“John and Mary leaned forward and saw in the glass hundreds of lovely colors, as though the rainbow had broken in it. Then the colors divided and circled about like a fairy dance. Softly, oh, so very softly! Fong Charles began to speak, in his sing-song voice, stopping only to draw at his pipe and blow a bit of smoke into the curtains above his head. And as he spoke, little by little, figures became clear in the glass until John and Mary could see the dreams, just as Fong Charles told them. There were three dreams he told, all quite short and strange:
The Dream of The Girl’s Gift
“Out of Ta Chung Sz, which is, August One, the Temple of the Bell, came Tchi Niu, the Bellmaker.
“‘Those of you who are pure of heart,’ he called, ‘bring to me your metal mirrors that I may make of them a new bell. Come, my children.’
“They came, many of them and gladly, the daughters and the mothers, bearing in their arms the mirrors that showed their beauty, for it was honorable to give, and what more worthy gift could be made than a new bell for the temple?
“Tcho-Kow came last and slowly. On the mound of mirrors she placed hers and stood aside. Then, as the torch was carried to the fire builded to melt the mirrors, her heart grew sad, for the mirror she had brought was the mirror that had been in her mother’s family and her grandmother’s family, and the family of many generations before that. And so she grew cold with grief and cried out.
“Slowly the flames crept up and slowly the mass of metal melted into a river of shining gold. But the mirror of Tcho-Kow would not burn.
“‘How now,’ said Tchi Niu. ‘The gift burns not; you have brought disgrace on your house, oh, daughter of a Thousand Lilies, by not giving your heart with your gift. How, then, will you redeem yourself in the eyes of Dong, the Great Bell?’
“Then was Tcho-Kow smitten with a great repentance and she longed for the goodwill of Dong. So she thought and thus made her gift worthy. As the flames crept up about the mass of metal, she cast aside her dress and saying:
“‘Gladly I give myself as gift,’ she stepped into the flames and disappeared. Then did the flames burn joyfully and the mirror of Tcho-Kow melted with the others and Dong was appeased.