THE BOY IN THE TEAPOT.
On Aunt Polly’s table stood a blue china teapot. Such a pretty little
teapot it was, with strange leaves and figures all over it, and right
in the center was a queer little boy with two great birds, one on each
side of him. He was dressed queerly too, not at all like the little
boys you know. He wore a loose sack with very wide sleeves and a broad
sash that went under his arms. His trousers were very wide and he had
on the dearest little slippers with curled up toes.
Ray liked to look at Ah Lee (that was the teapot boy’s name) and
wondered about him. And as our little boy often visited Aunt Polly he
became very well acquainted with the strange little boy in the teapot.
One afternoon his auntie had company and Ray was among the guests.
After having a cup of delicious tea, made in the blue china teapot,
everybody looked at Ray and then stole softly into the parlor.
He was lying on his back on an old-fashioned lounge, his hands under
his head, thinking about the teapot boy.
Imagine his surprise when all at once somebody said, “I think I’ll go
home this afternoon.”
“Excuse me,” said Ray, who was not quite sure, “did you speak, Ah Lee?”
“Yes,” answered the boy in the teapot, “I’m going to take a flying trip
home. Would you like to come?”
“Thank you,” said Ray, “I would like it very much, if you don’t stay
too late.”
“Come along then,” replied Ah Lee, stepping down from the teapot and
the two great birds with him. He jumped on the back of one of the birds
and said to Ray, “Follow me,” and almost before he knew it, Ray was
on the back of the other bird flying through the air behind the teapot
boy. They flew over houses and high church steeples, over the tree-tops
and telegraph poles, over deep woods and open green meadows. At last
they came to a very large lake.
“Let us fly down here and water our birds,” said Ah Lee, beginning to
descend on his great bird. Ray did the same, and when they were near
enough to the water the birds put their long bills into it and took
a deep drink. Then they rose into the air again and continued their
journey over the land and over the sea.
“Is it very far?” asked Ray, as they flew along faster and faster all
the time.
“We are almost there,” answered Ah Lee, and in a very few minutes they
began to descend down, down, down, until they touched the ground.
The boys got off the birds and Ray looked about him. He had never seen
such queer sights before. The people around him looked just like Ah
Lee.
[Illustration: Almost before he knew it, Ray was on the back of the
other bird flying through the air behind the teapot boy.--Page 32.
_Little Miss Dorothy._]
They were dressed in soft, bright-colored silks and had long braids of
straight black hair.
Ah Lee took Ray’s hand and they walked along till they came to a queer
little house with a garden.
“Now you sit here and wait for me,” whispered Ah Lee, and he went into
the house while Ray waited on a small black stool. He thought the
flowers were very pretty about him, and he was just going to take one
when a voice called out, “The Princess comes to the garden!” Ray turned
to see who had spoken and beheld a little girl, who smiled at him and
held a fan behind her ear. She asked him who he was and whence he came
and when he had told his story she said:
“My name is Yan Lu and I attend the Princess.”
“How I would like to see her!” exclaimed Ray.
“Then follow me,” said Yan Lu. “I will hide thee behind a great plant
and thou canst see the Princess when she comes.”
Ray followed Yan Lu and as they went along he could not help looking
at her feet. Such tiny feet he had never seen! They were so small that
she could hardly walk. She took little mincing steps and rested a great
many times, looking behind at Ray and smiling.
“Are your shoes too tight?” asked our little boy, feeling sorry for Yan
Lu and glad that his own shoes were so comfortable.
But Yan Lu looked down at her little feet and only laughed and then
glanced slyly at Ray and laughed again. He began to think that perhaps
they did not hurt her, she laughed so much about it.
Ray noticed that her hair was all done up in rolls and had great pins
sticking through it.
“She is really a very odd little girl,” thought Ray.
They came to a large plant and Yan Lu told Ray to stand behind it. Then
she waved her fan to him and took her little mincing steps again and
walked off. In a few seconds Ray saw a procession coming. He kept very
still, and as it came nearer he saw that four tall men were carrying a
sort of chair in which a little girl was sitting.
“That must be the Princess,” thought Ray, and just then he caught sight
of his little friend Yan Lu who walked behind the chair.
When they reached the spot where Ray was hiding the four tall men
placed the chair on the ground and the little Princess arose and
stepped out of it. She waved her hand and the men took the chair and
walked away. Ray was not afraid of the Princess, but still he did not
want her to see him, so he kept as still as a mouse behind the great
plant.
