Chang Wang was, in fact, a miser, and was rather proud than ashamed of the hateful vice of avarice.
Chang Wang had to make a journey to Macao, down the great River Yang-se-kiang, for purposes of trade. The question with the Chinaman now was, in what way he should travel.
"Shall I hire a palanquin?" thought Chang Wang, stroking his thin mustaches; "no, a palanquin would cost too much money. Shall I take my passage in a trading vessel?"
The rich trader shook his head, and the pigtail behind it--such a passage would have to be paid for.
"I know what I'll do," said the miser to himself; "I'll ask my uncle Fing Fang to take me in his fishing-boat down the great river. It is true that it will make my journey a long one; but then I shall make it for nothing. I'll go to the fisherman Fing Fang, and settle the matter at once."
The business was soon arranged, for Fing Fang would not refuse his rich nephew a seat in his boat. But he, like every one else, was disgusted at Chang Wang's meanness; and as soon as the dealer had left his hovel, thus spoke Fing Fang to his sons, Ko and Jung:--
"Here's a fellow who has scraped up money enough to build a second Porcelain Tower, and he comes here to beg a free passage in a fishing-boat from an uncle whom he has never so much as asked to share a dish of his birds'-nests soup!"
"Birds'-nests soup, indeed!" exclaimed Ko; "why, Chang Wang never indulges in luxuries such as that. If dogs' flesh were not so cheap, he'd grudge himself the paw of a roasted puppy!"
"And what will Chang Wang make of all his money at last?" said Fing Fang, more gravely; "he cannot carry it away with him when he dies."
"O, he's gathering it up for some one who will know how to spend it!" laughed Jung. "Chang Wang is merely fishing for others; what he gathers, they will enjoy."
It was a bright, pleasant day when Chang Wang stepped into the boat of his uncle, to drop slowly down the great Yang-se-kiang. Many a civil word he said to Fing Fang and his sons, for civil words cost nothing. Chang Wang sat in the boat, twisting the ends of his long mustaches, and thinking how much money each row of plants in his tea-fields might bring him. Presently, having finished his calculations, the miser turned to watch his relations, who were pursuing their fishing occupation in the way peculiar to China. Instead of rods, lines, or nets, the Fing Fang family was provided with trained cormorants, which are a kind of bird with a long neck, large appetite, and a particular fancy for fish.