Eleanor Raper

“ She told Nelly that Hung Li was very greedy, and would do anything for money. It was he who prevented his mother from taking the children home the evening they left the Legation, as she at first fully intended to do; but Ku Nai-nai was herself rather fond of money, and did not require much persuasion.
An Ching taught Nelly to sew backwards in Chinese fashion, using a thimble without an end, like a thick ring, on her finger; and she cut out and helped her to make a little blue cotton coat which they thought would fit Baby Buckle. ”

“ An Ching thought she saw something moving behind a clump of bushes some yards away. She asked Nelly, who could walk much better than she, to go and see. Nelly went behind the bushes, and sure enough she saw Little Yi a long way off, running away as hard as she could towards two men, one of whom Nelly to her great surprise and joy recognised as Chang. The other she thought must be Chi Fu. She waited until they came near, then she rushed forward, caught [Pg 132] hold of Chang's hand and burst into tears.
Tears of joy don't last very long. ”

“ Would you come with me and leave the Chinese girl?'
'Oh no,' replied Nelly. 'Little Yi does not mind being here nearly so much as I do, but she does not want to stay, and I am afraid they would never take her home without me. I wish An Ching could come with us.'
[Pg 71]
'Who is An Ching?'
'She is Hung Li's wife,' Nelly replied, 'and is very kind to me. Hung Li and Ku Nai-nai don't care for her. They make fun of her and call her stupid, but she isn't, although Little Yi can cook and help with the work better than she can. Her feet are very small, so of course she can't run about much. ”

“ Nelly tried her best to persuade the family to allow Little Yi and her to go, but they would not listen to her. Then Little Yi began.
'You don't know what bad luck you will have if you keep a foreign child all night,' she said. 'The foreigners are wonderful people. They can do all sorts of things—take out their teeth and put them back again, their eyes too, some of them.'
There was once at Peking a gentleman with a glass eye, and Little Yi had heard that he was able to remove it. ”

“ Nelly Grey was a little English girl who had never been in England. She was born in China, and went with her father and mother to live in the British Legation compound in Peking when she was only three years old. A compound is a kind of big courtyard, with other courts and houses inside. Nelly's was a large one, and very open. It had several houses in it: not like we [Pg 2] have in England, but only one storey high, and with deep, shady verandahs round them. There were also a little church, some tennis-courts, and several small buildings for the Chinese servants at the back. ”

“ As we all know from experience, especially girls who have got so far as climbing into a hay-loft, it is very much easier to go up a ladder than to come down. Chang Nai-nai might have remained where she was until she dropped off, had not Chang mounted after her and almost carried her down.
When the little woman was safely deposited on the ground, she became less irate against An Ching.
'What can be done?' she said. 'The young woman is in the right, but mount that ladder again I will not. If she can find a ladder and climb up on her side, let her do so. ”

“ She had hardly finished speaking [Pg 20] when the man arrived with two bowls, in which was a sort of soup containing little pieces of meat and vegetables. The children were given chopsticks with which to fish out the meat, and were expected to take the soup from the bowl. Then they had a piece of Chinese bread, which is like steamed dumpling, and half an apple each. Nelly might have enjoyed the meal if there had not been eight eyes watching her all the time, and the old woman constantly peering at her clothes and feeling them. ”

“ If Ku Nai-nai had been more wide-awake, she could hardly have failed to notice how quickly the housework and cooking were done next day; but as she was not given to interesting herself in other people's motives (although she was very suspicious when there was the slightest cause for it, and sometimes when there was none at all) , she did not observe that Little Yi was eager to prepare her pipe and pot of tea, while An Ching and Nelly wiped out the bowls and put them in the [Pg 97] cook-house. There is not much to do in a Chinese family—no scrubbing or polishing ”

“ Grey at once ordered his servant to fetch his bag containing the lumps of silver and long strings of copper cash with a hole through the middle, which are the only coins the Chinese have. The inn-keeper brought a scale; the silver was weighed and handed over to Hung Li. He went away without taking any notice of An Ching, and nobody was surprised. The Chinese do not think much of women, you see. ”

