124
The Pool of Stars
walked straight to Miranda and laid his offering on her lap.
"For you," he said. "He wanted to bring it to you from the very first!"
It was not the real pine tree, but the one that you see here, made of jade and enamel with tiny jewels set around the top of the pot. Humphrey and his wife exclaimed and admired and examined it on every side.
"But I do not understand," Humphrey kept saying. "How did you come to make it, and to bring it to us after seven years?"
"After seven years!"
The old Chinaman smiled patiently.
"You Americans are ever in such haste. How long, think you, it takes a true craftsman to carve a tree of jade?"
