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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Little Sky-High, by Hezekiah Butterworth
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Little Sky-High
+       The Surprising Doings of Washee-Washee-Wang
+
+
+Author: Hezekiah Butterworth
+
+
+
+Release Date: January 28, 2006  [eBook #17616]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE SKY-HIGH***
+
+
+E-text prepared by David Garcia and the Project Gutenberg Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) from page images
+generously made available by the Kentuckiana Digital Library
+(http://kdl.kyvl.org/)
+
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+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
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+
+      Images of the original pages are available through the
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+
+
+
+
+
+LITTLE SKY-HIGH
+
+Or The Surprising Doings of Washee-Washee-Wang
+
+by
+
+HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH
+
+Author of "In the Days of Jefferson," "The Bordentown Story-Tellers,"
+"Little Arthur's History of Rome," "The Schoolhouse on the Columbia"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+  The "Nine to Twelve" Series
+  ===========================
+
+  LITTLE DICK'S SON.
+    Kate Gannett Wells.
+
+  MARCIA AND THE MAJOR.
+    J. L. Harbour.
+
+  THE CHILDREN OF THE VALLEY.
+    Harriet Prescott Spofford.
+
+  HOW DEXTER PAID HIS WAY.
+    Kate Upson Clark.
+
+  THE FLATIRON AND THE RED CLOAK.
+    Abby Morton Diaz.
+
+  IN THE POVERTY YEAR.
+    Marian Douglas.
+
+  LITTLE SKY-HIGH.
+    Hezekiah Butterworth.
+
+  THE LITTLE CAVE-DWELLERS.
+    Ella Farman Pratt.
+
+  ===========================
+  Thomas D. Crowell & Co.
+  New York.
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "IT OPENED A GREAT MOUTH, AND SMOKE SEEMED TO ISSUE FROM
+IT." Page 41.]
+
+
+
+
+New York:
+Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.
+Publishers
+Copyright, 1901
+By T. Y. Crowell & Co.
+Typography by C. J. Peters & Son.
+Boston, U. S. A.
+
+
+
+
+
+NOTE.
+
+
+  The story of Sky-High is partly founded on a true incident of a young
+  Chinese nobleman's education, and is written to illustrate the happy
+  relations that might exist between the children of different countries,
+  if each child treated all other good children like "wangs."
+
+  28 Worcester Street, Boston.
+  _March 22, 1901_.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+                                         PAGE
+  I.
+  Below Stairs                             7
+
+  II.
+  Before the Mandarin                     13
+
+  III.
+  Lucy's Cup of Tea                       20
+
+  IV.
+  How Sky-High Called the Governor        26
+
+  V.
+  Sky-High's Wonder-Tale                  31
+
+  VI.
+  The Mandarin Plate                      35
+
+  VII.
+  Sky-High's Kite                         39
+
+  VIII.
+  A Wan                                   44
+
+  IX.
+  Lucy's Jataka Story                     48
+
+  X.
+  Sky-High's Easter Sunday                51
+
+  XI.
+  Sky-High's Fireworks                    55
+
+  XII.
+  A Chinese Santa Claus                   62
+
+  XIII.
+  A Legend of Tea                         68
+
+  XIV.
+  Mrs. Van Buren's Christmas Tale         70
+
+  XV.
+  In the House-Boy's Care                 76
+
+  XVI.
+  In the Little Wang's Land               82
+
+
+
+
+
+
+LITTLE SKY-HIGH.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+BELOW STAIRS.
+
+
+The children came home from school--Charles and Lucy.
+
+"I have a surprise for you in the kitchen," said their mother, Mrs.
+Van Buren. "No, take off your things first, then you may go down
+and see. Now don't laugh--a laugh that hurts anyone's feelings is so
+unkind--tip-toe too! No, Charlie, one at a time; let Lucy go first."
+
+Lucy tip-toed with eyes full of wonder to the dark banister-stairs that
+led down to the quarters below. Her light feet were as still as a little
+mouse's in a cheese closet. Presently she came back with dancing eyes.
+
+"Oh, mother! where did you get him? His eyes are like two almonds, and
+his braided hair dangles away down almost to the floor, and there are
+black silk tassels on the end of it, and kitty is playing with them;
+and when Norah caught my eye she bent over double to laugh, but he
+kept right on shelling peas. Charlie, come and see; let me go with
+Charlie, mother?"
+
+Charlie followed Lucy, tip-toeing to the foot of the banister, where
+a platform-stair commanded a view of the kitchen.
+
+It was a very nice kitchen, with gas, hot water and cold, ranges and
+gas-stoves, and two great cupboards with glass doors through which
+all sorts of beautiful serving-dishes shone. Green ivies filled the
+window-cases, and geraniums lined the window-sills. A fine old parrot
+from the Andes inhabited a large cage with an open door, hanging over
+the main window, where the wire netting let in the air from the apple
+boughs.
+
+On reaching the platform-stair, Charlie was as astonished as Lucy could
+wish.
+
+There sat a little Chinese boy, as it seemed, although at second glance
+he looked rather old for a boy. He wore blue clothes and was shelling
+peas. His glossy black "pigtail" reached down to the floor, and the
+kitten was trying to raise the end of it in her pretty white paws.
+As Lucy had said, heavy black silk cords were braided in with the hair,
+with handsome tassels.
+
+The parrot had come out of her cage, and was eying the boy and the
+kitten, plainly hoping for mischief. Suddenly she caught Charlie's eye,
+and with a flap of her wings she cried out to him.
+
+"He's a quare one! Now, isn't he?"
+
+The bird had heard Irish Nora say this a number of times during the day
+and had learned the words. Charlie could not help laughing out in
+response. With this encouragement Polly came down towards the door of
+the cage, and thrust her green and yellow head out into the room. "Now,
+isn't he, sure?" cried she, in Nora's own voice.
+
+Nora was sole ruler of this cheerful realm below stairs; the only other
+inhabitants of the kitchen were the parrot and the kitten, and now this
+Chinese boy. Nora's special work-room was a great pantry with a latticed
+window. Near-by a wide door led out into a little garden of apple, pear,
+and cherry trees; the garden had a grape-arbor too, which ran from the
+door to a roomy cabin. Here was every convenience for washing and
+ironing.
+
+Nora was a portly woman, with a round face, large forehead, and a little
+nose which seemed to be always laughing. She was a merry soul; and she
+used to tell "the children," as Charles and Lucy were called,
+"Liliputian stories," tales of the Fairy Schoolmaster of Irish lore.
+
+The Chinese boy did not look up to Polly as she gazed and exclaimed at
+him, but shelled his peas.
+
+Presently, however, the pretty kitten whirled the industrious boy's
+pigtail around in a circle until it pulled. Then he cast his almond eyes
+at her, and addressed her in a tone like the clatter of rolling rocks.
+
+"Ok-oka-ok-a-a!"
+
+The kitten flew to the other side of the room, and Nora appeared from
+the pantry. When she saw the two children on the stairs, she put her
+hands on her sides and laughed with her nose. "We've a quare one here,
+now, haven't we?" said she.
+
+Polly stretched her lovely head out into the room from the cage, and
+flapped her wings, and swung to and fro, and the kitten returned,
+whereupon the boy drew up his pigtail and tied it around his neck like
+a necktie.
+
+"See, children," said Nora, pointing, "what your mother has brought
+home! She says we must all be good to him, and it's never hard I would
+be to any living crater. He came down from the sun, he says. What do you
+think his name is? And you could never guess! It's Sky-High, which is to
+say, come-down-from-the-sun. And a man in a coach it was that brought
+him. Sure, I never came here in a coach, but on my two square feet; he
+came from the consul's office--Misther Bradley's--and a ship it was that
+brought him there. Ah, but he's a quare kitchen-boy!
+
+"But your mother, all with a heart as warm as pudding, she's going to
+educate him; and if he does well, she's going to promote him up aloft,
+to take care of all the foine rooms, and furniture and things, and to
+wait upon the table, and tend the door for aught I know. She made me
+promise I would be remarkable good to him--but it don't do no harm for
+me to say that he's a quare one! _he_ can't understand it--_he_ speaks
+the language of the sun, all like the cracking of nuts, or the rattling
+of a loose thunder-storm over the shingles."
+
+"Sky-High?" ventured little Lucy mischievously.
+
+The Chinese boy looked up, with a quick blink of his eyes.
+
+"At your service, madam," said he in very good English.
+
+Nora lifted her great arms.
+
+"And he does speak English! Who knows but he understood all I said, and
+what the parrot said too. Poll, you go into your cage! 'At your service,
+madam!' And did you hear it, Lucy? No errand-boy ever spoke in the
+loikes o' that before! I'd think h'd been brought up among the quality.
+It maybe he's a Fairy Shoemaker, spaking the queen's court-language, and
+no errand-boy at all!"
+
+A bell sounded up-stairs, and the two children ran back.
+
+"Oh, mother, never was there a boy like that!" said Charlie.
+
+"Well," said Mrs. Van Buren, "you shall tell your father how you found
+little Sky-High--it will be a pretty after-supper story. I want you to
+think kindly of him, for if he does well he is to stay with us a year."
+
+The children found their father in the dining-room; and as they kissed
+him they both cried, "Oh, oh!"
+
+"What is it now?" asked Mr. Van Buren. "What has happened to-day?"
+
+"Wait until after supper," said Mrs. Van Buren; "then they shall tell
+you of a curious event in the kitchen. There really is something to
+tell," she added, smiling.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+BEFORE THE MANDARIN!
+
+
+As Mr. Van Buren was a prudent, wise, and good-natured man, he left all
+the affairs of housekeeping to his wife. He had so seldom been "below
+stairs" that he never had even made the acquaintance of Polly, the
+lively bird of the kitchen. The kitten sometimes came up to visit him;
+on which occasions she simply purred, and sank down to rest on his knee.
+
+After supper was over, Mr. Van Buren caught Lucy up.
+
+"And now what amusing thing is it that my little girl has to tell
+me--something new that Nora has told you of the Fairy Shoemaker?"
+
+"There's really a wonderful thing down in the kitchen, father," said
+Lucy; "wonderfuller than anything in the Fairy Shoemaker tales."
+
+"And where did it come from?"
+
+"Down from the sun, father, and Nora says it came in a coach!"
+
+Mr. Van Buren turned to his wife.
+
+"It came from the Consul's," she said--"from Consul Bradley's."
+
+"Has Consul Bradley been here?" he asked, thinking some Chinese curio
+had been shipped over. Consul Bradley was a Chinese consular agent, a
+man of considerable wealth, with a large knowledge of the world, and
+a friend of the Van Buren family.
+
+"No," said Mrs. Van Buren, "but his coach-man has brought me a
+kitchen-boy."
+
+"Well, that _is_ rather wonderful! Is that what you have
+down-stairs, Lucy?"
+
+"That doesn't half tell it, father," cried Charlie. "He's a little
+Chineseman!"
+
+"I was in the Consul's office this morning," went on Mrs. Van Buren,
+smiling at her husband's astonishment; "and the Consul said to me,
+'Wouldn't you like to have a neat, trim, tidy, honest, faithful,
+tender-hearted, polite boy to learn general work?' I said to the Consul,
+'Yes, that is the person that I have been needing for years.' He said,
+'Would you have any prejudice against a little Chinese servant, if he
+were trusty, after the general principles I have described?' I said to
+him, 'None whatever.' He continued: 'A Chinese lad from Manchuria has
+been sent to me by a friend in the hong, and I am asked to find him a
+place to learn American home-making ideas in one of the best families.
+Your family is that place--shall I send him?' So he came in the Consul's
+coach, as Lucy said, and with him an immense trunk covered with Chinese
+brush-marks. He seems to be a little gentleman; and when I asked him his
+name he said, 'The Consul told me to tell you to call me Sky-High.'
+He doesn't speak except to make replies, but these are in very good
+English."
+
+"May I give my opinion?" asked little Lucy.
+
+"Well, Lucy," said her mother, smiling, "what is your opinion?"
+
+"He looks like an emperor's son, or a mandarin," said Lucy.
+
+"And what put such a thought into your head?" asked her mother.
+
+"The pictures on my Chinese fans," said Lucy promptly.
+
+"Well," said Mrs. Van Buren, "if he does well, you shall treat him
+exactly as though he were the son of an emperor or a wang--he says that
+kings are called wangs in his land."
+
+"Then he would be a little wang," said Lucy. "I will make believe he is
+a little wang while he stays."
+
+So Sky-High became a little wang to Lucy; and a wonderful little wang he
+promised to be.
+
+At Mr. Van Buren's wish, little Sky-High was sent for. The Chinese boy
+asked Charlie, who went down for him, that he might have time to change
+his dress so that he might suitably appear before "the mandarin in the
+parlor." (A "mandarin" in China is a kind of mayor or magistrate of rank
+more or less exalted.)
+
+Charlie came back with the kitchen-boy's message. "He says that he wants
+a little time to change his clothes so that he may suitably appear
+before the mandarin in the parlor."
+
+"The mandarin in the parlor!" exclaimed Mr. Van Buren, in a burst of
+laughter. "My father used to speak of mandarins--he traded ginseng for
+silks and teas at Canton in the days of the hongs--the open market or
+trading-places. That was a generation ago. There are no longer any
+store-houses for ginseng on the wharves of Boston. Yet my father made
+all his money in this way. 'The mandarin in the parlor.' Sky-High has
+a proper respect for superiors; I like the boy for that."
+
+By and by the sound of soft feet were heard at the folding-doors.
+
+"Come in, Sky-High," said Mrs. Van Buren.
+
+The little kitchen-boy appeared, and all eyes lighted up in wonder.
+He wore a silk tunic fringed with what looked like gold. His stockings
+were white, and his shoes were spangled with silver. The broad sleeves
+of his tunic were richly embroidered--he seemed to wing himself in. A
+beautiful fan was in his hand, which he very slowly waved to and fro, as
+if following some custom. Mrs. Van Buren wondered if servants in China
+came fanning themselves when summoned by their master. Sky-High bowed
+and bowed and bowed again, then moved with a gliding motion in front of
+Mr. Van Buren's chair, still bowing and bowing, and there he remained
+in an attentive bent attitude. The kitten leaped up from Mr. Van Buren's
+knee, then jumped down, plainly with an intention to play with the
+tempting pigtail--but Lucy sprang and captured the snowy little creature.
+
+"So you are Sky-High?" said Mr. Van Buren. "Well, a right neat and
+smart-looking boy you are!"
+
+"The Mandarin of Milton!" said the glittering little fellow, bending.
+"My ancestors have heard of the mandarins of Boston and Milton, even in
+the days of Hoqua."
+
+"Hoqua?" Mr. Van Buren looked at the boy with interest, "You know of
+Hoqua?"
+
+"Who is Hoqua?" asked Mrs. Van Buren.
+
+Mr. Van Buren turned to her, "I will tell you later."
+
+"Hoqua, madam," said Sky-High, bowing to his mistress, "was the great
+merchant mandarin of Canton in the time of the opening of that port to
+all countries."
+
+How did a Chinese servant know anything of Hoqua? This was the question
+that puzzled Mr. Van Buren. "Sky-High, how many people have you in your
+country?" he asked.
+
+"It is said four hundred million."
+
+"We have only seventy millions here, Sky-High."
+
+"I have been told," said Sky-High.
+
+"And who is ruler over all your people?" asked Mr. Van Buren.
+
+"The Celestial Emperor, the Son of Heaven, the Brother of the Sun and
+Moon, the Dweller in Rooms of Gold, the Light of Life, the Father of the
+Nations."
+
+"You fill me with wonder, Sky-High. We have a plain President. Do your
+people die to make room for more millions?"
+
+"My people value not to die, O Mandarin!" said the boy.
+
+"Such throngs of people--they all have souls, think you?"
+
+A dark flush came upon little Sky-High's forehead. He opened his narrow
+black eyes upon his master. "Souls? They have souls, O Mandarin! Souls
+are all my people have for long."
+
+"Where go their souls when your people die?"
+
+"To their ancestors! With them they live among the lotus blooms."
+
+"We will excuse you now," said Mr. Van
+Buren to Sky-High. "You have answered
+intelligently, according to your knowledge."
+
+The kitchen-boy bowed himself out without turning his back towards any
+one, describing many glittering angles, and waving his fan. He looked
+like something vanishing, a bit of fireworks going out.
+
+As he reached the stair, the little white cat sprang from Lucy's arms,
+and skipped swiftly after the curious inmate of the kitchen. The long,
+swinging braid was a temptation. The last glimpse Charles and Lucy had
+was of an embroidered sleeve as Sky-High reached backward and caught the
+kitten to his shoulder, and bound her fast with his queue.
+
+Charlie clapped his hands. He thought there would be fun in the house.
+He knew he should like Sky-High. As they went up-stairs he said to Lucy,
+"The little Chinaman was a heathen, and father was a missionary."
+
+Mr. Van Buren heard him, and called him back. "The little Chinaman was a
+new book," said he, "and your father was reading. See that you treat the
+boy well."
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+LUCY'S CUP OF TEA.
+
+
+Mr. Van Buren's home was on Milton Hill. It overlooked Boston and the
+harbor. The upper windows commanded a glorious view in the morning.
+Before it glittered the sea with its white sails, and behind it rose the
+Blue Hills with their green orchards and woods. The house was colonial,
+with gables and cupola, and was surrounded by hour-glass elms, arbors,
+and evergreen trees. It had been built by Mr. Van Buren's father in the
+days of the China trade and of the primitive mandarin merchant, Hoqua.
+
+Mr. Van Buren, a tea-merchant of Boston, received his goods through
+merchant vessels, and not through his own ships as his father had done.
+
+The next morning Mrs. Van Buren went down early into her kitchen to
+assign Sky-High his work.
+
+Nora, in a loud whisper that the birds in the apple-boughs might have
+heard, informed Mrs. Van Buren that the new Chinese servant was "no good
+as a sweeper," and asked what he did with his pigtail when he slept. "It
+must take him a good part of to-morrer to comb his hair, it is that long,"
+she said. "And wouldn't you better use him up-stairs for an errand-boy
+altogether now? Sure, you wouldn't be after teaching him any cooking at
+all?" Nora was an old servant and had many privileges of speech.
+
+Mrs. Van Buren smiled, and arranged that little Sky-High should wash and
+iron clothes in the cabin under the blooming trees, at the end of the
+arbor.
+
+"And if you learn well," said she, "I may let you tend the door, and
+wait upon the table, and keep the rooms in order."
+
+"And then you will be up-stairs," said little Lucy, "where it is very
+pleasant."
+
+"And now, Sky-High, tell me how it is that you can speak English so
+well," said Mrs. Van Buren, as they stood in the cabin, where the
+prospect of solitude seemed to please the boy. A gleam of something like
+mischief appeared on little Sky-High's face.
+
+"And, Madame de Mandarin," said he, "I speak French too. _Parlez-vous
+Français_, Mademoiselle Lucy?" he added rapidly, turning to the
+little American girl. "_Pardonne_, Madame la Mandarin!"
+
+"Sky-High will not say 'Mandarin' any more," said Mrs. Van Buren. "There
+are no mandarins in this country, and when Sky-High is called into the
+rooms above he will wear his plain clothes, not spangled clothes. Now,
+who taught you English?"
+
+"My master, madam."
+
+"Say mistress, Sky-High."
+
+"My master, mistress."
+
+"Where did you live in Manchuria?"
+
+"In the house of a mandarin."
+
+"And who was your master?"
+
+"The mandarin, mistress."
+
+"Do mandarins in China teach their servants to speak English?"
+
+"Some mandarins do, your grace."
+
+"Do not say 'your grace,' Sky-High, but simply mistress. Ladies have no
+titles in America. Where is the city in which you lived?"
+
+"In Manchuria, on the coast, on the Crystal Sea."
+
+The kitten came running into the kitchen, and at once leaped on to the
+end of Sky-High's pigtail.
+
+The boy gave his pigtail a sudden whisk.
+
+"Pie-cat?" asked he.
+
+"No, no!" said Mrs. Van Buren in horror. "We have no pie-cats in this
+country. Was there an English teacher in your house?"
+
+Little Sky-High was winding his pigtail about his neck for safety. He
+saw Lucy giggling, and a laugh came into his own eyes.
+
+"_Pardonne_, mistress. We had an English trader at the hong--at the
+trade-house."
+
+"Do they send servants to English teachers in China?"
+
+"When they are to grow up and deal with English business, mistress."
+
+"Did you meet English people at the hong?"
+
+"Yes, mistress."
+
+"Who were they?"
+
+"I cannot name them. There were my lords and the admiral; and the
+American Consul he came, and the German Consul he came, and the American
+travelers they came, and Russian officers they came."
+
+"How old are you, Sky-High?"
+
+"There have passed over me fifteen New-Year days, mistress."
+
+"Well, Sky-High," said his mistress, "I am going to give you this cabin
+under the trees, where you may do your washings and all your ironings.
+No one else shall come here to work. I have decided to have you begin
+to-morrow to bring up the breakfast."
+
+The next morning Sky-High performed his first service at the
+breakfast-table. He brought up the coffee while Mr. Van Buren was saying
+grace. He paused before the table.
+
+"Sleepy, sleepy!" he exclaimed softly, "all sleepy!"
+
+Mrs. Van Buren put out her hand as a signal for him to wait. Sky-High
+did not understand, and the grace was concluded amid smiles.
+
+Sky-High wondered much what had made the family sleepy at that time of
+the day. They did not go to sleep at the breakfast-table in China.
+
+"The mistress and her people," said he to Nora, "shut their eyes and go
+to sleep at the breakfast."
+
+"An' sure, it is quare you are yourself! They were praying. Don't you
+ever say prayers, Sky-High?"
+
+"My country has printed prayers," said Sky-High with lofty dignity.
+
+"You're a hathen people. Here we call such as you a 'hathen Chinee,' and
+there was a Californan poet that wrote a whole piece about the likes of
+you. Children speak it at school. Here is the toast--carry it up!"
+
+Lucy liked to see the little olive-colored "wang" moving about.
+One day at the table she requested him to bring her a cup of tea. The
+little Chinaman well knew that Lucy and Charles were not permitted to
+have tea. He inquired whether he should make it in the American or the
+Chinese way.
+
+"In the way you would for a wang," said Lucy.
+
+Sky-High soon re-appeared, his tray bearing a pretty little covered cup
+and a silver pitcher.
+
+"Where is the tea?" asked Lucy.
+
+"It is in the cup, like a wang's," said Sky-High.
+
+He poured the hot water on the tea, and fragrance filled the room.
+
+Lucy, with a glance asking her mother's leave, tasted the tea she had
+roguishly ordered.
+
+"We do not have tea like this," she said; "is it tea?"
+
+"Like a wang's," said Sky-High, blinking.
+
+"Where did you get it?" asked Lucy.
+
+"Out of my tea-canister," said Sky-High.
+
+Little Lucy did not drink the tea, for little Lucy had never drunk
+a cup of tea; but its fragrance lingered about the house through the
+day, and set her wondering what else the little Chinaman's immense trunk
+might hold.
+
+It had been agreed between the Consul and Mrs. Van Buren that little
+Sky-High might talk with the family; and like her husband she found the
+Chinese boy "a new book." She asked him many a curious question about
+the "Flowery Kingdom," and one day she learned that "we never send our
+finest teas out of China." Yes "we" said the washee-washee-wang, as the
+neighbor-boys called him.
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+HOW SKY-HIGH CALLED THE GOVERNOR.
+
+
+Cheerfully, in his fine blue linens, the little Chinese house-boy worked
+in his cabin a portion of every day. The bluebirds came close to sing to
+him and so did the red-breasted robins. Irish Nora and the parrot became
+very civil, and he grew fond of Charlie and Lucy.
+
+Some of the boys on their way to and from school made his only real
+annoyance. Sometimes when his smoothing-iron was moving silently under
+his loose-sleeved hand, or he was hanging the snowy clothes on the
+lines, they would hide behind a tree or corner, and shy sticks at him
+calling, "washee-washee-wang!" He bore it all in an unselfish temper,
+until one day a big lump of dirt fell upon one of little Lucy's dainty
+muslin frocks as he was ironing it. Then he said something that sounded
+like, "cockle-cockle-cockle," and closed all the doors and windows.
+
+At this crisis Charles and Lucy came to his side. They set wide again
+the doors and windows of the cabin under the green boughs, and promised
+him that they would forever be his true friends and protectors. "It is
+time we began to treat him like a wang, as mother wished," said Lucy to
+Charlie.
+
+"The American boys throw dirt at me in the street," admitted little
+Sky-High, in a reluctant tone--he did not like to bear witness against
+anyone in this sunshiny world.
+
+"I will go out with you," said Charlie, "when you are sent out to do
+errands. I will stand between you and the dirt. The dirt comes out of
+their souls."
+
+"And I will watch around the corners and speak to them," said Lucy.
+
+Sky-High's heart bounded at these pledges of friendship, and he leaped
+about in a way that made the parrot laugh--sometimes he had the parrot
+in his cabin, and taught it Chinese words. "The sun shines for all, the
+earth blossoms for all," he said to the children; "it is only the heart
+that needs washee-washee and smoothee-smoothee. Everything will be
+better by and by. I talk flowery talk, like home, out here among the
+birds, butterflies, and bees."
+
+(Nora said he "jabbered" all day long in the cabin.)
+
+Mrs. Van Buren very soon promoted the careful little Chinaman to have
+all the care of the beautiful living rooms and the quaint old parlors.
+He brought the flowers and admitted the visitors. He did his work in
+admirable taste. It shed a kind of good influence through the house, to
+see the little fellow in his fine linens flitting around, so careful was
+he to keep all things in speckless order.
+
+The chief drawback was that he still used "flowery talk"; to him the
+world was a field of poetry, and he spoke in figures whenever he forgot
+himself. Mrs. Van Buren was still Madam the Mandarin, and he called Lucy
+the "Lotus of the Shining Sea." He received many reprimands for the use
+of these Oriental forms of speech; but found it hard to harness his
+thoughts to track-horses, especially after the June days began to fill
+the gardens with orioles and humming-birds and roses.
+
+"Why not _let_ me talk after nature?" little Sky-High used to beg.
+
+One day the governor of the State came to visit the Van Burens. Sky-High
+spoke of him as the "Mandarin of the Golden Dome." He had several times
+been in Boston to see Consul Bradley, and knew the State House.
+
+In the evening Mrs. Van Buren gave him his morning orders. "You will
+call the governor to-morrow at seven o'clock. You will knock on his
+door, and you must use plain language! You must not say, 'O Mandarin of
+the Golden Dome!' We do not use flowery terms of address in this
+country. Mind, Sky-High, use plain language."
+
+The little Chinaman feared that he would be "flowery" in spite of all
+his care. So he consulted with Irish Nora in the blooming hours of the
+morning.
+
+"What shall I say when I knock on the governor's chamber-door?" asked he
+earnestly. "What shall I say in the plain American language?"
+
+"What shall you say? Say, 'Get up!'"
+
+"Is that all?" asked he doubtfully.
+
+"Well, if you want to say more, say, 'Get up! The world is all growing
+and crowing--the roosters are crowing their heads off!'"
+
+Sky-High went to the door of the governor's room and knocked.
+
+There came a voice from within. "Well?"
+
+"Get up! The world is all growing and crowing,--the roosters are crowing
+their heads off."
+
+The "Mandarin of the Golden Dome" did not wait for a second summons, but
+got up even as Sky-High had bidden him. It was a June morning, and he
+found the world as he had been warned, "all growing and crowing."
+
+"Have you called the governor?" asked Mrs. Van Buren, as she met
+Sky-High on the stairs.
+
+"Yes, my Lady of the Beautiful Morning."
+
+"Did you use plain language?"
+
+"Sky-High used the American language."
+
+"What did you say?"
+
+"I said, 'Get up!'"
+
+"Oh, Sky-High, now I will have to apologize for you!"
+
+"We never use plain language to mandarins in China," said Sky-High. "If
+we did, 'whish, whish,' and our heads would be off before we could turn!"
+
+The Mandarin of the Golden Dome came down from the chamber; and the Lady
+of the Beautiful Morning explained to him that her new boy had not yet
+mastered the arts of American manners, although he intended to be
+correct when addressing his superiors.
+
+"I didn't notice anything whatever incorrect," said the governor, who
+had hugely enjoyed the manner of his summons. "He awoke me--what more
+was needed?"
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+SKY-HIGH'S WONDER-TALE.
+
+
+"My Lady of the Beautiful Morning" believed in the education of
+story-telling; and she did not limit her stories wholly to tales with
+"morals," but told those that awakened the imagination. This she did for
+Lucy's sake and Charlie's, believing that all little people should pass
+through fairyland once in their lives.
+
+She used, like Queen Scheherazade of the Arabian Nights, to gather up
+stories that pictured places, habits, and manners of the people, to
+relate; and this year, when the garden began to flower, she had many
+such to tell under the trees. Sky-High was always a listener. He was
+always permitted to be with the family in the evening. He loved
+wonder-tales. They carried him off as on an "enchanted carpet."
+
+One evening Mrs. Van Buren said, "I have a new idea. Sky-High might tell
+_us_ some stories. He speaks English well when he chooses.
+Sky-High, tell us some tale of your own country. You have wonder-tales
+in China."
+
+"In the stories of my country animals talk," said Sky-High.
+
+"Tell us some of your stories in which animals talk," said Lucy,
+clapping her hands.
+
+"Animals always talk, everywhere," said Sky-High. "In China we interpret
+what they say."
+
+The word "interpret" was rather a big one for Lucy. But as Sky-High was
+given to using unexpected words, the little girl was herself beginning
+to indulge in a larger vocabulary.
+
+So Sky-High began to relate an old Chinese household story.
+
+
+THE SELF-RESPECTING DONKEY.
+
+  There was once a Donkey who had great respect for himself, as many
+  people do. Such wear good clothes. You may know what a man thinks of
+  himself by the clothes he wears. We Chinese moralize in our stories
+  as we go along. We tell _think_-tales.
+
+  One day the Self-respecting Donkey went out into some green meadows
+  near a wood, and was eating grass when a Tiger appeared on the verge
+  of the meadow. The Self-respecting Donkey was very much surprised,
+  but did not lose his dignity. So he uttered a deep bray.
+
+  "Br-a-a-a!"
+
+  The Tiger, in his turn, was very much surprised--for the Donkey's voice
+  seemed to penetrate the earth. But as soon as he collected his wits he
+  crouched as if to spring upon the Donkey and make a meal of him.
+
+  The Self-respecting Donkey did not run. He moved with a slow, firm, and
+  kingly step toward the Tiger. Then he dropped his head again, in such a
+  way that his ears looked like great proclamations of wisdom and power.
+
+  "Br-a-a-a!"
+
+  His voice was truly terrible. The Tiger again quailed.
+
+  "Oh, Beast of the Voice of the Thunder-winds," said he, "thou canst
+  dispute with me and the Lion the kingship among animals!"
+
+  The Donkey brayed again in a more terrible voice than before. "If you
+  will accompany me into the wood," said he, "thou shalt see all animals
+  flee from us."
+
+  The Tiger felt complimented by an association with the animal who had
+  gained his voice from the thunder, and shortly they entered the wood.
+
+  The animals all fled when they saw them coming--not from the Donkey,
+  but from the Tiger. Even the Raven dared not speak, and the Lion slunk
+  back among the rocks; because a Tiger and a Donkey, together, might
+  more than equal his terrifying roar.
+
+  "See," said the Donkey, "all nature flees before us. Now walk behind
+  me, and I will show you the secret of my power."
+
+  The Tiger stepped behind; and the Donkey very quickly, in a pretty
+  short time, showed him the secret of his power. He kicked the poor
+  foolish Tiger in the head, breaking his nose, and stunning him. Then
+  leaving him in the path for dead, he made good his escape.
+
+  "Any one can be great," said he, "if he knows how to use his power!"
+  He was a philosopher.
+
+  When the poor Tiger came to his senses he rubbed his nose with his paw,
+  and began to reflect on the lesson that he should learn from his
+  association with a Donkey.
+
+  He reflected long and well--and never said anything about it to anyone.
+
+
+"In my country," added little Sky-High, "we think that when one allows
+himself to get kicked by a donkey a long silence befits him--he can best
+show his wisdom in that way. Do you not think so, O Mandarin Americans?"
+
+The "Mandarin Americans" quite agreed with the conclusion drawn by
+Sky-High.
+
+It was about this time that little Lucy began to wonder if Sky-High were
+not a wang indeed. No common young Chinese could possess so many kinds
+of wisdom. He was able to read to her the labels on tea-chests, and to
+explain the odd figures on the many fans that decorated her playroom.
+
+"How do you know so much, Sky-High?" she asked one day when he had told
+her the meaning of the pictures on an old Chinese porcelain in the upper
+hall.
+
+"Many of the porcelains in our country are made to be read," he said.
+"All educated Chinese people can read porcelains. An American porcelain
+has no story."
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+THE MANDARIN PLATE.
+
+
+Among the heirlooms to be found in the closets of many New England
+houses is a curious pattern of China plate. This plate is colored
+blue-and-white, and in the bowl of each is a picture. The picture
+represents a rural scene in China--a bridge on which are two young
+people, a man and a woman; a house, and a tree, and two birds of
+beautiful plumage flying away. Mrs. Van Buren had such a plate, and a
+platter with the same rural picture, on her dining-room wall.
+
+It was the delight of Lucy to have Sky-High explain to her the meaning
+of the pictures on the Chinese vases and on an ornamental Chinese
+umbrella which hung in the reception-room. One day when Sky-High was
+dusting in the dining-room, Lucy's eye fell on the blue-and-white plate
+with the picture of the bridge and birds.
+
+"Oh, Sky-High," said Lucy, "mother has a treasure here--a porcelain
+plate of your country, see!"
+
+Sky-High looked up to the old porcelain. He had seen such a plate a
+thousand times; so often, in so many places, that Mrs. Van Buren's had
+not drawn his eye.
+
+"It is a mandarin plate," he explained to Lucy. "It has a magic power;
+it brings good luck. My people keep those plates for good fortune."
+
+"A magic plate?" Lucy was all curiosity, now. "Tell me the story of the
+magic plate," she said. "Sit down and tell me. Who are the young people
+on the bridge? Begin."
+
+"They are the same as the birds flying away. The birds and the young
+people are one."
+
+Lucy's interest in the magic plate grew. Sky-High promised to tell her
+its legend at some time when her mother should be present.
+
+Lucy went at once to her mother. "Oh, mother, we have a magic plate!"
+
+"We have? Where?"
+
+"It is the blue-and-white one over the sideboard."
+
+"Oh! is that a magic plate? That was your grandmother's plate. Old
+families used to value that kind of ware from China--I do not know why."
+
+"Come with me, and take it down, for Sky-High knows the story of the
+picture."
+
+Mrs. Van Buren went in and took the plate down; and little Sky-High
+said, "It is the mandarin plate of our country. In the plate you cannot
+see the Good Spirit in the air, but it is there. This Good Spirit in the
+air changes people into other forms when trouble comes, and they fly
+away."
+
+"But what is the story?" asked Lucy.
+
+"There was once a prince," said Sky-High, "whose name was Chang. He was
+a good prince; and there he is--the young man in the plate.
+
+"And Prince Chang, the Good, loved a beautiful princess, as good as she
+was pretty; and there _she_ is--the young woman in the plate.