“ When Little Yi found that the women were not at all afraid, she said:
'If you keep us here, she (point [Pg 19] ing to Nelly) will die, and then she will always haunt you. Everything you eat will taste bitter and make you ill.'
But Nelly never would allow Little Yi to romance and tell untruths. She was crying bitterly now, but she stopped and told the woman that she was a Christian, and that Christians do not die on purpose to haunt people out of spite, as heathen do.
But the children found that it was useless to try to persuade or frighten the Chinese. ”

“ An Ching suggested, when they arrived at a quiet, open part of the road, that the children should walk to lighten the cart, and they were very glad to be out in the fresh morning air; even An Ching got out when they came to a slight incline, but Hung Li took care to make the children climb in again whenever he saw a human being approach.
Now that Yung Ching was well behind them, Hung Li decided not to urge the mule too much, in case it died before he was able to return it to the man from whom he had hired it in Peking ”

“ When children are as good and truthful as Nelly perhaps their parents are very fond of them; but I never knew a Chinese girl so good.'
Little Yi sniffed, but said no more.
When the large gates of the Legation were opened and the cart drove in, Nelly almost fainted again. It was a very pale, fragile-looking little creature that Mr. Grey lifted out of the cart. Mrs. Grey had been on the look-out, and could not [Pg 154] remain indoors when she saw the party arrive. She rushed hatless across the compound, and Nelly bounded to meet her. ”

“ The Chinese don't mind dust, but they like to have things in their places and the rooms orderly. Chinese girls never come in from a walk and throw their hats and gloves on a chair, because, to begin with, they don't wear hats and gloves, and they very seldom go for walks.
An Ching pretended to be cross because Nelly had spilled some rice, and told the children to go off and leave her to finish alone. They went directly to their favourite side court, and at once got the red paper out of the heap of stones and threw a piece with a pebble inside over the wall. ”

“ No matter how naughty he was, she always made excuses for him. 'He was such a darling baby, you know,' she used to say.
Little Yi never tired of telling her adventures, and all her female relatives, none of whom had ever been outside Peking, looked upon her as a great traveller. Chi Fu studied so well that he became a school teacher in the Church [Pg 159] Mission. His parents admired him more than ever, and left Yung Ching to come and live near him. One day he received a letter from Nelly in English, and was able to read it to them in Chinese quite easily. ”

“ But Nelly was quite lively although she was shut up in a compound all the time. She would have been ashamed to feel dull and cross, for she had once heard the Minister's wife say, 'Nelly Grey is an intelligent child and has sense enough to amuse herself.' Since then she had felt that [Pg 3] she must not let the lady change her opinion. Besides, there were several other foreign [1] children in Peking whom Nelly saw from time to time. In her compound, living next door, was Baby Buckle. He had only been there six months, for that was his age, and Nelly loved him very much. ”

“ Little Yi might let it out, but I don't think An Ching would.'
'No,' said the man. 'Tell no one yet. I will talk to my family about it, but I don't think we can take An Ching. She belongs to Hung Li, but you don't. I will come again to-morrow or the next [Pg 72] day when you are alone. Look here,' he continued, thrusting his right hand up his left sleeve and producing some red paper, which he threw down; 'pick this up quickly and hide it.'
Nelly did so at once, thrusting the precious paper into her sleeve. ”

“ Little Yi's feet had never been bound, because she was a Manchu child, and the Manchu women do not bind their feet; so she could run and skip about the compound almost as freely as Nelly. Almost, I say, not quite, because Chinese children are not dressed for running [Pg 5] about. Their shoes are hard and clumsy, and in winter their clothes are so thickly wadded that they look like little balls.
Then there were two little girls of eleven and twelve who lived at the German Legation, and were called Bertha and Liza Wolf. It was very strange for Nelly the first time these children came to see her. ”

