THE LAST PEEP.
[Illustration]
SYBIL had made several friends amongst Cantonese ladies and children,
and some very pleasant afternoons had she spent with them. The girls,
she noticed, generally wore cotton tunics and trousers. One little girl,
with whom she had spent a few hours, was in mourning, so she wore white,
bound with blue. Sybil could not help thinking that this was very pretty
mourning, but her brother's was still prettier, for his trousers were of
pale blue silk tied round the ankles, and he wore white shoes. His cue
was tied with blue. And there were such very pretty gardens belonging to
the houses in which they lived, with rockeries, fish-ponds, and
summer-houses almost large enough to live in.
One lady, whom Sybil visited, astonished her very much, because she had
an only boy, who was very pale-looking and delicate, and she called him
all sorts of names, and seemed to treat him so unkindly. When Sybil had
been ill herself, her mother had always treated her with such extra love
and care, and she fancied that all mothers behaved like this. Then the
Chinese love their boys so much, that one would therefore have thought
an only boy would be so very precious. The next time that she saw the
lady she had given away her child to be adopted by some one else. Mrs.
Graham heard the explanation to this unnatural conduct, and gave it to
Sybil. The woman really loved her boy most fondly, and would have given
anything she had to have him well, but she fancied that the gods were
malicious towards him, and that if she pretended to them that she did
not care for the child they would let him get well again. All that
conduct was to deceive the gods.
Mr. Graham had several times dined out at Chinese houses, and sometimes
his wife had accompanied him, but as Cantonese ladies never dine with
their husbands in public, where her doing so was likely to give any
offence, even though she were invited, she never went; but many Chinese
very well understand that there are quite different laws for Europeans
than there are for them, and these seemed to be glad to admit English
ladies, with their husbands, to be guests at their houses.
When Mr. and Mrs. Graham went to one of these dinners, knives and forks
were borrowed for them, and the other English visitors, in place of
chop-sticks. A china spoon and a two-pronged fork were set before each
person, and there were china wine-glasses. The table-napkins were of
brown paper. Basins of fruit, from which all helped themselves as they
liked, were in the middle of the table. There were a great many soups
and other courses. Every now and then the host took something out of a
basin with his chop-stick, and offered to put it into the mouths of his
guests. Out of politeness they were bound to accept these gifts. There
was not any beef, as no Chinaman eats beef. Music was played, and slaves
fanned the people during dinner.
Once when Sybil visited some of her young Chinese friends, the tea was
brought in to them in covered cups, and when they wanted more,
tea-leaves were put into the cups and boiling water was poured upon
them. She had learnt now to be able to drink tea without milk or sugar,
but she could not like it.
A two months' stay at Canton brought the children to the end of four
months and a half of their stay in China, and left but six weeks more
before they were to return to England. It was the middle of March when
the Grahams said "Good-bye" to their kind friends at the Yamen, and
returned to Hong-Kong. Sybil could not bear to say this farewell, as it
was the last but one, and she knew how very quickly six weeks would
pass.
They had all enjoyed their stay in Canton very much, and often thought
about the New Year's Day which had been kept, while they were there,
with such grand rejoicings. At midnight, on the last day of the old
year, a bell, never used except on this occasion, pealed forth, when, at
the signal, people rushed into the streets in crowds to let off
fireworks.
Every temple and every pagoda was lighted up, and people burnt incense
before idols in their own homes. Some streets are lighted in Canton by
lanterns, but, as a rule, the smaller streets are in darkness, with the
exception of paper lanterns, which hang, every now and then, from before
shops or private houses, and even these are put out by half-past nine
o'clock. Paraffin lamps are now being introduced along Chinese city
streets.
All New Year's night a great noise was to be heard, and in the morning
friends dressed in their best to call upon, and salute, one another.
In the streets they were to be seen prostrating themselves upon the
ground. Rich and poor alike had great rejoicings on New Year's Day, the
rich often keeping up their holiday for ten days.
Latterly Mr. Graham had been several times backwards and forwards to
Hong-Kong, where he had made his final arrangements.