+
+"The prince and princess went to live on a beautiful isle, where was an
+orange-tree--see--and there was an old mandarin who lived near--see his
+house there--and he did not like the good prince and pretty princess
+when he saw how happy they were on the Isle of the Orange-tree.
+
+"So he determined to separate them; and one day, when he was very full
+of dislike, he went towards the bridge that led to the Beautiful Isle to
+catch them. But something very wonderful happened."
+
+"Oh, what _did_ happen?" said Lucy. "I can hardly wait to learn."
+
+"The Good Spirit of the air saw the grim old mandarin stealing away
+toward the bridge to cross to the Beautiful Isle of the Orange-tree, and
+he changed the prince and princess into two birds and they flew away.
+See them flying there at the top of the plate!"
+
+"I will give you the plate," said Mrs. Van Buren to Lucy; "for it was
+your grandmother's plate, and her name was Lucy, and she would be glad,
+were she living, to have you delight in a legend like that. It is good
+to think that a loving Spirit hovers over us when evil draws near us--I
+like the parable of the plate. I thank you for the story, Sky-High. Your
+country has good stories."
+
+"The story of the mandarin plate," said the little Chinaman, "is also
+told in my country in a more tragic way; that the lovely girl is the
+mandarin's daughter, and that he slays the lovers, and that it is their
+souls that are seen flying away in the two birds. But it is the other
+story that our scholars like."
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+SKY-HIGH'S KITE.
+
+
+Charles and Lucy wished to give Sky-High a surprise. They had come into
+possession of a kite which had been described to them as marvelous, and
+they got their mother's permission to take the little Chinaman to
+Franklin Park to see them fly it for the first time.
+
+Franklin Park is not far from Milton Hill; and the street-cars readily
+carry the crowds of children to the pleasure-grounds of the immense
+common of woods, fields, great rocks and elms, and whole prairies of
+grass. It is quite free--the dwellers of close Boston and its bowery
+suburbs own the vast pleasure-place--the people could hardly have more
+privileges there did each one hold a deed of it. Little Sky-High thought
+this wonderful when it was explained to him.
+
+The Van Burens had ample grounds of their own, but Mrs. Van Buren and
+the children liked to go to Franklin Park. Mrs. Van Buren liked to sit
+in the great stone Emerson arbor on Schoolmaster's Hill, and watch the
+white flocks of English sheep wander to and fro and feed, guarded and
+guided by shepherd-dogs, and to gaze away in an idle reverie at the Blue
+Hills under the purple charm of distance.
+
+No one jeered now when the Van Buren children appeared in the street
+with the little Chinaman. Nobody cried, "Rat-tail!" Nobody cried,
+"Washee-washee-wang!" He often rode with them in the carriage. People
+looked at him, to be sure, but only with interest--the fame of his
+accomplishments in the English language had gone abroad.
+
+It was a beautiful early summer day, the white daisies waving in the
+west wind. Crossing the field, from a little green hill the children
+prepared to send up the new kite. Out of his narrow black eyes little
+Sky-High looked at it, as they took it from the package and sent it up.
+It seemed simply a frame-work, but presently the American flag rolled
+out in the sky, as though it hung alone, or had bloomed there.
+
+Sky-High beheld it with pleasure. Great was America! He was contented to
+sit and watch it for hours, or as long as the children pleased. It was
+not until sunset that the starry kite was hauled down through the golden
+air, and Lucy and Charles prepared to return home.
+
+On the way the little serving-man said, "I have a kite in my trunk. You
+let me fly it for you some day? You come with me here?"
+
+So another breezy day the Van Buren children came to the Park with
+Sky-High. Lucy danced about in the green world for very light-heartedness.
+
+"You stay at the overlook," said Sky-High, pointing to the wild-flower
+embankment surrounded by burning azalias, "and I will show you how
+Chinese boys fly kites."
+
+He had brought a thin package under his arm, and while Lucy and Charles
+waited at the embankment he ran like a thing of air out into the open
+field.
+
+It was a glorious June day; and the great elms with their fresh young
+foliage were glimmering thick in the fiery sky, and like an emerald sea
+was the grass on the field, where hundreds of children were playing ball
+and other games.
+
+Sky-High threw to the air a bundle of red with a few light angles and
+circles of bamboo, and it began at once to rise and expand. It went up
+into the mid-air, and fold after fold rolled out, and there appeared a
+great dragon.
+
+All the children on the field stopped in their play to look up at it.
+The sun turned the dragon to intense red. To all appearance a terrible
+monster had taken possession of the air!
+
+Suddenly the dragon wheeled about and went coiling along towards the
+overlook, Sky-High following and guiding its course. When it was just
+overhead it opened a great mouth, and smoke seemed to issue from it.
+
+"Look out, little Lady of the Lotus," cried Sky-High merrily, "or it may
+swallow you!"
+
+The little girl ran aside, but the dragon made no attempt to come down.
+When at a height some twenty feet above the earth it paused. Then
+suddenly, with a puff, it poured down a shower of flowers, butterflies,
+and gilded paper, like a gold shower. The air was full of them; they
+drifted here, there, and everywhere. All the children on the field ran
+to behold the wonder. Everybody shouted, and a great crowd of little
+people gathered around Sky-High to pick up the tissue flowers and
+butterflies.
+
+"Ah," said the little Chinaman, "you ought to see him do that in the
+night, when all he sends down turns into fire!"
+
+There never had been seen a kite like Sky-High's before. But the Chinese
+have been masters of kite-flying for more than two thousand years. Among
+their national festivals they have a kite-flying day.
+
+Sky-High often came there with his magic kite. He became a very popular
+boy in the Park. The Boston boys said "Hello!" when they met him in his
+azure suit, quiet fun shining in his eyes. Lucy and Charles walked by
+his side with pride. They introduced him to all of their friends who
+asked it, and everybody spoke of him.
+
+"Oh, he is such a gentleman, and so educated! Haven't you heard about
+him? He came to learn how to do business and understand our American
+homes. He will go back to his country and teach sometime. No doubt
+a working-boy can rise in China the same as in our land!"
+
+Lucy often begged her mother to let Sky-High wear his beautiful Chinese
+clothes to the Park--with his kite he would seem like a true enchanter!
+But Mrs. Van Buren strictly forbade.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+A WAN.
+
+
+One day there was heard a tremendous explosion in the department of
+Sky-High. Mrs. Van Buren came running down-stairs. Lucy followed her,
+all eyes and ears. Irish Nora met them, running up-stairs. The kitten
+fled out, and jumped over the fence. The parrot was shrieking.
+
+Above Sky-High's door, Mrs. Van Buren saw a strange black character on a
+big red paper. It was a square character and somewhat like a heavy "X"
+and also somewhat like a heavy "H."
+
+Sky-High stood calmly ironing inside his little house at the end of the
+grape-arbor.
+
+Nora followed her mistress to that abode of mystery.
+
+"It's dynamated we are to be sure!" said she. "I shut my eyes and run,
+for I thought it was Sky-High that had gone off--but there he stood
+ironing! And there he stands now!"
+
+"Sky-High," said Mrs. Van Buren, "what was that sound I heard?"
+
+"Crackers, mistress."
+
+"We are only allowed to fire crackers on holidays. Why did you light
+crackers?"
+
+"To disperse the evil spirits, mistress, the dragons in the air, the
+imps. It is the way we serve them in China."
+
+"There are no evil spirits here, Sky-High. What could have made you
+think that there were, Sky-High?"
+
+"The cat--she is long bewitched after my queue. I fired the crackers to
+dis-power her--I saw her tail going over the fence! She is dis-possessed.
+She will not jump at Sky-High's queue any more. We shoot crackers in
+China when evil spirits come in the air. China is a spirit-land,
+mistress. Our air is filled with bright spirits and dark ones. When the
+cat begins to frisk its tail, we know there has come a company of evil
+spirits. The little cat's tail this morning went snap-snap!"
+
+"Oh, Sky-High! there are no evil spirits in this blooming garden," said
+his mistress. "The little white cat is possessed by a playful spirit,
+perhaps. What is that strange figure in black on the red paper flag over
+the door?"
+
+"That is the wan, mistress."
+
+"And what is the wan, Sky-High?"
+
+"The mystic sign that warns off evil spirits."
+
+"Did I not say there are no evil spirits here?"
+
+Here little Sky-High's eyes began to blink. "Why did master put a
+horse-shoe over the stable-door?"
+
+Lucy looked up at her mother. And said Nora, "I would discharge that
+sassbox of a Chinese at once!"
+
+"Have you more crackers, Sky-High?"
+
+"In my chest, mistress."
+
+"Keep them until the Fourth of July, Sky-High. At any time when you
+think there are evil spirits about, come up to me."
+
+"May Sky-High let the wan fly over his door?"
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Van Buren; "while the horse-shoe remains over the
+stable to keep witches out, you may let the wan stay. You have as much
+right to your superstitions as we to ours."
+
+Sky-High in a serene and beautiful spirit continued ironing,
+
+Nora went back to her pantry. "It's not I that likes the foreign boy
+under the roof," she said. "He'll be convertin' the mistress into a
+haythen! It'll not be long I'll be here!"
+
+Lucy sat down outside among the trees and birds and watched the wan
+waving gently in the wind. How neat Sky-High looked in his flowing dress
+of white and blue! She wondered again if he were not indeed a wang!
+After a while she made up her mind to relate a Jataka story that night.
+
+The curious tales their little serving-man had told, he called Jataka
+legends--all of them parables to illustrate the teachings of the divine
+Buddha. (Also these tales had accounts of mountains that were more than
+a million miles high, of trees that were a thousand miles tall, and of
+fishes that were thousands of miles long.)
+
+These tales had enchanted Lucy, though Charlie cared little for them--he
+preferred to hear of kites and other Chinese games. But Lucy seemed to
+catch their spirit. And in the evening, when Sky-High sat with them
+under the trees or in the balconies, she often said, "Now tell us a
+Jataka story!"
+
+But one night she had said instead, "Now let _me_ tell _you_ a
+Jataka story!"
+
+The idea that Lucy had a Jataka story seemed to greatly amuse Sky-High.
+But the tale itself set his black eyes shining and blinking. This had
+been Lucy's tale:
+
+"Sky-High, I dreamed that you were a wang and had lived in a palace."
+
+To-day she sat a long time in the arbor to compose the tale she would
+tell in the evening when they would be on the veranda, with Sky-High on
+the stair at their feet.
+
+So in the evening she said, "I have composed another Jataka story. Would
+you like to hear it, mother? Would you, Sky-High?"
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+LUCY'S JATAKA STORY.
+
+
+Now the little Chinaman began his stories with words like these, for
+most Jataka stories so begin:
+
+"Once upon a time in the days of Buddha-Atta in Benares."
+
+To-night Lucy began her tale in nearly the same manner--the words
+sounded so fine.
+
+"Once on a time, _after_ the days of Buddha-Atta in Benares, there
+was a little Chinese boy who was born a wang, which is a king. And they
+called him Wang High-Sky.
+
+"And he lived in a palace, and the stairs of the palace were golden
+amber, and the windows were of crystal, and all the knives and forks
+were made of pearl and silver.
+
+"And they told little Wang High-Sky that there were countries beyond the
+water, also.
+
+"And the little Wang High-Sky said, 'Let me go and see. There may be
+something I can learn in other lands. There may be queer people
+there--if so, I would never laugh at them. Let me go and see how they
+live!'
+
+"And they put him on board a dragon boat, with lanterns of silver and
+pearls, and with sails of silk, and carried him to the great hotel on
+the water, that had come from other lands, which was called a ship. For
+there truly were people beyond the water.
+
+"And little Wang High-Sky was a very bright boy. He had a diamond in his
+brain. So he found a place to live in an awfully good family, and in the
+family was a little girl named Lucy.
+
+"And he worked and worked and worked until he could do all things like
+the good family.
+
+"And one day he thought he would go home to his palace with stairs of
+golden amber and windows of crystal.
+
+"And Lucy thought she would like to see the people in little Wang's
+country.
+
+"And Lucy's father and mother said they would take her to the country of
+little Wang when he went back.
+
+"And she went to little Wang's country, and she found the trees there a
+hundred miles high, and the fishes two hundred miles long, and horses
+winged with gold as if just about to fly, and they staid and kept house
+in Wang High-Sky's palace two thousand years.
+
+"And she and her father and mother and brother were very joyful when
+they all came back.
+
+"And in their own country they found that every one had become rich and
+happy, and that people flew about like birds, and that the sun shone in
+the night. And!" she added, "isn't that a Jataka story?"
+
+Lucy's mother seemed much pleased, also astonished; but Sky-High said
+nothing for some time.
+
+"Do you think me a wang?" asked he, at last.
+
+"I wish you were--oh, how Charlie and I would dance about if you were! I
+think the everyday boys in China cannot be like you. And I do not think
+you ironed clothes in China. I wish you _were_ a king's son!"
+
+"And what if I were?"
+
+"Oh--I don't know," laughed little Lucy. "Don't we treat you as well as
+if you were? Ladies and gentlemen treat ladies and gentlemen like wangs
+in America. Don't we, mother?"
+
+"I trust so. I trust our little Sky-High has found it so," answered
+Lucy's mother.
+
+"So would Sky-High treat you were you to come to his home," said the
+little Chinaman.
+
+"But you have no home, Sky-High," broke in Charlie. "You said you lived
+with a mandarin!"
+
+The little Chinaman, who had a beautiful fan in his hand, for it was a
+hot night, made his mistress and her children a bow of indescribable
+grace, and went to his own quarters.
+
+
+
+
+X.
+
+SKY-HIGH'S EASTER SUNDAY.
+
+
+The little Chinaman seemed to make no very great task of learning "the
+art of the American home." His small deft olive hand was more or less
+upon everything, from cellar to attic.
+
+"_I_ think our house-boy knew how to keep a house beautiful,
+mother, before he came to our country," said Lucy one day.
+
+"Well, perhaps he _was_ a wang," said her mother, "and _did_
+live in a palace!"
+
+"Doesn't Mr. Consul Bradley know about him, mother?"
+
+"Consul Bradley says Sky-High's father is a good man, and that Sky-High
+is a good boy with a bright mind. Of course, Lucy, there are nice
+Chinese people and nice Chinese homes."
+
+Certainly the little house-boy was wonderfully energetic. He was able to
+save every Thursday for himself, and always went into Boston on that day
+and, as Mrs. Van Buren learned, visited the consular office.
+
+One day Mrs. Van Buren asked, "What do you do all day in town,
+Sky-High?"
+
+"I see Boston, mistress."
+
+"And what is it you see?"
+
+"The American stores, mistress, and the American little Kinder-schools,
+and the American great college-schools, and the American railcar shops,
+and the American hotels, and the American markets, and the Americans,
+mistress."
+
+"And who goes with you on these visits, Sky-High?"
+
+An attack of blinking seized little Sky-High. "The consul, he goes."
+
+Mrs. Van Buren drove into town next day. While there she made a call
+upon the Chinese consular agent. Lucy was with her. Consul Bradley
+appeared to have little fresh information to give.
+
+"The boy's father is a good man," he said. "Like the wise fathers
+everywhere he craves knowledge for his son. I promised him Sky-High
+should see something of Boston, and I do for him all I can."
+
+"Mother," said Lucy on the way home, "we might be nicer to Sky-High.
+Listen!"
+
+Her mother listened to Lucy's plan, and gave permission.
+
+When Lucy got home she said to Sky-High, "We want you to go to church
+with us; and Charlie and I want you to go with us to our Sunday school.
+There are Chinese Sunday schools in Boston, but we wish you to be in
+ours."
+
+"I will have to wear my queue, and my flowing clothes, Lucy," said the
+boy.
+
+"But, Sky-High, you can braid your braid close, and wind it around
+your head, and put on your black tunic, and you shall sit in our pew.
+Besides, anyway, it would be proper for a person of China to wear his
+braid down his back after the custom of his country."
+
+"You speak as kindly as would the daughter of a wang!" said Sky-High,
+with his beautiful bow of ceremony.
+
+On Sunday the little Chinaman dressed his hair becomingly and put on
+black clothes, with white ruffles. He sat in the Van Buren pew, beside
+Charlie. He listened to the organ like one entranced. It was Easter Day,
+and the house was full of the odor of lilies. The text for the service
+was these words of Jesus: "_If any man keep my sayings he shall never
+see death._"
+
+The "Joss preacher," as he called the minister, came and spoke to him,
+and invited him to go into the Sunday-school room.
+
+In the evening he made Chinese tea, and served it in the library, and
+afterward sat with the family.
+
+Suddenly he said, "Mistress, what were the 'sayings' of Jesus? Sky-High
+wishes to live on forever."
+
+Mrs. Van Buren read the Beatitudes.
+
+"And what is the heaven, mistress?"
+
+"Sky-High," said Mrs. Van Buren, very earnestly, to her little servant,
+"I scarcely know how to tell you what heaven is, only that we surely
+have a part in its building here by our Loving and our Helping here. You
+know how dear it is to be with those you love, you know how pleasant it
+is to meet again those you have helped. That is the law of the soul. God
+loves and helps us, and will rejoice in having us abide with him, and
+that will make us happy; and all whom we have made better and happier
+here will help make our heaven for us. Heaven is the gladness of Loving
+and Helping as nearly as I know."
+
+"That heaven--it is beautiful, mistress," said little Sky-High. In his
+own country, it had been pleasant music to hear the "prayer-wheels" go
+round in the temples, whirling the paper prayers fastened upon them, but
+the pleasure he felt at this moment was different.
+
+"I will help many, mistress," he said. "Perhaps Sky-High will help the
+boys that pull his queue on the street when he goes errands to the
+stores. Sky-High will go with his mistress and her children other
+Sundays, if he may. Goodnight, mistress!"
+
+So ended the Easter Sunday of the little Chinaman.
+
+
+
+
+XI.
+
+SKY-HIGH'S FIREWORKS.
+
+
+One June evening, in the balcony, when Sky-High inquired about American
+holidays, Mrs. Van Buren related to him the story of Washington and of
+the American Independence. She enlivened her narratives by Weems's story
+of the boy Washington and the hatchet.
+
+"He never told a lie?" asked Sky-High. "Was that so wonderful?
+Confucius, he tell no lies; Sky-High, he tell no lies."
+
+Mrs. Van Buren described to him Independence Day, and how it was
+celebrated. Sky-High asked many questions, and began to look forward to
+the celebration.
+
+On the morning of the Fourth the sun came up red, and glimmered on the
+cool sea and dewy trees. To Sky-High the air seemed to blossom with
+flags; the far State House dome rose like an orb of gold above the
+bunting that floated over the great forest of Boston Common.
+
+Cannon rent the morning silence, and everywhere there were crackers
+bursting. Even the milkmen fired them as they went on their early way.
+
+Sky-High danced about. "You have Cracker Day! It is all same as China!"
+he said.
+
+Some of the Milton boys who had many bunches of fire-crackers,
+good-naturedly thought they would startle little Washee-washee-wang at
+his work. So they stole around a corner of the garden, where he was busy
+in his neat little cabin, and "lit" a whole bunch and threw it over the
+fence, at a point where all would "go off" right at his door, then threw
+after it two cannon crackers, whose fuses burned slowly.
+
+When the small crackers began to explode Sky-High, to whom the noise was
+like music, came and stood in the door and danced with delight.
+
+Irish Norah heard the rattling explosions in the garden, and ran out.
+
+"China! China!" shouted Sky-High. "Red crackers make the bad spirits
+fly! The garden all free from evil spirits all day."
+
+Just then both of the cannon crackers in the grass "went off," with a
+deafening bang. Norah jumped, and put her fat hands to her ears. But
+little Sky-High clapped his after the American fashion. His delight in
+the racket and in the smell of the gunpowder was so intense, that
+Charlie forebore to go out on the street, but staid in and fired his
+immense supply in front of the cabin.
+
+In the evening there were fireworks everywhere, small and great. The
+children and Sky-High went up to a turret overlooking the sea. The sky
+over the towns around Boston blazed.
+
+"I will show you something fine," suddenly said Sky-High, after he had
+gazed for some time.
+
+He went down and unlocked his great chest. He spoke to Mrs. Van Buren's
+friends on the verandah as he came back. "Sky-High, he is going to fire
+a star! Look this side!"
+
+He called to all as he "fired the star." The company saw a dark, swift
+object ascending. It was soon lost to sight, and then appeared a
+wonder--a new star high in the heavens, that burned a long time with a
+steady flame and grew. How beautiful it was! At last it began to
+descend. When near the earth it burst into a hundred stars of seven
+colors. In all Boston there was no firework as wonderful as Sky-High's.
+
+The day after he began to inquire about the next American holiday.
+
+Mrs. Van Buren told him about Thanksgiving Day. Then she told him of
+Christmas, and how the Christmas festival was kept. She related the
+story of the birth of the Christ Child, and of the Bethlehem star, of
+the singing angels in the sky, of the Magi, and the manger; of the
+presents of gold and myrrh and nard. She told him how that now all
+people of "good will" made presents to each other like the magi to the
+Christ Child.
+
+"So will Sky-High make you presents on the Christ Child day, then, he
+has good will. You have treated him as though he were no servant but
+a prince."
+
+Charlie and Lucy told him of the Christmas-tree, and the plays under the
+misletoe. Their mother ordered misletoe from Florida every year, for
+Christmas decorations, from a plantation which their father owned near
+Tampa, a plantation of grape-fruit groves. She had a mistle-thrush among
+her caged birds, that always sang very sweetly when she hung it under
+the newly-gathered waxy misletoe.
+
+From that time on, the little Chinaman dreamed of Christmas. One day he
+said to Mrs. Van Buren, "You will surely let Sky-High come up-stairs on
+the night of the Christmas-tree?"
+
+"Yes, yes, you shall come up-stairs with us, and you shall hear the
+Christmas thrush sing under the misletoe."
+
+Sky-High's heart fluttered, not at what he hoped to see, but at the
+thought of the presents that he hoped to make.
+
+Shortly before Christmas Mrs. Van Buren went to her little servant to
+pay him his wages, for he had accepted no payment as yet.
+
+"Keep it all for me," he said, as usual; "I will ask for it when I need
+it."
+
+Mrs. Van Buren was very much surprised. "Young people in this country,"
+said she, "think they need a little money before Christmas day to buy
+presents."
+
+"Sky-High needs none. He will make you presents on the Christ Child day.
+He has them now in his chest."
+
+Mrs. Van Buren could not but wonder what the presents would be.
+Everything that Sky-High did had a surprise in it. All things that came
+out of the chest were of an astonishing character.
+
+"And I will serve you the tea that you have not yet tasted," added the
+little servant. "On the Christ Child night I will make in the cup the
+tea that came from the eyelashes of the Dharma. And afterwards I will
+tell you the story of the Dharma."
+
+Again, a day or two before the holiday of Good Will, Sky-High's mistress
+asked him to take his wages.
+
+"Keep it for me, mistress," said the boy as before. "Sky-High, he works
+for the good of his people."
+
+Mrs. Van Buren stood pondering the words. What meant the little
+Washee-washee-wang?
+
+"Mistress," said the boy, busy folding the glossy napkins on the ironing
+table, "the master plans to make a voyage around the world with his
+family."
+
+"Yes, Sky-High," said Mrs. Van Buren, "that the children may see the
+world before they begin to study about it."
+
+"And you will come to my country, mistress?"
+
+"Yes; we hope to visit at least Hong Kong and Canton, Shanghai and
+Pekin."
+
+"You will wish to see the home of Sky-High, mistress."
+
+"Yes, we would like to see you in your own country."
+
+"When will the master go?"
+
+"Next year, probably."
+
+"Sky-High will go home next year. Will you let him go with you,
+mistress? He will serve you on the ships, and in China he will make
+your visit pleasant. He will interpret for you, and show you about,
+and introduce you about."
+
+Mrs. Van Buren was too kind to let her astonishment be seen by her
+little serving-man. She said that possibly it might be so arranged.
+
+As she went up-stairs she heard Nora exclaiming to herself in the
+pantry. "And he says he'll inthroduce the misthress about, and the
+misthress is narely as quare!"
+
+After supper Mrs. Van Buren related to her husband the singular
+interview she had had with their little Chinaman. Sky-High's kind offers
+seemed to amuse him for a long time. "But as for the little fellow's
+wages," said he, "don't bother. I'll step in to the consul's, and
+deposit them with Bradley."
+
+When Sky-High found that he was serving to amuse his mistress's
+household, he turned silent. He worked, asking few questions, and
+listened to even the children without answering them.
+
+This disturbed Charlie and Lucy.
+
+"See here, Sky-High, can't you take a joke?" demanded Charlie.
+
+"Sky-High no joke with the mistress. Sky-High no make a lie!" said the
+patient Chinaman; "Sky-High, his heart is hurt."
+
+
+
+
+XII.
+
+A CHINESE SANTA CLAUS.
+
+
+The day before Christmas Lucy came to her mother with a request. "Just
+one thing, mother! And it isn't more presents--the Good Will tree hangs
+full!"
+
+"Well, then, what is it, Lucy?" asked Mrs. Van Buren.
+
+Little Lucy laughed. "A Chinese Santa Claus, mother! Think what a Santa
+Claus Sky-High would make in his flowing robes of black, yellow, and
+white all sprinkled over with silver and gold! Nearly all the gifts are
+Chinese, you know--all but ours for him. Just remember how he looked
+last summer on Sunday afternoons when the birds flew down to admire
+him!"
+
+Yes, the birds seemed to have felt a curiosity about the little Chinaman
+when he went out into the garden with the children after Sunday luncheon;
+for sometimes, on that day, he used to put on garments so splendid that
+he did not like to show himself above stairs or on the street, and the
+birds came out of the trees to take a peep at him. One of these garments
+was a frock of silk covered with golden dragons, lotus-flowers, and
+gilded fringes; and with it he wore a golden butterfly with jeweled
+wings on his rimless cap.
+
+Even Mr. Van Buren had wondered where a servant obtained such a
+glittering robe! One day he described the wardrobe of his house-boy
+to the consul. "Is everything all right?" he asked.
+
+The consul laughed. "You don't know China!" he said. "Probably the old
+Manchurian mandarin had a fancy for decking out the boy!"
+
+Nora's eyes used to double in size when she saw him in silk and gold and
+silver, with the jeweled butterfly waving above his narrow black eyes.
+"There's not the loikes on this planet," she would say. "I would think
+he'd stepped off a star and landed here! Queen Victory never looked the
+aqual of that little hathen varmit!"
+
+It was agreed that Sky-High should be made the Santa Claus of the
+Christmas party. He promised to appear in his dragon robe, though he
+said it was never worn in public excepting on vice-royal occasions.
+
+"Sky-High, did you ever see a vice-royal occasion?" asked Lucy,
+wondering what the double word meant.
+
+"Yea, my little Lady of the Lotus," answered the house-boy. "And once
+I was present on a royal occasion in Pekin. The Son of Heaven appeared
+that day in all his splendor."
+
+"You waited on your mandarin?" asked Lucy.
+
+"I attended upon my mandarin--yes?" Little Sky-High burst forth into the
+forbidden "flowery language." "It was in the Purple City. Barbarians
+cannot understand; but in our court, in the Inner City, in the ancient
+Purple City, we associate with the Sun and Moon and the Dragon that
+swallows the Sun. The Sacred Lotus is our flower, and at the feast the
+heavens are made to shine on us!"
+
+Lucy's face shone too, just to hear the words of the mysterious little
+"Washee-washee-wang,"--in fact she had been radiant ever since she had
+first thought of making a Santa Claus of him. She wondered how he would
+look to her mother's friends on Christ Child night, wearing his
+"celestial" robes.
+
+The children were to have their own tree on Christmas eve, at the church
+among the evergreens and music, and Sky-High was to accompany them in
+his black clothes and white ruffles. The Christmas night tree was always
+at home, for Mrs. Van Buren and her friends.
+
+Little Lucy was to lead the Christmas night jollities, and only the
+Santa Claus himself knew what would follow the wave of the long Chinese
+wand which she carried.
+
+The guests gathered early--half a dozen ladies--for it was to be a
+story-telling evening.
+
+Promptly at the moment when Lucy waved for him, little Sky-High came
+into the parlors fanning slowly with his great ceremonial fan, as if
+entering some languid pagoda garden of his native land. Every guest
+leaned forward to gaze at the gorgeous stranger. His silk stockings
+were white, over black shoes with silver buckles and whitened soles.
+His robe sparkled gaily with the dragon and lotus, and the butterfly on
+his gold-banded cap shook its jeweled wings with every step. He wore a
+sash of gems which the family had not seen before. He moved before the
+company like a figure of sunshine.
+
+Little Lucy had come to his side. "I have the great felicity," she
+began--she had got the fine word from Sky-High--"to have a celestial
+Santa Claus, a wang from China, to serve you the gifts from the Good
+Will tree."
+
+The glittering wang bowed to the four corners of the earth, then to all,
+turning round and round in dazzling circles.
+
+No, Mrs. Van Buren's Christmas guests had never seen a Santa Claus like
+this one! All eyes were wide with pleased wonder.
+
+"Isn't he perfectly splendid?" whispered Lucy, tripping over to the wife
+of the rector.
+
+"He is indeed, dear," said the rector's wife; and added low to her
+neighbor, "Is it not their wonderful house-boy?"
+
+No one was certain. And no one, excepting Lucy and the Santa Claus, knew
+what were the gifts on the Good Will tree. Lucy and little Sky-High had
+bought them in Boston. All those for the guests were blue-and-white
+mandarin plates, wrapped in squares of gay silk crape, and tied with a
+profusion of soft gold cord. As the packages were alike, the celestial
+Santa Claus could present them without mistakes.
+
+But there were some packages in red-and-gold crape still on the tree,
+not large ones--not magic plates, certainly.
+
+The Santa Claus unwrapped the three which he next took from the green
+branches. The presents were amulets. When unfolded they revealed bells
+and gems; the bells looked like gold; the gems like pure pearls, opals,
+and crystals. One was a necklace for Mrs. Van Buren; one a bracelet for
+Lucy; and the other a charm for Charles.
+
+The amulets awakened a great surprise. The little golden bells burned
+with the red lusters of rubies, and tinkled as though they were
+dream-bells.
+
+"They keep evil spirits away," said Sky-High, with sparkling eyes. "They
+ring warnings."
+
+Mrs. Van Buren rose and put one of the other packages in little
+Sky-High's hand. The wrappings revealed a four-fold case of gold, which
+some curious mechanism permitted to open into leaves, and stand us a
+tablet, or half-closed. Each leaf held a small and perfect portrait--the
+four were of the little serving-man's mistress and her children and the
+master; and it is impossible to describe the blissful expression in
+Sky-High's eyes when he first looked upon the familiar faces.
+
+And there was still another package. That one the little Chinaman had
+put on the Good Will tree for Nora.
+
+It was an English gold sovereign in a case tied with red ribbon.
+
+"And may the Angel of Mercy spread her white wings over that hathen
+boy's pigtail!" said Nora, as she was given the gift. "I wish I had
+something for him. I will give him kind words now, and sure!"
+
+
+
+
+XIII.
+
+A LEGEND OF TEA.
+
+
+At a wave of little Lucy's wand the shining, golden Santa Claus floated
+away as he came. When he next appeared--and it seemed but a moment or
+two after--he bore a salver that was gorgeous to see. Upon it, sending
+up clouds of steam, was a wonderfully beautiful pitcher that his mistress
+never before had seen, encircled by some exquisite small black cups,
+inlaid and encrusted heavily with gold, each with a perforated cover.
+
+"Sky-High presents to his mistress, the Moon Lady of the Christ Child
+Night," the little fellow said in his best flowery English, "and to her
+friends, the Stars of the Midnight, the mandarin tea in the mandarin
+cups of his country--they will please to be accepted from the Santa
+Claus."
+
+From the pitcher he poured the bubbling water in the mandarin cups, when
+an exquisite fragrance filled the rooms, as of apple-blossoms.
+
+While the guests sipped the priceless tea from the priceless cups, at
+the request of his mistress the little Chinaman related a Buddhist
+legend.
+
+
+THE DHARMA'S EYELASHES.
+
+  More than four hundred and a thousand years ago, O Madame my Mistress,
+  the great Dharma came to China to teach the people. He ate only fruits,
+  and he slept but little; he gave his time almost entirely to meditation.
+
+  The Dharma ate less and less, and slept less and less, and all things
+  were beginning to appear clear to him within, when a drowsiness came
+  over him, and it increased day by day.
+
+  One day his eyelashes became too heavy for his eyes; they hung like
+  little weights on his eyes, and he fell asleep.
+
+  He awoke after a long time. The inner light had gone. He felt that he
+  had committed a great sin.
+
+  "It is you, my little eyelashes," he said, "that weighed me down, and
+  I will punish you. I will cut you off."
+
+  Then the great Dharma cut off the little black eyelashes, and strewed
+  them upon the ground. As he did so he had the inward light again.
+
+  He meditated. As he did so the little eyelashes on the ground turned
+  into wee shrubs, and began to grow.
+
+  They were tea.
+
+  The Dharma ate the tea. The shrub filled his heart with joy and
+  gladness. So tea came into the world. Drink it--it will fill your heart
+  with joy and gladness.
+
+
+The Rector's wife gave the Santa Claus a seat by her side that he might
+share with the company the pleasure of the Good Will story his mistress
+was next to relate; and little Lucy, too, and Charlie came and sat
+near-by, for they loved their mother's stories, and could always
+understand them.
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+MRS. VAN BUREN'S CHRISTMAS TALE.
+
+
+The most beautiful story Mrs. Van Buren had found in her search during
+the year for a tale to tell her friends around the Good Will tree was
+one in the German tongue. She had translated it during the summer, and
+now called it by a title of her own as she told it.
+
+
+RED MANTLE, THE HOUSE SPIRIT.
+
+  There was a German pedler who traveled from city to city by the name
+  of Berthold. He grew in wealth, and at last carried portmanteaus of
+  jewels of great value. He usually traveled only in the daytime, and
+  so as to arrive early in the evening at the town inns between the
+  Hartz Mountains and the Rhine.
+
+  But on one journey he was belated. He found himself in an unknown way
+  in a great fir forest, where the dark pines shut out the lamps of the
+  stars. He began to fear, for the forests were reputed to be infested
+  with robbers, when suddenly a peculiar light appeared. It was a fire
+  that fumed with a steady flame; he perceived it was a charcoal pit.
+
+  The colliers are honest people, he reasoned; and with a light step he
+  approached the pit.
+
+  Near-by was a long house, two stories high, and the lower windows were
+  bright with the candles and fire within.
+
+  He approached the house, and knocked upon the door.
+
+  The door was opened cautiously by a middle-aged woman, with a bent
+  form and beautiful, but troubled face.
+
+  "What would thee have, stranger?"
+
+  "Food and lodging, madam."
+
+  "That can never be--not here, not here. It distresses me to say it,
+  but it would not be for your comfort to tarry here."
+
+  "But I am belated, and have lost my way. I must come in."
+
+  "I will call my husband. Herman, come here!"
+
+  She stepped aside, when an elderly man appeared, holding a light shaded
+  by his hand, and followed by a group of children.
+
+  "I am a belated traveler," said he to Herman, the collier, "and I have
+  lost my way. I see that you are an honest man, and I may tell you that
+  I have merchandise of value, and so it is not safe for me to go on.
+  Give me a shelter and a meal, and I will pay for all."
