“Would the Little Old Ancestor enjoy some sweetmeats?” suggested Lady Lotus Blossom. “Old Ancestor” is what you call the Emperor if you are properly brought up, _and_ polite, _and_ Chinese. So Gentlemen-In-Waiting came and kowtowed and offered the Little Emperor lacquered boxes of crystallized ginger, of sugared sunflower seeds, and of litchi nuts. But do you think he was interested? Not at all. He would not even look at them. “The wind is blowing hard. Would it amuse the Little Old Ancestor to watch the kites fly?” asked old Lord Mighty Swishing Dragon’s Tail. The Little Emperor didn’t know whether it would or not. However, he couldn’t be more bored than he was already, so he climbed down from his throne and went out into the windy autumn garden. First marched the musicians, beating on drums to let every one know that the Emperor was coming. Then came the Court Ladies tottering along on their “golden lilies,” which is what they call their tiny feet that have been bound up tightly to keep them small ever since the ladies were babies. Then the Mandarins with their long pigtails and their padded silk coats whose big sleeves held fans and tobacco and bags of betel nuts and sheets of pale green and vermilion writing paper. Then Princess Autumn Cloud in a jade green gown embroidered with a hundred lilac butterflies, a lilac jacket, and pale rose-colored trousers tied with lilac ribbons. In her ears, around her arms, and on her fingers were jade and pearls, and her rose-colored shoes were trimmed with tassels of pearls and were so tiny that she could hardly hobble. In her shiny black hair she wore on one side a big peony, the petals made of mother-of-pearl and the leaves of jade. Each petal and leaf was on a fine wire so that when she moved her head they trembled as real flowers do when the wind blows over them. On the other side were two jade butterflies that trembled too. In front of her, walking backward, went her Lady-In-Waiting holding the golden tear bowl, in case the Princess should suddenly begin to cry. And last of all, surrounded by his Gentlemen-In-Waiting, came the Little Emperor, dressed from head to foot in yellow, the Imperial color, so that he looked like a yellow baby duckling. And as he came every one in the Palace and in the Garden had to stop whatever they were doing—gossiping, teasing the Royal monkeys, chewing betel nuts, or sweeping up dead leaves—and kneel down and knock their heads on the ground until he had passed. How the wind was blowing! It sent the willow branches streaming, it wrinkled the lake water and turned the lotus leaves wrong side out, it scattered the petals of the chrysanthemums. It tossed the kites high in the air. How brightly their colors shone against the gray sky! Some were made to look like pink and yellow melons with trailing leaves, some were like warriors in vermilion, some were golden fish, others were black bats, and the biggest one of all was a great blue-green dragon.