“ An Ching stayed with her and learnt to speak English very well. The people of Brighton used to stare at An Ching almost as much as the Chinese did at Nelly when she was stolen in Peking. She became a Christian in time and used to go to church regularly. Two years later, Arthur Macdonald came to Tom's school and often spent his holiday [Pg 158] afternoons at Nelly's aunt's. Bob and Bessie Bates went to school in America, but Liza and Bertha stayed with their governess in Peking. Baby Buckle grew into a very mischievous little boy ”

“ It was the first time in her life that she had ever seen it go right down behind the earth and leave nothing but the fields in front of them, all quite flat. She asked Ku Nai-nai if they would be up in time to see it rise again [Pg 37] in the morning. Ku Nai-nai told her that they intended to start very early, and she could come out and look if An Ching would come with her. An Ching said she would if she were not too sleepy. An Ching had never thought of wanting to see the sun rise. 'Foreigners had such funny ideas,' she said. ”

“ As she did so, she saw what was evidently a Chinaman's head just above the top, and she heard him quite distinctly tell some one below 'to hold the ladder tight.' Nelly was just wondering what she should do, and was half inclined to run through the hole into the next court, when the rest of the head came into view, and she saw that it belonged to a plump, pleasant looking Chinaman. ”

“ If An Ching were willing to help, it would be quite possible to get the children over the wall by means of ropes. Chi Fu, who certainly had a good head on his [Pg 88] shoulders and could use it to some purpose when he forgot his affectation, suggested also that in case of an extra courier being sent from the mission, or the arrival of a missionary, Nelly had better write a letter to her parents, which he could enclose. ”

“ No one will notice the holes in your ears if you take out the earrings, and then you can run about. Nelly must not be seen at all, Hung Li says. It's no use objecting. You'll have to do it. You naughty boy!' she shouted, as she heard Hung Li and another man talking outside the door.
Little Yi and Nelly giggled. Then An Ching locked them in [Pg 129] and went to buy the coat. There was very little difference between it and the one she was wearing. An Ching saw that Little Yi's queue was right, took out her earrings, and then removed her bracelets. ”

“ Nelly showed them her dolls' house, and Liza made the dolls sit down and stand up in a marvellous way by bending their legs and sticking pins into them. When tea-time came the children had become fast friends by means of nods, shakes of the head, and the Chinese word 'pu'; which shows that little girls can get on very well together even when they don't chatter all the time. Since then Nelly had been taken to the German Legation twice a week to have German lessons from Fraulein, Liza's and Bertha's governess, and they, besides quickly picking up Chinese, came and took English lessons from Mrs. ”

“ The compound seemed clean and well kept, and Nelly thought that the Kus ought to be far too respectable and well-off people to steal [Pg 44] children for money. 'But they are only heathen,' she said to herself.
Nelly and Little Yi were given a small room adjoining Ku Nai-nai's in the centre or chief building of the compound. An Ching and her husband had their quarters at the right, across the court. The children were sorry that they were no longer to be with An Ching, but, as she said, it was only at nights that they need be separated. ”

“ She looked very funny, clinging with both hands to the ladder, and her little claw-like feet close together on one of the rungs. Chang could not help smiling, which greatly annoyed the poor woman, and she at once began a tirade against the foolishness of An Ching. Why could she not talk with a grey-headed old man (Chang had about six grey hairs) who might have been a grandfather had their little baby girl lived and been married at sixteen, as she herself was? ”

“ Chang promised to think about it. Then he threw Nelly the pencil and a sheet of paper, and took leave of them all for that day. Nelly at once began to consider what to say to her parents, and finally wrote the following letter:
'Dear Father and Mother—I am quite safe here in Yung Ching with the Kus, and so is Little Yi, but we want to come home. Chang, who lives next door and heard us singing, is going to try to help us to get away. Ku Hung Li, who stole us, says he will send us home with a barber, but I would rather go with Chang. ”