting on light-blue clothes at her age!”

Mother Wang protested: “Since it’s neither bright red nor light green, what’s so strange about it? Is light blue for you young people only? In Big Stone Bay we aren’t old-fashioned like you people in Gingko-tree Village!”

Kuei-chieh said: “Of course, we’ve all heard that my mother’s village is a model to all others! Your créche is supposed to look like a palace!”

Mother Wang chuckled. “Isn’t that the truth? Even newspapers have written about us. And our young women don’t go around in black cotton jackets any more like you do.”

It was Kuei-chieh’s turn now to protest. “These are just my work clothes. I am not going visiting like this. You needn’t think we here haven’t got dresses made of light-blue cloth as well!”

But Mother Wang explained to them: “Our young women wear blue cotton jackets at home only. When they go out to visit, they all wear coloured prints.”

Kuei-chieh’s father-in-law interrupted here to say: “Your daughter has a good pair of hands, Mother Wang! This year she earned more than anyone else in our mutual-aid team. You needn’t blame her just because she likes plain colours better than gaudy ones with designs.”

This talk and banter was carried on amidst the laughter of all the women of the neighbourhood. Mother Wang in her new clothes talked to them all cheerfully, with a happy, contented, and joyful light in her eyes. She forgot her worry about the little boy she had met on the road. She forgot that she hadn’t yet seen her granddaughter. She was wrapped up in all the merry, friendly warmth around her, a feeling entirely different from any she had ever had in Gingko-tree Village before, but quite similar to how she felt among the members of her own mutual-aid team at Big Stone Bay. She was content. Before she came, it had seemed to her she had a lot of urgent things to do at her daughter’s place. But now, so soon after her arrival, she felt all her business here was done. She had seen her daughter and grandson. There was only