+
+  "It is loath I am to turn away a stranger, but this is no place for a
+  traveler. The house is haunted, yet it will not be so always, I hope;
+  but it is so now."
+
+  "But, good man, I am not afraid."
+
+  "You do not know, stranger."
+
+  "But I can sleep where you can, and where this good woman can live
+  with her innocent children."
+
+  "You don't know," said the woman, "You don't know."
+
+  "But I must rest here. There may be thieves without, wolves. There
+  cannot be worse things within. I must come in, and I will."
+
+  Berthold forced his way into the house, and sat down near the fire,
+  laying his portmanteau near him.
+
+  The family were silent, and looked distressed. But the woman set
+  before him a meal.
+
+  "Let us sing," said the collier at last.
+
+  He turned to a table where were musical glasses, and began to play.
+  How sweet and delicate, like an angel's strain, the music was! Then
+  he began to sing with his family:
+
+    "Now the woods are all sleeping,
+    O guard us, we pray!"
+
+
+  The merchant thought that he had never listened to anything so
+  beautiful.
+
+  After the old German song, Herman said:
+
+  "Let us pray--will you kneel with us, traveler? You may have need of
+  our prayers, for you have come in to us at your peril."
+
+  Much astonished at these words, the merchant knelt down beside his
+  portmanteau. The collier began to pray, when there was a light sound
+  at the storm-door, and a draft of wind stirred the ashes.
+
+  The merchant turned his face towards the door.
+
+  A strange sight met his gaze, such as he had never seen before.
+  A little dwarf stood there with eyes like coal and with a red mantle.
+  He moved the door to and fro. His eyes gleamed. He looked like a
+  burning image. At last, swaying the door, he gave the merchant an evil
+  glance that seemed to burn out his very soul, and was gone.
+
+  The prayer ended, and the family rose from their knees.
+
+  "I will now show you to your chamber," said the collier; "but before
+  we go up, listen to me. If you do not think one evil thought or speak
+  one evil word during the night, no harm will befall you. Promise me
+  now that you will not think one evil thought or speak one evil word,
+  whatever may befall you."
+
+  "I promise you, good people, that I will try not to think one evil
+  thought or to speak one evil word, whatsoever may befall me."
+
+  "And you must not give way to anger; if you do, anger is fire, and he
+  will grow!" said the collier.
+
+  The collier led the merchant up the stairs to his room and left him
+  there, saying, "Remember."
+
+  The moon shone into the room. The Swiss cuckoo clock struck
+  ten--eleven--twelve. The merchant could not sleep. He was haunted by
+  the fiery eyes that he had seen at the storm-door.
+
+  Suddenly the door of his own chamber opened, and a red light filled
+  the room. The same dwarf with the red mantle had entered the chamber
+  and was approaching the bed.
+
+  The merchant had laid his portmanteau of jewels upon the foot of the
+  bed, with the straps hanging over the bedside. He put his foot down
+  under the clothes so as to touch the case.
+
+  The light grew brighter, and advanced nearer. Now the dwarf stood full
+  in view, his eyes flashing, and his feet moving as cautiously, his head
+  now and then turned aside, and his hands lifting the red mantle.
+
+  He came to the foot of the bed, and stood there for a time. The merchant
+  grew impatient, and felt his anger rising.
+
+  The dwarf turned away his flaming eyes from him and began to handle the
+  straps of the portmanteau of jewels.
+
+  The merchant's anger at the annoyance grew, and became uncontrollable.
+
+  "Avaunt!" cried he with terrible oath, leaping from the bed.
+
+  The dwarf stood before him and began to grow. He shot up at last into
+  a flame, and stretched out his arms. He was a giant.
+
+  "Help! help!" cried the merchant.
+
+  There was a sound in the rooms below. The red giant reeled through the
+  door and down the stairs and out into the night.
+
+  The collier came running up the stairs,
+
+  "What, what," he demanded, "have you been doing to our House Spirit?"
+
+  "To your House Spirit?"
+
+  "Yes, he has just gone out; he is a giant again!"
+
+  The good wife was following her husband, and wailing.
+
+  "Now we will have to live him down again; oh, woe, woe; this is an evil
+  night; we will have to live him down again."
+
+  "Stranger," said the collier, "these things may seem strange to you,
+  but when we came here our lives were haunted by the red giant that has
+  gone out into the wood. We knew not what to do, but we sent for the old
+  pastor, and he said: 'Good forester, you can live him down. Think only
+  good thoughts, speak only good words, do only good deeds, and he will
+  become smaller and smaller, less and less. Harbor no evil-minded person
+  in your house. You may one day live him out of sight, and change him
+  angel.' We had almost lived him down!"
+
+  "But what was he?" asked the merchant.
+
+  "He was our Visible Temptation."
+
+  In the morning the merchant hurried away.
+
+  Ten years passed. The merchant chanced to travel through the same forest
+  again. Night was coming on, and he recalled the collier's house.
+
+  He went to it again. He knocked and an old man met him at the door.
+
+  "Thou art welcome," said the old man. "We are not forgetful to entertain
+  strangers. What wouldst thou?"
+
+  "Supper and lodging," said the merchant.
+
+  "They shall be yours. We offer hospitality to all."
+
+  He was Herman, the collier. He did not recognize the merchant.
+
+  The old woman--for she was now gray--set before him an ample supper.
+  The children had grown to be young men and women.
+
+  The cuckoo clock struck the hour of nine.
+
+  The collier altered the musical glasses.
+
+  "Will you join with us in singing?" asked he of the traveler.
+
+  The family sang as before the old German hymn:
+
+    "Now the woods are all sleeping,
+    Guard us we pray."
+
+
+  "Let us pray now," said the collier.
+
+  They knelt; the merchant by his portmanteau as before.
+
+  He watched the storm-door. It did not open. But he became conscious of
+  light overhead. He looked up. A star was forming there. Then a face of
+  light on whose forehead gleamed the star.
+
+  Then wings of pure light were outstretched above the family.
+
+  "Amen," said the collier.
+
+  The light over him vanished.
+
+  The collier's family had lived down the demon, and changed him into
+  an angel.
+
+
+The Christmastide passed, but for days afterward the story of the forest
+family that lived down all the evil in them and turned it into an angel,
+haunted the mind of little Sky-High.
+
+"I will tell that story, mistress," he said one day, "at the Feasts in
+my Country of the Crystal Sea."
+
+"And to whom will you tell it, Sky-High?" asked Mrs. Van Buren.
+
+"The Mandarin of the Crystal Sea is not deaf, mistress. Sky-High will
+tell it to him."
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+
+IN THE HOUSE-BOY'S CARE.
+
+
+Lucy and Charles were full of joy when it was fully decided that they
+were to be taken on a voyage around the world. They spent whole evenings
+with Sky-High, tracing the route on the maps and globes. They would go
+by the way of San Francisco or Vancouver, and thence to Canton. They
+were to visit Sky-High's land first of all.
+
+"They're all gone mad sure!" said Nora; "and that boy'll never send 'em
+back!"
+
+Mr. Van Buren wished to learn something of the Chinese language as
+spoken, and was willing to study an hour every evening with the
+house-boy, and Lucy and Charles picked up the funny choking phrases as
+fast as their father.
+
+Mr. Van Buren said that Manchuria, the land of the conquering Tartars,
+was likely to play a notable part in the history of the future in
+connection with the great Siberian railway; and the whole family began
+to take an interest in the history and condition of that vast province
+on the Ameer, where little Sky-High had lived.
+
+Mrs. Van Buren read aloud to them all the story of Kubla Khan and of
+Tamerlane, and of Marco Polo, the great traveler, and about the Mongols,
+the Buddhist missionaries, the Great Wall, the long periods of peace and
+temple building. They studied the maxims of Confucius and the accounts
+of modern missionaries.
+
+For Charles and Lucy to hear these stories of the country that had given
+the world fire-crackers and silk, and was, moreover, the land of their
+dear little Sky-High, was like listening to the "Arabian Nights." The
+winter passed away quickly, delightful with their preparations for the
+great journey.
+
+"You said that you had lived with the mandarin of Manchuria, I think,"
+remarked Mr. Van Buren to Sky-High one evening.
+
+"With _a_ mandarin in Manchuria, master," corrected Sky-High.
+"There are many mandarins in Manchuria. Manchuria is a large country."
+
+"Are there more people than in Boston?" asked Charlie.
+
+"I do not know how many there are in Boston--there are fifteen million
+in the province of Manchuria."
+
+"Did the mandarin live in great, wonderful, gorgeous splendor?" asked
+Lucy.
+
+Sky-High's eyes opened with a gleam. "His gifts are gold," he said.
+"His dragons have teeth of gold. The monoliths in his garden are one
+thousand, it may be two thousand years old. At the Feast of Lanterns he
+covers the sky over his palace with fire. You should see his gardens and
+the gables of his houses! It takes some minutes to speak his whole name."
+
+"I wish I could look upon a man like that!" said Charlie. "I hope we
+shall see that mandarin when we go to China."
+
+"That will be easy," said Sky-High.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The family sailed away from the Pacific coast in the spring. Mr. and
+Mrs. Van Buren really felt very glad to have such an intelligent servant
+as Sky-High for their visit to the Chinese provinces, even though they
+were to leave him behind at his home.
+
+When they arrived at Hong Kong there was a surprise. Some officials at
+the port appeared to recognize Sky-High, and brought to him an
+important-looking mail which he received with a sudden dignity. He also
+was paid attentions from notable Chinese people, such as servants would
+not seem likely to meet.
+
+Mr. Van Buren finally explained it to himself. He carried letters to
+many consuls and commercial houses. Sky-High was noticed because he was
+in his service. "In such countries," said Mr. Van Buren, "customs are
+different from ours."
+
+Certain high Chinamen in the hongs--the trade-houses--bowed low in a
+most respectful way to Sky-High, their manner very noticeable. Whenever
+Lucy and Charles accompanied him they were offered Chinese sweetmeats
+or novel toys of ivory and jade.
+
+"The people are very kind and polite to you," said Mr. Van Buren to
+Sky-High, one day. "You are fortunate to come back in our service.
+Our family has traded with China for three generations; I suppose we
+are known nearly everywhere."
+
+"I am fortunate, master," said the little Chinaman.
+
+They prepared to go on to Canton. Sky-High arranged the journey, and
+explained the details to Mr. Van Buren. He had an air of taking the
+family under his protection, and seemed to be wholly familiar with the
+way along the boat-lined waters.
+
+"We are to stop just before we reach the city," he said to Mr. Van
+Buren, "to meet a mandarin of Manchuria of the Crystal Sea. He is
+visiting at the summer palace of a grand mandarin of Canton. A barge
+will come out to meet us. There will be fireworks. I have arranged it
+all. Besides these two there will be also a mandarin from the Yellow
+River."
+
+"'Meet us! I have arranged it all!' What does our little house-boy
+mean?" thought Mr. Van Buren. He called Sky-High, and asked him to
+explain his strange words.
+
+"I have arranged it all," said Sky-High simply. "A barge will meet you,
+and take you to this summer palace. There will be fireworks for the sake
+of Charles and Lucy; the heavens will blaze. The mandarins have heard
+of your family. They wish to receive you and to please the children of
+the mandarin of Boston."
+
+Lucy danced at these hospitable words. She had treated little Sky-High
+like a wang. She had dreamed that he was a wang. Perhaps--well, little
+Lucy found it thrilling to feel that almost anything splendid might
+happen!
+
+But Mr. Van Buren had no idea that his family had become of importance
+to the grandees of China, although it was true that his father and
+grandfather had traded in the country and had extensive correspondence
+with the hongs. "Sky-High," said he, "you must be simply amusing
+yourself! A grand mandarin would not order fireworks for Charles and
+Lucy. What mandarin is he?"
+
+"Of the Crystal province. He has heard of you; he wishes to honor you
+as a noble American and the friend of his people."
+
+Mr. Van Buren wondered if his wife's little house-boy had gone insane.
+He spoke with impatience. "Let us not be fooling ourselves with this
+business any longer!"
+
+"I have never deceived you, master," said the little serving-man.
+"I am as the great George Washington in his youth. The mandarin of the
+province of the Crystal Sea holds you in high esteem, and he wishes to
+entertain the children."
+
+Mr. Van Buren inquired at the American consular office concerning this
+"Mandarin of the province of the Crystal Sea." The consul informed him,
+with a smile, that the mandarin in question was especially rich and
+powerful, that he took an interest in American manners and customs, and
+often entertained Americans who had been kind to his people in America
+as well as merchants who had dealt honorably with the Chinese.
+
+Still, Mr. Van Buren could not understand how a great and high-born
+mandarin should be in communication with his servant.
+
+Here little Lucy spoke up. "Papa, I _know_ it is all _so_! Our
+Sky-High has never told a lie. Even General George Washington would have
+liked him."
+
+
+
+
+XVI.
+
+IN THE LITTLE WANG'S LAND.
+
+
+The family set out for Canton under the direction of their little
+servant, whose heart seemed full of anticipation and delight.
+
+The boat stopped when some distance still from the city. A gilded barge
+with a dragon's head and silken curtains had come to meet them. Not far
+away they saw a landing, with boats and people.
+
+"You are to wait for me here," said little Sky-High, as he went aboard
+the barge. "I will return soon."
+
+Gongs sounded, banners waved, as the gilded boat made its way through
+the river craft. Mr. Van Buren could see a row of sedan chairs standing
+upon the landing, gorgeous in gilded frames and silk curtains, with
+bearers and servants in rich costumes. Presently, among these people
+they saw their little Sky-High approach a tall man, who seemed to be a
+master of ceremonies, when the gongs were again beaten.
+
+"Well, this is growing somewhat remarkable!" said Mr. Van Buren. "Yes,
+even if the boy is returning from America with Americans whose name is
+noted in the commerce of the country!"
+
+Sky-High returned; the family went aboard the cushioned boat, and at the
+landing were assisted into the sedans, and carried up the water-steps
+into a high garden, with pavilions, and then on to other gardens away
+from the river. Golden gables shone above the trees. The hedges were
+full of blooms and bees, and lovely birds went flashing by. The trees
+were hung with red lanterns that seemed as light as air; and there were
+dragon kites in the sky. It was like an ethereal paradise, even to the
+now silent Boston merchant.
+
+A vista opened, showing a house where guards in brilliant Chinese
+uniforms stood at the door. Then again gongs sounded.
+
+Three mandarins in robes of silk, their buttons of rank glittering in
+their caps, came down the wide pathway, as though to meet the visitors,
+before whose chairs little Sky-High walked. One of them, a stately man,
+nearly seven feet high, suddenly spread out his arms; whereupon Sky-High
+rushed forward, prostrated himself, and was almost wrapped from sight,
+as he was lifted in the immense sleeves of silk and gold.
+
+Mr. Van Buren was now truly filled with amazement. Little Sky-High's
+mistress was terrified. The children didn't know exactly what to think,
+sitting together in their sedan, only that they were glad to see the
+tall mandarin enfold their own dear Sky-High in his flowing silk robes!
+Little Lucy was half crying. "I believe, I do believe, that he _was_
+a wang all the time!" she at last said to Charlie.
+
+The palace was wonderful. Strange lamps hung over them as they passed
+in. There were beautiful couches and chairs, with gilded arms and silken
+cushions. The walls were set with carvings and perforated work. Here
+hung bars of musical bells; there stood great jars and vases; everywhere
+were fantastic furnishings of silks and costly metals. Feathery green
+bamboos grew in dragon pots. In the corners stood grotesque figures in
+armor.
+
+The lamps in their golden lattices burst into soft flame.
+
+"Unaccountable!" said Mr. Van Buren to himself. "Sky-High would hardly
+be better welcomed were he the wang that Lucy dreamed him to be!"
+
+"Mandarin of Boston," said the tall Chinaman, with an obeisance the like
+of which was never made in western lands, "welcome to our country; you
+have been good, indeed, to this boy--the Light of my Eyes, the Heart of
+my Heart! Madam of this illustrious mandarin, never will I forget you,
+nor"--turning to the two half-frightened children--"nor you, my little
+Prince and Princess of the Golden Dome beyond the seas! All shall always
+be well for you all in our country!"
+
+The tall Chinaman spoke in "flowery English," easily; but the American
+family knew not what to say, nor how to answer, and they bowed in silence
+and Lucy said to herself, "The little wang knew what to do in my
+country, but I do not know what to do in his!"
+
+A little later Mrs. Van Buren, beckoning him to her side as though she
+were in her own house, said to Sky-High, in lowered tones, "Is this tall
+mandarin the mandarin in Manchuria that was your master before you came
+to America?"
+
+Little Sky-High bowed, with a sudden blink of his almond eyes.
+"Mistress," said he, "he was the mandarin who sent me to America, in
+care of the consul, that I might know of the American home-life. He
+wishes me to learn everything that will be of good to me and my country
+when I am a man"--
+
+"Is he any kinsman of yours?" interrupted his mistress.
+
+"Yes, my noble madam."
+
+"Pray, what relation may he be to you?" Mrs. Van Buren asked, a strange
+sensation rushing over her.
+
+Lucy and Charles stood near, drinking in every word.
+
+"The prince is my father, mistress," answered little Sky-High.
+
+The two children, standing in the shelter of a carven screen, clapped
+their hands in the American fashion. Lucy cried out, though softly, "Oh,
+Sky-High, we are so glad, so glad! You _are_ a wang! You were a
+wang all the time!"
+
+"Even as you treated me, always, my little Lady of the Lotus!" answered
+Sky-High, bowing before the children and their mother in the manner of
+his gorgeous father.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That night there was a feast in the summer palace of the Canton mandarin
+in honor of the return of the little prince, and the visit of his great
+American friend, the mandarin of Boston.
+
+Over the tea of Dharma the mandarins related Chinese tales for the
+entertainment of the illustrious American. The little prince told the
+story of the German collier family who changed a haunting evil into a
+guardian angel.
+
+And the prince, his father, said, "That must be a true tale, for it is
+as it would be with men and spirits in China. The wisdom of Buddha is in
+the story."
+
+The next day, in the pavilion by the lake of the rosy nelumbiums, where
+she sat with her mother, and the wonderful Chinese ladies and children,
+little Lucy said to Sky-High. "I always treated you like a wang, didn't
+I?"
+
+"And we will treat you here as a viceroy would treat another viceroy's
+little girl," said Sky-High--whose real name was Ching--the Prince
+Ching.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE SKY-HIGH***
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+<html>
+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Little Sky-High, by Hezekiah Butterworth</title>
+<style type="text/css">
+/*<![CDATA[*/
+    <!--
+ body { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; }
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+<body>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Little Sky-High, by Hezekiah Butterworth</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: Little Sky-High</p>
+<p>       The Surprising Doings of Washee-Washee-Wang</p>
+<p>Author: Hezekiah Butterworth</p>
+<p>Release Date: January 28, 2006  [eBook #17616]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE SKY-HIGH***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>E-text prepared by David Garcia<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net/">http://www.pgdp.net/</a>)<br />
+    from page images generously made available by the<br />
+    Kentuckiana Digital Library (<a href="http://kdl.kyvl.org/">http://kdl.kyvl.org/</a>)</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="10" style="background-color: #ccccff;">
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">
+      Note:
+    </td>
+    <td>
+      Images of the original pages are available through the
+      Electonic Text Collection of Kentuckiana Digital Library. See
+      <a href="http://kdl.kyvl.org/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=kyetexts;cc=kyetexts;xc=1&amp;idno=B92-186-30607738&amp;view=toc">
+      http://kdl.kyvl.org/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=kyetexts;cc=kyetexts;xc=1&amp;idno=B92-186-30607738&amp;view=toc</a>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<div style="height: 6em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="pagei" name="pagei"></a>[pg i]</span></p>
+
+<h1>
+    LITTLE
+<br />
+    SKY HIGH
+</h1>
+
+<a name="image-0001"><!--IMG--></a>
+<div class="figure">
+<img src="images/colophon.png" width="125" height="121" alt="" />
+</div>
+<h3>
+    HEZEKIAH
+<br />
+    BUTTERWORTH
+</h3>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="pageii" name="pageii"></a>[pg ii]</span></p>
+
+<a name="h2H_4_0001" id="h2H_4_0001"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class="ad" style="margin: 0 25% 0 25%;">
+<h2>The<br /> "Nine to Twelve"<br /> Series</h2>
+<hr />
+<p>LITTLE DICK'S SON. <br />
+Kate Gannett Wells. </p>
+<p>MARCIA AND THE MAJOR. <br />
+J. L. Harbour. </p>
+<p>THE CHILDREN OF THE VALLEY. <br />
+Harriet Prescott Spofford. </p>
+<p>HOW DEXTER PAID HIS WAY. <br />
+Kate Upson Clark. </p>
+<p>THE FLATIRON AND THE RED CLOAK. <br />
+Abby Morton Diaz. </p>
+<p>IN THE POVERTY YEAR. <br />
+Marian Douglas. </p>
+<p>LITTLE SKY-HIGH. <br />
+Hezekiah Butterworth. </p>
+<p>THE LITTLE CAVE-DWELLERS. <br />
+Ella Farman Pratt. </p>
+<hr />
+<div style="text-align: center;">
+Thomas D. Crowell &amp; Co. <br />
+New York.</div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="pageiii" name="pageiii"></a>[pg iii]</span></p>
+
+<p><!-- [Blank Page] --></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="pageiv" name="pageiv"></a>[pg iv]</span></p>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>
+
+<a name="image-0002"><!--IMG--></a>
+<div class="figure">
+<a href="images/frontis.jpg"><img src="images/frontis.jpg" style="width: 70%;"
+alt="&quot;IT OPENED A GREAT MOUTH, AND SMOKE SEEMED TO ISSUE FROM IT.&quot; Page 41." /></a>
+<br />
+"IT OPENED A GREAT MOUTH, AND SMOKE SEEMED TO ISSUE FROM IT." <a href="#page41">Page 41.</a>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="pagev" name="pagev"></a>[pg v]</span></p>
+
+<a name="h2H_4_0002" id="h2H_4_0002"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>
+
+<a name="image-0003"><!--IMG--></a>
+<div class="figure">
+<a href="images/title2.png"><img src="images/title2.png" style="width: 70%;"
+alt="LITTLE SKY HIGH or THE SURPRISING DOINGS OF WASHEE WASHEE WANG... BY HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH" /></a>
+<br />
+</div>
+
+<!-- This block commented intentionally (text from decorative title page above)
+<h2> LITTLE<br />SKY-HIGH</h2>
+<h3> OR THE SURPRISING DOINGS OF WASHEE WASHEE WANG... </h3>
+<h3>BY&mdash;<br />HEZEKIAH<br />BUTTERWORTH</h3>
+<p style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0;">
+  <i>New York.</i><br />
+  <i>Thomas Y. Crowell &amp; Co.</i><br />
+  <i>Publishers</i>.
+</p>
+-->
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="pagevi" name="pagevi"></a>[pg vi]</span></p>
+
+<p><!-- [Blank Page] --></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page1" name="page1"></a>[pg 1]</span></p>
+
+<a name="h2H_4_0003" id="h2H_4_0003"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>
+
+<h1>
+    LITTLE SKY-HIGH
+</h1>
+<h2>
+    <i>OR THE SURPRISING DOINGS<br /> OF WASHEE-WASHEE-WANG</i>
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+BY
+</h3>
+<h2>
+HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH
+</h2>
+
+<div style="height: 2em;"><br /><br /></div>
+
+<p style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0;">
+<span class="sc">Author of "In the Days of Jefferson,"<br />
+"The Bordentown Story-Tellers," "Little Arthur's History of Rome,"<br />
+"The Schoolhouse on the Columbia</span>"
+</p>
+
+<div style="height: 2em;"><br /><br /></div>
+
+<p style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0; font-size: 70%;">
+NEW YORK: <br />
+THOMAS Y. CROWELL &amp; CO. <br />
+PUBLISHERS
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page2" name="page2"></a>[pg 2]</span></p>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>
+
+<p style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0; font-size: 70%;">
+  <span class="sc">Copyright, 1901</span><br />
+  <span class="sc">By</span> T. Y. CROWELL &amp; CO.
+</p>
+<div style="height: 2em;"><br /><br /></div>
+<p style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0; font-size: 70%;">
+  TYPOGRAPHY BY C. J. PETERS &amp; SON.<br />
+  BOSTON, U. S. A.
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page3" name="page3"></a>[pg 3]</span></p>
+
+<a name="h2H_4_0004" id="h2H_4_0004"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>
+
+<h2>
+    NOTE.
+</h2>
+<p class="quote">
+  The story of Sky-High is partly founded on a true incident of a young
+  Chinese nobleman's education, and is written to illustrate the happy
+  relations that might exist between the children of different countries,
+  if each child treated all other good children like "wangs."
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  <span class="sc">28 Worcester Street, Boston</span>.<br />
+  <i>March 22, 1901</i>.
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page4" name="page4"></a>[pg 4]</span>
+</p>
+
+<p><!-- [Blank Page] --></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page5" name="page5"></a>[pg 5]</span></p>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>
+
+<h2>
+    CONTENTS.
+</h2>
+
+<table border="0" align="center" summary="Table of Contents">
+<tr><td></td><td align="right"><span style="font-size: 80%;">PAGE</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="2" align="center">  I.</td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#h2H_4_0006"><span class="sc">Below Stairs</span></a></td><td align="right"><a href="#h2H_4_0006">7</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="2" align="center">  II.</td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#h2H_4_0007"><span class="sc">Before the Mandarin</span></a></td><td align="right"><a href="#h2H_4_0007">13</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="2" align="center">  III.</td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#h2H_4_0008"><span class="sc">Lucy's Cup of Tea</span></a></td><td align="right"><a href="#h2H_4_0008">20</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="2" align="center">  IV.</td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#h2H_4_0009"><span class="sc">How Sky-High Called the Governor</span></a></td><td align="right"><a href="#h2H_4_0009">26</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="2" align="center">  V.</td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#h2H_4_0010"><span class="sc">Sky-High's Wonder-Tale</span></a></td><td align="right"><a href="#h2H_4_0010">31</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="2" align="center">  VI.</td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#h2H_4_0011"><span class="sc">The Mandarin Plate</span></a></td><td align="right"><a href="#h2H_4_0011">35</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="2" align="center">  VII.</td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#h2H_4_0012"><span class="sc">Sky-High's Kite</span></a></td><td align="right"><a href="#h2H_4_0012">39</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="2" align="center">  VIII.</td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page6" name="page6"></a>[pg 6]</span>
+         <a href="#h2H_4_0013"><span class="sc">A Wan</span></a></td><td align="right"><a href="#h2H_4_0013">44</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="2" align="center">  IX.</td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#h2H_4_0014"><span class="sc">Lucy's Jataka Story</span></a></td><td align="right"><a href="#h2H_4_0014">48</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="2" align="center">  X.</td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#h2H_4_0015"><span class="sc">Sky-High's Easter Sunday</span></a></td><td align="right"><a href="#h2H_4_0015">51</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="2" align="center">  XI.</td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#h2H_4_0016"><span class="sc">Sky-High's Fireworks</span></a></td><td align="right"><a href="#h2H_4_0016">55</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="2" align="center">  XII.</td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#h2H_4_0017"><span class="sc">A Chinese Santa Claus</span></a></td><td align="right"><a href="#h2H_4_0017">62</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="2" align="center">  XIII.</td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#h2H_4_0018"><span class="sc">A Legend of Tea</span></a></td><td align="right"><a href="#h2H_4_0018">68</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="2" align="center">  XIV.</td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#h2H_4_0019"><span class="sc">Mrs. Van Buren's Christmas Tale</span></a></td><td align="right"><a href="#h2H_4_0019">70</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="2" align="center">  XV.</td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#h2H_4_0020"><span class="sc">In the House-Boy's Care</span></a></td><td align="right"><a href="#h2H_4_0020">76</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="2" align="center">  XVI.</td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#h2H_4_0021"><span class="sc">In the Little Wang's Land</span></a></td><td align="right"><a href="#h2H_4_0021">82</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page7" name="page7"></a>[pg 7]</span>
+</p>
+<a name="h2H_4_0005" id="h2H_4_0005"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>
+
+<h2>
+    LITTLE SKY-HIGH.
+</h2>
+<a name="h2H_4_0006" id="h2H_4_0006"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>
+
+<h2>
+    I.
+</h2>
+<h3>
+    BELOW STAIRS.
+</h3>
+<p>
+The children came home from school&mdash;Charles and Lucy.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I have a surprise for you in the kitchen," said their mother, Mrs.
+Van Buren. "No, take off your things first, then you may go down
+and see. Now don't laugh&mdash;a laugh that hurts anyone's feelings is so
+unkind&mdash;tip-toe too! No, Charlie, one at a time; let Lucy go first."
+</p>
+<p>
+Lucy tip-toed with eyes full of wonder to the dark banister-stairs that
+led down to the quarters below. Her light feet were as still as a little
+mouse's in a cheese closet. Presently she came back with dancing eyes.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, mother! where did you get him? His eyes are like two almonds, and
+his braided hair dangles away down almost to the floor, and there are
+black silk tassels on the end of it, and kitty is playing with them;
+and when Norah caught my eye she bent over double to laugh, but he
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page8" name="page8"></a>[pg 8]</span>
+
+  kept right on shelling peas. Charlie, come and see; let me go with
+Charlie, mother?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Charlie followed Lucy, tip-toeing to the foot of the banister, where
+a platform-stair commanded a view of the kitchen.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was a very nice kitchen, with gas, hot water and cold, ranges and
+gas-stoves, and two great cupboards with glass doors through which
+all sorts of beautiful serving-dishes shone. Green ivies filled the
+window-cases, and geraniums lined the window-sills. A fine old parrot
+from the Andes inhabited a large cage with an open door, hanging over
+the main window, where the wire netting let in the air from the apple
+boughs.
+</p>
+<p>
+On reaching the platform-stair, Charlie was as astonished as Lucy could
+wish.
+</p>
+<p>
+There sat a little Chinese boy, as it seemed, although at second glance
+he looked rather old for a boy. He wore blue clothes and was shelling
+peas. His glossy black "pigtail" reached down to the floor, and the
+kitten was trying to raise the end of it in her pretty white paws.
+As Lucy had said, heavy black silk cords were braided in with the hair,
+with handsome tassels.
+</p>
+<p>
+The parrot had come out of her cage, and was eying the boy and the
+kitten, plainly hoping for mischief. Suddenly she caught Charlie's eye,
+and with a flap of her wings she cried out to him.
+</p>
+<p>
+"He's a quare one! Now, isn't he?"
+</p>
+<p>
+The bird had heard Irish Nora say this a
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page9" name="page9"></a>[pg 9]</span>
+
+                                         number of times during the day
+and had learned the words. Charlie could not help laughing out in
+response. With this encouragement Polly came down towards the door of
+the cage, and thrust her green and yellow head out into the room. "Now,
+isn't he, sure?" cried she, in Nora's own voice.
+</p>
+<p>
+Nora was sole ruler of this cheerful realm below stairs; the only other
+inhabitants of the kitchen were the parrot and the kitten, and now this
+Chinese boy. Nora's special work-room was a great pantry with a latticed
+window. Near-by a wide door led out into a little garden of apple, pear,
+and cherry trees; the garden had a grape-arbor too, which ran from the
+door to a roomy cabin. Here was every convenience for washing and
+ironing.
+</p>
+<p>
+Nora was a portly woman, with a round face, large forehead, and a little
+nose which seemed to be always laughing. She was a merry soul; and she
+used to tell "the children," as Charles and Lucy were called,
+"Liliputian stories," tales of the Fairy Schoolmaster of Irish lore.
+</p>
+<p>
+The Chinese boy did not look up to Polly as she gazed and exclaimed at
+him, but shelled his peas.
+</p>
+<p>
+Presently, however, the pretty kitten whirled the industrious boy's
+pigtail around in a circle until it pulled. Then he cast his almond eyes
+at her, and addressed her in a tone like the clatter of rolling rocks.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Ok-oka-ok-a-a!"
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page10" name="page10"></a>[pg 10]</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+The kitten flew to the other side of the room, and Nora appeared from
+the pantry. When she saw the two children on the stairs, she put her
+hands on her sides and laughed with her nose. "We've a quare one here,
+now, haven't we?" said she.
+</p>
+<p>
+Polly stretched her lovely head out into the room from the cage, and
+flapped her wings, and swung to and fro, and the kitten returned,
+whereupon the boy drew up his pigtail and tied it around his neck like
+a necktie.
+</p>
+<p>
+"See, children," said Nora, pointing, "what your mother has brought
+home! She says we must all be good to him, and it's never hard I would
+be to any living crater. He came down from the sun, he says. What do you
+think his name is? And you could never guess! It's Sky-High, which is to
+say, come-down-from-the-sun. And a man in a coach it was that brought
+him. Sure, I never came here in a coach, but on my two square feet; he
+came from the consul's office&mdash;Misther Bradley's&mdash;and a ship it was that
+brought him there. Ah, but he's a quare kitchen-boy!
+</p>
+<p>
+"But your mother, all with a heart as warm as pudding, she's going to
+educate him; and if he does well, she's going to promote him up aloft,
+to take care of all the foine rooms, and furniture and things, and to
+wait upon the table, and tend the door for aught I know. She made me
+promise I would be remarkable good to him&mdash;but it don't do no harm for
+me to say that he's
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page11" name="page11"></a>[pg 11]</span>
+
+                    a quare one! <i>he</i> can't understand it&mdash;<i>he</i>
+speaks the language of the sun, all like the cracking of nuts, or the
+rattling of a loose thunder-storm over the shingles."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Sky-High?" ventured little Lucy mischievously.
+</p>
+<p>
+The Chinese boy looked up, with a quick blink of his eyes.
+</p>
+<p>
+"At your service, madam," said he in very good English.
+</p>
+<p>
+Nora lifted her great arms.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And he does speak English! Who knows but he understood all I said, and
+what the parrot said too. Poll, you go into your cage! 'At your service,
+madam!' And did you hear it, Lucy? No errand-boy ever spoke in the
+loikes o' that before! I'd think h'd been brought up among the quality.
+It maybe he's a Fairy Shoemaker, spaking the queen's court-language, and
+no errand-boy at all!"
+</p>
+<p>
+A bell sounded up-stairs, and the two children ran back.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, mother, never was there a boy like that!" said Charlie.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well," said Mrs. Van Buren, "you shall tell your father how you found
+little Sky-High&mdash;it will be a pretty after-supper story. I want you to
+think kindly of him, for if he does well he is to stay with us a year."
+</p>
+<p>
+The children found their father in the dining-room; and as they kissed
+him they both cried, "Oh, oh!"
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page12" name="page12"></a>[pg 12]</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+"What is it now?" asked Mr. Van Buren. "What has happened to-day?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Wait until after supper," said Mrs. Van Buren; "then they shall tell
+you of a curious event in the kitchen. There really is something to
+tell," she added, smiling.
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page13" name="page13"></a>[pg 13]</span>
+</p>
+<a name="h2H_4_0007" id="h2H_4_0007"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>
+
+<h2>
+    II.
+</h2>
+<h3>
+    BEFORE THE MANDARIN!
+</h3>
+<p>
+As Mr. Van Buren was a prudent, wise, and good-natured man, he left all
+the affairs of housekeeping to his wife. He had so seldom been "below
+stairs" that he never had even made the acquaintance of Polly, the
+lively bird of the kitchen. The kitten sometimes came up to visit him;
+on which occasions she simply purred, and sank down to rest on his knee.
