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THE LITTLE GIRL LOST
ELEANOR RAPER
The Dumpy Books for Children.
No. XIV. THE LITTLE GIRL LOST.
The Dumpy Books for Children
_Cloth, Royal 32mo, 1/6 each._
1. THE FLAMP, THE AMELIORATOR, AND THE SCHOOLBOY'S APPRENTICE, _by E.V.
Lucas_
2. MRS. TURNER'S CAUTIONARY STORIES
3. THE BAD FAMILY, _by Mrs. Fenwick_
4. THE STORY OF LITTLE BLACK SAMBO. Illustrated in Colours, _by Helen
Bannerman_
5. THE BOUNTIFUL LADY, _by Thomas Cobb_
6. A CAT BOOK, Portraits _by H. Officer Smith_, Characteristics _by E.V.
Lucas_
7. A FLOWER BOOK. Illustrated in Colours _by Nellie Benson_. Story _by
Eden Coybee_
8. THE PINK KNIGHT. Illustrated in Colours _by J. R. Monsell_
9. THE LITTLE CLOWN, _by Thomas Cobb_
10. A HORSE BOOK, _by Mary Tourtel_. Illustrated in Colours
11. LITTLE PEOPLE: AN ALPHABET, _by Henry Mayer and T. W. H. Crosland_.
Illustrated in Colours
12. A DOG BOOK. Pictures in Colours _by Carton Moore Park_. Text _by
Ethel Bicknell_
13. THE ADVENTURES OF SAMUEL AND SELINA, _by Jean C. Archer_.
Illustrated in Colours
14. THE LITTLE GIRL LOST, _by Eleanor Raper_
15. DOLLIES. Pictures _by Ruth Cobb_. Verses _by Richard Hunter_
16. THE BAD MRS. GINGER, _by Honor C. Appleton_. Illustrated in Colours
_A Cloth Case to contain Twelve Volumes can be had, price 2/ net; or
the First Twelve Volumes in Case, price L1 net_.
LONDON: GRANT RICHARDS
48 LEICESTER SQUARE, W.C.
The Little Girl Lost
A Tale for Little Girls
BY ELEANOR RAPER
LONDON: GRANT RICHARDS
1902
_Printed by R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, Edinburgh_.
TO LITTLE PHYLLIS
E. R.
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
1. _Nelly and Her Friends_ 1
2. _Lost_ 9
3. _A Journey in a Cart_ 24
4. _Alone among the Chinese_ 35
5. _The Search_ 45
6. _In Captivity_ 53
7. _The Cheshire Cat_ 63
8. _The Chang Family_ 74
9. _Chi Fu's Scheme_ 85
10. _Preparations for Flight_ 96
11. _An Unpleasant Surprise_ 107
12. _Poor Mule!_ 121
13. _The Road to Peking_ 136
14. _Father and Mother_ 146
_Conclusion_ 156
The Little Girl Lost
CHAPTER I
NELLY AND HER FRIENDS
Nelly Grey was a little English girl who had never been in England. She
was born in China, and went with her father and mother to live in the
British Legation compound in Peking when she was only three years old. A
compound is a kind of big courtyard, with other courts and houses
inside. Nelly's was a large one, and very open. It had several houses in
it: not like we have in England, but only one storey high, and with
deep, shady verandahs round them. There were also a little church, some
tennis-courts, and several small buildings for the Chinese servants at
the back.
Nelly could speak both English and Chinese very well. She could play the
piano a little, though not so well as most English children of nine
years old. She could ride a donkey, skate, and play tennis, but she had
never seen a bicycle or a real carriage, because there were no such
things in Peking. But Nelly was quite lively although she was shut up in
a compound all the time. She would have been ashamed to feel dull and
cross, for she had once heard the Minister's wife say, 'Nelly Grey is an
intelligent child and has sense enough to amuse herself.' Since then she
had felt that she must not let the lady change her opinion. Besides,
there were several other foreign[1] children in Peking whom Nelly saw
from time to time. In her compound, living next door, was Baby Buckle.
He had only been there six months, for that was his age, and Nelly loved
him very much. He was such a jolly little fellow, always laughing and
crowing, and almost jumping out of the arms of his Chinese nurse (who
was called an amah) when he saw Nelly coming. And he used to open his
mouth wide and try to bite this old yellow woman, and put his little
fists into her eyes and kick her, until the poor old thing was almost
worn out and could scarcely walk or even stand on her little misshapen
feet. To be sure, he slept a great deal, or the amah would have been
obliged to hand him over to a younger woman. There was another boy in
the Legation, a little Scotchman, who was one year older than Nelly.
They played together very often. But Nelly did not like boys--only baby
boys, she said. Indeed, she often made Arthur Macdonald feel very lonely
and unhappy because she preferred to leave him and go off to play with a
Chinese girl of her own age, called Shiao Yi. Shiao in Chinese means
'little,' so we will call her Little Yi.
[1] English, Americans, French, and all other white people are
called foreigners in China.
Little Yi's feet had never been bound, because she was a Manchu child,
and the Manchu women do not bind their feet; so she could run and skip
about the compound almost as freely as Nelly. Almost, I say, not quite,
because Chinese children are not dressed for running about. Their shoes
are hard and clumsy, and in winter their clothes are so thickly wadded
that they look like little balls.
Then there were two little girls of eleven and twelve who lived at the
German Legation, and were called Bertha and Liza Wolf. It was very
strange for Nelly the first time these children came to see her. Mrs.
Grey was calling upon their mother, who told her that they had just
arrived from home with their governess. At once Mrs. Grey invited them
to come to tea the next day, and she did not think of asking if they
could speak English; neither did their mother, who spoke English
beautifully, remember that her children could not do so. When they
arrived, Nelly was alone with Chu Ma, her amah, and they all laughed a
great deal when they found that they could not understand one another.
Bertha Wolf had picked up the Chinese word 'pu,' which means 'not,' and
she kept repeating that and mixing it up with German. It sounded very
funny. Nelly showed them her dolls' house, and Liza made the dolls sit
down and stand up in a marvellous way by bending their legs and sticking
pins into them. When tea-time came the children had become fast friends
by means of nods, shakes of the head, and the Chinese word 'pu'; which
shows that little girls can get on very well together even when they
don't chatter all the time. Since then Nelly had been taken to the
German Legation twice a week to have German lessons from Fraulein,
Liza's and Bertha's governess, and they, besides quickly picking up
Chinese, came and took English lessons from Mrs. Grey very often.
At the American Legation Nelly had a friend, Bessie Bates, who had a
brother named Bob, a regular tease. Bessie was only eight, but Bob was
eleven, and every one said that he ought to be at school in America.
Then there were several children living in the mission compounds, but
none of them were near Nelly. At one of the missions there were fifteen
children among the four families stationed there. Nelly told her mother
that it made her hoarse to go to that mission, because there were so
many people to talk to.
Even if there had been no other companions, Nelly would have been
content to be with her father and mother. She used to love the time just
before she went to bed, when Mrs. Grey nearly always read to her and
told her stories about England. They often talked of Nelly's brother
Tom, who had gone to school at Brighton when the Greys came to Peking.
With seven o'clock came Nelly's amah to put her to bed. The amah would
have willingly done everything for Nelly, but Mrs. Grey insisted that
she must undress herself and not become helpless, as children brought up
in the East often do, because there are so many servants to wait on
them. At first she used to feel a little afraid when the amah blew out
the candle and left her alone in her little bed in the middle of a great
big dark room; but her mother had taught her that God takes care of us
in the dark just the same as at any other time, and she soon learnt to
curl herself up and go quietly to sleep.