| caption: |
Chapter Twenty-three. The Spring Festival |
| caption: |
girls undress after spring festival |
| text: |
Piece by piece the girls divest themselves of their ornaments, and bid a reluctant farewell to the time of leisure and feasting. Today is still a day of rest but tomorrow the work on the fields must begin again. With the new year starts the eternal round of sowing, weeding, and harvest, and for long months to come every day will see the people busy on the hill slopes, now still barren ; and brown after the burning of the jungle, but soon to be covered with a delicate carpet of luscious green. |