+</p>
+<p>
+After supper was over, Mr. Van Buren caught Lucy up.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And now what amusing thing is it that my little girl has to tell
+me&mdash;something new that Nora has told you of the Fairy Shoemaker?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"There's really a wonderful thing down in the kitchen, father," said
+Lucy; "wonderfuller than anything in the Fairy Shoemaker tales."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And where did it come from?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Down from the sun, father, and Nora says it came in a coach!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Van Buren turned to his wife.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It came from the Consul's," she said&mdash;"from Consul Bradley's."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Has Consul Bradley been here?" he asked,
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page14" name="page14"></a>[pg 14]</span>
+
+                                          thinking some Chinese curio
+had been shipped over. Consul Bradley was a Chinese consular agent, a
+man of considerable wealth, with a large knowledge of the world, and
+a friend of the Van Buren family.
+</p>
+<p>
+"No," said Mrs. Van Buren, "but his coach-man has brought me a
+kitchen-boy."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, that <i>is</i> rather wonderful! Is that what you have
+down-stairs, Lucy?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"That doesn't half tell it, father," cried Charlie. "He's a little
+Chineseman!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I was in the Consul's office this morning," went on Mrs. Van Buren,
+smiling at her husband's astonishment; "and the Consul said to me,
+'Wouldn't you like to have a neat, trim, tidy, honest, faithful,
+tender-hearted, polite boy to learn general work?' I said to the Consul,
+'Yes, that is the person that I have been needing for years.' He said,
+'Would you have any prejudice against a little Chinese servant, if he
+were trusty, after the general principles I have described?' I said to
+him, 'None whatever.' He continued: 'A Chinese lad from Manchuria has
+been sent to me by a friend in the hong, and I am asked to find him a
+place to learn American home-making ideas in one of the best families.
+Your family is that place&mdash;shall I send him?' So he came in the Consul's
+coach, as Lucy said, and with him an immense trunk covered with Chinese
+brush-marks. He seems to be a little gentleman; and when I asked him his
+name he said, 'The Consul told me to tell you
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page15" name="page15"></a>[pg 15]</span>
+
+                                                to call me Sky-High.'
+He doesn't speak except to make replies, but these are in very good
+English."
+</p>
+<p>
+"May I give my opinion?" asked little Lucy.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, Lucy," said her mother, smiling, "what is your opinion?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"He looks like an emperor's son, or a mandarin," said Lucy.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And what put such a thought into your head?" asked her mother.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The pictures on my Chinese fans," said Lucy promptly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well," said Mrs. Van Buren, "if he does well, you shall treat him
+exactly as though he were the son of an emperor or a wang&mdash;he says that
+kings are called wangs in his land."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then he would be a little wang," said Lucy. "I will make believe he is
+a little wang while he stays."
+</p>
+<p>
+So Sky-High became a little wang to Lucy; and a wonderful little wang he
+promised to be.
+</p>
+<p>
+At Mr. Van Buren's wish, little Sky-High was sent for. The Chinese boy
+asked Charlie, who went down for him, that he might have time to change
+his dress so that he might suitably appear before "the mandarin in the
+parlor." (A "mandarin" in China is a kind of mayor or magistrate of rank
+more or less exalted.)
+</p>
+<p>
+Charlie came back with the kitchen-boy's message. "He says that he wants
+a little time to change his clothes so that he may suitably appear
+before the mandarin in the parlor."
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page16" name="page16"></a>[pg 16]</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+"The mandarin in the parlor!" exclaimed Mr. Van Buren, in a burst of
+laughter. "My father used to speak of mandarins&mdash;he traded ginseng for
+silks and teas at Canton in the days of the hongs&mdash;the open market or
+trading-places. That was a generation ago. There are no longer any
+store-houses for ginseng on the wharves of Boston. Yet my father made
+all his money in this way. 'The mandarin in the parlor.' Sky-High has
+a proper respect for superiors; I like the boy for that."
+</p>
+<p>
+By and by the sound of soft feet were heard at the folding-doors.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Come in, Sky-High," said Mrs. Van Buren.
+</p>
+<p>
+The little kitchen-boy appeared, and all eyes lighted up in wonder.
+He wore a silk tunic fringed with what looked like gold. His stockings
+were white, and his shoes were spangled with silver. The broad sleeves
+of his tunic were richly embroidered&mdash;he seemed to wing himself in. A
+beautiful fan was in his hand, which he very slowly waved to and fro, as
+if following some custom. Mrs. Van Buren wondered if servants in China
+came fanning themselves when summoned by their master. Sky-High bowed
+and bowed and bowed again, then moved with a gliding motion in front of
+Mr. Van Buren's chair, still bowing and bowing, and there he remained
+in an attentive bent attitude. The kitten leaped up from Mr. Van Buren's
+knee, then jumped down, plainly with an intention to play with the
+tempting
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page17" name="page17"></a>[pg 17]</span>
+
+        pig-tail&mdash;but Lucy sprang and captured the snowy little creature.
+</p>
+<p>
+"So you are Sky-High?" said Mr. Van Buren. "Well, a right neat and
+smart-looking boy you are!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"The Mandarin of Milton!" said the glittering little fellow, bending.
+"My ancestors have heard of the mandarins of Boston and Milton, even in
+the days of Hoqua."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hoqua?" Mr. Van Buren looked at the boy with interest, "You know of
+Hoqua?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Who is Hoqua?" asked Mrs. Van Buren.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Van Buren turned to her, "I will tell you later."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hoqua, madam," said Sky-High, bowing to his mistress, "was the great
+merchant mandarin of Canton in the time of the opening of that port to
+all countries."
+</p>
+<p>
+How did a Chinese servant know anything of Hoqua? This was the question
+that puzzled Mr. Van Buren. "Sky-High, how many people have you in your
+country?" he asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is said four hundred million."
+</p>
+<p>
+"We have only seventy millions here, Sky-High."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I have been told," said Sky-High.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And who is ruler over all your people?" asked Mr. Van Buren.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The Celestial Emperor, the Son of Heaven, the Brother of the Sun and
+Moon, the Dweller in Rooms of Gold, the Light of Life, the Father of the
+Nations."
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page18" name="page18"></a>[pg 18]</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+"You fill me with wonder, Sky-High. We have a plain President. Do your
+people die to make room for more millions?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"My people value not to die, O Mandarin!" said the boy.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Such throngs of people&mdash;they all have souls, think you?"
+</p>
+<p>
+A dark flush came upon little Sky-High's forehead. He opened his narrow
+black eyes upon his master. "Souls? They have souls, O Mandarin! Souls
+are all my people have for long."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Where go their souls when your people die?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"To their ancestors! With them they live among the lotus blooms."
+</p>
+<p>
+"We will excuse you now," said Mr. Van
+Buren to Sky-High. "You have answered
+intelligently, according to your knowledge."
+</p>
+<p>
+The kitchen-boy bowed himself out without turning his back towards any
+one, describing many glittering angles, and waving his fan. He looked
+like something vanishing, a bit of fireworks going out.
+</p>
+<p>
+As he reached the stair, the little white cat sprang from Lucy's arms,
+and skipped swiftly after the curious inmate of the kitchen. The long,
+swinging braid was a temptation. The last glimpse Charles and Lucy had
+was of an embroidered sleeve as Sky-High reached backward and caught the
+kitten to his shoulder, and bound her fast with his queue.
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page19" name="page19"></a>[pg 19]</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Charlie clapped his hands. He thought there would be fun in the house.
+He knew he should like Sky-High. As they went up-stairs he said to Lucy,
+"The little Chinaman was a heathen, and father was a missionary."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Van Buren heard him, and called him back. "The little Chinaman was a
+new book," said he, "and your father was reading. See that you treat the
+boy well."
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page20" name="page20"></a>[pg 20]</span>
+</p>
+<a name="h2H_4_0008" id="h2H_4_0008"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>
+
+<h2>
+    III.
+</h2>
+<h3>
+    LUCY'S CUP OF TEA.
+</h3>
+<p>
+Mr. Van Buren's home was on Milton Hill. It overlooked Boston and the
+harbor. The upper windows commanded a glorious view in the morning.
+Before it glittered the sea with its white sails, and behind it rose the
+Blue Hills with their green orchards and woods. The house was colonial,
+with gables and cupola, and was surrounded by hour-glass elms, arbors,
+and evergreen trees. It had been built by Mr. Van Buren's father in the
+days of the China trade and of the primitive mandarin merchant, Hoqua.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Van Buren, a tea-merchant of Boston, received his goods through
+merchant vessels, and not through his own ships as his father had done.
+</p>
+<p>
+The next morning Mrs. Van Buren went down early into her kitchen to
+assign Sky-High his work.
+</p>
+<p>
+Nora, in a loud whisper that the birds in the apple-boughs might have
+heard, informed Mrs. Van Buren that the new Chinese servant was "no good
+as a sweeper," and asked what he did with his pigtail when he slept. "It
+must take
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page21" name="page21"></a>[pg 21]</span>
+
+          him a good part of to-morrer to comb his hair, it is that long,"
+she said. "And wouldn't you better use him up-stairs for an errand-boy
+altogether now? Sure, you wouldn't be after teaching him any cooking at
+all?" Nora was an old servant and had many privileges of speech.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Van Buren smiled, and arranged that little Sky-High should wash and
+iron clothes in the cabin under the blooming trees, at the end of the
+arbor.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And if you learn well," said she, "I may let you tend the door, and
+wait upon the table, and keep the rooms in order."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And then you will be up-stairs," said little Lucy, "where it is very
+pleasant."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And now, Sky-High, tell me how it is that you can speak English so
+well," said Mrs. Van Buren, as they stood in the cabin, where the
+prospect of solitude seemed to please the boy. A gleam of something like
+mischief appeared on little Sky-High's face.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And, Madame de Mandarin," said he, "I speak French too. <i>Parlez-vous
+Français</i>, Mademoiselle Lucy?" he added rapidly, turning to the
+little American girl. "<i>Pardonne</i>, Madame la Mandarin!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Sky-High will not say 'Mandarin' any more," said Mrs. Van Buren. "There
+are no mandarins in this country, and when Sky-High is called into the
+rooms above he will wear his plain clothes, not spangled clothes. Now,
+who taught you English?"
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page22" name="page22"></a>[pg 22]</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+"My master, madam."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Say mistress, Sky-High."
+</p>
+<p>
+"My master, mistress."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Where did you live in Manchuria?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"In the house of a mandarin."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And who was your master?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"The mandarin, mistress."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Do mandarins in China teach their servants to speak English?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Some mandarins do, your grace."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Do not say 'your grace,' Sky-High, but simply mistress. Ladies have no
+titles in America. Where is the city in which you lived?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"In Manchuria, on the coast, on the Crystal Sea."
+</p>
+<p>
+The kitten came running into the kitchen, and at once leaped on to the
+end of Sky-High's pigtail.
+</p>
+<p>
+The boy gave his pigtail a sudden whisk.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Pie-cat?" asked he.
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, no!" said Mrs. Van Buren in horror. "We have no pie-cats in this
+country. Was there an English teacher in your house?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Little Sky-High was winding his pigtail about his neck for safety. He
+saw Lucy giggling, and a laugh came into his own eyes.
+</p>
+<p>
+"<i>Pardonne</i>, mistress. We had an English trader at the hong&mdash;at the
+trade-house."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Do they send servants to English teachers in China?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"When they are to grow up and deal with English business, mistress."
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page23" name="page23"></a>[pg 23]</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+"Did you meet English people at the hong?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, mistress."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Who were they?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I cannot name them. There were my lords and the admiral; and the
+American Consul he came, and the German Consul he came, and the American
+travelers they came, and Russian officers they came."
+</p>
+<p>
+"How old are you, Sky-High?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"There have passed over me fifteen New-Year days, mistress."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, Sky-High," said his mistress, "I am going to give you this cabin
+under the trees, where you may do your washings and all your ironings.
+No one else shall come here to work. I have decided to have you begin
+to-morrow to bring up the breakfast."
+</p>
+<p>
+The next morning Sky-High performed his first service at the
+breakfast-table. He brought up the coffee while Mr. Van Buren was saying
+grace. He paused before the table.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Sleepy, sleepy!" he exclaimed softly, "all sleepy!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Van Buren put out her hand as a signal for him to wait. Sky-High
+did not understand, and the grace was concluded amid smiles.
+</p>
+<p>
+Sky-High wondered much what had made the family sleepy at that time of
+the day. They did not go to sleep at the breakfast-table in China.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The mistress and her people," said he to Nora, "shut their eyes and go
+to sleep at the breakfast."
+</p>
+<p>
+"An' sure, it is quare you are yourself!
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page24" name="page24"></a>[pg 24]</span>
+
+                                          They were praying. Don't you
+ever say prayers, Sky-High?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"My country has printed prayers," said Sky-High with lofty dignity.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You're a hathen people. Here we call such as you a 'hathen Chinee,' and
+there was a Californan poet that wrote a whole piece about the likes of
+you. Children speak it at school. Here is the toast&mdash;carry it up!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Lucy liked to see the little olive-colored "wang" moving about.
+One day at the table she requested him to bring her a cup of tea. The
+little Chinaman well knew that Lucy and Charles were not permitted to
+have tea. He inquired whether he should make it in the American or the
+Chinese way.
+</p>
+<p>
+"In the way you would for a wang," said Lucy.
+</p>
+<p>
+Sky-High soon re-appeared, his tray bearing a pretty little covered cup
+and a silver pitcher.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Where is the tea?" asked Lucy.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is in the cup, like a wang's," said Sky-High.
+</p>
+<p>
+He poured the hot water on the tea, and fragrance filled the room.
+</p>
+<p>
+Lucy, with a glance asking her mother's leave, tasted the tea she had
+roguishly ordered.
+</p>
+<p>
+"We do not have tea like this," she said; "is it tea?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Like a wang's," said Sky-High, blinking.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Where did you get it?" asked Lucy.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Out of my tea-canister," said Sky-High.
+</p>
+<p>
+Little Lucy did not drink the tea, for little
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page25" name="page25"></a>[pg 25]</span>
+
+                                               Lucy had never drunk
+a cup of tea; but its fragrance lingered about the house through the
+day, and set her wondering what else the little Chinaman's immense trunk
+might hold.
+</p>
+<p>
+It had been agreed between the Consul and Mrs. Van Buren that little
+Sky-High might talk with the family; and like her husband she found the
+Chinese boy "a new book." She asked him many a curious question about
+the "Flowery Kingdom," and one day she learned that "we never send our
+finest teas out of China." Yes "we" said the washee-washee-wang, as the
+neighbor-boys called him.
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page26" name="page26"></a>[pg 26]</span>
+</p>
+<a name="h2H_4_0009" id="h2H_4_0009"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>
+
+<h2>
+    IV.
+</h2>
+<h3>
+    HOW SKY-HIGH CALLED THE GOVERNOR.
+</h3>
+<p>
+Cheerfully, in his fine blue linens, the little Chinese house-boy worked
+in his cabin a portion of every day. The bluebirds came close to sing to
+him and so did the red-breasted robins. Irish Nora and the parrot became
+very civil, and he grew fond of Charlie and Lucy.
+</p>
+<p>
+Some of the boys on their way to and from school made his only real
+annoyance. Sometimes when his smoothing-iron was moving silently under
+his loose-sleeved hand, or he was hanging the snowy clothes on the
+lines, they would hide behind a tree or corner, and shy sticks at him
+calling, "washee-washee-wang!" He bore it all in an unselfish temper,
+until one day a big lump of dirt fell upon one of little Lucy's dainty
+muslin frocks as he was ironing it. Then he said something that sounded
+like, "cockle-cockle-cockle," and closed all the doors and windows.
+</p>
+<p>
+At this crisis Charles and Lucy came to his side. They set wide again
+the doors and windows of the cabin under the green boughs, and promised
+him that they would forever be his
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page27" name="page27"></a>[pg 27]</span>
+
+                                   true friends and protectors. "It is
+time we began to treat him like a wang, as mother wished," said Lucy to
+Charlie.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The American boys throw dirt at me in the street," admitted little
+Sky-High, in a reluctant tone&mdash;he did not like to bear witness against
+anyone in this sunshiny world.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I will go out with you," said Charlie, "when you are sent out to do
+errands. I will stand between you and the dirt. The dirt comes out of
+their souls."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And I will watch around the corners and speak to them," said Lucy.
+</p>
+<p>
+Sky-High's heart bounded at these pledges of friendship, and he leaped
+about in a way that made the parrot laugh&mdash;sometimes he had the parrot
+in his cabin, and taught it Chinese words. "The sun shines for all, the
+earth blossoms for all," he said to the children; "it is only the heart
+that needs washee-washee and smoothee-smoothee. Everything will be
+better by and by. I talk flowery talk, like home, out here among the
+birds, butterflies, and bees."
+</p>
+<p>
+(Nora said he "jabbered" all day long in the cabin.)
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Van Buren very soon promoted the careful little Chinaman to have
+all the care of the beautiful living rooms and the quaint old parlors.
+He brought the flowers and admitted the visitors. He did his work in
+admirable taste. It shed a kind of good influence through the house, to
+see the little fellow in his fine linens
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page28" name="page28"></a>[pg 28]</span>
+
+                                         flitting around, so careful was
+he to keep all things in speckless order.
+</p>
+<p>
+The chief drawback was that he still used "flowery talk"; to him the
+world was a field of poetry, and he spoke in figures whenever he forgot
+himself. Mrs. Van Buren was still Madam the Mandarin, and he called Lucy
+the "Lotus of the Shining Sea." He received many reprimands for the use
+of these Oriental forms of speech; but found it hard to harness his
+thoughts to track-horses, especially after the June days began to fill
+the gardens with orioles and humming-birds and roses.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why not <i>let</i> me talk after nature?" little Sky-High used to beg.
+</p>
+<p>
+One day the governor of the State came to visit the Van Burens. Sky-High
+spoke of him as the "Mandarin of the Golden Dome." He had several times
+been in Boston to see Consul Bradley, and knew the State House.
+</p>
+<p>
+In the evening Mrs. Van Buren gave him his morning orders. "You will
+call the governor to-morrow at seven o'clock. You will knock on his
+door, and you must use plain language! You must not say, 'O Mandarin of
+the Golden Dome!' We do not use flowery terms of address in this
+country. Mind, Sky-High, use plain language."
+</p>
+<p>
+The little Chinaman feared that he would be "flowery" in spite of all
+his care. So he consulted with Irish Nora in the blooming hours of the
+morning.
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page29" name="page29"></a>[pg 29]</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+"What shall I say when I knock on the governor's chamber-door?" asked he
+earnestly. "What shall I say in the plain American language?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"What shall you say? Say, 'Get up!'"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Is that all?" asked he doubtfully.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, if you want to say more, say, 'Get up! The world is all growing
+and crowing&mdash;the roosters are crowing their heads off!'"
+</p>
+<p>
+Sky-High went to the door of the governor's room and knocked.
+</p>
+<p>
+There came a voice from within. "Well?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Get up! The world is all growing and crowing,&mdash;the roosters are crowing
+their heads off."
+</p>
+<p>
+The "Mandarin of the Golden Dome" did not wait for a second summons, but
+got up even as Sky-High had bidden him. It was a June morning, and he
+found the world as he had been warned, "all growing and crowing."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Have you called the governor?" asked Mrs. Van Buren, as she met
+Sky-High on the stairs.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, my Lady of the Beautiful Morning."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Did you use plain language?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Sky-High used the American language."
+</p>
+<p>
+"What did you say?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I said, 'Get up!'"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, Sky-High, now I will have to apologize for you!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"We never use plain language to mandarins in China," said Sky-High. "If
+we did, 'whish,
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page30" name="page30"></a>[pg 30]</span>
+
+                whish,' and our heads would be off before we could turn!"
+</p>
+<p>
+The Mandarin of the Golden Dome came down from the chamber; and the Lady
+of the Beautiful Morning explained to him that her new boy had not yet
+mastered the arts of American manners, although he intended to be
+correct when addressing his superiors.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I didn't notice anything whatever incorrect," said the governor, who
+had hugely enjoyed the manner of his summons. "He awoke me&mdash;what more
+was needed?"
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page31" name="page31"></a>[pg 31]</span>
+</p>
+<a name="h2H_4_0010" id="h2H_4_0010"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>
+
+<h2>
+    V.
+</h2>
+<h3>
+    SKY-HIGH'S WONDER-TALE.
+</h3>
+<p>
+"My Lady of the Beautiful Morning" believed in the education of
+story-telling; and she did not limit her stories wholly to tales with
+"morals," but told those that awakened the imagination. This she did for
+Lucy's sake and Charlie's, believing that all little people should pass
+through fairyland once in their lives.
+</p>
+<p>
+She used, like Queen Scheherazade of the Arabian Nights, to gather up
+stories that pictured places, habits, and manners of the people, to
+relate; and this year, when the garden began to flower, she had many
+such to tell under the trees. Sky-High was always a listener. He was
+always permitted to be with the family in the evening. He loved
+wonder-tales. They carried him off as on an "enchanted carpet."
+</p>
+<p>
+One evening Mrs. Van Buren said, "I have a new idea. Sky-High might tell
+<i>us</i> some stories. He speaks English well when he chooses.
+Sky-High, tell us some tale of your own country. You have wonder-tales
+in China."
+</p>
+<p>
+"In the stories of my country animals talk," said Sky-High.
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page32" name="page32"></a>[pg 32]</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+"Tell us some of your stories in which animals talk," said Lucy,
+clapping her hands.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Animals always talk, everywhere," said Sky-High. "In China we interpret
+what they say."
+</p>
+<p>
+The word "interpret" was rather a big one for Lucy. But as Sky-High was
+given to using unexpected words, the little girl was herself beginning
+to indulge in a larger vocabulary.
+</p>
+<p>
+So Sky-High began to relate an old Chinese household story.
+</p>
+<h3>
+<span class="sc">The Self-Respecting Donkey.</span>
+</h3>
+<p class="quote">
+  There was once a Donkey who had great respect for himself, as many
+  people do. Such wear good clothes. You may know what a man thinks of
+  himself by the clothes he wears. We Chinese moralize in our stories
+  as we go along. We tell <i>think</i>-tales.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  One day the Self-respecting Donkey went out into some green meadows
+  near a wood, and was eating grass when a Tiger appeared on the verge
+  of the meadow. The Self-respecting Donkey was very much surprised,
+  but did not lose his dignity. So he uttered a deep bray.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "Br-a-a-a!"
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  The Tiger, in his turn, was very much surprised&mdash;for the Donkey's voice
+  seemed to penetrate the earth. But as soon as he collected his wits he
+  crouched as if to spring upon the Donkey and make a meal of him.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  The Self-respecting Donkey did not run. He moved with a slow, firm, and
+  kingly step toward the Tiger. Then he dropped his head again, in such a
+  way that his ears looked like great proclamations of wisdom and power.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "Br-a-a-a!"
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  His voice was truly terrible. The Tiger again quailed.
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page33" name="page33"></a>[pg 33]</span></p>
+
+<p class="quote">
+  "Oh, Beast of the Voice of the Thunder-winds," said he, "thou canst
+  dispute with me and the Lion the kingship among animals!"
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  The Donkey brayed again in a more terrible voice than before. "If you
+  will accompany me into the wood," said he, "thou shalt see all animals
+  flee from us."
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  The Tiger felt complimented by an association with the animal who had
+  gained his voice from the thunder, and shortly they entered the wood.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  The animals all fled when they saw them coming&mdash;not from the Donkey,
+  but from the Tiger. Even the Raven dared not speak, and the Lion slunk
+  back among the rocks; because a Tiger and a Donkey, together, might
+  more than equal his terrifying roar.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "See," said the Donkey, "all nature flees before us. Now walk behind
+  me, and I will show you the secret of my power."
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  The Tiger stepped behind; and the Donkey very quickly, in a pretty
+  short time, showed him the secret of his power. He kicked the poor
+  foolish Tiger in the head, breaking his nose, and stunning him. Then
+  leaving him in the path for dead, he made good his escape.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "Any one can be great," said he, "if he knows how to use his power!"
+  He was a philosopher.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  When the poor Tiger came to his senses he rubbed his nose with his paw,
+  and began to reflect on the lesson that he should learn from his
+  association with a Donkey.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  He reflected long and well&mdash;and never said anything about it to anyone.
+</p>
+<p>
+"In my country," added little Sky-High, "we think that when one allows
+himself to get kicked by a donkey a long silence befits him&mdash;he can best
+show his wisdom in that way. Do you not think so, O Mandarin Americans?"
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page34" name="page34"></a>[pg 34]</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+The "Mandarin Americans" quite agreed with the conclusion drawn by
+Sky-High.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was about this time that little Lucy began to wonder if Sky-High were
+not a wang indeed. No common young Chinese could possess so many kinds
+of wisdom. He was able to read to her the labels on tea-chests, and to
+explain the odd figures on the many fans that decorated her playroom.
+</p>
+<p>
+"How do you know so much, Sky-High?" she asked one day when he had told
+her the meaning of the pictures on an old Chinese porcelain in the upper
+hall.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Many of the porcelains in our country are made to be read," he said.
+"All educated Chinese people can read porcelains. An American porcelain
+has no story."
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page35" name="page35"></a>[pg 35]</span>
+</p>
+<a name="h2H_4_0011" id="h2H_4_0011"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>
+
+<h2>
+    VI.
+</h2>
+<h3>
+    THE MANDARIN PLATE.
+</h3>
+<p>
+Among the heirlooms to be found in the closets of many New England
+houses is a curious pattern of China plate. This plate is colored
+blue-and-white, and in the bowl of each is a picture. The picture
+represents a rural scene in China&mdash;a bridge on which are two young
+people, a man and a woman; a house, and a tree, and two birds of
+beautiful plumage flying away. Mrs. Van Buren had such a plate, and a
+platter with the same rural picture, on her dining-room wall.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was the delight of Lucy to have Sky-High explain to her the meaning
+of the pictures on the Chinese vases and on an ornamental Chinese
+umbrella which hung in the reception-room. One day when Sky-High was
+dusting in the dining-room, Lucy's eye fell on the blue-and-white plate
+with the picture of the bridge and birds.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, Sky-High," said Lucy, "mother has a treasure here&mdash;a porcelain
+plate of your country, see!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Sky-High looked up to the old porcelain.
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page36" name="page36"></a>[pg 36]</span>
+
+                                         He had seen such a plate a
+thousand times; so often, in so many places, that Mrs. Van Buren's had
+not drawn his eye.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is a mandarin plate," he explained to Lucy. "It has a magic power;
+it brings good luck. My people keep those plates for good fortune."
+</p>
+<p>
+"A magic plate?" Lucy was all curiosity, now. "Tell me the story of the
+magic plate," she said. "Sit down and tell me. Who are the young people
+on the bridge? Begin."
+</p>
+<p>
+"They are the same as the birds flying away. The birds and the young
+people are one."
+</p>
+<p>
+Lucy's interest in the magic plate grew. Sky-High promised to tell her
+its legend at some time when her mother should be present.
+</p>
+<p>
+Lucy went at once to her mother. "Oh, mother, we have a magic plate!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"We have? Where?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is the blue-and-white one over the sideboard."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh! is that a magic plate? That was your grandmother's plate. Old
+families used to value that kind of ware from China&mdash;I do not know why."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Come with me, and take it down, for Sky-High knows the story of the
+picture."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Van Buren went in and took the plate down; and little Sky-High
+said, "It is the mandarin plate of our country. In the plate you cannot
+see the Good Spirit in the air, but it is there. This Good Spirit in the
+air changes
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page37" name="page37"></a>[pg 37]</span>
+
+            people into other forms when trouble comes, and they fly
+away."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But what is the story?" asked Lucy.
+</p>
+<p>
+"There was once a prince," said Sky-High, "whose name was Chang. He was
+a good prince; and there he is&mdash;the young man in the plate.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And Prince Chang, the Good, loved a beautiful princess, as good as she
+was pretty; and there <i>she</i> is&mdash;the young woman in the plate.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The prince and princess went to live on a beautiful isle, where was an
+orange-tree&mdash;see&mdash;and there was an old mandarin who lived near&mdash;see his
+house there&mdash;and he did not like the good prince and pretty princess
+when he saw how happy they were on the Isle of the Orange-tree.
+</p>
+<p>
+"So he determined to separate them; and one day, when he was very full
+of dislike, he went towards the bridge that led to the Beautiful Isle to
+catch them. But something very wonderful happened."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, what <i>did</i> happen?" said Lucy. "I can hardly wait to learn."
+</p>
+<p>
+"The Good Spirit of the air saw the grim old mandarin stealing away
+toward the bridge to cross to the Beautiful Isle of the Orange-tree, and
+he changed the prince and princess into two birds and they flew away.
+See them flying there at the top of the plate!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I will give you the plate," said Mrs. Van
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page38" name="page38"></a>[pg 38]</span>
+
+                                           Buren to Lucy; "for it was
+your grandmother's plate, and her name was Lucy, and she would be glad,
+were she living, to have you delight in a legend like that. It is good
+to think that a loving Spirit hovers over us when evil draws near us&mdash;I
+like the parable of the plate. I thank you for the story, Sky-High. Your
+country has good stories."
+</p>
+<p>
+"The story of the mandarin plate," said the little Chinaman, "is also
+told in my country in a more tragic way; that the lovely girl is the
+mandarin's daughter, and that he slays the lovers, and that it is their
+souls that are seen flying away in the two birds. But it is the other
+story that our scholars like."
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page39" name="page39"></a>[pg 39]</span>
+</p>
+<a name="h2H_4_0012" id="h2H_4_0012"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>
+
+<h2>
+    VII.
+</h2>
+<h3>
+    SKY-HIGH'S KITE.
+</h3>
+<p>
+Charles and Lucy wished to give Sky-High a surprise. They had come into
+possession of a kite which had been described to them as marvelous, and
+they got their mother's permission to take the little Chinaman to
+Franklin Park to see them fly it for the first time.
+</p>
+<p>
+Franklin Park is not far from Milton Hill; and the street-cars readily
+carry the crowds of children to the pleasure-grounds of the immense
+common of woods, fields, great rocks and elms, and whole prairies of
+grass. It is quite free&mdash;the dwellers of close Boston and its bowery
+suburbs own the vast pleasure-place&mdash;the people could hardly have more
+privileges there did each one hold a deed of it. Little Sky-High thought
+this wonderful when it was explained to him.
+</p>
+<p>
+The Van Burens had ample grounds of their own, but Mrs. Van Buren and
+the children liked to go to Franklin Park. Mrs. Van Buren liked to sit
+in the great stone Emerson arbor on Schoolmaster's Hill, and watch the
+white flocks of English sheep wander to and fro and
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page40" name="page40"></a>[pg 40]</span>
+
+                                                     feed, guarded and
+guided by shepherd-dogs, and to gaze away in an idle reverie at the Blue
+Hills under the purple charm of distance.
+</p>
+<p>
+No one jeered now when the Van Buren children appeared in the street
+with the little Chinaman. Nobody cried, "Rat-tail!" Nobody cried,
+"Washee-washee-wang!" He often rode with them in the carriage. People
+looked at him, to be sure, but only with interest&mdash;the fame of his
+accomplishments in the English language had gone abroad.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was a beautiful early summer day, the white daisies waving in the
+west wind. Crossing the field, from a little green hill the children
+prepared to send up the new kite. Out of his narrow black eyes little
+Sky-High looked at it, as they took it from the package and sent it up.
+It seemed simply a frame-work, but presently the American flag rolled
+out in the sky, as though it hung alone, or had bloomed there.
+</p>
+<p>
+Sky-High beheld it with pleasure. Great was America! He was contented to
+sit and watch it for hours, or as long as the children pleased. It was
+not until sunset that the starry kite was hauled down through the golden
+air, and Lucy and Charles prepared to return home.
+</p>
+<p>
+On the way the little serving-man said, "I have a kite in my trunk. You
+let me fly it for you some day? You come with me here?"
+</p>
+<p>
+So another breezy day the Van Buren children came to the Park with
+Sky-High. Lucy
+
+<span class="pagenum">[pg 41]</span><a id="page41" name="page41"></a>
+
+               danced about in the green world for very light-heartedness.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You stay at the overlook," said Sky-High, pointing to the wild-flower
+embankment surrounded by burning azalias, "and I will show you how
+Chinese boys fly kites."
+</p>
+<p>
+He had brought a thin package under his arm, and while Lucy and Charles
+waited at the embankment he ran like a thing of air out into the open
+field.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was a glorious June day; and the great elms with their fresh young
+foliage were glimmering thick in the fiery sky, and like an emerald sea
+was the grass on the field, where hundreds of children were playing ball
+and other games.
+</p>
+<p>
+Sky-High threw to the air a bundle of red with a few light angles and
+circles of bamboo, and it began at once to rise and expand. It went up
+into the mid-air, and fold after fold rolled out, and there appeared a
+great dragon.
+</p>
+<p>
+All the children on the field stopped in their play to look up at it.
+The sun turned the dragon to intense red. To all appearance a terrible
+monster had taken possession of the air!
+</p>
+<p>
+Suddenly the dragon wheeled about and went coiling along towards the
+overlook, Sky-High following and guiding its course. When it was just
+overhead it opened a great mouth, and smoke seemed to issue from it.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Look out, little Lady of the Lotus," cried Sky-High merrily, "or it may
+swallow you!"
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page42" name="page42"></a>[pg 42]</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+The little girl ran aside, but the dragon made no attempt to come down.
+When at a height some twenty feet above the earth it paused. Then
+suddenly, with a puff, it poured down a shower of flowers, butterflies,
+and gilded paper, like a gold shower. The air was full of them; they
+drifted here, there, and everywhere. All the children on the field ran
+to behold the wonder. Everybody shouted, and a great crowd of little
+people gathered around Sky-High to pick up the tissue flowers and
+butterflies.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Ah," said the little Chinaman, "you ought to see him do that in the
+night, when all he sends down turns into fire!"
+</p>
+<p>
+There never had been seen a kite like Sky-High's before. But the Chinese
+have been masters of kite-flying for more than two thousand years. Among
+their national festivals they have a kite-flying day.
+</p>
+<p>
+Sky-High often came there with his magic kite. He became a very popular
+boy in the Park. The Boston boys said "Hello!" when they met him in his
+azure suit, quiet fun shining in his eyes. Lucy and Charles walked by
+his side with pride. They introduced him to all of their friends who
+asked it, and everybody spoke of him.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, he is such a gentleman, and so educated! Haven't you heard about
+him? He came to learn how to do business and understand our American
+homes. He will go back to his country and teach sometime. No doubt
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page43" name="page43"></a>[pg 43]</span>
+
+  a working-boy can rise in China the same as in our land!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Lucy often begged her mother to let Sky-High wear his beautiful Chinese
+clothes to the Park&mdash;with his kite he would seem like a true enchanter!
+But Mrs. Van Buren strictly forbade.
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page44" name="page44"></a>[pg 44]</span>
+</p>
+<a name="h2H_4_0013" id="h2H_4_0013"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>
+
+<h2>
+    VIII.
+</h2>
+<h3>
+    A WAN.
