When the heart heard the story he said, “Yes, you are right. If all of you lie down and refuse to help the stomach; if you do not give him any rice or meat for food, or any tea for drink, he will learn then that he can not live without you.” [[138]]
In a little time the stomach wanted food and said to the hands, “Give me a piece of fish, some rice, and a cup of tea.” The hands were quiet and said nothing.
Then the stomach said to the feet, “Will you go out and have Men-Yen bring me a bowl of chop-suey-meen?[2] I am hungry.”
The feet answered, “No, sir, we will not work for you any more.” And they lay down.
The stomach cried for food, but all said, “We do not care; we will not work for him.”
After a while the eyes found they could not see well; and in the theater hall next door the drums drummed hard, but the ears could not hear. The heart-judge said, “How is it now with the stomach?” The brain answered, “We are not working for him, nor helping him any more, and I believe he is going to die. I fear that I, too, will die and that all the others will die. I do not believe we have done right in deserting the stomach. Do you not think it best to tell the feet to go out and bring the stomach some chop-suey-meen? If he had that, he might help us again. We shall all surely die unless we have his aid.”
But the unwise judge said, “Let him get his own food; let him do his work for himself.”
“He can not do that,” said the brain. “He lives in [[139]]a place with great walls around him, so he can not get out. The hands and the feet have always brought his food to him.”
The judge said, “Has he spoken about it to-day?”
And the brain answered, “No.”