om.‘ a...”

27o BUDDHISM.

lightest wish considered; and, after all, he had not been un- occupied, for there was all the Duty of a Novice to be learned by heart, and his mind was busy with serious thoughts of the new life he was to enter,—-the life which would give him his Humanity, and seal him as a true follower of the Great Teacher for evermore.

Hitherto, the Order of the Yellow Robe had been to him a thing heyond his life-a thing apart and holy, owning all the reverence of his loyal little heart, but too sacred yet to have entered the pale of his experience. Now the great day was near when he should himself enter that mighty ISrotherhotitI, and wear the Yellow Robe the Master wore; live on begged food as He had lived; and learn the lore He taughL-the knowledge that should make him worthy to he called a man. It was a solemn time for little 'l‘opmost Height, full of earnest thoughts and high imaginings; and the laughter of his sisters in the room below sounded strange and alien in his ears, as though it echoed from another" world,-—l‘r0n1 a world he seemed already to have well-nigh lelit, the (Jccan of Existence from which to- morrow’ he was to seek a Refuge and n \Va_v to Peace.

The (lay wore on, swiftly the messengers returned and went again, till all Xlaung hlaungis numerous acquaintance had been hidden tn the feast. The young men of the quarter also had been notitietl of the coming Ordination; for, as will be seen, the)‘ had a prominent part to play in the next day's proceedings. At the big house, preparations innumerable were going on,—— all manner of delicacies were being cooked by Maung Nyun‘s sisters and a host of busy volunteers; mats were being pre- pared to seat the audience at the coming play; whilst in one corner of the lower room sate the mistress of the house, sewing with her own hands tihlong patches of white cloth together in the form of the Three Robes of a Honk, which afterwards would be dyed in a great cauldron of seething yellow that was boiling

—-- -_.....4. ._ .__...¢ nuawunaioae