+</h3>
+<p>
+One day there was heard a tremendous explosion in the department of
+Sky-High. Mrs. Van Buren came running down-stairs. Lucy followed her,
+all eyes and ears. Irish Nora met them, running up-stairs. The kitten
+fled out, and jumped over the fence. The parrot was shrieking.
+</p>
+<p>
+Above Sky-High's door, Mrs. Van Buren saw a strange black character on a
+big red paper. It was a square character and somewhat like a heavy "X"
+and also somewhat like a heavy "H."
+</p>
+<p>
+Sky-High stood calmly ironing inside his little house at the end of the
+grape-arbor.
+</p>
+<p>
+Nora followed her mistress to that abode of mystery.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It's dynamated we are to be sure!" said she. "I shut my eyes and run,
+for I thought it was Sky-High that had gone off&mdash;but there he stood
+ironing! And there he stands now!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Sky-High," said Mrs. Van Buren, "what was that sound I heard?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Crackers, mistress."
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page45" name="page45"></a>[pg 45]</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+"We are only allowed to fire crackers on holidays. Why did you light
+crackers?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"To disperse the evil spirits, mistress, the dragons in the air, the
+imps. It is the way we serve them in China."
+</p>
+<p>
+"There are no evil spirits here, Sky-High. What could have made you
+think that there were, Sky-High?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"The cat&mdash;she is long bewitched after my queue. I fired the crackers to
+dis-power her&mdash;I saw her tail going over the fence! She is dis-possessed.
+She will not jump at Sky-High's queue any more. We shoot crackers in
+China when evil spirits come in the air. China is a spirit-land,
+mistress. Our air is filled with bright spirits and dark ones. When the
+cat begins to frisk its tail, we know there has come a company of evil
+spirits. The little cat's tail this morning went snap-snap!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh, Sky-High! there are no evil spirits in this blooming garden," said
+his mistress. "The little white cat is possessed by a playful spirit,
+perhaps. What is that strange figure in black on the red paper flag over
+the door?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"That is the wan, mistress."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And what is the wan, Sky-High?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"The mystic sign that warns off evil spirits."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Did I not say there are no evil spirits here?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Here little Sky-High's eyes began to blink. "Why did master put a
+horse-shoe over the stable-door?"
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page46" name="page46"></a>[pg 46]</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Lucy looked up at her mother. And said Nora, "I would discharge that
+sassbox of a Chinese at once!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Have you more crackers, Sky-High?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"In my chest, mistress."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Keep them until the Fourth of July, Sky-High. At any time when you
+think there are evil spirits about, come up to me."
+</p>
+<p>
+"May Sky-High let the wan fly over his door?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes," said Mrs. Van Buren; "while the horse-shoe remains over the
+stable to keep witches out, you may let the wan stay. You have as much
+right to your superstitions as we to ours."
+</p>
+<p>
+Sky-High in a serene and beautiful spirit continued ironing,
+</p>
+<p>
+Nora went back to her pantry. "It's not I that likes the foreign boy
+under the roof," she said. "He'll be convertin' the mistress into a
+haythen! It'll not be long I'll be here!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Lucy sat down outside among the trees and birds and watched the wan
+waving gently in the wind. How neat Sky-High looked in his flowing dress
+of white and blue! She wondered again if he were not indeed a wang!
+After a while she made up her mind to relate a Jataka story that night.
+</p>
+<p>
+The curious tales their little serving-man had told, he called Jataka
+legends&mdash;all of them parables to illustrate the teachings of the divine
+Buddha. (Also these tales had accounts
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page47" name="page47"></a>[pg 47]</span>
+
+                                        of mountains that were more than
+a million miles high, of trees that were a thousand miles tall, and of
+fishes that were thousands of miles long.)
+</p>
+<p>
+These tales had enchanted Lucy, though Charlie cared little for them&mdash;he
+preferred to hear of kites and other Chinese games. But Lucy seemed to
+catch their spirit. And in the evening, when Sky-High sat with them
+under the trees or in the balconies, she often said, "Now tell us a
+Jataka story!"
+</p>
+<p>
+But one night she had said instead, "Now let <i>me</i> tell <i>you</i> a
+Jataka story!"
+</p>
+<p>
+The idea that Lucy had a Jataka story seemed to greatly amuse Sky-High.
+But the tale itself set his black eyes shining and blinking. This had
+been Lucy's tale:
+</p>
+<p>
+"Sky-High, I dreamed that you were a wang and had lived in a palace."
+</p>
+<p>
+To-day she sat a long time in the arbor to compose the tale she would
+tell in the evening when they would be on the veranda, with Sky-High on
+the stair at their feet.
+</p>
+<p>
+So in the evening she said, "I have composed another Jataka story. Would
+you like to hear it, mother? Would you, Sky-High?"
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page48" name="page48"></a>[pg 48]</span>
+</p>
+<a name="h2H_4_0014" id="h2H_4_0014"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>
+
+<h2>
+    IX.
+</h2>
+<h3>
+    LUCY'S JATAKA STORY.
+</h3>
+<p>
+Now the little Chinaman began his stories with words like these, for
+most Jataka stories so begin:
+</p>
+<p>
+"Once upon a time in the days of Buddha-Atta in Benares."
+</p>
+<p>
+To-night Lucy began her tale in nearly the same manner&mdash;the words
+sounded so fine.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Once on a time, <i>after</i> the days of Buddha-Atta in Benares, there
+was a little Chinese boy who was born a wang, which is a king. And they
+called him Wang High-Sky.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And he lived in a palace, and the stairs of the palace were golden
+amber, and the windows were of crystal, and all the knives and forks
+were made of pearl and silver.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And they told little Wang High-Sky that there were countries beyond the
+water, also.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And the little Wang High-Sky said, 'Let me go and see. There may be
+something I can learn in other lands. There may be queer people
+there&mdash;if so, I would never laugh at them. Let me go and see how they
+live!'
+</p>
+<p>
+"And they put him on board a dragon boat,
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page49" name="page49"></a>[pg 49]</span>
+
+                                          with lanterns of silver and
+pearls, and with sails of silk, and carried him to the great hotel on
+the water, that had come from other lands, which was called a ship. For
+there truly were people beyond the water.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And little Wang High-Sky was a very bright boy. He had a diamond in his
+brain. So he found a place to live in an awfully good family, and in the
+family was a little girl named Lucy.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And he worked and worked and worked until he could do all things like
+the good family.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And one day he thought he would go home to his palace with stairs of
+golden amber and windows of crystal.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And Lucy thought she would like to see the people in little Wang's
+country.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And Lucy's father and mother said they would take her to the country of
+little Wang when he went back.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And she went to little Wang's country, and she found the trees there a
+hundred miles high, and the fishes two hundred miles long, and horses
+winged with gold as if just about to fly, and they staid and kept house
+in Wang High-Sky's palace two thousand years.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And she and her father and mother and brother were very joyful when
+they all came back.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And in their own country they found that every one had become rich and
+happy, and that
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page50" name="page50"></a>[pg 50]</span>
+
+                people flew about like birds, and that the sun shone in
+the night. And!" she added, "isn't that a Jataka story?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Lucy's mother seemed much pleased, also astonished; but Sky-High said
+nothing for some time.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Do you think me a wang?" asked he, at last.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I wish you were&mdash;oh, how Charlie and I would dance about if you were! I
+think the everyday boys in China cannot be like you. And I do not think
+you ironed clothes in China. I wish you <i>were</i> a king's son!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"And what if I were?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Oh&mdash;I don't know," laughed little Lucy. "Don't we treat you as well as
+if you were? Ladies and gentlemen treat ladies and gentlemen like wangs
+in America. Don't we, mother?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I trust so. I trust our little Sky-High has found it so," answered
+Lucy's mother.
+</p>
+<p>
+"So would Sky-High treat you were you to come to his home," said the
+little Chinaman.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But you have no home, Sky-High," broke in Charlie. "You said you lived
+with a mandarin!"
+</p>
+<p>
+The little Chinaman, who had a beautiful fan in his hand, for it was a
+hot night, made his mistress and her children a bow of indescribable
+grace, and went to his own quarters.
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page51" name="page51"></a>[pg 51]</span>
+</p>
+<a name="h2H_4_0015" id="h2H_4_0015"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>
+
+<h2>
+    X.
+</h2>
+<h3>
+    SKY-HIGH'S EASTER SUNDAY.
+</h3>
+<p>
+The little Chinaman seemed to make no very great task of learning "the
+art of the American home." His small deft olive hand was more or less
+upon everything, from cellar to attic.
+</p>
+<p>
+"<i>I</i> think our house-boy knew how to keep a house beautiful,
+mother, before he came to our country," said Lucy one day.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, perhaps he <i>was</i> a wang," said her mother, "and <i>did</i>
+live in a palace!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Doesn't Mr. Consul Bradley know about him, mother?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Consul Bradley says Sky-High's father is a good man, and that Sky-High
+is a good boy with a bright mind. Of course, Lucy, there are nice
+Chinese people and nice Chinese homes."
+</p>
+<p>
+Certainly the little house-boy was wonderfully energetic. He was able to
+save every Thursday for himself, and always went into Boston on that day
+and, as Mrs. Van Buren learned, visited the consular office.
+</p>
+<p>
+One day Mrs. Van Buren asked, "What do you do all day in town,
+Sky-High?"
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page52" name="page52"></a>[pg 52]</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+"I see Boston, mistress."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And what is it you see?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"The American stores, mistress, and the American little Kinder-schools,
+and the American great college-schools, and the American railcar shops,
+and the American hotels, and the American markets, and the Americans,
+mistress."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And who goes with you on these visits, Sky-High?"
+</p>
+<p>
+An attack of blinking seized little Sky-High. "The consul, he goes."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Van Buren drove into town next day. While there she made a call
+upon the Chinese consular agent. Lucy was with her. Consul Bradley
+appeared to have little fresh information to give.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The boy's father is a good man," he said. "Like the wise fathers
+everywhere he craves knowledge for his son. I promised him Sky-High
+should see something of Boston, and I do for him all I can."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Mother," said Lucy on the way home, "we might be nicer to Sky-High.
+Listen!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Her mother listened to Lucy's plan, and gave permission.
+</p>
+<p>
+When Lucy got home she said to Sky-High, "We want you to go to church
+with us; and Charlie and I want you to go with us to our Sunday school.
+There are Chinese Sunday schools in Boston, but we wish you to be in
+ours."
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page53" name="page53"></a>[pg 53]</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+"I will have to wear my queue, and my flowing clothes, Lucy," said the
+boy.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But, Sky-High, you can braid your braid close, and wind it around
+your head, and put on your black tunic, and you shall sit in our pew.
+Besides, anyway, it would be proper for a person of China to wear his
+braid down his back after the custom of his country."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You speak as kindly as would the daughter of a wang!" said Sky-High,
+with his beautiful bow of ceremony.
+</p>
+<p>
+On Sunday the little Chinaman dressed his hair becomingly and put on
+black clothes, with white ruffles. He sat in the Van Buren pew, beside
+Charlie. He listened to the organ like one entranced. It was Easter Day,
+and the house was full of the odor of lilies. The text for the service
+was these words of Jesus: "<i>If any man keep my sayings he shall never
+see death.</i>"
+</p>
+<p>
+The "Joss preacher," as he called the minister, came and spoke to him,
+and invited him to go into the Sunday-school room.
+</p>
+<p>
+In the evening he made Chinese tea, and served it in the library, and
+afterward sat with the family.
+</p>
+<p>
+Suddenly he said, "Mistress, what were the 'sayings' of Jesus? Sky-High
+wishes to live on forever."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Van Buren read the Beatitudes.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And what is the heaven, mistress?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Sky-High," said Mrs. Van Buren, very
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page54" name="page54"></a>[pg 54]</span>
+
+                                      earnestly, to her little servant,
+"I scarcely know how to tell you what heaven is, only that we surely
+have a part in its building here by our Loving and our Helping here. You
+know how dear it is to be with those you love, you know how pleasant it
+is to meet again those you have helped. That is the law of the soul. God
+loves and helps us, and will rejoice in having us abide with him, and
+that will make us happy; and all whom we have made better and happier
+here will help make our heaven for us. Heaven is the gladness of Loving
+and Helping as nearly as I know."
+</p>
+<p>
+"That heaven&mdash;it is beautiful, mistress," said little Sky-High. In his
+own country, it had been pleasant music to hear the "prayer-wheels" go
+round in the temples, whirling the paper prayers fastened upon them, but
+the pleasure he felt at this moment was different.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I will help many, mistress," he said. "Perhaps Sky-High will help the
+boys that pull his queue on the street when he goes errands to the
+stores. Sky-High will go with his mistress and her children other
+Sundays, if he may. Goodnight, mistress!"
+</p>
+<p>
+So ended the Easter Sunday of the little Chinaman.
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page55" name="page55"></a>[pg 55]</span>
+</p>
+<a name="h2H_4_0016" id="h2H_4_0016"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>
+
+<h2>
+    XI.
+</h2>
+<h3>
+    SKY-HIGH'S FIREWORKS.
+</h3>
+<p>
+One June evening, in the balcony, when Sky-High inquired about American
+holidays, Mrs. Van Buren related to him the story of Washington and of
+the American Independence. She enlivened her narratives by Weems's story
+of the boy Washington and the hatchet.
+</p>
+<p>
+"He never told a lie?" asked Sky-High. "Was that so wonderful?
+Confucius, he tell no lies; Sky-High, he tell no lies."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Van Buren described to him Independence Day, and how it was
+celebrated. Sky-High asked many questions, and began to look forward to
+the celebration.
+</p>
+<p>
+On the morning of the Fourth the sun came up red, and glimmered on the
+cool sea and dewy trees. To Sky-High the air seemed to blossom with
+flags; the far State House dome rose like an orb of gold above the
+bunting that floated over the great forest of Boston Common.
+</p>
+<p>
+Cannon rent the morning silence, and everywhere there were crackers
+bursting. Even the milkmen fired them as they went on their early way.
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page56" name="page56"></a>[pg 56]</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Sky-High danced about. "You have Cracker Day! It is all same as China!"
+he said.
+</p>
+<p>
+Some of the Milton boys who had many bunches of fire-crackers,
+good-naturedly thought they would startle little Washee-washee-wang at
+his work. So they stole around a corner of the garden, where he was busy
+in his neat little cabin, and "lit" a whole bunch and threw it over the
+fence, at a point where all would "go off" right at his door, then threw
+after it two cannon crackers, whose fuses burned slowly.
+</p>
+<p>
+When the small crackers began to explode Sky-High, to whom the noise was
+like music, came and stood in the door and danced with delight.
+</p>
+<p>
+Irish Norah heard the rattling explosions in the garden, and ran out.
+</p>
+<p>
+"China! China!" shouted Sky-High. "Red crackers make the bad spirits
+fly! The garden all free from evil spirits all day."
+</p>
+<p>
+Just then both of the cannon crackers in the grass "went off," with a
+deafening bang. Norah jumped, and put her fat hands to her ears. But
+little Sky-High clapped his after the American fashion. His delight in
+the racket and in the smell of the gunpowder was so intense, that
+Charlie forebore to go out on the street, but staid in and fired his
+immense supply in front of the cabin.
+</p>
+<p>
+In the evening there were fireworks everywhere, small and great. The
+children and Sky-High went up to a turret overlooking the
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page57" name="page57"></a>[pg 57]</span>
+
+                                                           sea. The sky
+over the towns around Boston blazed.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I will show you something fine," suddenly said Sky-High, after he had
+gazed for some time.
+</p>
+<p>
+He went down and unlocked his great chest. He spoke to Mrs. Van Buren's
+friends on the verandah as he came back. "Sky-High, he is going to fire
+a star! Look this side!"
+</p>
+<p>
+He called to all as he "fired the star." The company saw a dark, swift
+object ascending. It was soon lost to sight, and then appeared a
+wonder&mdash;a new star high in the heavens, that burned a long time with a
+steady flame and grew. How beautiful it was! At last it began to
+descend. When near the earth it burst into a hundred stars of seven
+colors. In all Boston there was no firework as wonderful as Sky-High's.
+</p>
+<p>
+The day after he began to inquire about the next American holiday.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Van Buren told him about Thanksgiving Day. Then she told him of
+Christmas, and how the Christmas festival was kept. She related the
+story of the birth of the Christ Child, and of the Bethlehem star, of
+the singing angels in the sky, of the Magi, and the manger; of the
+presents of gold and myrrh and nard. She told him how that now all
+people of "good will" made presents to each other like the magi to the
+Christ Child.
+</p>
+<p>
+"So will Sky-High make you presents on the
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page58" name="page58"></a>[pg 58]</span>
+
+                                            Christ Child day, then,
+he has good will. You have treated him as though he were no servant but
+a prince."
+</p>
+<p>
+Charlie and Lucy told him of the Christmas-tree, and the plays under the
+misletoe. Their mother ordered misletoe from Florida every year, for
+Christmas decorations, from a plantation which their father owned near
+Tampa, a plantation of grape-fruit groves. She had a mistle-thrush among
+her caged birds, that always sang very sweetly when she hung it under
+the newly-gathered waxy misletoe.
+</p>
+<p>
+From that time on, the little Chinaman dreamed of Christmas. One day he
+said to Mrs. Van Buren, "You will surely let Sky-High come up-stairs on
+the night of the Christmas-tree?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, yes, you shall come up-stairs with us, and you shall hear the
+Christmas thrush sing under the misletoe."
+</p>
+<p>
+Sky-High's heart fluttered, not at what he hoped to see, but at the
+thought of the presents that he hoped to make.
+</p>
+<p>
+Shortly before Christmas Mrs. Van Buren went to her little servant to
+pay him his wages, for he had accepted no payment as yet.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Keep it all for me," he said, as usual; "I will ask for it when I need
+it."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Van Buren was very much surprised. "Young people in this country,"
+said she, "think they need a little money before Christmas day to buy
+presents."
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page59" name="page59"></a>[pg 59]</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+"Sky-High needs none. He will make you presents on the Christ Child day.
+He has them now in his chest."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Van Buren could not but wonder what the presents would be.
+Everything that Sky-High did had a surprise in it. All things that came
+out of the chest were of an astonishing character.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And I will serve you the tea that you have not yet tasted," added the
+little servant. "On the Christ Child night I will make in the cup the
+tea that came from the eyelashes of the Dharma. And afterwards I will
+tell you the story of the Dharma."
+</p>
+<p>
+Again, a day or two before the holiday of Good Will, Sky-High's mistress
+asked him to take his wages.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Keep it for me, mistress," said the boy as before. "Sky-High, he works
+for the good of his people."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Van Buren stood pondering the words. What meant the little
+Washee-washee-wang?
+</p>
+<p>
+"Mistress," said the boy, busy folding the glossy napkins on the ironing
+table, "the master plans to make a voyage around the world with his
+family."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, Sky-High," said Mrs. Van Buren, "that the children may see the
+world before they begin to study about it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And you will come to my country, mistress?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes; we hope to visit at least Hong Kong and Canton, Shanghai and
+Pekin."
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page60" name="page60"></a>[pg 60]</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+"You will wish to see the home of Sky-High, mistress."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, we would like to see you in your own country."
+</p>
+<p>
+"When will the master go?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Next year, probably."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Sky-High will go home next year. Will you let him go with you,
+mistress? He will serve you on the ships, and in China he will make
+your visit pleasant. He will interpret for you, and show you about,
+and introduce you about."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Van Buren was too kind to let her astonishment be seen by her
+little serving-man. She said that possibly it might be so arranged.
+</p>
+<p>
+As she went up-stairs she heard Nora exclaiming to herself in the
+pantry. "And he says he'll inthroduce the misthress about, and the
+misthress is narely as quare!"
+</p>
+<p>
+After supper Mrs. Van Buren related to her husband the singular
+interview she had had with their little Chinaman. Sky-High's kind offers
+seemed to amuse him for a long time. "But as for the little fellow's
+wages," said he, "don't bother. I'll step in to the consul's, and
+deposit them with Bradley."
+</p>
+<p>
+When Sky-High found that he was serving to amuse his mistress's
+household, he turned silent. He worked, asking few questions, and
+listened to even the children without answering them.
+</p>
+<p>
+This disturbed Charlie and Lucy.
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page61" name="page61"></a>[pg 61]</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+"See here, Sky-High, can't you take a joke?" demanded Charlie.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Sky-High no joke with the mistress. Sky-High no make a lie!" said the
+patient Chinaman; "Sky-High, his heart is hurt."
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page62" name="page62"></a>[pg 62]</span>
+</p>
+<a name="h2H_4_0017" id="h2H_4_0017"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>
+
+<h2>
+    XII.
+</h2>
+<h3>
+    A CHINESE SANTA CLAUS.
+</h3>
+<p>
+The day before Christmas Lucy came to her mother with a request. "Just
+one thing, mother! And it isn't more presents&mdash;the Good Will tree hangs
+full!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, then, what is it, Lucy?" asked Mrs. Van Buren.
+</p>
+<p>
+Little Lucy laughed. "A Chinese Santa Claus, mother! Think what a Santa
+Claus Sky-High would make in his flowing robes of black, yellow, and
+white all sprinkled over with silver and gold! Nearly all the gifts are
+Chinese, you know&mdash;all but ours for him. Just remember how he looked
+last summer on Sunday afternoons when the birds flew down to admire
+him!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Yes, the birds seemed to have felt a curiosity about the little Chinaman
+when he went out into the garden with the children after Sunday luncheon;
+for sometimes, on that day, he used to put on garments so splendid that
+he did not like to show himself above stairs or on the street, and the
+birds came out of the
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page63" name="page63"></a>[pg 63]</span>
+
+                      trees to take a peep at him. One of these garments
+was a frock of silk covered with golden dragons, lotus-flowers, and
+gilded fringes; and with it he wore a golden butterfly with jeweled
+wings on his rimless cap.
+</p>
+<p>
+Even Mr. Van Buren had wondered where a servant obtained such a
+glittering robe! One day he described the wardrobe of his house-boy
+to the consul. "Is everything all right?" he asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+The consul laughed. "You don't know China!" he said. "Probably the old
+Manchurian mandarin had a fancy for decking out the boy!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Nora's eyes used to double in size when she saw him in silk and gold and
+silver, with the jeweled butterfly waving above his narrow black eyes.
+"There's not the loikes on this planet," she would say. "I would think
+he'd stepped off a star and landed here! Queen Victory never looked the
+aqual of that little hathen varmit!"
+</p>
+<p>
+It was agreed that Sky-High should be made the Santa Claus of the
+Christmas party. He promised to appear in his dragon robe, though he
+said it was never worn in public excepting on vice-royal occasions.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Sky-High, did you ever see a vice-royal occasion?" asked Lucy,
+wondering what the double word meant.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yea, my little Lady of the Lotus," answered the house-boy. "And once
+I was present on a
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page64" name="page64"></a>[pg 64]</span>
+
+                   royal occasion in Pekin. The Son of Heaven appeared
+that day in all his splendor."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You waited on your mandarin?" asked Lucy.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I attended upon my mandarin&mdash;yes?" Little Sky-High burst forth into the
+forbidden "flowery language." "It was in the Purple City. Barbarians
+cannot understand; but in our court, in the Inner City, in the ancient
+Purple City, we associate with the Sun and Moon and the Dragon that
+swallows the Sun. The Sacred Lotus is our flower, and at the feast the
+heavens are made to shine on us!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Lucy's face shone too, just to hear the words of the mysterious little
+"Washee-washee-wang,"&mdash;in fact she had been radiant ever since she had
+first thought of making a Santa Claus of him. She wondered how he would
+look to her mother's friends on Christ Child night, wearing his
+"celestial" robes.
+</p>
+<p>
+The children were to have their own tree on Christmas eve, at the church
+among the evergreens and music, and Sky-High was to accompany them in
+his black clothes and white ruffles. The Christmas night tree was always
+at home, for Mrs. Van Buren and her friends.
+</p>
+<p>
+Little Lucy was to lead the Christmas night jollities, and only the
+Santa Claus himself knew what would follow the wave of the long Chinese
+wand which she carried.
+</p>
+<p>
+The guests gathered early&mdash;half a dozen ladies&mdash;for it was to be a
+story-telling evening.
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page65" name="page65"></a>[pg 65]</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Promptly at the moment when Lucy waved for him, little Sky-High came
+into the parlors fanning slowly with his great ceremonial fan, as if
+entering some languid pagoda garden of his native land. Every guest
+leaned forward to gaze at the gorgeous stranger. His silk stockings
+were white, over black shoes with silver buckles and whitened soles.
+His robe sparkled gaily with the dragon and lotus, and the butterfly on
+his gold-banded cap shook its jeweled wings with every step. He wore a
+sash of gems which the family had not seen before. He moved before the
+company like a figure of sunshine.
+</p>
+<p>
+Little Lucy had come to his side. "I have the great felicity," she
+began&mdash;she had got the fine word from Sky-High&mdash;"to have a celestial
+Santa Claus, a wang from China, to serve you the gifts from the Good
+Will tree."
+</p>
+<p>
+The glittering wang bowed to the four corners of the earth, then to all,
+turning round and round in dazzling circles.
+</p>
+<p>
+No, Mrs. Van Buren's Christmas guests had never seen a Santa Claus like
+this one! All eyes were wide with pleased wonder.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Isn't he perfectly splendid?" whispered Lucy, tripping over to the wife
+of the rector.
+</p>
+<p>
+"He is indeed, dear," said the rector's wife; and added low to her
+neighbor, "Is it not their wonderful house-boy?"
+</p>
+<p>
+No one was certain. And no one, excepting Lucy and the Santa Claus, knew
+what were the
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page66" name="page66"></a>[pg 66]</span>
+
+              gifts on the Good Will tree. Lucy and little Sky-High had
+bought them in Boston. All those for the guests were blue-and-white
+mandarin plates, wrapped in squares of gay silk crape, and tied with a
+profusion of soft gold cord. As the packages were alike, the celestial
+Santa Claus could present them without mistakes.
+</p>
+<p>
+But there were some packages in red-and-gold crape still on the tree,
+not large ones&mdash;not magic plates, certainly.
+</p>
+<p>
+The Santa Claus unwrapped the three which he next took from the green
+branches. The presents were amulets. When unfolded they revealed bells
+and gems; the bells looked like gold; the gems like pure pearls, opals,
+and crystals. One was a necklace for Mrs. Van Buren; one a bracelet for
+Lucy; and the other a charm for Charles.
+</p>
+<p>
+The amulets awakened a great surprise. The little golden bells burned
+with the red lusters of rubies, and tinkled as though they were
+dream-bells.
+</p>
+<p>
+"They keep evil spirits away," said Sky-High, with sparkling eyes. "They
+ring warnings."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Van Buren rose and put one of the other packages in little
+Sky-High's hand. The wrappings revealed a four-fold case of gold, which
+some curious mechanism permitted to open into leaves, and stand us a
+tablet, or half-closed. Each leaf held a small and perfect portrait&mdash;the
+four were of the little serving-man's
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page67" name="page67"></a>[pg 67]</span>
+
+                                       mistress and her children and the
+master; and it is impossible to describe the blissful expression in
+Sky-High's eyes when he first looked upon the familiar faces.
+</p>
+<p>
+And there was still another package. That one the little Chinaman had
+put on the Good Will tree for Nora.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was an English gold sovereign in a case tied with red ribbon.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And may the Angel of Mercy spread her white wings over that hathen
+boy's pigtail!" said Nora, as she was given the gift. "I wish I had
+something for him. I will give him kind words now, and sure!"
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page68" name="page68"></a>[pg 68]</span>
+</p>
+<a name="h2H_4_0018" id="h2H_4_0018"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>
+
+<h2>
+    XIII.
+</h2>
+<h3>
+    A LEGEND OF TEA.
+</h3>
+<p>
+At a wave of little Lucy's wand the shining, golden Santa Claus floated
+away as he came. When he next appeared&mdash;and it seemed but a moment or
+two after&mdash;he bore a salver that was gorgeous to see. Upon it, sending
+up clouds of steam, was a wonderfully beautiful pitcher that his mistress
+never before had seen, encircled by some exquisite small black cups,
+inlaid and encrusted heavily with gold, each with a perforated cover.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Sky-High presents to his mistress, the Moon Lady of the Christ Child
+Night," the little fellow said in his best flowery English, "and to her
+friends, the Stars of the Midnight, the mandarin tea in the mandarin
+cups of his country&mdash;they will please to be accepted from the Santa
+Claus."
+</p>
+<p>
+From the pitcher he poured the bubbling water in the mandarin cups, when
+an exquisite fragrance filled the rooms, as of apple-blossoms.
+</p>
+<p>
+While the guests sipped the priceless tea from the priceless cups, at
+the request of his mistress the little Chinaman related a Buddhist
+legend.
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page69" name="page69"></a>[pg 69]</span>
+</p>
+<h3>
+<span class="sc">The Dharma's Eyelashes.</span>
+</h3>
+<p class="quote">
+  More than four hundred and a thousand years ago, O Madame my Mistress,
+  the great Dharma came to China to teach the people. He ate only fruits,
+  and he slept but little; he gave his time almost entirely to meditation.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  The Dharma ate less and less, and slept less and less, and all things
+  were beginning to appear clear to him within, when a drowsiness came
+  over him, and it increased day by day.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  One day his eyelashes became too heavy for his eyes; they hung like
+  little weights on his eyes, and he fell asleep.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  He awoke after a long time. The inner light had gone. He felt that he
+  had committed a great sin.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "It is you, my little eyelashes," he said, "that weighed me down, and
+  I will punish you. I will cut you off."
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  Then the great Dharma cut off the little black eyelashes, and strewed
+  them upon the ground. As he did so he had the inward light again.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  He meditated. As he did so the little eyelashes on the ground turned
+  into wee shrubs, and began to grow.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  They were tea.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  The Dharma ate the tea. The shrub filled his heart with joy and
+  gladness. So tea came into the world. Drink it&mdash;it will fill your heart
+  with joy and gladness.
+</p>
+<p>
+The Rector's wife gave the Santa Claus a seat by her side that he might
+share with the company the pleasure of the Good Will story his mistress
+was next to relate; and little Lucy, too, and Charlie came and sat
+near-by, for they loved their mother's stories, and could always
+understand them.
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page70" name="page70"></a>[pg 70]</span>
+</p>
+<a name="h2H_4_0019" id="h2H_4_0019"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>
+
+<h2>
+    XIV.
+</h2>
+<h3>
+    MRS. VAN BUREN'S CHRISTMAS TALE.
+</h3>
+<p>
+The most beautiful story Mrs. Van Buren had found in her search during
+the year for a tale to tell her friends around the Good Will tree was
+one in the German tongue. She had translated it during the summer, and
+now called it by a title of her own as she told it.
+</p>
+<h3>
+<span class="sc">Red Mantle, the House Spirit.</span>
+</h3>
+<p class="quote">
+  There was a German pedler who traveled from city to city by the name
+  of Berthold. He grew in wealth, and at last carried portmanteaus of
+  jewels of great value. He usually traveled only in the daytime, and
+  so as to arrive early in the evening at the town inns between the
+  Hartz Mountains and the Rhine.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  But on one journey he was belated. He found himself in an unknown way
+  in a great fir forest, where the dark pines shut out the lamps of the
+  stars. He began to fear, for the forests were reputed to be infested
+  with robbers, when suddenly a peculiar light appeared. It was a fire
+  that fumed with a steady flame; he perceived it was a charcoal pit.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  The colliers are honest people, he reasoned; and with a light step he
+  approached the pit.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  Near-by was a long house, two stories high, and the lower windows were
+  bright with the candles and fire within.
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page71" name="page71"></a>[pg 71]</span>
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  He approached the house, and knocked upon the door.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  The door was opened cautiously by a middle-aged woman, with a bent
+  form and beautiful, but troubled face.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "What would thee have, stranger?"
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "Food and lodging, madam."
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "That can never be&mdash;not here, not here. It distresses me to say it,
+  but it would not be for your comfort to tarry here."
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "But I am belated, and have lost my way. I must come in."
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "I will call my husband. Herman, come here!"
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  She stepped aside, when an elderly man appeared, holding a light shaded
+  by his hand, and followed by a group of children.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "I am a belated traveler," said he to Herman, the collier, "and I have
+  lost my way. I see that you are an honest man, and I may tell you that
+  I have merchandise of value, and so it is not safe for me to go on.
+  Give me a shelter and a meal, and I will pay for all."
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "It is loath I am to turn away a stranger, but this is no place for a
+  traveler. The house is haunted, yet it will not be so always, I hope;
+  but it is so now."
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "But, good man, I am not afraid."
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "You do not know, stranger."
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "But I can sleep where you can, and where this good woman can live
+  with her innocent children."
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "You don't know," said the woman, "You don't know."
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "But I must rest here. There may be thieves without, wolves. There
+  cannot be worse things within. I must come in, and I will."
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  Berthold forced his way into the house, and sat down near the fire,
+  laying his portmanteau near him.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  The family were silent, and looked distressed. But the woman set
+  before him a meal.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "Let us sing," said the collier at last.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  He turned to a table where were musical glasses,
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page72" name="page72"></a>[pg 72]</span>
+
+                                                    and began to play.
+  How sweet and delicate, like an angel's strain, the music was! Then
+  he began to sing with his family:
+</p>
+  <div class="poem">
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <p class="i2">"Now the woods are all sleeping,</p>
+    <p class="i4">O guard us, we pray!"</p>
+  </div>
+  </div>
+<p class="quote">
+  The merchant thought that he had never listened to anything so
+  beautiful.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  After the old German song, Herman said:
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "Let us pray&mdash;will you kneel with us, traveler? You may have need of
+  our prayers, for you have come in to us at your peril."
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  Much astonished at these words, the merchant knelt down beside his
+  portmanteau. The collier began to pray, when there was a light sound
+  at the storm-door, and a draft of wind stirred the ashes.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  The merchant turned his face towards the door.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  A strange sight met his gaze, such as he had never seen before.
+  A little dwarf stood there with eyes like coal and with a red mantle.
+  He moved the door to and fro. His eyes gleamed. He looked like a
+  burning image. At last, swaying the door, he gave the merchant an evil
+  glance that seemed to burn out his very soul, and was gone.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  The prayer ended, and the family rose from their knees.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "I will now show you to your chamber," said the collier; "but before
+  we go up, listen to me. If you do not think one evil thought or speak
+  one evil word during the night, no harm will befall you. Promise me
+  now that you will not think one evil thought or speak one evil word,
+  whatever may befall you."
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "I promise you, good people, that I will try not to think one evil
+  thought or to speak one evil word, whatsoever may befall me."
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "And you must not give way to anger; if you do, anger is fire, and he
+  will grow!" said the collier.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  The collier led the merchant up the stairs to his room and left him
+  there, saying, "Remember."
