Kong Lee was waiting for him, and they fled in haste, taking her box of jewels with them. The mandarin saw them, and taking a whip he hastened after them to beat them back again, for he had great fear of his friend’s anger. But they were too swift for him, and reached the other side, where Chang’s boat was waiting to take them to his house.
There they were married, and lived in happiness until the mandarin’s wicked friend found where they were, and secretly, at night, sailed down the lake and burned the house when they were sleeping. But their loving spirits became two doves that rested in the trees and flew about the places they had loved.
And if you look at a blue china plate you will see there the house where Kong Lee was shut up, the willow tree she watched, Kong Lee and Chang running across the bridge followed by her father with his whip, the funny house-boat that carried them away to Chang’s little house that almost is hidden by the trees, and at the top, the pair of doves in which the Chinese poet believed the spirits of Kong Lee and Chang still lived.
“ha, ha, ha!” he said to himself.
“how foolish brother fox is”
