FATHER AND MOTHER
With the help of Little Yi, who talked sixteen to the dozen, Nelly soon
told her father the whole story. Then came such a string of questions,
about Nelly's mother and Baby Buckle, and all Nelly's Peking friends and
Little Yi's as well! The talking was nearly all in Chinese. Nelly found
it difficult to get back into English, she said.
'You will make Hung Li give up An Ching and take her with us, father,
won't you?' asked Nelly.
'I'll see what I can do,' her father promised, 'but I am afraid it
cannot be managed.'
'It can be done easily enough if you will buy her, Sir,' said Little Yi.
'Hung Li does not like her, and he loves money.'
This was a new idea to Mr. Grey. He thought he might be able to arrange
it after all. 'We will go and see them and talk about it,' he said.
The courtyard of the inn was in a state of great confusion when Mr. Grey
and the children entered it. Hung Li was raging and fuming in a dreadful
way, while An Ching stood by with a frightened face. The two Changs were
trying to explain things to the Legation student who had come with Mr.
Grey from Peking to go with him to Yung Ching in search of Nelly. They
had started as soon as Nelly's letter reached the Legation. This young
gentleman, who had been in China only a short time, understood very
little Chinese, and Chang and Chi Fu were trying to talk to him by
signs. It was funny to see them pointing to the wall, a basket, red
paper and a rope. The poor student was hopelessly muddled, but the
Chinese grooms who had come with him and Mr. Grey quite understood and
were enjoying themselves thoroughly. The inn-keeper was shouting
directions to every one, and his wife trying to question An Ching, who
was in a terrible fright. A crowd of villagers began to collect, and
every one was talking at once.
Leaving the children in charge of his companion, Mr. Grey pushed his way
into the midst of the throng, shouting at the top of his voice:
'Where's the man who stole my daughter?'
The noise stopped at once. A dozen pair of hands seized Hung Li and An
Ching and brought them face to face with Mr. Grey, while the crowd
closed eagerly round.
Hung Li was dreadfully afraid. He had counted on the children being
handed over by his friend the barber in exchange for a nice round sum of
money, and had never thought the affair would bring him within arm's
length of a fierce foreigner.
'Why did you do this?' asked Mr. Grey sternly.
'I did not,' said the coward. 'It was my mother who stole the child and
hid her from me. I was taking her back to Peking.'
'Very well,' said Mr. Grey, 'I must hand you over to the magistrate.'
This was quite enough for Hung Li, who knew that if he were once inside
a Chinese prison he might have to stay there a very long time.
'Don't tell me any lies,' Mr. Grey continued. 'You kept my daughter shut
up in your house, and she might have died if it had not been for your
wife.'
Hung Li grunted, but said nothing.
'But,' went on Mr. Grey, 'I will let you go on one condition, that you
give up all claim to your wife and let her come to live with my daughter
in Peking, and I will give you fifty taels for her.'
Hung Li did not expect to be let off so easily. 'Take the woman,' he
said. 'She has no children and I don't want her.'
'All right,' replied Mr. Grey. 'I take all these people to witness our
bargain.'
There was a chorus of 'Hao, hao' (good, good), from the crowd, and
everybody seemed pleased.
Mr. Grey at once ordered his servant to fetch his bag containing the
lumps of silver and long strings of copper cash with a hole through the
middle, which are the only coins the Chinese have. The inn-keeper
brought a scale; the silver was weighed and handed over to Hung Li. He
went away without taking any notice of An Ching, and nobody was
surprised. The Chinese do not think much of women, you see.
As for An Ching, she was delighted.
All this time Chang and his son had kept quietly in the background.
They were Hung Li's neighbours and did not want to make an enemy of
him. This was their Chinese caution. As soon as he had gone they came
forward. Mr. Grey thanked them warmly, and told them that they should
have the reward he had offered if they would come with him to Peking,
which they were very glad to do.
They were soon ready to leave the inn. Mr. Grey's servant had hired a
cart and good strong mule. An Ching and the children got into the cart
and the others rode alongside, excepting the Legation student, who went
ahead to prepare Mrs. Grey.