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page73" name="page73"></a>[pg 73]</span>
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  The moon shone into the room. The Swiss cuckoo clock struck
+  ten&mdash;eleven&mdash;twelve. The merchant could not sleep. He was haunted by
+  the fiery eyes that he had seen at the storm-door.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  Suddenly the door of his own chamber opened, and a red light filled
+  the room. The same dwarf with the red mantle had entered the chamber
+  and was approaching the bed.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  The merchant had laid his portmanteau of jewels upon the foot of the
+  bed, with the straps hanging over the bedside. He put his foot down
+  under the clothes so as to touch the case.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  The light grew brighter, and advanced nearer. Now the dwarf stood full
+  in view, his eyes flashing, and his feet moving as cautiously, his head
+  now and then turned aside, and his hands lifting the red mantle.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  He came to the foot of the bed, and stood there for a time. The merchant
+  grew impatient, and felt his anger rising.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  The dwarf turned away his flaming eyes from him and began to handle the
+  straps of the portmanteau of jewels.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  The merchant's anger at the annoyance grew, and became uncontrollable.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "Avaunt!" cried he with terrible oath, leaping from the bed.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  The dwarf stood before him and began to grow. He shot up at last into
+  a flame, and stretched out his arms. He was a giant.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "Help! help!" cried the merchant.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  There was a sound in the rooms below. The red giant reeled through the
+  door and down the stairs and out into the night.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  The collier came running up the stairs,
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "What, what," he demanded, "have you been doing to our House Spirit?"
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "To your House Spirit?"
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "Yes, he has just gone out; he is a giant again!"
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  The good wife was following her husband, and wailing.
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page74" name="page74"></a>[pg 74]</span>
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "Now we will have to live him down again; oh, woe, woe; this is an evil
+  night; we will have to live him down again."
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "Stranger," said the collier, "these things may seem strange to you,
+  but when we came here our lives were haunted by the red giant that has
+  gone out into the wood. We knew not what to do, but we sent for the old
+  pastor, and he said: 'Good forester, you can live him down. Think only
+  good thoughts, speak only good words, do only good deeds, and he will
+  become smaller and smaller, less and less. Harbor no evil-minded person
+  in your house. You may one day live him out of sight, and change him
+  angel.' We had almost lived him down!"
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "But what was he?" asked the merchant.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "He was our Visible Temptation."
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  In the morning the merchant hurried away.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  Ten years passed. The merchant chanced to travel through the same forest
+  again. Night was coming on, and he recalled the collier's house.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  He went to it again. He knocked and an old man met him at the door.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "Thou art welcome," said the old man. "We are not forgetful to entertain
+  strangers. What wouldst thou?"
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "Supper and lodging," said the merchant.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "They shall be yours. We offer hospitality to all."
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  He was Herman, the collier. He did not recognize the merchant.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  The old woman&mdash;for she was now gray&mdash;set before him an ample supper.
+  The children had grown to be young men and women.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  The cuckoo clock struck the hour of nine.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  The collier altered the musical glasses.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "Will you join with us in singing?" asked he of the traveler.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  The family sang as before the old German hymn:
+</p>
+  <div class="poem">
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <p class="i2">"Now the woods are all sleeping,</p>
+    <p class="i4">Guard us we pray."</p>
+  </div>
+  </div>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page75" name="page75"></a>[pg 75]</span>
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "Let us pray now," said the collier.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  They knelt; the merchant by his portmanteau as before.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  He watched the storm-door. It did not open. But he became conscious of
+  light overhead. He looked up. A star was forming there. Then a face of
+  light on whose forehead gleamed the star.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  Then wings of pure light were outstretched above the family.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  "Amen," said the collier.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  The light over him vanished.
+</p>
+<p class="quote">
+  The collier's family had lived down the demon, and changed him into
+  an angel.
+</p>
+<p>
+The Christmastide passed, but for days afterward the story of the forest
+family that lived down all the evil in them and turned it into an angel,
+haunted the mind of little Sky-High.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I will tell that story, mistress," he said one day, "at the Feasts in
+my Country of the Crystal Sea."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And to whom will you tell it, Sky-High?" asked Mrs. Van Buren.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The Mandarin of the Crystal Sea is not deaf, mistress. Sky-High will
+tell it to him."
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page76" name="page76"></a>[pg 76]</span>
+</p>
+<a name="h2H_4_0020" id="h2H_4_0020"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>
+
+<h2>
+    XV.
+</h2>
+<h3>
+    IN THE HOUSE-BOY'S CARE.
+</h3>
+<p>
+Lucy and Charles were full of joy when it was fully decided that they
+were to be taken on a voyage around the world. They spent whole evenings
+with Sky-High, tracing the route on the maps and globes. They would go
+by the way of San Francisco or Vancouver, and thence to Canton. They
+were to visit Sky-High's land first of all.
+</p>
+<p>
+"They're all gone mad sure!" said Nora; "and that boy'll never send 'em
+back!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Van Buren wished to learn something of the Chinese language as
+spoken, and was willing to study an hour every evening with the
+house-boy, and Lucy and Charles picked up the funny choking phrases as
+fast as their father.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Van Buren said that Manchuria, the land of the conquering Tartars,
+was likely to play a notable part in the history of the future in
+connection with the great Siberian railway; and the whole family began
+to take an interest in the history and condition of that vast province
+on the Ameer, where little Sky-High had lived.
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page77" name="page77"></a>[pg 77]</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Van Buren read aloud to them all the story of Kubla Khan and of
+Tamerlane, and of Marco Polo, the great traveler, and about the Mongols,
+the Buddhist missionaries, the Great Wall, the long periods of peace and
+temple building. They studied the maxims of Confucius and the accounts
+of modern missionaries.
+</p>
+<p>
+For Charles and Lucy to hear these stories of the country that had given
+the world fire-crackers and silk, and was, moreover, the land of their
+dear little Sky-High, was like listening to the "Arabian Nights." The
+winter passed away quickly, delightful with their preparations for the
+great journey.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You said that you had lived with the mandarin of Manchuria, I think,"
+remarked Mr. Van Buren to Sky-High one evening.
+</p>
+<p>
+"With <i>a</i> mandarin in Manchuria, master," corrected Sky-High.
+"There are many mandarins in Manchuria. Manchuria is a large country."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Are there more people than in Boston?" asked Charlie.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I do not know how many there are in Boston&mdash;there are fifteen million
+in the province of Manchuria."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Did the mandarin live in great, wonderful, gorgeous splendor?" asked
+Lucy.
+</p>
+<p>
+Sky-High's eyes opened with a gleam. "His gifts are gold," he said.
+"His dragons have teeth of gold. The monoliths in his garden are one
+thousand, it may be two thousand years old.
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page78" name="page78"></a>[pg 78]</span>
+
+                                            At the Feast of Lanterns he
+covers the sky over his palace with fire. You should see his gardens and
+the gables of his houses! It takes some minutes to speak his whole name."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I wish I could look upon a man like that!" said Charlie. "I hope we
+shall see that mandarin when we go to China."
+</p>
+<p>
+"That will be easy," said Sky-High.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+The family sailed away from the Pacific coast in the spring. Mr. and
+Mrs. Van Buren really felt very glad to have such an intelligent servant
+as Sky-High for their visit to the Chinese provinces, even though they
+were to leave him behind at his home.
+</p>
+<p>
+When they arrived at Hong Kong there was a surprise. Some officials at
+the port appeared to recognize Sky-High, and brought to him an
+important-looking mail which he received with a sudden dignity. He also
+was paid attentions from notable Chinese people, such as servants would
+not seem likely to meet.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Van Buren finally explained it to himself. He carried letters to
+many consuls and commercial houses. Sky-High was noticed because he was
+in his service. "In such countries," said Mr. Van Buren, "customs are
+different from ours."
+</p>
+<p>
+Certain high Chinamen in the hongs&mdash;the trade-houses&mdash;bowed low in a
+most respectful way to Sky-High, their manner very noticeable. Whenever
+Lucy and Charles accompanied him
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page79" name="page79"></a>[pg 79]</span>
+
+                                  they were offered Chinese sweetmeats
+or novel toys of ivory and jade.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The people are very kind and polite to you," said Mr. Van Buren to
+Sky-High, one day. "You are fortunate to come back in our service.
+Our family has traded with China for three generations; I suppose we
+are known nearly everywhere."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am fortunate, master," said the little Chinaman.
+</p>
+<p>
+They prepared to go on to Canton. Sky-High arranged the journey, and
+explained the details to Mr. Van Buren. He had an air of taking the
+family under his protection, and seemed to be wholly familiar with the
+way along the boat-lined waters.
+</p>
+<p>
+"We are to stop just before we reach the city," he said to Mr. Van
+Buren, "to meet a mandarin of Manchuria of the Crystal Sea. He is
+visiting at the summer palace of a grand mandarin of Canton. A barge
+will come out to meet us. There will be fireworks. I have arranged it
+all. Besides these two there will be also a mandarin from the Yellow
+River."
+</p>
+<p>
+"'Meet us! I have arranged it all!' What does our little house-boy
+mean?" thought Mr. Van Buren. He called Sky-High, and asked him to
+explain his strange words.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I have arranged it all," said Sky-High simply. "A barge will meet you,
+and take you to this summer palace. There will be fireworks for the sake
+of Charles and Lucy; the heavens
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page80" name="page80"></a>[pg 80]</span>
+
+                                  will blaze. The mandarins have heard
+of your family. They wish to receive you and to please the children of
+the mandarin of Boston."
+</p>
+<p>
+Lucy danced at these hospitable words. She had treated little Sky-High
+like a wang. She had dreamed that he was a wang. Perhaps&mdash;well, little
+Lucy found it thrilling to feel that almost anything splendid might
+happen!
+</p>
+<p>
+But Mr. Van Buren had no idea that his family had become of importance
+to the grandees of China, although it was true that his father and
+grandfather had traded in the country and had extensive correspondence
+with the hongs. "Sky-High," said he, "you must be simply amusing
+yourself! A grand mandarin would not order fireworks for Charles and
+Lucy. What mandarin is he?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Of the Crystal province. He has heard of you; he wishes to honor you
+as a noble American and the friend of his people."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Van Buren wondered if his wife's little house-boy had gone insane.
+He spoke with impatience. "Let us not be fooling ourselves with this
+business any longer!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I have never deceived you, master," said the little serving-man.
+"I am as the great George Washington in his youth. The mandarin of the
+province of the Crystal Sea holds you in high esteem, and he wishes to
+entertain the children."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Van Buren inquired at the American consular office concerning this
+"Mandarin of the province of the Crystal Sea." The consul
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page81" name="page81"></a>[pg 81]</span>
+
+                                                          informed him,
+with a smile, that the mandarin in question was especially rich and
+powerful, that he took an interest in American manners and customs, and
+often entertained Americans who had been kind to his people in America
+as well as merchants who had dealt honorably with the Chinese.
+</p>
+<p>
+Still, Mr. Van Buren could not understand how a great and high-born
+mandarin should be in communication with his servant.
+</p>
+<p>
+Here little Lucy spoke up. "Papa, I <i>know</i> it is all <i>so</i>! Our
+Sky-High has never told a lie. Even General George Washington would have
+liked him."
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page82" name="page82"></a>[pg 82]</span>
+</p>
+<a name="h2H_4_0021" id="h2H_4_0021"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>
+
+<h2>
+    XVI.
+</h2>
+<h3>
+    IN THE LITTLE WANG'S LAND.
+</h3>
+<p>
+The family set out for Canton under the direction of their little
+servant, whose heart seemed full of anticipation and delight.
+</p>
+<p>
+The boat stopped when some distance still from the city. A gilded barge
+with a dragon's head and silken curtains had come to meet them. Not far
+away they saw a landing, with boats and people.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You are to wait for me here," said little Sky-High, as he went aboard
+the barge. "I will return soon."
+</p>
+<p>
+Gongs sounded, banners waved, as the gilded boat made its way through
+the river craft. Mr. Van Buren could see a row of sedan chairs standing
+upon the landing, gorgeous in gilded frames and silk curtains, with
+bearers and servants in rich costumes. Presently, among these people
+they saw their little Sky-High approach a tall man, who seemed to be a
+master of ceremonies, when the gongs were again beaten.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, this is growing somewhat remarkable!" said Mr. Van Buren. "Yes,
+even if the boy is returning from America with Americans
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page83" name="page83"></a>[pg 83]</span>
+
+                                                          whose name is
+noted in the commerce of the country!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Sky-High returned; the family went aboard the cushioned boat, and at the
+landing were assisted into the sedans, and carried up the water-steps
+into a high garden, with pavilions, and then on to other gardens away
+from the river. Golden gables shone above the trees. The hedges were
+full of blooms and bees, and lovely birds went flashing by. The trees
+were hung with red lanterns that seemed as light as air; and there were
+dragon kites in the sky. It was like an ethereal paradise, even to the
+now silent Boston merchant.
+</p>
+<p>
+A vista opened, showing a house where guards in brilliant Chinese
+uniforms stood at the door. Then again gongs sounded.
+</p>
+<p>
+Three mandarins in robes of silk, their buttons of rank glittering in
+their caps, came down the wide pathway, as though to meet the visitors,
+before whose chairs little Sky-High walked. One of them, a stately man,
+nearly seven feet high, suddenly spread out his arms; whereupon Sky-High
+rushed forward, prostrated himself, and was almost wrapped from sight,
+as he was lifted in the immense sleeves of silk and gold.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Van Buren was now truly filled with amazement. Little Sky-High's
+mistress was terrified. The children didn't know exactly what to think,
+sitting together in their sedan, only that they were glad to see the
+tall mandarin enfold their own dear Sky-High in his flowing
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page84" name="page84"></a>[pg 84]</span>
+
+                                                             silk robes!
+Little Lucy was half crying. "I believe, I do believe, that he <i>was</i>
+a wang all the time!" she at last said to Charlie.
+</p>
+<p>
+The palace was wonderful. Strange lamps hung over them as they passed
+in. There were beautiful couches and chairs, with gilded arms and silken
+cushions. The walls were set with carvings and perforated work. Here
+hung bars of musical bells; there stood great jars and vases; everywhere
+were fantastic furnishings of silks and costly metals. Feathery green
+bamboos grew in dragon pots. In the corners stood grotesque figures in
+armor.
+</p>
+<p>
+The lamps in their golden lattices burst into soft flame.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Unaccountable!" said Mr. Van Buren to himself. "Sky-High would hardly
+be better welcomed were he the wang that Lucy dreamed him to be!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Mandarin of Boston," said the tall Chinaman, with an obeisance the like
+of which was never made in western lands, "welcome to our country; you
+have been good, indeed, to this boy&mdash;the Light of my Eyes, the Heart of
+my Heart! Madam of this illustrious mandarin, never will I forget you,
+nor"&mdash;turning to the two half-frightened children&mdash;"nor you, my little
+Prince and Princess of the Golden Dome beyond the seas! All shall always
+be well for you all in our country!"
+</p>
+<p>
+The tall Chinaman spoke in "flowery English," easily; but the American
+family knew
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page85" name="page85"></a>[pg 85]</span>
+
+             not what to say, nor how to answer, and they bowed in silence
+and Lucy said to herself, "The little wang knew what to do in my
+country, but I do not know what to do in his!"
+</p>
+<p>
+A little later Mrs. Van Buren, beckoning him to her side as though she
+were in her own house, said to Sky-High, in lowered tones, "Is this tall
+mandarin the mandarin in Manchuria that was your master before you came
+to America?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Little Sky-High bowed, with a sudden blink of his almond eyes.
+"Mistress," said he, "he was the mandarin who sent me to America, in
+care of the consul, that I might know of the American home-life. He
+wishes me to learn everything that will be of good to me and my country
+when I am a man"&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>
+"Is he any kinsman of yours?" interrupted his mistress.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, my noble madam."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Pray, what relation may he be to you?" Mrs. Van Buren asked, a strange
+sensation rushing over her.
+</p>
+<p>
+Lucy and Charles stood near, drinking in every word.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The prince is my father, mistress," answered little Sky-High.
+</p>
+<p>
+The two children, standing in the shelter of a carven screen, clapped
+their hands in the American fashion. Lucy cried out, though softly, "Oh,
+Sky-High, we are so glad, so glad! You <i>are</i> a wang! You were a
+wang all the time!"
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page86" name="page86"></a>[pg 86]</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+"Even as you treated me, always, my little Lady of the Lotus!" answered
+Sky-High, bowing before the children and their mother in the manner of
+his gorgeous father.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+That night there was a feast in the summer palace of the Canton mandarin
+in honor of the return of the little prince, and the visit of his great
+American friend, the mandarin of Boston.
+</p>
+<p>
+Over the tea of Dharma the mandarins related Chinese tales for the
+entertainment of the illustrious American. The little prince told the
+story of the German collier family who changed a haunting evil into a
+guardian angel.
+</p>
+<p>
+And the prince, his father, said, "That must be a true tale, for it is
+as it would be with men and spirits in China. The wisdom of Buddha is in
+the story."
+</p>
+<p>
+The next day, in the pavilion by the lake of the rosy nelumbiums, where
+she sat with her mother, and the wonderful Chinese ladies and children,
+little Lucy said to Sky-High. "I always treated you like a wang, didn't
+I?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"And we will treat you here as a viceroy would treat another viceroy's
+little girl," said Sky-High&mdash;whose real name was Ching&mdash;the Prince
+Ching.
+</p>
+
+
+<div style="height: 2em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE SKY-HIGH***</p>
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@@ -0,0 +1,2791 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Little Sky-High, by Hezekiah Butterworth
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Little Sky-High
+       The Surprising Doings of Washee-Washee-Wang
+
+
+Author: Hezekiah Butterworth
+
+
+
+Release Date: January 28, 2006  [eBook #17616]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE SKY-HIGH***
+
+
+E-text prepared by David Garcia and the Project Gutenberg Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) from page images
+generously made available by the Kentuckiana Digital Library
+(http://kdl.kyvl.org/)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustration.
+      See 17616-h.htm or 17616-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/6/1/17616/17616-h/17616-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/6/1/17616/17616-h.zip)
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through the
+      Electonic Text Collection of Kentuckiana Digital Library. See
+      http://kdl.kyvl.org/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=kyetexts;cc=kyetexts;xc=1&idno=B92-186-30607738&view=toc
+
+
+
+
+
+LITTLE SKY-HIGH
+
+Or The Surprising Doings of Washee-Washee-Wang
+
+by
+
+HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH
+
+Author of "In the Days of Jefferson," "The Bordentown Story-Tellers,"
+"Little Arthur's History of Rome," "The Schoolhouse on the Columbia"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+  The "Nine to Twelve" Series
+  ===========================
+
+  LITTLE DICK'S SON.
+    Kate Gannett Wells.
+
+  MARCIA AND THE MAJOR.
+    J. L. Harbour.
+
+  THE CHILDREN OF THE VALLEY.
+    Harriet Prescott Spofford.
+
+  HOW DEXTER PAID HIS WAY.
+    Kate Upson Clark.
+
+  THE FLATIRON AND THE RED CLOAK.
+    Abby Morton Diaz.
+
+  IN THE POVERTY YEAR.
+    Marian Douglas.
+
+  LITTLE SKY-HIGH.
+    Hezekiah Butterworth.
+
+  THE LITTLE CAVE-DWELLERS.
+    Ella Farman Pratt.
+
+  ===========================
+  Thomas D. Crowell & Co.
+  New York.
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "IT OPENED A GREAT MOUTH, AND SMOKE SEEMED TO ISSUE FROM
+IT." Page 41.]
+
+
+
+
+New York:
+Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.
+Publishers
+Copyright, 1901
+By T. Y. Crowell & Co.
+Typography by C. J. Peters & Son.
+Boston, U. S. A.
+
+
+
+
+
+NOTE.
+
+
+  The story of Sky-High is partly founded on a true incident of a young
+  Chinese nobleman's education, and is written to illustrate the happy
+  relations that might exist between the children of different countries,
+  if each child treated all other good children like "wangs."
+
+  28 Worcester Street, Boston.
+  _March 22, 1901_.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+                                         PAGE
+  I.
+  Below Stairs                             7
+
+  II.
+  Before the Mandarin                     13
+
+  III.
+  Lucy's Cup of Tea                       20
+
+  IV.
+  How Sky-High Called the Governor        26
+
+  V.
+  Sky-High's Wonder-Tale                  31
+
+  VI.
+  The Mandarin Plate                      35
+
+  VII.
+  Sky-High's Kite                         39
+
+  VIII.
+  A Wan                                   44
+
+  IX.
+  Lucy's Jataka Story                     48
+
+  X.
+  Sky-High's Easter Sunday                51
+
+  XI.
+  Sky-High's Fireworks                    55
+
+  XII.
+  A Chinese Santa Claus                   62
+
+  XIII.
+  A Legend of Tea                         68
+
+  XIV.
+  Mrs. Van Buren's Christmas Tale         70
+
+  XV.
+  In the House-Boy's Care                 76
+
+  XVI.
+  In the Little Wang's Land               82
+
+
+
+
+
+
+LITTLE SKY-HIGH.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+BELOW STAIRS.
+
+
+The children came home from school--Charles and Lucy.
+
+"I have a surprise for you in the kitchen," said their mother, Mrs.
+Van Buren. "No, take off your things first, then you may go down
+and see. Now don't laugh--a laugh that hurts anyone's feelings is so
+unkind--tip-toe too! No, Charlie, one at a time; let Lucy go first."
+
+Lucy tip-toed with eyes full of wonder to the dark banister-stairs that
+led down to the quarters below. Her light feet were as still as a little
+mouse's in a cheese closet. Presently she came back with dancing eyes.
+
+"Oh, mother! where did you get him? His eyes are like two almonds, and
+his braided hair dangles away down almost to the floor, and there are
+black silk tassels on the end of it, and kitty is playing with them;
+and when Norah caught my eye she bent over double to laugh, but he
+kept right on shelling peas. Charlie, come and see; let me go with
+Charlie, mother?"
+
+Charlie followed Lucy, tip-toeing to the foot of the banister, where
+a platform-stair commanded a view of the kitchen.
+
+It was a very nice kitchen, with gas, hot water and cold, ranges and
+gas-stoves, and two great cupboards with glass doors through which
+all sorts of beautiful serving-dishes shone. Green ivies filled the
+window-cases, and geraniums lined the window-sills. A fine old parrot
+from the Andes inhabited a large cage with an open door, hanging over
+the main window, where the wire netting let in the air from the apple
+boughs.
+
+On reaching the platform-stair, Charlie was as astonished as Lucy could
+wish.
+
+There sat a little Chinese boy, as it seemed, although at second glance
+he looked rather old for a boy. He wore blue clothes and was shelling
+peas. His glossy black "pigtail" reached down to the floor, and the
+kitten was trying to raise the end of it in her pretty white paws.
+As Lucy had said, heavy black silk cords were braided in with the hair,
+with handsome tassels.
+
+The parrot had come out of her cage, and was eying the boy and the
+kitten, plainly hoping for mischief. Suddenly she caught Charlie's eye,
+and with a flap of her wings she cried out to him.
+
+"He's a quare one! Now, isn't he?"
+
+The bird had heard Irish Nora say this a number of times during the day
+and had learned the words. Charlie could not help laughing out in
+response. With this encouragement Polly came down towards the door of
+the cage, and thrust her green and yellow head out into the room. "Now,
+isn't he, sure?" cried she, in Nora's own voice.
+
+Nora was sole ruler of this cheerful realm below stairs; the only other
+inhabitants of the kitchen were the parrot and the kitten, and now this
+Chinese boy. Nora's special work-room was a great pantry with a latticed
+window. Near-by a wide door led out into a little garden of apple, pear,
+and cherry trees; the garden had a grape-arbor too, which ran from the
+door to a roomy cabin. Here was every convenience for washing and
+ironing.
+
+Nora was a portly woman, with a round face, large forehead, and a little
+nose which seemed to be always laughing. She was a merry soul; and she
+used to tell "the children," as Charles and Lucy were called,
+"Liliputian stories," tales of the Fairy Schoolmaster of Irish lore.
+
+The Chinese boy did not look up to Polly as she gazed and exclaimed at
+him, but shelled his peas.
+
+Presently, however, the pretty kitten whirled the industrious boy's
+pigtail around in a circle until it pulled. Then he cast his almond eyes
+at her, and addressed her in a tone like the clatter of rolling rocks.
+
+"Ok-oka-ok-a-a!"
+
+The kitten flew to the other side of the room, and Nora appeared from
+the pantry. When she saw the two children on the stairs, she put her
+hands on her sides and laughed with her nose. "We've a quare one here,
+now, haven't we?" said she.
+
+Polly stretched her lovely head out into the room from the cage, and
+flapped her wings, and swung to and fro, and the kitten returned,
+whereupon the boy drew up his pigtail and tied it around his neck like
+a necktie.
+
+"See, children," said Nora, pointing, "what your mother has brought
+home! She says we must all be good to him, and it's never hard I would
+be to any living crater. He came down from the sun, he says. What do you
+think his name is? And you could never guess! It's Sky-High, which is to
+say, come-down-from-the-sun. And a man in a coach it was that brought
+him. Sure, I never came here in a coach, but on my two square feet; he
+came from the consul's office--Misther Bradley's--and a ship it was that
+brought him there. Ah, but he's a quare kitchen-boy!
+
+"But your mother, all with a heart as warm as pudding, she's going to
+educate him; and if he does well, she's going to promote him up aloft,
+to take care of all the foine rooms, and furniture and things, and to
+wait upon the table, and tend the door for aught I know. She made me
+promise I would be remarkable good to him--but it don't do no harm for
+me to say that he's a quare one! _he_ can't understand it--_he_ speaks
+the language of the sun, all like the cracking of nuts, or the rattling
+of a loose thunder-storm over the shingles."
+
+"Sky-High?" ventured little Lucy mischievously.
+
+The Chinese boy looked up, with a quick blink of his eyes.
+
+"At your service, madam," said he in very good English.
+
+Nora lifted her great arms.
+
+"And he does speak English! Who knows but he understood all I said, and
+what the parrot said too. Poll, you go into your cage! 'At your service,
+madam!' And did you hear it, Lucy? No errand-boy ever spoke in the
+loikes o' that before! I'd think h'd been brought up among the quality.
+It maybe he's a Fairy Shoemaker, spaking the queen's court-language, and
+no errand-boy at all!"
+
+A bell sounded up-stairs, and the two children ran back.
+
+"Oh, mother, never was there a boy like that!" said Charlie.
+
+"Well," said Mrs. Van Buren, "you shall tell your father how you found
+little Sky-High--it will be a pretty after-supper story. I want you to
+think kindly of him, for if he does well he is to stay with us a year."
+
+The children found their father in the dining-room; and as they kissed
+him they both cried, "Oh, oh!"
+
+"What is it now?" asked Mr. Van Buren. "What has happened to-day?"
+
+"Wait until after supper," said Mrs. Van Buren; "then they shall tell
+you of a curious event in the kitchen. There really is something to
+tell," she added, smiling.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+BEFORE THE MANDARIN!
+
+
+As Mr. Van Buren was a prudent, wise, and good-natured man, he left all
+the affairs of housekeeping to his wife. He had so seldom been "below
+stairs" that he never had even made the acquaintance of Polly, the
+lively bird of the kitchen. The kitten sometimes came up to visit him;
+on which occasions she simply purred, and sank down to rest on his knee.
+
+After supper was over, Mr. Van Buren caught Lucy up.
+
+"And now what amusing thing is it that my little girl has to tell
+me--something new that Nora has told you of the Fairy Shoemaker?"
+
+"There's really a wonderful thing down in the kitchen, father," said
+Lucy; "wonderfuller than anything in the Fairy Shoemaker tales."
+
+"And where did it come from?"
+
+"Down from the sun, father, and Nora says it came in a coach!"
+
+Mr. Van Buren turned to his wife.
+
+"It came from the Consul's," she said--"from Consul Bradley's."
+
+"Has Consul Bradley been here?" he asked, thinking some Chinese curio
+had been shipped over. Consul Bradley was a Chinese consular agent, a
+man of considerable wealth, with a large knowledge of the world, and
+a friend of the Van Buren family.
+
+"No," said Mrs. Van Buren, "but his coach-man has brought me a
+kitchen-boy."
+
+"Well, that _is_ rather wonderful! Is that what you have
+down-stairs, Lucy?"
+
+"That doesn't half tell it, father," cried Charlie. "He's a little
+Chineseman!"
+
+"I was in the Consul's office this morning," went on Mrs. Van Buren,
+smiling at her husband's astonishment; "and the Consul said to me,
+'Wouldn't you like to have a neat, trim, tidy, honest, faithful,
+tender-hearted, polite boy to learn general work?' I said to the Consul,
+'Yes, that is the person that I have been needing for years.' He said,
+'Would you have any prejudice against a little Chinese servant, if he
+were trusty, after the general principles I have described?' I said to
+him, 'None whatever.' He continued: 'A Chinese lad from Manchuria has
+been sent to me by a friend in the hong, and I am asked to find him a
+place to learn American home-making ideas in one of the best families.
+Your family is that place--shall I send him?' So he came in the Consul's
+coach, as Lucy said, and with him an immense trunk covered with Chinese
+brush-marks. He seems to be a little gentleman; and when I asked him his
+name he said, 'The Consul told me to tell you to call me Sky-High.'
+He doesn't speak except to make replies, but these are in very good
+English."
+
+"May I give my opinion?" asked little Lucy.
+
+"Well, Lucy," said her mother, smiling, "what is your opinion?"
+
+"He looks like an emperor's son, or a mandarin," said Lucy.
+
+"And what put such a thought into your head?" asked her mother.
+
+"The pictures on my Chinese fans," said Lucy promptly.
+
+"Well," said Mrs. Van Buren, "if he does well, you shall treat him
+exactly as though he were the son of an emperor or a wang--he says that
+kings are called wangs in his land."
+
+"Then he would be a little wang," said Lucy. "I will make believe he is
+a little wang while he stays."
+
+So Sky-High became a little wang to Lucy; and a wonderful little wang he
+promised to be.
+
+At Mr. Van Buren's wish, little Sky-High was sent for. The Chinese boy
+asked Charlie, who went down for him, that he might have time to change
+his dress so that he might suitably appear before "the mandarin in the
+parlor." (A "mandarin" in China is a kind of mayor or magistrate of rank
+more or less exalted.)
+
+Charlie came back with the kitchen-boy's message. "He says that he wants
+a little time to change his clothes so that he may suitably appear
+before the mandarin in the parlor."
+
+"The mandarin in the parlor!" exclaimed Mr. Van Buren, in a burst of
+laughter. "My father used to speak of mandarins--he traded ginseng for
+silks and teas at Canton in the days of the hongs--the open market or
+trading-places. That was a generation ago. There are no longer any
+store-houses for ginseng on the wharves of Boston. Yet my father made
+all his money in this way. 'The mandarin in the parlor.' Sky-High has
+a proper respect for superiors; I like the boy for that."
+
+By and by the sound of soft feet were heard at the folding-doors.
+
+"Come in, Sky-High," said Mrs. Van Buren.
+
+The little kitchen-boy appeared, and all eyes lighted up in wonder.
+He wore a silk tunic fringed with what looked like gold. His stockings
+were white, and his shoes were spangled with silver. The broad sleeves
+of his tunic were richly embroidered--he seemed to wing himself in. A
+beautiful fan was in his hand, which he very slowly waved to and fro, as
+if following some custom. Mrs. Van Buren wondered if servants in China
+came fanning themselves when summoned by their master. Sky-High bowed
+and bowed and bowed again, then moved with a gliding motion in front of
+Mr. Van Buren's chair, still bowing and bowing, and there he remained
+in an attentive bent attitude. The kitten leaped up from Mr. Van Buren's
+knee, then jumped down, plainly with an intention to play with the
+tempting pigtail--but Lucy sprang and captured the snowy little creature.
+
+"So you are Sky-High?" said Mr. Van Buren. "Well, a right neat and
+smart-looking boy you are!"
+
+"The Mandarin of Milton!" said the glittering little fellow, bending.
+"My ancestors have heard of the mandarins of Boston and Milton, even in
+the days of Hoqua."
+
+"Hoqua?" Mr. Van Buren looked at the boy with interest, "You know of
+Hoqua?"
+
+"Who is Hoqua?" asked Mrs. Van Buren.
+
+Mr. Van Buren turned to her, "I will tell you later."
+
+"Hoqua, madam," said Sky-High, bowing to his mistress, "was the great
+merchant mandarin of Canton in the time of the opening of that port to
+all countries."
+
+How did a Chinese servant know anything of Hoqua? This was the question
+that puzzled Mr. Van Buren. "Sky-High, how many people have you in your
+country?" he asked.
+
+"It is said four hundred million."
+
+"We have only seventy millions here, Sky-High."
+
+"I have been told," said Sky-High.
+
+"And who is ruler over all your people?" asked Mr. Van Buren.
+
+"The Celestial Emperor, the Son of Heaven, the Brother of the Sun and
+Moon, the Dweller in Rooms of Gold, the Light of Life, the Father of the
+Nations."
+
+"You fill me with wonder, Sky-High. We have a plain President. Do your
+people die to make room for more millions?"
+
+"My people value not to die, O Mandarin!" said the boy.
+
+"Such throngs of people--they all have souls, think you?"
+
+A dark flush came upon little Sky-High's forehead. He opened his narrow
+black eyes upon his master. "Souls? They have souls, O Mandarin! Souls
+are all my people have for long."
+
+"Where go their souls when your people die?"
+
+"To their ancestors! With them they live among the lotus blooms."
+
+"We will excuse you now," said Mr. Van
+Buren to Sky-High. "You have answered
+intelligently, according to your knowledge."
+
+The kitchen-boy bowed himself out without turning his back towards any
+one, describing many glittering angles, and waving his fan. He looked
+like something vanishing, a bit of fireworks going out.
+
+As he reached the stair, the little white cat sprang from Lucy's arms,
+and skipped swiftly after the curious inmate of the kitchen. The long,
+swinging braid was a temptation. The last glimpse Charles and Lucy had
+was of an embroidered sleeve as Sky-High reached backward and caught the
+kitten to his shoulder, and bound her fast with his queue.
+
+Charlie clapped his hands. He thought there would be fun in the house.
+He knew he should like Sky-High. As they went up-stairs he said to Lucy,
+"The little Chinaman was a heathen, and father was a missionary."
+
+Mr. Van Buren heard him, and called him back. "The little Chinaman was a
+new book," said he, "and your father was reading. See that you treat the
+boy well."
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+LUCY'S CUP OF TEA.
+
+
+Mr. Van Buren's home was on Milton Hill. It overlooked Boston and the
+harbor. The upper windows commanded a glorious view in the morning.
+Before it glittered the sea with its white sails, and behind it rose the
+Blue Hills with their green orchards and woods. The house was colonial,
+with gables and cupola, and was surrounded by hour-glass elms, arbors,
+and evergreen trees. It had been built by Mr. Van Buren's father in the
+days of the China trade and of the primitive mandarin merchant, Hoqua.
+
+Mr. Van Buren, a tea-merchant of Boston, received his goods through
+merchant vessels, and not through his own ships as his father had done.
+
+The next morning Mrs. Van Buren went down early into her kitchen to
+assign Sky-High his work.
+
+Nora, in a loud whisper that the birds in the apple-boughs might have
+heard, informed Mrs. Van Buren that the new Chinese servant was "no good
+as a sweeper," and asked what he did with his pigtail when he slept. "It
+must take him a good part of to-morrer to comb his hair, it is that long,"
+she said. "And wouldn't you better use him up-stairs for an errand-boy
+altogether now? Sure, you wouldn't be after teaching him any cooking at
+all?" Nora was an old servant and had many privileges of speech.
+
+Mrs. Van Buren smiled, and arranged that little Sky-High should wash and
+iron clothes in the cabin under the blooming trees, at the end of the
+arbor.
+
+"And if you learn well," said she, "I may let you tend the door, and
+wait upon the table, and keep the rooms in order."