The missionary, whose place he was about to fill, would, when he left
the island, take with him to England, besides his own family, Sybil and
Leonard Graham. Until they sailed, the Grahams would all stay with them
at the Mission House, when it would be handed over to Mr. Graham.
The other missionary had three children of his own, two daughters,
twelve and ten years old, and a son of nine, but as they had been absent
from Hong-Kong when the Grahams had been there before, the children had
not yet made one another's acquaintance.
The eldest, Katie, now became Sybil's very useful interpreter, for as
she had been born in China and lived there all her life, she could
understand, and speak, many Chinese dialects.
Sybil now knew several Chinese words herself. "Che-fan," or "Have you
eaten your rice?" was "How do you do?" though, as a rule, when people
said "How do you do?" to her it was "Chin-chin mississi?"
When she went out visiting, questions such as the following were
generally put to her, "What honourable name have you?" "What is the name
of your beautiful dwelling?" and "What age have you?" Had she been grown
up, this question would probably have been, "What is your venerable
age?"
Leonard was often told to "catchee plenty chow-chow," which means "eat a
very good dinner," but as somehow he generally seemed able to do this,
he hardly needed the kind advice.
Mrs. Graham's amah amused Sybil very much. She had been a great
traveller, having visited both England and America, and she liked
England much the best. One day she said to Sybil: "Melicae no good
countly. Welly bad chow-chow. Appool number one. My hab chow-chow sixty
pieces before bleakfast. Any man no got dollar, all hab got paper.
Number one foolo pidgin. No good countly. My no likee Melicae. My likee
England side more better." This meant: "America is not a good country.
It has very bad food, but first-rate apples. I ate sixty before
breakfast. No one has any dollars there, all use paper money. Very
foolish business. Not a good country. I do not like America. I like
England better."
Some pleasure or another was always forthcoming for Sybil and Leonard,
and the few last "Peep-shows" were very precious.
[Illustration: "SING-SONG."]
One day, when they were out, they saw a "Sing-Song," as the performance
was called. Under a canopy, in the open streets, children were acting
and dancing. To do so, they had dressed up in very gorgeous costumes,
their ornaments and head-dresses being grander, Leonard said, than
anything he had ever seen before; and the little Chinese actors
themselves seemed to be thoroughly at their ease, and quite at home, in
their grand attire.
"Why did that policeman come after you to-day, father, and take down the
name of the boat that we got into?" Leonard once asked, when he and his
father had been out together, and were returning home.
"Policemen have done that several times, if you had only noticed," was
the reply. "That was to guard us from pirates. They took the name of our
boat, so that the owner could be held responsible if we did not return
safely. The Chinese are dreadful pirates, and are generally on the
look-out for opportunities to rob. Sometimes a band of them will take
their passages in a ship, and when fairly out at sea will all rise in
mutiny against the captain and his officers, and perhaps murder them, so
as to be able to plunder as they choose."
"I should think the boat-policemen had plenty of work to do," Leonard
then said.
"Father, do you remember well when you were just eleven?" the child then
asked suddenly, going, as it seemed, right away from his present
subject. "Did you ever want to be a sailor then? ever think for certain
you would be one?"
"I do not remember ever having had that wish."
"Well, I have had it over and over again, and thought that there could
not be anything better in the world than going about in ships, and
seeing different places. I've wished to be a sailor for ever so many
years; but, you know, I don't wish it now."
[Illustration: FISHERMEN AND FISHERWOMEN.]
Mr. Graham smiled. I expect it was Leonard's "ever so many years" which
made him do so.
"Don't you?" his father asked. "Then what do you want to be now?"
"Something, father, I'm not half good enough for," the boy answered,
thoughtfully. "A missionary! Oh, father, I do so want to be a missionary
now, and come to China, as you and grandfather have done! Shouldn't you
like it too? I know mother would; and perhaps the Church Missionary
Society would send me out if I asked them."
"I should like nothing better, my little son," was the missionary's
reply.
A few minutes later Leonard was out of doors again, flying himself one
of the "wonderful kites," which a Chinaman had made for, and given to,
him, and his father was watching his little fellow with pleasure almost
amounting to pride.