She looked all round and suddenly peered through the leaves at Ray.
Their eyes met and the little Princess said softly, “Peek-a-Boo!”
Ray could not help smiling, but he quickly stepped to the other side of
the plant. The Princess did the same and, smiling through the leaves,
whispered again, “Peek-a-Boo!” Then Ray came from behind the plant and
stood face to face with the Princess and Yan Lu.
“Won’t you please tell me your name?” asked Ray, and the little
Princess replied:
“Why, my friend, I have told it to you twice. My name is Peek-a-Boo.”
“Are you carried in that chair all the time?” asked Ray, and Peek-a-Boo
replied:
“Most of the time; you see my feet are so small that I cannot walk very
well, they are smaller even than Yan Lu’s.”
“What a pity,” cried Ray; “I hope they will grow bigger.”
“O no, little boy; they are all bandaged up so that they cannot grow!”
“It must hurt,” replied Ray.
“Well, perhaps it does a little,” said Peek-a-Boo with a giggle; “but
in my country it is considered very nice for girls to have tiny feet.”
“My cousin Dorothy is a little girl like you,” remarked Ray, “and her
feet are almost as large as mine.”
Both girls gave a little shriek at this piece of news and Peek-a-Boo
said, “O-o-o! that must be dreadful!”
“O, no, it isn’t,” answered Ray quickly; “I think it is fine to have
feet that you can run and jump with.”
Yan Lu laughed aloud and Peek-a-Boo giggled behind her fan.
“Would you like to play?” asked Peek-a-Boo suddenly.
Before Ray could answer Yan Lu whispered something to the Princess
and she said, “Truly I forgot it is the great kite-flying day and my
grandfather flies a ship.” She turned to Ray and said, “Come quickly.”
He followed the two little girls down the garden path and all at once
he saw the queerest sight. A number of people, old and young, were
flying kites.
They were very much interested in it and Ray had never seen such
queer-looking kites before. They were all sorts and sizes, and all at
once Peek-a-Boo clapped her hands and cried, “There is my grandfather
with his great ship.” Ray looked and saw an old man with a kite shaped
like a great ship, and he was running hither and thither with it like a
boy.
It was fun for Ray to watch him and he grew so excited that he ran to
the old man and asked if he might help.
After much effort the great kite rose in the air and everybody seemed
pleased. Ray watched a small boy whose kite was so far up in the air
that it looked like a tiny white speck. All at once the boy began to
draw down the kite, and when he caught it Ray saw that it was in the
shape of a great fish.
When he had seen all the queer kites Yan Lu whispered:
“You must be hungry, come with me and get some dinner.”
Peek-a-Boo remained near her grandfather viewing the kites, while Ray
followed Yan Lu into the house and sat at a table right beside his old
friend Ah Lee. A small bowl was placed before him and two little wooden
sticks. Ray forgot where he was for a minute and started to drum with
them, but Ah Lee gently touched his foot and Ray remembered that it was
not polite to drum on the table.
Ray had a dish of chop suee and a tiny cup of black tea which tasted
very good indeed.
As they arose from the table he could hear voices singing in another
room and it sounded just like this:--
“Oo luck ging foo,
Chow chow wing choo,
Ah Lee chee chee,
O chee O chee.”
It sounded so funny to Ray that he laughed aloud, but Ah Lee shook his
head and Ray said quickly, “Please excuse me.”
“Are we going home soon?” asked Ray, as they went into the garden.
“Yes,” answered Ah Lee, “we are going now.” He took Ray’s hand and they
ran quickly to the spot where the great birds were waiting for them.
Just as they jumped on the birds, Ray saw Yan Lu and the little
Princess Peek-a-Boo waving their fans and saying “Good-by, come again
from the land of big feet.”
Ray smiled at the two little girls and rose in the air on his bird.
In another minute he was flying; over lakes and rivers, mountains
and valleys, and far over a great deep ocean where large ships were
sailing.
Ray held on to his bird with all his might when they were flying over
the dark water so that he would not fall.
Again they flew over steeples and house-tops and reached Ray’s country.
Right down to Aunt Polly’s house flew the birds, but how they got into
the house and how Ah Lee and his great birds got back to their old
places on the teapot, and how Ray found himself on the lounge, I leave
you, my dear little readers, to guess.
However, it was all done so quickly that nobody knew what had happened
except Ray and the Boy in the Teapot.