Then I saw a stone stairway going up the side of the hill. I went
on, staring ahead at the cone that shone in the air, and getting
bewildered to see so near by the quantity of dancing statues on the
roofs of the temples that crowded the hill, and those acres of
tangled-up carving. So I came to the foot of the stairs.
Close to the right was a gateway in a white wall, and on each side
was a green lacquer dragon, that had enamelled goggle eyes and a size
that called for respect. The gateway led under a row of roofs held up
by shiny pillars. Over the wall you could see a gilded cone pagoda
with a bell on top.
It looked pretty inside of the gate, with flowers and trees and
little white and gold buildings. A yellow-robed man sat under a roof
near the gate with some children squatted around. He wasn't Sadler.
He didn't look as if an inquiry for Sadler would start anything going
in his mind. There was a faint tinkle of bells, and the far-off
mutter of a gong.
Anyway there were green dragons. I went in, thinking of the years
gone, of Fu Shan, who used to sit, sucking his porcelain pipe on
Sadler's porch, and looking down on the creek where the boys were
rowing with his countrymen, and looking down on Saleratus that was a
pretty unkempt community, and saying, "Vely good joss house, gleen
dlagon joss house by Langoon;" and then of Sadler saying: "Stuck-up
little cast-eyed ghost! Speak up, Asia, if you've got any medicine
for me.
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