+
+"And then you will be up-stairs," said little Lucy, "where it is very
+pleasant."
+
+"And now, Sky-High, tell me how it is that you can speak English so
+well," said Mrs. Van Buren, as they stood in the cabin, where the
+prospect of solitude seemed to please the boy. A gleam of something like
+mischief appeared on little Sky-High's face.
+
+"And, Madame de Mandarin," said he, "I speak French too. _Parlez-vous
+Francais_, Mademoiselle Lucy?" he added rapidly, turning to the
+little American girl. "_Pardonne_, Madame la Mandarin!"
+
+"Sky-High will not say 'Mandarin' any more," said Mrs. Van Buren. "There
+are no mandarins in this country, and when Sky-High is called into the
+rooms above he will wear his plain clothes, not spangled clothes. Now,
+who taught you English?"
+
+"My master, madam."
+
+"Say mistress, Sky-High."
+
+"My master, mistress."
+
+"Where did you live in Manchuria?"
+
+"In the house of a mandarin."
+
+"And who was your master?"
+
+"The mandarin, mistress."
+
+"Do mandarins in China teach their servants to speak English?"
+
+"Some mandarins do, your grace."
+
+"Do not say 'your grace,' Sky-High, but simply mistress. Ladies have no
+titles in America. Where is the city in which you lived?"
+
+"In Manchuria, on the coast, on the Crystal Sea."
+
+The kitten came running into the kitchen, and at once leaped on to the
+end of Sky-High's pigtail.
+
+The boy gave his pigtail a sudden whisk.
+
+"Pie-cat?" asked he.
+
+"No, no!" said Mrs. Van Buren in horror. "We have no pie-cats in this
+country. Was there an English teacher in your house?"
+
+Little Sky-High was winding his pigtail about his neck for safety. He
+saw Lucy giggling, and a laugh came into his own eyes.
+
+"_Pardonne_, mistress. We had an English trader at the hong--at the
+trade-house."
+
+"Do they send servants to English teachers in China?"
+
+"When they are to grow up and deal with English business, mistress."
+
+"Did you meet English people at the hong?"
+
+"Yes, mistress."
+
+"Who were they?"
+
+"I cannot name them. There were my lords and the admiral; and the
+American Consul he came, and the German Consul he came, and the American
+travelers they came, and Russian officers they came."
+
+"How old are you, Sky-High?"
+
+"There have passed over me fifteen New-Year days, mistress."
+
+"Well, Sky-High," said his mistress, "I am going to give you this cabin
+under the trees, where you may do your washings and all your ironings.
+No one else shall come here to work. I have decided to have you begin
+to-morrow to bring up the breakfast."
+
+The next morning Sky-High performed his first service at the
+breakfast-table. He brought up the coffee while Mr. Van Buren was saying
+grace. He paused before the table.
+
+"Sleepy, sleepy!" he exclaimed softly, "all sleepy!"
+
+Mrs. Van Buren put out her hand as a signal for him to wait. Sky-High
+did not understand, and the grace was concluded amid smiles.
+
+Sky-High wondered much what had made the family sleepy at that time of
+the day. They did not go to sleep at the breakfast-table in China.
+
+"The mistress and her people," said he to Nora, "shut their eyes and go
+to sleep at the breakfast."
+
+"An' sure, it is quare you are yourself! They were praying. Don't you
+ever say prayers, Sky-High?"
+
+"My country has printed prayers," said Sky-High with lofty dignity.
+
+"You're a hathen people. Here we call such as you a 'hathen Chinee,' and
+there was a Californan poet that wrote a whole piece about the likes of
+you. Children speak it at school. Here is the toast--carry it up!"
+
+Lucy liked to see the little olive-colored "wang" moving about.
+One day at the table she requested him to bring her a cup of tea. The
+little Chinaman well knew that Lucy and Charles were not permitted to
+have tea. He inquired whether he should make it in the American or the
+Chinese way.
+
+"In the way you would for a wang," said Lucy.
+
+Sky-High soon re-appeared, his tray bearing a pretty little covered cup
+and a silver pitcher.
+
+"Where is the tea?" asked Lucy.
+
+"It is in the cup, like a wang's," said Sky-High.
+
+He poured the hot water on the tea, and fragrance filled the room.
+
+Lucy, with a glance asking her mother's leave, tasted the tea she had
+roguishly ordered.
+
+"We do not have tea like this," she said; "is it tea?"
+
+"Like a wang's," said Sky-High, blinking.
+
+"Where did you get it?" asked Lucy.
+
+"Out of my tea-canister," said Sky-High.
+
+Little Lucy did not drink the tea, for little Lucy had never drunk
+a cup of tea; but its fragrance lingered about the house through the
+day, and set her wondering what else the little Chinaman's immense trunk
+might hold.
+
+It had been agreed between the Consul and Mrs. Van Buren that little
+Sky-High might talk with the family; and like her husband she found the
+Chinese boy "a new book." She asked him many a curious question about
+the "Flowery Kingdom," and one day she learned that "we never send our
+finest teas out of China." Yes "we" said the washee-washee-wang, as the
+neighbor-boys called him.
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+HOW SKY-HIGH CALLED THE GOVERNOR.
+
+
+Cheerfully, in his fine blue linens, the little Chinese house-boy worked
+in his cabin a portion of every day. The bluebirds came close to sing to
+him and so did the red-breasted robins. Irish Nora and the parrot became
+very civil, and he grew fond of Charlie and Lucy.
+
+Some of the boys on their way to and from school made his only real
+annoyance. Sometimes when his smoothing-iron was moving silently under
+his loose-sleeved hand, or he was hanging the snowy clothes on the
+lines, they would hide behind a tree or corner, and shy sticks at him
+calling, "washee-washee-wang!" He bore it all in an unselfish temper,
+until one day a big lump of dirt fell upon one of little Lucy's dainty
+muslin frocks as he was ironing it. Then he said something that sounded
+like, "cockle-cockle-cockle," and closed all the doors and windows.
+
+At this crisis Charles and Lucy came to his side. They set wide again
+the doors and windows of the cabin under the green boughs, and promised
+him that they would forever be his true friends and protectors. "It is
+time we began to treat him like a wang, as mother wished," said Lucy to
+Charlie.
+
+"The American boys throw dirt at me in the street," admitted little
+Sky-High, in a reluctant tone--he did not like to bear witness against
+anyone in this sunshiny world.
+
+"I will go out with you," said Charlie, "when you are sent out to do
+errands. I will stand between you and the dirt. The dirt comes out of
+their souls."
+
+"And I will watch around the corners and speak to them," said Lucy.
+
+Sky-High's heart bounded at these pledges of friendship, and he leaped
+about in a way that made the parrot laugh--sometimes he had the parrot
+in his cabin, and taught it Chinese words. "The sun shines for all, the
+earth blossoms for all," he said to the children; "it is only the heart
+that needs washee-washee and smoothee-smoothee. Everything will be
+better by and by. I talk flowery talk, like home, out here among the
+birds, butterflies, and bees."
+
+(Nora said he "jabbered" all day long in the cabin.)
+
+Mrs. Van Buren very soon promoted the careful little Chinaman to have
+all the care of the beautiful living rooms and the quaint old parlors.
+He brought the flowers and admitted the visitors. He did his work in
+admirable taste. It shed a kind of good influence through the house, to
+see the little fellow in his fine linens flitting around, so careful was
+he to keep all things in speckless order.
+
+The chief drawback was that he still used "flowery talk"; to him the
+world was a field of poetry, and he spoke in figures whenever he forgot
+himself. Mrs. Van Buren was still Madam the Mandarin, and he called Lucy
+the "Lotus of the Shining Sea." He received many reprimands for the use
+of these Oriental forms of speech; but found it hard to harness his
+thoughts to track-horses, especially after the June days began to fill
+the gardens with orioles and humming-birds and roses.
+
+"Why not _let_ me talk after nature?" little Sky-High used to beg.
+
+One day the governor of the State came to visit the Van Burens. Sky-High
+spoke of him as the "Mandarin of the Golden Dome." He had several times
+been in Boston to see Consul Bradley, and knew the State House.
+
+In the evening Mrs. Van Buren gave him his morning orders. "You will
+call the governor to-morrow at seven o'clock. You will knock on his
+door, and you must use plain language! You must not say, 'O Mandarin of
+the Golden Dome!' We do not use flowery terms of address in this
+country. Mind, Sky-High, use plain language."
+
+The little Chinaman feared that he would be "flowery" in spite of all
+his care. So he consulted with Irish Nora in the blooming hours of the
+morning.
+
+"What shall I say when I knock on the governor's chamber-door?" asked he
+earnestly. "What shall I say in the plain American language?"
+
+"What shall you say? Say, 'Get up!'"
+
+"Is that all?" asked he doubtfully.
+
+"Well, if you want to say more, say, 'Get up! The world is all growing
+and crowing--the roosters are crowing their heads off!'"
+
+Sky-High went to the door of the governor's room and knocked.
+
+There came a voice from within. "Well?"
+
+"Get up! The world is all growing and crowing,--the roosters are crowing
+their heads off."
+
+The "Mandarin of the Golden Dome" did not wait for a second summons, but
+got up even as Sky-High had bidden him. It was a June morning, and he
+found the world as he had been warned, "all growing and crowing."
+
+"Have you called the governor?" asked Mrs. Van Buren, as she met
+Sky-High on the stairs.
+
+"Yes, my Lady of the Beautiful Morning."
+
+"Did you use plain language?"
+
+"Sky-High used the American language."
+
+"What did you say?"
+
+"I said, 'Get up!'"
+
+"Oh, Sky-High, now I will have to apologize for you!"
+
+"We never use plain language to mandarins in China," said Sky-High. "If
+we did, 'whish, whish,' and our heads would be off before we could turn!"
+
+The Mandarin of the Golden Dome came down from the chamber; and the Lady
+of the Beautiful Morning explained to him that her new boy had not yet
+mastered the arts of American manners, although he intended to be
+correct when addressing his superiors.
+
+"I didn't notice anything whatever incorrect," said the governor, who
+had hugely enjoyed the manner of his summons. "He awoke me--what more
+was needed?"
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+SKY-HIGH'S WONDER-TALE.
+
+
+"My Lady of the Beautiful Morning" believed in the education of
+story-telling; and she did not limit her stories wholly to tales with
+"morals," but told those that awakened the imagination. This she did for
+Lucy's sake and Charlie's, believing that all little people should pass
+through fairyland once in their lives.
+
+She used, like Queen Scheherazade of the Arabian Nights, to gather up
+stories that pictured places, habits, and manners of the people, to
+relate; and this year, when the garden began to flower, she had many
+such to tell under the trees. Sky-High was always a listener. He was
+always permitted to be with the family in the evening. He loved
+wonder-tales. They carried him off as on an "enchanted carpet."
+
+One evening Mrs. Van Buren said, "I have a new idea. Sky-High might tell
+_us_ some stories. He speaks English well when he chooses.
+Sky-High, tell us some tale of your own country. You have wonder-tales
+in China."
+
+"In the stories of my country animals talk," said Sky-High.
+
+"Tell us some of your stories in which animals talk," said Lucy,
+clapping her hands.
+
+"Animals always talk, everywhere," said Sky-High. "In China we interpret
+what they say."
+
+The word "interpret" was rather a big one for Lucy. But as Sky-High was
+given to using unexpected words, the little girl was herself beginning
+to indulge in a larger vocabulary.
+
+So Sky-High began to relate an old Chinese household story.
+
+
+THE SELF-RESPECTING DONKEY.
+
+  There was once a Donkey who had great respect for himself, as many
+  people do. Such wear good clothes. You may know what a man thinks of
+  himself by the clothes he wears. We Chinese moralize in our stories
+  as we go along. We tell _think_-tales.
+
+  One day the Self-respecting Donkey went out into some green meadows
+  near a wood, and was eating grass when a Tiger appeared on the verge
+  of the meadow. The Self-respecting Donkey was very much surprised,
+  but did not lose his dignity. So he uttered a deep bray.
+
+  "Br-a-a-a!"
+
+  The Tiger, in his turn, was very much surprised--for the Donkey's voice
+  seemed to penetrate the earth. But as soon as he collected his wits he
+  crouched as if to spring upon the Donkey and make a meal of him.
+
+  The Self-respecting Donkey did not run. He moved with a slow, firm, and
+  kingly step toward the Tiger. Then he dropped his head again, in such a
+  way that his ears looked like great proclamations of wisdom and power.
+
+  "Br-a-a-a!"
+
+  His voice was truly terrible. The Tiger again quailed.
+
+  "Oh, Beast of the Voice of the Thunder-winds," said he, "thou canst
+  dispute with me and the Lion the kingship among animals!"
+
+  The Donkey brayed again in a more terrible voice than before. "If you
+  will accompany me into the wood," said he, "thou shalt see all animals
+  flee from us."
+
+  The Tiger felt complimented by an association with the animal who had
+  gained his voice from the thunder, and shortly they entered the wood.
+
+  The animals all fled when they saw them coming--not from the Donkey,
+  but from the Tiger. Even the Raven dared not speak, and the Lion slunk
+  back among the rocks; because a Tiger and a Donkey, together, might
+  more than equal his terrifying roar.
+
+  "See," said the Donkey, "all nature flees before us. Now walk behind
+  me, and I will show you the secret of my power."
+
+  The Tiger stepped behind; and the Donkey very quickly, in a pretty
+  short time, showed him the secret of his power. He kicked the poor
+  foolish Tiger in the head, breaking his nose, and stunning him. Then
+  leaving him in the path for dead, he made good his escape.
+
+  "Any one can be great," said he, "if he knows how to use his power!"
+  He was a philosopher.
+
+  When the poor Tiger came to his senses he rubbed his nose with his paw,
+  and began to reflect on the lesson that he should learn from his
+  association with a Donkey.
+
+  He reflected long and well--and never said anything about it to anyone.
+
+
+"In my country," added little Sky-High, "we think that when one allows
+himself to get kicked by a donkey a long silence befits him--he can best
+show his wisdom in that way. Do you not think so, O Mandarin Americans?"
+
+The "Mandarin Americans" quite agreed with the conclusion drawn by
+Sky-High.
+
+It was about this time that little Lucy began to wonder if Sky-High were
+not a wang indeed. No common young Chinese could possess so many kinds
+of wisdom. He was able to read to her the labels on tea-chests, and to
+explain the odd figures on the many fans that decorated her playroom.
+
+"How do you know so much, Sky-High?" she asked one day when he had told
+her the meaning of the pictures on an old Chinese porcelain in the upper
+hall.
+
+"Many of the porcelains in our country are made to be read," he said.
+"All educated Chinese people can read porcelains. An American porcelain
+has no story."
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+THE MANDARIN PLATE.
+
+
+Among the heirlooms to be found in the closets of many New England
+houses is a curious pattern of China plate. This plate is colored
+blue-and-white, and in the bowl of each is a picture. The picture
+represents a rural scene in China--a bridge on which are two young
+people, a man and a woman; a house, and a tree, and two birds of
+beautiful plumage flying away. Mrs. Van Buren had such a plate, and a
+platter with the same rural picture, on her dining-room wall.
+
+It was the delight of Lucy to have Sky-High explain to her the meaning
+of the pictures on the Chinese vases and on an ornamental Chinese
+umbrella which hung in the reception-room. One day when Sky-High was
+dusting in the dining-room, Lucy's eye fell on the blue-and-white plate
+with the picture of the bridge and birds.
+
+"Oh, Sky-High," said Lucy, "mother has a treasure here--a porcelain
+plate of your country, see!"
+
+Sky-High looked up to the old porcelain. He had seen such a plate a
+thousand times; so often, in so many places, that Mrs. Van Buren's had
+not drawn his eye.
+
+"It is a mandarin plate," he explained to Lucy. "It has a magic power;
+it brings good luck. My people keep those plates for good fortune."
+
+"A magic plate?" Lucy was all curiosity, now. "Tell me the story of the
+magic plate," she said. "Sit down and tell me. Who are the young people
+on the bridge? Begin."
+
+"They are the same as the birds flying away. The birds and the young
+people are one."
+
+Lucy's interest in the magic plate grew. Sky-High promised to tell her
+its legend at some time when her mother should be present.
+
+Lucy went at once to her mother. "Oh, mother, we have a magic plate!"
+
+"We have? Where?"
+
+"It is the blue-and-white one over the sideboard."
+
+"Oh! is that a magic plate? That was your grandmother's plate. Old
+families used to value that kind of ware from China--I do not know why."
+
+"Come with me, and take it down, for Sky-High knows the story of the
+picture."
+
+Mrs. Van Buren went in and took the plate down; and little Sky-High
+said, "It is the mandarin plate of our country. In the plate you cannot
+see the Good Spirit in the air, but it is there. This Good Spirit in the
+air changes people into other forms when trouble comes, and they fly
+away."
+
+"But what is the story?" asked Lucy.
+
+"There was once a prince," said Sky-High, "whose name was Chang. He was
+a good prince; and there he is--the young man in the plate.
+
+"And Prince Chang, the Good, loved a beautiful princess, as good as she
+was pretty; and there _she_ is--the young woman in the plate.
+
+"The prince and princess went to live on a beautiful isle, where was an
+orange-tree--see--and there was an old mandarin who lived near--see his
+house there--and he did not like the good prince and pretty princess
+when he saw how happy they were on the Isle of the Orange-tree.
+
+"So he determined to separate them; and one day, when he was very full
+of dislike, he went towards the bridge that led to the Beautiful Isle to
+catch them. But something very wonderful happened."
+
+"Oh, what _did_ happen?" said Lucy. "I can hardly wait to learn."
+
+"The Good Spirit of the air saw the grim old mandarin stealing away
+toward the bridge to cross to the Beautiful Isle of the Orange-tree, and
+he changed the prince and princess into two birds and they flew away.
+See them flying there at the top of the plate!"
+
+"I will give you the plate," said Mrs. Van Buren to Lucy; "for it was
+your grandmother's plate, and her name was Lucy, and she would be glad,
+were she living, to have you delight in a legend like that. It is good
+to think that a loving Spirit hovers over us when evil draws near us--I
+like the parable of the plate. I thank you for the story, Sky-High. Your
+country has good stories."
+
+"The story of the mandarin plate," said the little Chinaman, "is also
+told in my country in a more tragic way; that the lovely girl is the
+mandarin's daughter, and that he slays the lovers, and that it is their
+souls that are seen flying away in the two birds. But it is the other
+story that our scholars like."
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+SKY-HIGH'S KITE.
+
+
+Charles and Lucy wished to give Sky-High a surprise. They had come into
+possession of a kite which had been described to them as marvelous, and
+they got their mother's permission to take the little Chinaman to
+Franklin Park to see them fly it for the first time.
+
+Franklin Park is not far from Milton Hill; and the street-cars readily
+carry the crowds of children to the pleasure-grounds of the immense
+common of woods, fields, great rocks and elms, and whole prairies of
+grass. It is quite free--the dwellers of close Boston and its bowery
+suburbs own the vast pleasure-place--the people could hardly have more
+privileges there did each one hold a deed of it. Little Sky-High thought
+this wonderful when it was explained to him.
+
+The Van Burens had ample grounds of their own, but Mrs. Van Buren and
+the children liked to go to Franklin Park. Mrs. Van Buren liked to sit
+in the great stone Emerson arbor on Schoolmaster's Hill, and watch the
+white flocks of English sheep wander to and fro and feed, guarded and
+guided by shepherd-dogs, and to gaze away in an idle reverie at the Blue
+Hills under the purple charm of distance.
+
+No one jeered now when the Van Buren children appeared in the street
+with the little Chinaman. Nobody cried, "Rat-tail!" Nobody cried,
+"Washee-washee-wang!" He often rode with them in the carriage. People
+looked at him, to be sure, but only with interest--the fame of his
+accomplishments in the English language had gone abroad.
+
+It was a beautiful early summer day, the white daisies waving in the
+west wind. Crossing the field, from a little green hill the children
+prepared to send up the new kite. Out of his narrow black eyes little
+Sky-High looked at it, as they took it from the package and sent it up.
+It seemed simply a frame-work, but presently the American flag rolled
+out in the sky, as though it hung alone, or had bloomed there.
+
+Sky-High beheld it with pleasure. Great was America! He was contented to
+sit and watch it for hours, or as long as the children pleased. It was
+not until sunset that the starry kite was hauled down through the golden
+air, and Lucy and Charles prepared to return home.
+
+On the way the little serving-man said, "I have a kite in my trunk. You
+let me fly it for you some day? You come with me here?"
+
+So another breezy day the Van Buren children came to the Park with
+Sky-High. Lucy danced about in the green world for very light-heartedness.
+
+"You stay at the overlook," said Sky-High, pointing to the wild-flower
+embankment surrounded by burning azalias, "and I will show you how
+Chinese boys fly kites."
+
+He had brought a thin package under his arm, and while Lucy and Charles
+waited at the embankment he ran like a thing of air out into the open
+field.
+
+It was a glorious June day; and the great elms with their fresh young
+foliage were glimmering thick in the fiery sky, and like an emerald sea
+was the grass on the field, where hundreds of children were playing ball
+and other games.
+
+Sky-High threw to the air a bundle of red with a few light angles and
+circles of bamboo, and it began at once to rise and expand. It went up
+into the mid-air, and fold after fold rolled out, and there appeared a
+great dragon.
+
+All the children on the field stopped in their play to look up at it.
+The sun turned the dragon to intense red. To all appearance a terrible
+monster had taken possession of the air!
+
+Suddenly the dragon wheeled about and went coiling along towards the
+overlook, Sky-High following and guiding its course. When it was just
+overhead it opened a great mouth, and smoke seemed to issue from it.
+
+"Look out, little Lady of the Lotus," cried Sky-High merrily, "or it may
+swallow you!"
+
+The little girl ran aside, but the dragon made no attempt to come down.
+When at a height some twenty feet above the earth it paused. Then
+suddenly, with a puff, it poured down a shower of flowers, butterflies,
+and gilded paper, like a gold shower. The air was full of them; they
+drifted here, there, and everywhere. All the children on the field ran
+to behold the wonder. Everybody shouted, and a great crowd of little
+people gathered around Sky-High to pick up the tissue flowers and
+butterflies.
+
+"Ah," said the little Chinaman, "you ought to see him do that in the
+night, when all he sends down turns into fire!"
+
+There never had been seen a kite like Sky-High's before. But the Chinese
+have been masters of kite-flying for more than two thousand years. Among
+their national festivals they have a kite-flying day.
+
+Sky-High often came there with his magic kite. He became a very popular
+boy in the Park. The Boston boys said "Hello!" when they met him in his
+azure suit, quiet fun shining in his eyes. Lucy and Charles walked by
+his side with pride. They introduced him to all of their friends who
+asked it, and everybody spoke of him.
+
+"Oh, he is such a gentleman, and so educated! Haven't you heard about
+him? He came to learn how to do business and understand our American
+homes. He will go back to his country and teach sometime. No doubt
+a working-boy can rise in China the same as in our land!"
+
+Lucy often begged her mother to let Sky-High wear his beautiful Chinese
+clothes to the Park--with his kite he would seem like a true enchanter!
+But Mrs. Van Buren strictly forbade.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+A WAN.
+
+
+One day there was heard a tremendous explosion in the department of
+Sky-High. Mrs. Van Buren came running down-stairs. Lucy followed her,
+all eyes and ears. Irish Nora met them, running up-stairs. The kitten
+fled out, and jumped over the fence. The parrot was shrieking.
+
+Above Sky-High's door, Mrs. Van Buren saw a strange black character on a
+big red paper. It was a square character and somewhat like a heavy "X"
+and also somewhat like a heavy "H."
+
+Sky-High stood calmly ironing inside his little house at the end of the
+grape-arbor.
+
+Nora followed her mistress to that abode of mystery.
+
+"It's dynamated we are to be sure!" said she. "I shut my eyes and run,
+for I thought it was Sky-High that had gone off--but there he stood
+ironing! And there he stands now!"
+
+"Sky-High," said Mrs. Van Buren, "what was that sound I heard?"
+
+"Crackers, mistress."
+
+"We are only allowed to fire crackers on holidays. Why did you light
+crackers?"
+
+"To disperse the evil spirits, mistress, the dragons in the air, the
+imps. It is the way we serve them in China."
+
+"There are no evil spirits here, Sky-High. What could have made you
+think that there were, Sky-High?"
+
+"The cat--she is long bewitched after my queue. I fired the crackers to
+dis-power her--I saw her tail going over the fence! She is dis-possessed.
+She will not jump at Sky-High's queue any more. We shoot crackers in
+China when evil spirits come in the air. China is a spirit-land,
+mistress. Our air is filled with bright spirits and dark ones. When the
+cat begins to frisk its tail, we know there has come a company of evil
+spirits. The little cat's tail this morning went snap-snap!"
+
+"Oh, Sky-High! there are no evil spirits in this blooming garden," said
+his mistress. "The little white cat is possessed by a playful spirit,
+perhaps. What is that strange figure in black on the red paper flag over
+the door?"
+
+"That is the wan, mistress."
+
+"And what is the wan, Sky-High?"
+
+"The mystic sign that warns off evil spirits."
+
+"Did I not say there are no evil spirits here?"
+
+Here little Sky-High's eyes began to blink. "Why did master put a
+horse-shoe over the stable-door?"
+
+Lucy looked up at her mother. And said Nora, "I would discharge that
+sassbox of a Chinese at once!"
+
+"Have you more crackers, Sky-High?"
+
+"In my chest, mistress."
+
+"Keep them until the Fourth of July, Sky-High. At any time when you
+think there are evil spirits about, come up to me."
+
+"May Sky-High let the wan fly over his door?"
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Van Buren; "while the horse-shoe remains over the
+stable to keep witches out, you may let the wan stay. You have as much
+right to your superstitions as we to ours."
+
+Sky-High in a serene and beautiful spirit continued ironing,
+
+Nora went back to her pantry. "It's not I that likes the foreign boy
+under the roof," she said. "He'll be convertin' the mistress into a
+haythen! It'll not be long I'll be here!"
+
+Lucy sat down outside among the trees and birds and watched the wan
+waving gently in the wind. How neat Sky-High looked in his flowing dress
+of white and blue! She wondered again if he were not indeed a wang!
+After a while she made up her mind to relate a Jataka story that night.
+
+The curious tales their little serving-man had told, he called Jataka
+legends--all of them parables to illustrate the teachings of the divine
+Buddha. (Also these tales had accounts of mountains that were more than
+a million miles high, of trees that were a thousand miles tall, and of
+fishes that were thousands of miles long.)
+
+These tales had enchanted Lucy, though Charlie cared little for them--he
+preferred to hear of kites and other Chinese games. But Lucy seemed to
+catch their spirit. And in the evening, when Sky-High sat with them
+under the trees or in the balconies, she often said, "Now tell us a
+Jataka story!"
+
+But one night she had said instead, "Now let _me_ tell _you_ a
+Jataka story!"
+
+The idea that Lucy had a Jataka story seemed to greatly amuse Sky-High.
+But the tale itself set his black eyes shining and blinking. This had
+been Lucy's tale:
+
+"Sky-High, I dreamed that you were a wang and had lived in a palace."
+
+To-day she sat a long time in the arbor to compose the tale she would
+tell in the evening when they would be on the veranda, with Sky-High on
+the stair at their feet.
+
+So in the evening she said, "I have composed another Jataka story. Would
+you like to hear it, mother? Would you, Sky-High?"
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+LUCY'S JATAKA STORY.
+
+
+Now the little Chinaman began his stories with words like these, for
+most Jataka stories so begin:
+
+"Once upon a time in the days of Buddha-Atta in Benares."
+
+To-night Lucy began her tale in nearly the same manner--the words
+sounded so fine.
+
+"Once on a time, _after_ the days of Buddha-Atta in Benares, there
+was a little Chinese boy who was born a wang, which is a king. And they
+called him Wang High-Sky.
+
+"And he lived in a palace, and the stairs of the palace were golden
+amber, and the windows were of crystal, and all the knives and forks
+were made of pearl and silver.
+
+"And they told little Wang High-Sky that there were countries beyond the
+water, also.
+
+"And the little Wang High-Sky said, 'Let me go and see. There may be
+something I can learn in other lands. There may be queer people
+there--if so, I would never laugh at them. Let me go and see how they
+live!'
+
+"And they put him on board a dragon boat, with lanterns of silver and
+pearls, and with sails of silk, and carried him to the great hotel on
+the water, that had come from other lands, which was called a ship. For
+there truly were people beyond the water.
+
+"And little Wang High-Sky was a very bright boy. He had a diamond in his
+brain. So he found a place to live in an awfully good family, and in the
+family was a little girl named Lucy.
+
+"And he worked and worked and worked until he could do all things like
+the good family.
+
+"And one day he thought he would go home to his palace with stairs of
+golden amber and windows of crystal.
+
+"And Lucy thought she would like to see the people in little Wang's
+country.
+
+"And Lucy's father and mother said they would take her to the country of
+little Wang when he went back.
+
+"And she went to little Wang's country, and she found the trees there a
+hundred miles high, and the fishes two hundred miles long, and horses
+winged with gold as if just about to fly, and they staid and kept house
+in Wang High-Sky's palace two thousand years.
+
+"And she and her father and mother and brother were very joyful when
+they all came back.
+
+"And in their own country they found that every one had become rich and
+happy, and that people flew about like birds, and that the sun shone in
+the night. And!" she added, "isn't that a Jataka story?"
+
+Lucy's mother seemed much pleased, also astonished; but Sky-High said
+nothing for some time.
+
+"Do you think me a wang?" asked he, at last.
+
+"I wish you were--oh, how Charlie and I would dance about if you were! I
+think the everyday boys in China cannot be like you. And I do not think
+you ironed clothes in China. I wish you _were_ a king's son!"
+
+"And what if I were?"
+
+"Oh--I don't know," laughed little Lucy. "Don't we treat you as well as
+if you were? Ladies and gentlemen treat ladies and gentlemen like wangs
+in America. Don't we, mother?"
+
+"I trust so. I trust our little Sky-High has found it so," answered
+Lucy's mother.
+
+"So would Sky-High treat you were you to come to his home," said the
+little Chinaman.
+
+"But you have no home, Sky-High," broke in Charlie. "You said you lived
+with a mandarin!"
+
+The little Chinaman, who had a beautiful fan in his hand, for it was a
+hot night, made his mistress and her children a bow of indescribable
+grace, and went to his own quarters.
+
+
+
+
+X.
+
+SKY-HIGH'S EASTER SUNDAY.
+
+
+The little Chinaman seemed to make no very great task of learning "the
+art of the American home." His small deft olive hand was more or less
+upon everything, from cellar to attic.
+
+"_I_ think our house-boy knew how to keep a house beautiful,
+mother, before he came to our country," said Lucy one day.
+
+"Well, perhaps he _was_ a wang," said her mother, "and _did_
+live in a palace!"
+
+"Doesn't Mr. Consul Bradley know about him, mother?"
+
+"Consul Bradley says Sky-High's father is a good man, and that Sky-High
+is a good boy with a bright mind. Of course, Lucy, there are nice
+Chinese people and nice Chinese homes."
+
+Certainly the little house-boy was wonderfully energetic. He was able to
+save every Thursday for himself, and always went into Boston on that day
+and, as Mrs. Van Buren learned, visited the consular office.
+
+One day Mrs. Van Buren asked, "What do you do all day in town,
+Sky-High?"
+
+"I see Boston, mistress."
+
+"And what is it you see?"
+
+"The American stores, mistress, and the American little Kinder-schools,
+and the American great college-schools, and the American railcar shops,
+and the American hotels, and the American markets, and the Americans,
+mistress."
+
+"And who goes with you on these visits, Sky-High?"
+
+An attack of blinking seized little Sky-High. "The consul, he goes."
+
+Mrs. Van Buren drove into town next day. While there she made a call
+upon the Chinese consular agent. Lucy was with her. Consul Bradley
+appeared to have little fresh information to give.
+
+"The boy's father is a good man," he said. "Like the wise fathers
+everywhere he craves knowledge for his son. I promised him Sky-High
+should see something of Boston, and I do for him all I can."
+
+"Mother," said Lucy on the way home, "we might be nicer to Sky-High.
+Listen!"
+
+Her mother listened to Lucy's plan, and gave permission.
+
+When Lucy got home she said to Sky-High, "We want you to go to church
+with us; and Charlie and I want you to go with us to our Sunday school.
+There are Chinese Sunday schools in Boston, but we wish you to be in
+ours."
+
+"I will have to wear my queue, and my flowing clothes, Lucy," said the
+boy.
+
+"But, Sky-High, you can braid your braid close, and wind it around
+your head, and put on your black tunic, and you shall sit in our pew.
+Besides, anyway, it would be proper for a person of China to wear his
+braid down his back after the custom of his country."
+
+"You speak as kindly as would the daughter of a wang!" said Sky-High,
+with his beautiful bow of ceremony.
+
+On Sunday the little Chinaman dressed his hair becomingly and put on
+black clothes, with white ruffles. He sat in the Van Buren pew, beside
+Charlie. He listened to the organ like one entranced. It was Easter Day,
+and the house was full of the odor of lilies. The text for the service
+was these words of Jesus: "_If any man keep my sayings he shall never
+see death._"
+
+The "Joss preacher," as he called the minister, came and spoke to him,
+and invited him to go into the Sunday-school room.
+
+In the evening he made Chinese tea, and served it in the library, and
+afterward sat with the family.
+
+Suddenly he said, "Mistress, what were the 'sayings' of Jesus? Sky-High
+wishes to live on forever."
+
+Mrs. Van Buren read the Beatitudes.
+
+"And what is the heaven, mistress?"
+
+"Sky-High," said Mrs. Van Buren, very earnestly, to her little servant,
+"I scarcely know how to tell you what heaven is, only that we surely
+have a part in its building here by our Loving and our Helping here. You
+know how dear it is to be with those you love, you know how pleasant it
+is to meet again those you have helped. That is the law of the soul. God
+loves and helps us, and will rejoice in having us abide with him, and
+that will make us happy; and all whom we have made better and happier
+here will help make our heaven for us. Heaven is the gladness of Loving
+and Helping as nearly as I know."
+
+"That heaven--it is beautiful, mistress," said little Sky-High. In his
+own country, it had been pleasant music to hear the "prayer-wheels" go
+round in the temples, whirling the paper prayers fastened upon them, but
+the pleasure he felt at this moment was different.
+
+"I will help many, mistress," he said. "Perhaps Sky-High will help the
+boys that pull his queue on the street when he goes errands to the
+stores. Sky-High will go with his mistress and her children other
+Sundays, if he may. Goodnight, mistress!"
+
+So ended the Easter Sunday of the little Chinaman.
+
+
+
+
+XI.
+
+SKY-HIGH'S FIREWORKS.
+
+
+One June evening, in the balcony, when Sky-High inquired about American
+holidays, Mrs. Van Buren related to him the story of Washington and of
+the American Independence. She enlivened her narratives by Weems's story
+of the boy Washington and the hatchet.
+
+"He never told a lie?" asked Sky-High. "Was that so wonderful?
+Confucius, he tell no lies; Sky-High, he tell no lies."
+
+Mrs. Van Buren described to him Independence Day, and how it was
+celebrated. Sky-High asked many questions, and began to look forward to
+the celebration.