Nelly was almost too excited to sit still as they came into Peking, and
even Little Yi was very anxious.
'How do you feel, An Ching?' asked Nelly.
'I don't know,' she replied. 'Glad and sorry, but more glad than sorry.
Nobody cares for me but you now. My parents did, a little, but no
Chinese girl is ever loved by her father as yours loves you.'
'That's not true,' said Little Yi, although she knew that it was.
'Well, I hope I am wrong, Little Yi. When children are as good and
truthful as Nelly perhaps their parents are very fond of them; but I
never knew a Chinese girl so good.'
Little Yi sniffed, but said no more.
When the large gates of the Legation were opened and the cart drove in,
Nelly almost fainted again. It was a very pale, fragile-looking little
creature that Mr. Grey lifted out of the cart. Mrs. Grey had been on the
look-out, and could not remain indoors when she saw the party arrive.
She rushed hatless across the compound, and Nelly bounded to meet her.
Mother and child clung to each other with all their might, while Chu Ma
fairly wept for joy to see her baby, as she called Nelly. At the same
time Little Yi's parents dashed towards her and embraced her, and they
all began chattering and crying. Little Yi hoped An Ching would notice
how affectionate her father was.
It was not until they had gone indoors that Mr. and Mrs. Grey remembered
the Changs and An Ching. When Mr. Grey at length brought An Ching into
the room, Mrs. Grey kissed her too and thanked her for being so good to
Nelly.
Mrs. Grey herself put Nelly to bed that night. It seemed so strange to
Nelly to see everything just as she had left it. There was actually the
almanac on the wall with the coloured picture of Ruth and Boaz in the
field. Nelly had pinned this almanac up months ago when she was
attending a dancing class at the American Legation, because, she said,
'Boaz was doing the first position of the waltz step beautifully.' She
laughed, and it did her good and she felt glad and happy. As she said
her prayers that night, she felt as though she really loved God and that
He quite understood when she thanked Him for the gift of a good father
and mother.
CONCLUSION
The next few days Nelly spent quietly with her parents, and in showing
An Ching all the wonders of a foreign household. Then she was taken by
her father and mother to spend the rest of the summer in a Chinese
temple at the hills, where she soon saw all her friends.
Baby Buckle did not know her, of course, and the coat she had brought
him was too small, as he had grown very much. But he was 'darlinger'
than ever, Nelly said. Bessie Bates and Liza and Bertha were delighted
to see Nelly, but they seemed shy with her at first, and Bob Bates and
Arthur Macdonald treated her almost as though she had been a grown-up
lady. She was not very well all the summer, and the doctor advised a
change. 'England,' he said, 'would be a good thing.' 'And school,' added
Mr. Grey. And to England Nelly went in the autumn with her mother and An
Ching. She was left with her aunt in Brighton, where she attended a day
school near her brother Tom's. An Ching stayed with her and learnt to
speak English very well. The people of Brighton used to stare at An
Ching almost as much as the Chinese did at Nelly when she was stolen in
Peking. She became a Christian in time and used to go to church
regularly. Two years later, Arthur Macdonald came to Tom's school and
often spent his holiday afternoons at Nelly's aunt's. Bob and Bessie
Bates went to school in America, but Liza and Bertha stayed with their
governess in Peking. Baby Buckle grew into a very mischievous little
boy; so troublesome was he that his father decided to send him home, and
he, too, when he was a very small boy, came to the school where Tom had
been. Nelly used to go and see him and bring him to her aunt's. No
matter how naughty he was, she always made excuses for him. 'He was such
a darling baby, you know,' she used to say.
Little Yi never tired of telling her adventures, and all her female
relatives, none of whom had ever been outside Peking, looked upon her as
a great traveller. Chi Fu studied so well that he became a school
teacher in the Church Mission. His parents admired him more than ever,
and left Yung Ching to come and live near him. One day he received a
letter from Nelly in English, and was able to read it to them in Chinese
quite easily.
'He is a great scholar, my son,' said the good Chang to himself.
It was the proudest day of his life!
FINIS