a large tube of huo yao. The fire crackled smartly, eating the tube. . . . Then. . . . "BROOOOMP."
Oh, that terrible Ah Fun. He has blown up the bed-stove. To say nothing of his honorable father.
It was raining heavily, but just the same Mrs. Low Moo came out and upbraided the doctor unmercifully for coming down in, and utterly havocking, her patch of huang ya tsai (her tender, pretty cabbages). She told him her every thought upon that subject, with such words as "Hun chang tung hsi (Stupid, blundering old thing you)." But Dr. Chu Ping merely gazed sheepishly at the destroyed cabbages, and at the hole in the room through which he had been blasted, and murmured, "Kai tan (Ah me, what a pity)."
And again came the other neighbors, the very kind people who loved Dr. Chu Ping and wished to help him in his troubles. These well-wishing neighbors came and said: "Beyond a doubt, that boy is to blame. Honorable doctor, why do you not break many stout