+
+On the morning of the Fourth the sun came up red, and glimmered on the
+cool sea and dewy trees. To Sky-High the air seemed to blossom with
+flags; the far State House dome rose like an orb of gold above the
+bunting that floated over the great forest of Boston Common.
+
+Cannon rent the morning silence, and everywhere there were crackers
+bursting. Even the milkmen fired them as they went on their early way.
+
+Sky-High danced about. "You have Cracker Day! It is all same as China!"
+he said.
+
+Some of the Milton boys who had many bunches of fire-crackers,
+good-naturedly thought they would startle little Washee-washee-wang at
+his work. So they stole around a corner of the garden, where he was busy
+in his neat little cabin, and "lit" a whole bunch and threw it over the
+fence, at a point where all would "go off" right at his door, then threw
+after it two cannon crackers, whose fuses burned slowly.
+
+When the small crackers began to explode Sky-High, to whom the noise was
+like music, came and stood in the door and danced with delight.
+
+Irish Norah heard the rattling explosions in the garden, and ran out.
+
+"China! China!" shouted Sky-High. "Red crackers make the bad spirits
+fly! The garden all free from evil spirits all day."
+
+Just then both of the cannon crackers in the grass "went off," with a
+deafening bang. Norah jumped, and put her fat hands to her ears. But
+little Sky-High clapped his after the American fashion. His delight in
+the racket and in the smell of the gunpowder was so intense, that
+Charlie forebore to go out on the street, but staid in and fired his
+immense supply in front of the cabin.
+
+In the evening there were fireworks everywhere, small and great. The
+children and Sky-High went up to a turret overlooking the sea. The sky
+over the towns around Boston blazed.
+
+"I will show you something fine," suddenly said Sky-High, after he had
+gazed for some time.
+
+He went down and unlocked his great chest. He spoke to Mrs. Van Buren's
+friends on the verandah as he came back. "Sky-High, he is going to fire
+a star! Look this side!"
+
+He called to all as he "fired the star." The company saw a dark, swift
+object ascending. It was soon lost to sight, and then appeared a
+wonder--a new star high in the heavens, that burned a long time with a
+steady flame and grew. How beautiful it was! At last it began to
+descend. When near the earth it burst into a hundred stars of seven
+colors. In all Boston there was no firework as wonderful as Sky-High's.
+
+The day after he began to inquire about the next American holiday.
+
+Mrs. Van Buren told him about Thanksgiving Day. Then she told him of
+Christmas, and how the Christmas festival was kept. She related the
+story of the birth of the Christ Child, and of the Bethlehem star, of
+the singing angels in the sky, of the Magi, and the manger; of the
+presents of gold and myrrh and nard. She told him how that now all
+people of "good will" made presents to each other like the magi to the
+Christ Child.
+
+"So will Sky-High make you presents on the Christ Child day, then, he
+has good will. You have treated him as though he were no servant but
+a prince."
+
+Charlie and Lucy told him of the Christmas-tree, and the plays under the
+misletoe. Their mother ordered misletoe from Florida every year, for
+Christmas decorations, from a plantation which their father owned near
+Tampa, a plantation of grape-fruit groves. She had a mistle-thrush among
+her caged birds, that always sang very sweetly when she hung it under
+the newly-gathered waxy misletoe.
+
+From that time on, the little Chinaman dreamed of Christmas. One day he
+said to Mrs. Van Buren, "You will surely let Sky-High come up-stairs on
+the night of the Christmas-tree?"
+
+"Yes, yes, you shall come up-stairs with us, and you shall hear the
+Christmas thrush sing under the misletoe."
+
+Sky-High's heart fluttered, not at what he hoped to see, but at the
+thought of the presents that he hoped to make.
+
+Shortly before Christmas Mrs. Van Buren went to her little servant to
+pay him his wages, for he had accepted no payment as yet.
+
+"Keep it all for me," he said, as usual; "I will ask for it when I need
+it."
+
+Mrs. Van Buren was very much surprised. "Young people in this country,"
+said she, "think they need a little money before Christmas day to buy
+presents."
+
+"Sky-High needs none. He will make you presents on the Christ Child day.
+He has them now in his chest."
+
+Mrs. Van Buren could not but wonder what the presents would be.
+Everything that Sky-High did had a surprise in it. All things that came
+out of the chest were of an astonishing character.
+
+"And I will serve you the tea that you have not yet tasted," added the
+little servant. "On the Christ Child night I will make in the cup the
+tea that came from the eyelashes of the Dharma. And afterwards I will
+tell you the story of the Dharma."
+
+Again, a day or two before the holiday of Good Will, Sky-High's mistress
+asked him to take his wages.
+
+"Keep it for me, mistress," said the boy as before. "Sky-High, he works
+for the good of his people."
+
+Mrs. Van Buren stood pondering the words. What meant the little
+Washee-washee-wang?
+
+"Mistress," said the boy, busy folding the glossy napkins on the ironing
+table, "the master plans to make a voyage around the world with his
+family."
+
+"Yes, Sky-High," said Mrs. Van Buren, "that the children may see the
+world before they begin to study about it."
+
+"And you will come to my country, mistress?"
+
+"Yes; we hope to visit at least Hong Kong and Canton, Shanghai and
+Pekin."
+
+"You will wish to see the home of Sky-High, mistress."
+
+"Yes, we would like to see you in your own country."
+
+"When will the master go?"
+
+"Next year, probably."
+
+"Sky-High will go home next year. Will you let him go with you,
+mistress? He will serve you on the ships, and in China he will make
+your visit pleasant. He will interpret for you, and show you about,
+and introduce you about."
+
+Mrs. Van Buren was too kind to let her astonishment be seen by her
+little serving-man. She said that possibly it might be so arranged.
+
+As she went up-stairs she heard Nora exclaiming to herself in the
+pantry. "And he says he'll inthroduce the misthress about, and the
+misthress is narely as quare!"
+
+After supper Mrs. Van Buren related to her husband the singular
+interview she had had with their little Chinaman. Sky-High's kind offers
+seemed to amuse him for a long time. "But as for the little fellow's
+wages," said he, "don't bother. I'll step in to the consul's, and
+deposit them with Bradley."
+
+When Sky-High found that he was serving to amuse his mistress's
+household, he turned silent. He worked, asking few questions, and
+listened to even the children without answering them.
+
+This disturbed Charlie and Lucy.
+
+"See here, Sky-High, can't you take a joke?" demanded Charlie.
+
+"Sky-High no joke with the mistress. Sky-High no make a lie!" said the
+patient Chinaman; "Sky-High, his heart is hurt."
+
+
+
+
+XII.
+
+A CHINESE SANTA CLAUS.
+
+
+The day before Christmas Lucy came to her mother with a request. "Just
+one thing, mother! And it isn't more presents--the Good Will tree hangs
+full!"
+
+"Well, then, what is it, Lucy?" asked Mrs. Van Buren.
+
+Little Lucy laughed. "A Chinese Santa Claus, mother! Think what a Santa
+Claus Sky-High would make in his flowing robes of black, yellow, and
+white all sprinkled over with silver and gold! Nearly all the gifts are
+Chinese, you know--all but ours for him. Just remember how he looked
+last summer on Sunday afternoons when the birds flew down to admire
+him!"
+
+Yes, the birds seemed to have felt a curiosity about the little Chinaman
+when he went out into the garden with the children after Sunday luncheon;
+for sometimes, on that day, he used to put on garments so splendid that
+he did not like to show himself above stairs or on the street, and the
+birds came out of the trees to take a peep at him. One of these garments
+was a frock of silk covered with golden dragons, lotus-flowers, and
+gilded fringes; and with it he wore a golden butterfly with jeweled
+wings on his rimless cap.
+
+Even Mr. Van Buren had wondered where a servant obtained such a
+glittering robe! One day he described the wardrobe of his house-boy
+to the consul. "Is everything all right?" he asked.
+
+The consul laughed. "You don't know China!" he said. "Probably the old
+Manchurian mandarin had a fancy for decking out the boy!"
+
+Nora's eyes used to double in size when she saw him in silk and gold and
+silver, with the jeweled butterfly waving above his narrow black eyes.
+"There's not the loikes on this planet," she would say. "I would think
+he'd stepped off a star and landed here! Queen Victory never looked the
+aqual of that little hathen varmit!"
+
+It was agreed that Sky-High should be made the Santa Claus of the
+Christmas party. He promised to appear in his dragon robe, though he
+said it was never worn in public excepting on vice-royal occasions.
+
+"Sky-High, did you ever see a vice-royal occasion?" asked Lucy,
+wondering what the double word meant.
+
+"Yea, my little Lady of the Lotus," answered the house-boy. "And once
+I was present on a royal occasion in Pekin. The Son of Heaven appeared
+that day in all his splendor."
+
+"You waited on your mandarin?" asked Lucy.
+
+"I attended upon my mandarin--yes?" Little Sky-High burst forth into the
+forbidden "flowery language." "It was in the Purple City. Barbarians
+cannot understand; but in our court, in the Inner City, in the ancient
+Purple City, we associate with the Sun and Moon and the Dragon that
+swallows the Sun. The Sacred Lotus is our flower, and at the feast the
+heavens are made to shine on us!"
+
+Lucy's face shone too, just to hear the words of the mysterious little
+"Washee-washee-wang,"--in fact she had been radiant ever since she had
+first thought of making a Santa Claus of him. She wondered how he would
+look to her mother's friends on Christ Child night, wearing his
+"celestial" robes.
+
+The children were to have their own tree on Christmas eve, at the church
+among the evergreens and music, and Sky-High was to accompany them in
+his black clothes and white ruffles. The Christmas night tree was always
+at home, for Mrs. Van Buren and her friends.
+
+Little Lucy was to lead the Christmas night jollities, and only the
+Santa Claus himself knew what would follow the wave of the long Chinese
+wand which she carried.
+
+The guests gathered early--half a dozen ladies--for it was to be a
+story-telling evening.
+
+Promptly at the moment when Lucy waved for him, little Sky-High came
+into the parlors fanning slowly with his great ceremonial fan, as if
+entering some languid pagoda garden of his native land. Every guest
+leaned forward to gaze at the gorgeous stranger. His silk stockings
+were white, over black shoes with silver buckles and whitened soles.
+His robe sparkled gaily with the dragon and lotus, and the butterfly on
+his gold-banded cap shook its jeweled wings with every step. He wore a
+sash of gems which the family had not seen before. He moved before the
+company like a figure of sunshine.
+
+Little Lucy had come to his side. "I have the great felicity," she
+began--she had got the fine word from Sky-High--"to have a celestial
+Santa Claus, a wang from China, to serve you the gifts from the Good
+Will tree."
+
+The glittering wang bowed to the four corners of the earth, then to all,
+turning round and round in dazzling circles.
+
+No, Mrs. Van Buren's Christmas guests had never seen a Santa Claus like
+this one! All eyes were wide with pleased wonder.
+
+"Isn't he perfectly splendid?" whispered Lucy, tripping over to the wife
+of the rector.
+
+"He is indeed, dear," said the rector's wife; and added low to her
+neighbor, "Is it not their wonderful house-boy?"
+
+No one was certain. And no one, excepting Lucy and the Santa Claus, knew
+what were the gifts on the Good Will tree. Lucy and little Sky-High had
+bought them in Boston. All those for the guests were blue-and-white
+mandarin plates, wrapped in squares of gay silk crape, and tied with a
+profusion of soft gold cord. As the packages were alike, the celestial
+Santa Claus could present them without mistakes.
+
+But there were some packages in red-and-gold crape still on the tree,
+not large ones--not magic plates, certainly.
+
+The Santa Claus unwrapped the three which he next took from the green
+branches. The presents were amulets. When unfolded they revealed bells
+and gems; the bells looked like gold; the gems like pure pearls, opals,
+and crystals. One was a necklace for Mrs. Van Buren; one a bracelet for
+Lucy; and the other a charm for Charles.
+
+The amulets awakened a great surprise. The little golden bells burned
+with the red lusters of rubies, and tinkled as though they were
+dream-bells.
+
+"They keep evil spirits away," said Sky-High, with sparkling eyes. "They
+ring warnings."
+
+Mrs. Van Buren rose and put one of the other packages in little
+Sky-High's hand. The wrappings revealed a four-fold case of gold, which
+some curious mechanism permitted to open into leaves, and stand us a
+tablet, or half-closed. Each leaf held a small and perfect portrait--the
+four were of the little serving-man's mistress and her children and the
+master; and it is impossible to describe the blissful expression in
+Sky-High's eyes when he first looked upon the familiar faces.
+
+And there was still another package. That one the little Chinaman had
+put on the Good Will tree for Nora.
+
+It was an English gold sovereign in a case tied with red ribbon.
+
+"And may the Angel of Mercy spread her white wings over that hathen
+boy's pigtail!" said Nora, as she was given the gift. "I wish I had
+something for him. I will give him kind words now, and sure!"
+
+
+
+
+XIII.
+
+A LEGEND OF TEA.
+
+
+At a wave of little Lucy's wand the shining, golden Santa Claus floated
+away as he came. When he next appeared--and it seemed but a moment or
+two after--he bore a salver that was gorgeous to see. Upon it, sending
+up clouds of steam, was a wonderfully beautiful pitcher that his mistress
+never before had seen, encircled by some exquisite small black cups,
+inlaid and encrusted heavily with gold, each with a perforated cover.
+
+"Sky-High presents to his mistress, the Moon Lady of the Christ Child
+Night," the little fellow said in his best flowery English, "and to her
+friends, the Stars of the Midnight, the mandarin tea in the mandarin
+cups of his country--they will please to be accepted from the Santa
+Claus."
+
+From the pitcher he poured the bubbling water in the mandarin cups, when
+an exquisite fragrance filled the rooms, as of apple-blossoms.
+
+While the guests sipped the priceless tea from the priceless cups, at
+the request of his mistress the little Chinaman related a Buddhist
+legend.
+
+
+THE DHARMA'S EYELASHES.
+
+  More than four hundred and a thousand years ago, O Madame my Mistress,
+  the great Dharma came to China to teach the people. He ate only fruits,
+  and he slept but little; he gave his time almost entirely to meditation.
+
+  The Dharma ate less and less, and slept less and less, and all things
+  were beginning to appear clear to him within, when a drowsiness came
+  over him, and it increased day by day.
+
+  One day his eyelashes became too heavy for his eyes; they hung like
+  little weights on his eyes, and he fell asleep.
+
+  He awoke after a long time. The inner light had gone. He felt that he
+  had committed a great sin.
+
+  "It is you, my little eyelashes," he said, "that weighed me down, and
+  I will punish you. I will cut you off."
+
+  Then the great Dharma cut off the little black eyelashes, and strewed
+  them upon the ground. As he did so he had the inward light again.
+
+  He meditated. As he did so the little eyelashes on the ground turned
+  into wee shrubs, and began to grow.
+
+  They were tea.
+
+  The Dharma ate the tea. The shrub filled his heart with joy and
+  gladness. So tea came into the world. Drink it--it will fill your heart
+  with joy and gladness.
+
+
+The Rector's wife gave the Santa Claus a seat by her side that he might
+share with the company the pleasure of the Good Will story his mistress
+was next to relate; and little Lucy, too, and Charlie came and sat
+near-by, for they loved their mother's stories, and could always
+understand them.
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+MRS. VAN BUREN'S CHRISTMAS TALE.
+
+
+The most beautiful story Mrs. Van Buren had found in her search during
+the year for a tale to tell her friends around the Good Will tree was
+one in the German tongue. She had translated it during the summer, and
+now called it by a title of her own as she told it.
+
+
+RED MANTLE, THE HOUSE SPIRIT.
+
+  There was a German pedler who traveled from city to city by the name
+  of Berthold. He grew in wealth, and at last carried portmanteaus of
+  jewels of great value. He usually traveled only in the daytime, and
+  so as to arrive early in the evening at the town inns between the
+  Hartz Mountains and the Rhine.
+
+  But on one journey he was belated. He found himself in an unknown way
+  in a great fir forest, where the dark pines shut out the lamps of the
+  stars. He began to fear, for the forests were reputed to be infested
+  with robbers, when suddenly a peculiar light appeared. It was a fire
+  that fumed with a steady flame; he perceived it was a charcoal pit.
+
+  The colliers are honest people, he reasoned; and with a light step he
+  approached the pit.
+
+  Near-by was a long house, two stories high, and the lower windows were
+  bright with the candles and fire within.
+
+  He approached the house, and knocked upon the door.
+
+  The door was opened cautiously by a middle-aged woman, with a bent
+  form and beautiful, but troubled face.
+
+  "What would thee have, stranger?"
+
+  "Food and lodging, madam."
+
+  "That can never be--not here, not here. It distresses me to say it,
+  but it would not be for your comfort to tarry here."
+
+  "But I am belated, and have lost my way. I must come in."
+
+  "I will call my husband. Herman, come here!"
+
+  She stepped aside, when an elderly man appeared, holding a light shaded
+  by his hand, and followed by a group of children.
+
+  "I am a belated traveler," said he to Herman, the collier, "and I have
+  lost my way. I see that you are an honest man, and I may tell you that
+  I have merchandise of value, and so it is not safe for me to go on.
+  Give me a shelter and a meal, and I will pay for all."
+
+  "It is loath I am to turn away a stranger, but this is no place for a
+  traveler. The house is haunted, yet it will not be so always, I hope;
+  but it is so now."
+
+  "But, good man, I am not afraid."
+
+  "You do not know, stranger."
+
+  "But I can sleep where you can, and where this good woman can live
+  with her innocent children."
+
+  "You don't know," said the woman, "You don't know."
+
+  "But I must rest here. There may be thieves without, wolves. There
+  cannot be worse things within. I must come in, and I will."
+
+  Berthold forced his way into the house, and sat down near the fire,
+  laying his portmanteau near him.
+
+  The family were silent, and looked distressed. But the woman set
+  before him a meal.
+
+  "Let us sing," said the collier at last.
+
+  He turned to a table where were musical glasses, and began to play.
+  How sweet and delicate, like an angel's strain, the music was! Then
+  he began to sing with his family:
+
+    "Now the woods are all sleeping,
+    O guard us, we pray!"
+
+
+  The merchant thought that he had never listened to anything so
+  beautiful.
+
+  After the old German song, Herman said:
+
+  "Let us pray--will you kneel with us, traveler? You may have need of
+  our prayers, for you have come in to us at your peril."
+
+  Much astonished at these words, the merchant knelt down beside his
+  portmanteau. The collier began to pray, when there was a light sound
+  at the storm-door, and a draft of wind stirred the ashes.
+
+  The merchant turned his face towards the door.
+
+  A strange sight met his gaze, such as he had never seen before.
+  A little dwarf stood there with eyes like coal and with a red mantle.
+  He moved the door to and fro. His eyes gleamed. He looked like a
+  burning image. At last, swaying the door, he gave the merchant an evil
+  glance that seemed to burn out his very soul, and was gone.
+
+  The prayer ended, and the family rose from their knees.
+
+  "I will now show you to your chamber," said the collier; "but before
+  we go up, listen to me. If you do not think one evil thought or speak
+  one evil word during the night, no harm will befall you. Promise me
+  now that you will not think one evil thought or speak one evil word,
+  whatever may befall you."
+
+  "I promise you, good people, that I will try not to think one evil
+  thought or to speak one evil word, whatsoever may befall me."
+
+  "And you must not give way to anger; if you do, anger is fire, and he
+  will grow!" said the collier.
+
+  The collier led the merchant up the stairs to his room and left him
+  there, saying, "Remember."
+
+  The moon shone into the room. The Swiss cuckoo clock struck
+  ten--eleven--twelve. The merchant could not sleep. He was haunted by
+  the fiery eyes that he had seen at the storm-door.
+
+  Suddenly the door of his own chamber opened, and a red light filled
+  the room. The same dwarf with the red mantle had entered the chamber
+  and was approaching the bed.
+
+  The merchant had laid his portmanteau of jewels upon the foot of the
+  bed, with the straps hanging over the bedside. He put his foot down
+  under the clothes so as to touch the case.
+
+  The light grew brighter, and advanced nearer. Now the dwarf stood full
+  in view, his eyes flashing, and his feet moving as cautiously, his head
+  now and then turned aside, and his hands lifting the red mantle.
+
+  He came to the foot of the bed, and stood there for a time. The merchant
+  grew impatient, and felt his anger rising.
+
+  The dwarf turned away his flaming eyes from him and began to handle the
+  straps of the portmanteau of jewels.
+
+  The merchant's anger at the annoyance grew, and became uncontrollable.
+
+  "Avaunt!" cried he with terrible oath, leaping from the bed.
+
+  The dwarf stood before him and began to grow. He shot up at last into
+  a flame, and stretched out his arms. He was a giant.
+
+  "Help! help!" cried the merchant.
+
+  There was a sound in the rooms below. The red giant reeled through the
+  door and down the stairs and out into the night.
+
+  The collier came running up the stairs,
+
+  "What, what," he demanded, "have you been doing to our House Spirit?"
+
+  "To your House Spirit?"
+
+  "Yes, he has just gone out; he is a giant again!"
+
+  The good wife was following her husband, and wailing.
+
+  "Now we will have to live him down again; oh, woe, woe; this is an evil
+  night; we will have to live him down again."
+
+  "Stranger," said the collier, "these things may seem strange to you,
+  but when we came here our lives were haunted by the red giant that has
+  gone out into the wood. We knew not what to do, but we sent for the old
+  pastor, and he said: 'Good forester, you can live him down. Think only
+  good thoughts, speak only good words, do only good deeds, and he will
+  become smaller and smaller, less and less. Harbor no evil-minded person
+  in your house. You may one day live him out of sight, and change him
+  angel.' We had almost lived him down!"
+
+  "But what was he?" asked the merchant.
+
+  "He was our Visible Temptation."
+
+  In the morning the merchant hurried away.
+
+  Ten years passed. The merchant chanced to travel through the same forest
+  again. Night was coming on, and he recalled the collier's house.
+
+  He went to it again. He knocked and an old man met him at the door.
+
+  "Thou art welcome," said the old man. "We are not forgetful to entertain
+  strangers. What wouldst thou?"
+
+  "Supper and lodging," said the merchant.
+
+  "They shall be yours. We offer hospitality to all."
+
+  He was Herman, the collier. He did not recognize the merchant.
+
+  The old woman--for she was now gray--set before him an ample supper.
+  The children had grown to be young men and women.
+
+  The cuckoo clock struck the hour of nine.
+
+  The collier altered the musical glasses.
+
+  "Will you join with us in singing?" asked he of the traveler.
+
+  The family sang as before the old German hymn:
+
+    "Now the woods are all sleeping,
+    Guard us we pray."
+
+
+  "Let us pray now," said the collier.
+
+  They knelt; the merchant by his portmanteau as before.
+
+  He watched the storm-door. It did not open. But he became conscious of
+  light overhead. He looked up. A star was forming there. Then a face of
+  light on whose forehead gleamed the star.
+
+  Then wings of pure light were outstretched above the family.
+
+  "Amen," said the collier.
+
+  The light over him vanished.
+
+  The collier's family had lived down the demon, and changed him into
+  an angel.
+
+
+The Christmastide passed, but for days afterward the story of the forest
+family that lived down all the evil in them and turned it into an angel,
+haunted the mind of little Sky-High.
+
+"I will tell that story, mistress," he said one day, "at the Feasts in
+my Country of the Crystal Sea."
+
+"And to whom will you tell it, Sky-High?" asked Mrs. Van Buren.
+
+"The Mandarin of the Crystal Sea is not deaf, mistress. Sky-High will
+tell it to him."
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+
+IN THE HOUSE-BOY'S CARE.
+
+
+Lucy and Charles were full of joy when it was fully decided that they
+were to be taken on a voyage around the world. They spent whole evenings
+with Sky-High, tracing the route on the maps and globes. They would go
+by the way of San Francisco or Vancouver, and thence to Canton. They
+were to visit Sky-High's land first of all.
+
+"They're all gone mad sure!" said Nora; "and that boy'll never send 'em
+back!"
+
+Mr. Van Buren wished to learn something of the Chinese language as
+spoken, and was willing to study an hour every evening with the
+house-boy, and Lucy and Charles picked up the funny choking phrases as
+fast as their father.
+
+Mr. Van Buren said that Manchuria, the land of the conquering Tartars,
+was likely to play a notable part in the history of the future in
+connection with the great Siberian railway; and the whole family began
+to take an interest in the history and condition of that vast province
+on the Ameer, where little Sky-High had lived.
+
+Mrs. Van Buren read aloud to them all the story of Kubla Khan and of
+Tamerlane, and of Marco Polo, the great traveler, and about the Mongols,
+the Buddhist missionaries, the Great Wall, the long periods of peace and
+temple building. They studied the maxims of Confucius and the accounts
+of modern missionaries.
+
+For Charles and Lucy to hear these stories of the country that had given
+the world fire-crackers and silk, and was, moreover, the land of their
+dear little Sky-High, was like listening to the "Arabian Nights." The
+winter passed away quickly, delightful with their preparations for the
+great journey.
+
+"You said that you had lived with the mandarin of Manchuria, I think,"
+remarked Mr. Van Buren to Sky-High one evening.
+
+"With _a_ mandarin in Manchuria, master," corrected Sky-High.
+"There are many mandarins in Manchuria. Manchuria is a large country."
+
+"Are there more people than in Boston?" asked Charlie.
+
+"I do not know how many there are in Boston--there are fifteen million
+in the province of Manchuria."
+
+"Did the mandarin live in great, wonderful, gorgeous splendor?" asked
+Lucy.
+
+Sky-High's eyes opened with a gleam. "His gifts are gold," he said.
+"His dragons have teeth of gold. The monoliths in his garden are one
+thousand, it may be two thousand years old. At the Feast of Lanterns he
+covers the sky over his palace with fire. You should see his gardens and
+the gables of his houses! It takes some minutes to speak his whole name."
+
+"I wish I could look upon a man like that!" said Charlie. "I hope we
+shall see that mandarin when we go to China."
+
+"That will be easy," said Sky-High.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The family sailed away from the Pacific coast in the spring. Mr. and
+Mrs. Van Buren really felt very glad to have such an intelligent servant
+as Sky-High for their visit to the Chinese provinces, even though they
+were to leave him behind at his home.
+
+When they arrived at Hong Kong there was a surprise. Some officials at
+the port appeared to recognize Sky-High, and brought to him an
+important-looking mail which he received with a sudden dignity. He also
+was paid attentions from notable Chinese people, such as servants would
+not seem likely to meet.
+
+Mr. Van Buren finally explained it to himself. He carried letters to
+many consuls and commercial houses. Sky-High was noticed because he was
+in his service. "In such countries," said Mr. Van Buren, "customs are
+different from ours."
+
+Certain high Chinamen in the hongs--the trade-houses--bowed low in a
+most respectful way to Sky-High, their manner very noticeable. Whenever
+Lucy and Charles accompanied him they were offered Chinese sweetmeats
+or novel toys of ivory and jade.
+
+"The people are very kind and polite to you," said Mr. Van Buren to
+Sky-High, one day. "You are fortunate to come back in our service.
+Our family has traded with China for three generations; I suppose we
+are known nearly everywhere."
+
+"I am fortunate, master," said the little Chinaman.
+
+They prepared to go on to Canton. Sky-High arranged the journey, and
+explained the details to Mr. Van Buren. He had an air of taking the
+family under his protection, and seemed to be wholly familiar with the
+way along the boat-lined waters.
+
+"We are to stop just before we reach the city," he said to Mr. Van
+Buren, "to meet a mandarin of Manchuria of the Crystal Sea. He is
+visiting at the summer palace of a grand mandarin of Canton. A barge
+will come out to meet us. There will be fireworks. I have arranged it
+all. Besides these two there will be also a mandarin from the Yellow
+River."
+
+"'Meet us! I have arranged it all!' What does our little house-boy
+mean?" thought Mr. Van Buren. He called Sky-High, and asked him to
+explain his strange words.
+
+"I have arranged it all," said Sky-High simply. "A barge will meet you,
+and take you to this summer palace. There will be fireworks for the sake
+of Charles and Lucy; the heavens will blaze. The mandarins have heard
+of your family. They wish to receive you and to please the children of
+the mandarin of Boston."
+
+Lucy danced at these hospitable words. She had treated little Sky-High
+like a wang. She had dreamed that he was a wang. Perhaps--well, little
+Lucy found it thrilling to feel that almost anything splendid might
+happen!
+
+But Mr. Van Buren had no idea that his family had become of importance
+to the grandees of China, although it was true that his father and
+grandfather had traded in the country and had extensive correspondence
+with the hongs. "Sky-High," said he, "you must be simply amusing
+yourself! A grand mandarin would not order fireworks for Charles and
+Lucy. What mandarin is he?"
+
+"Of the Crystal province. He has heard of you; he wishes to honor you
+as a noble American and the friend of his people."
+
+Mr. Van Buren wondered if his wife's little house-boy had gone insane.
+He spoke with impatience. "Let us not be fooling ourselves with this
+business any longer!"
+
+"I have never deceived you, master," said the little serving-man.
+"I am as the great George Washington in his youth. The mandarin of the
+province of the Crystal Sea holds you in high esteem, and he wishes to
+entertain the children."
+
+Mr. Van Buren inquired at the American consular office concerning this
+"Mandarin of the province of the Crystal Sea." The consul informed him,
+with a smile, that the mandarin in question was especially rich and
+powerful, that he took an interest in American manners and customs, and
+often entertained Americans who had been kind to his people in America
+as well as merchants who had dealt honorably with the Chinese.
+
+Still, Mr. Van Buren could not understand how a great and high-born
+mandarin should be in communication with his servant.
+
+Here little Lucy spoke up. "Papa, I _know_ it is all _so_! Our
+Sky-High has never told a lie. Even General George Washington would have
+liked him."
+
+
+
+
+XVI.
+
+IN THE LITTLE WANG'S LAND.
+
+
+The family set out for Canton under the direction of their little
+servant, whose heart seemed full of anticipation and delight.
+
+The boat stopped when some distance still from the city. A gilded barge
+with a dragon's head and silken curtains had come to meet them. Not far
+away they saw a landing, with boats and people.
+
+"You are to wait for me here," said little Sky-High, as he went aboard
+the barge. "I will return soon."
+
+Gongs sounded, banners waved, as the gilded boat made its way through
+the river craft. Mr. Van Buren could see a row of sedan chairs standing
+upon the landing, gorgeous in gilded frames and silk curtains, with
+bearers and servants in rich costumes. Presently, among these people
+they saw their little Sky-High approach a tall man, who seemed to be a
+master of ceremonies, when the gongs were again beaten.
+
+"Well, this is growing somewhat remarkable!" said Mr. Van Buren. "Yes,
+even if the boy is returning from America with Americans whose name is
+noted in the commerce of the country!"
+
+Sky-High returned; the family went aboard the cushioned boat, and at the
+landing were assisted into the sedans, and carried up the water-steps
+into a high garden, with pavilions, and then on to other gardens away
+from the river. Golden gables shone above the trees. The hedges were
+full of blooms and bees, and lovely birds went flashing by. The trees
+were hung with red lanterns that seemed as light as air; and there were
+dragon kites in the sky. It was like an ethereal paradise, even to the
+now silent Boston merchant.
+
+A vista opened, showing a house where guards in brilliant Chinese
+uniforms stood at the door. Then again gongs sounded.
+
+Three mandarins in robes of silk, their buttons of rank glittering in
+their caps, came down the wide pathway, as though to meet the visitors,
+before whose chairs little Sky-High walked. One of them, a stately man,
+nearly seven feet high, suddenly spread out his arms; whereupon Sky-High
+rushed forward, prostrated himself, and was almost wrapped from sight,
+as he was lifted in the immense sleeves of silk and gold.
+
+Mr. Van Buren was now truly filled with amazement. Little Sky-High's
+mistress was terrified. The children didn't know exactly what to think,
+sitting together in their sedan, only that they were glad to see the
+tall mandarin enfold their own dear Sky-High in his flowing silk robes!
+Little Lucy was half crying. "I believe, I do believe, that he _was_
+a wang all the time!" she at last said to Charlie.
+
+The palace was wonderful. Strange lamps hung over them as they passed
+in. There were beautiful couches and chairs, with gilded arms and silken
+cushions. The walls were set with carvings and perforated work. Here
+hung bars of musical bells; there stood great jars and vases; everywhere
+were fantastic furnishings of silks and costly metals. Feathery green
+bamboos grew in dragon pots. In the corners stood grotesque figures in
+armor.
+
+The lamps in their golden lattices burst into soft flame.
+
+"Unaccountable!" said Mr. Van Buren to himself. "Sky-High would hardly
+be better welcomed were he the wang that Lucy dreamed him to be!"
+
+"Mandarin of Boston," said the tall Chinaman, with an obeisance the like
+of which was never made in western lands, "welcome to our country; you
+have been good, indeed, to this boy--the Light of my Eyes, the Heart of
+my Heart! Madam of this illustrious mandarin, never will I forget you,
+nor"--turning to the two half-frightened children--"nor you, my little
+Prince and Princess of the Golden Dome beyond the seas! All shall always
+be well for you all in our country!"
+
+The tall Chinaman spoke in "flowery English," easily; but the American
+family knew not what to say, nor how to answer, and they bowed in silence
+and Lucy said to herself, "The little wang knew what to do in my
+country, but I do not know what to do in his!"
+
+A little later Mrs. Van Buren, beckoning him to her side as though she
+were in her own house, said to Sky-High, in lowered tones, "Is this tall
+mandarin the mandarin in Manchuria that was your master before you came
+to America?"
+
+Little Sky-High bowed, with a sudden blink of his almond eyes.
+"Mistress," said he, "he was the mandarin who sent me to America, in
+care of the consul, that I might know of the American home-life. He
+wishes me to learn everything that will be of good to me and my country
+when I am a man"--
+
+"Is he any kinsman of yours?" interrupted his mistress.
+
+"Yes, my noble madam."
+
+"Pray, what relation may he be to you?" Mrs. Van Buren asked, a strange
+sensation rushing over her.
+
+Lucy and Charles stood near, drinking in every word.
+
+"The prince is my father, mistress," answered little Sky-High.
+
+The two children, standing in the shelter of a carven screen, clapped
+their hands in the American fashion. Lucy cried out, though softly, "Oh,
+Sky-High, we are so glad, so glad! You _are_ a wang! You were a
+wang all the time!"
+
+"Even as you treated me, always, my little Lady of the Lotus!" answered
+Sky-High, bowing before the children and their mother in the manner of
+his gorgeous father.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That night there was a feast in the summer palace of the Canton mandarin
+in honor of the return of the little prince, and the visit of his great
+American friend, the mandarin of Boston.
+
+Over the tea of Dharma the mandarins related Chinese tales for the
+entertainment of the illustrious American. The little prince told the
+story of the German collier family who changed a haunting evil into a
+guardian angel.
+
+And the prince, his father, said, "That must be a true tale, for it is
+as it would be with men and spirits in China. The wisdom of Buddha is in
+the story."
+
+The next day, in the pavilion by the lake of the rosy nelumbiums, where
+she sat with her mother, and the wonderful Chinese ladies and children,
+little Lucy said to Sky-High. "I always treated you like a wang, didn't
+I?"
+
+"And we will treat you here as a viceroy would treat another viceroy's
+little girl," said Sky-High--whose real name was Ching--the Prince
+Ching.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE SKY-HIGH***
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+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #17616 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17616)