Was this his impulsive boy's own thought, he wondered, or had his sister
suggested it to him.
Quite his own; but no doubt the quiet, gentle influence which Sybil
exerted over her younger brother was very good for him.
"Do you think, Sybil, that the heathen Chinese could teach the Christian
English anything?" Mr. Graham asked his daughter, as they sat and talked
together the very last evening.
"I am sure they could," she answered quickly; "many things. Filial love
and obedience for one, respect and reverence for old age for another;
and then, though they do believe such silly, superstitious things, there
seems to be such a reality, so much earnestness, about the way some of
them carry out their religion. They do not mind how early they get up
and go out to keep a religious festival, and they seem to ask a sort of
blessing, from their gods, on everything they do, and keep their fasts
and feasts so very regularly; but I think their love for their parents
beats everything. 'Boy' asked for a holiday yesterday, because it was
his mother's birthday, and got up very early to do his work before he
went." "Boy" was a kind of footman.
"Yes; parents' birthdays are kept up much more than are those of
children. Sometimes on their birthdays they will sit under a crimson
canopy, whilst their children kneel and perform the 'kow-tow' to them.
The fifty-first birthday, and every ten years afterwards, is celebrated
with great pomp, when religious ceremonies are often performed at the
Temple of Longevity. I believe thirty Buddhist priests will then
sometimes return thanks for three days.
"When a man is eighty-one, the fact is occasionally communicated to the
Emperor, who may then allow money to be given for a monumental arch to
be erected to the old man's honour.
"After parents are dead their birthdays are still celebrated in the
ancestral hall, where their portraits hang."
"I suppose children give their parents beautiful presents on their
birthdays?"
"When they begin to get old the best present that a child can, and does,
make a parent, and one which he values more than anything else, is a
coffin, because, you know, a Chinaman thinks that unless his body be
buried properly his spirit cannot rest.
"The Chinese are strange contradictions," Mr. Graham went on. "Although
they are very courageous in bearing torture, they are dreadful liars,
and a great liar is generally a great coward. Then they are sober and
industrious, but slaves to the opium drug; meek and gentle, but, at the
same time, treacherous and cruel; most dutiful to their parents, but
often very jealous of their neighbours; and then, perhaps strangest of
all, is their love towards their children, but yet their readiness to
put their girls to death."
Sybil was silent for several minutes. "Oh, father!" she then said,
"isn't the time dreadfully near now? Fancy leaving you and dear mother!
How can we?"
"You must go to _your_ work, darling, and we must stay here to do ours.
Is it not so?" Mr. Graham asked, in the dear, kind, soft voice that
Sybil loved so much, and which she always called his "preachy voice."
"But what shall give us comfort? what shall we think about when we are
trying to do our several duties, though apart, I hope contentedly and
well? That it is God who has called us to our several duties; it is His
Almighty will which we have now and always to obey; but remember, not
alone, not unaided, dear Sybil. Who will be our guide, stay, and
comfort, when we are separated from one another?"
Sybil knew, but could not answer, because she was crying.
[Illustration: WOMAN OF POAH-BI.]
"Your mother and I," Mr. Graham went on, "in commending our children to
the Fatherly love and care of Him Who gave you to us, know that we place
you in the safest keeping; and you yourselves have also both learnt,
have you not, how to go to our Father and 'Supreme Ruler' in earnest
prayer, whenever tempted to do what would displease Him? A missionary,
you know, is one who is sent on a mission--to fulfil a duty. A
missionary's children must not shrink from fulfilling, must not fail to
fulfil, the mission on which they are sent, must they?"
Sybil looked comforted. She liked this last "Peep-show" very much, and
kissed her father to show him that she did.
A few minutes later she said, "Do you know, father, I believe little Chu
is really beginning to believe and understand properly, for the other
day, when I was saying my prayers, she came and knelt down beside me,
and she would never kneel to our God before, even when she saw the
Christian woman at Poah-bi do so, with whom we stayed, and with whom she
was such good friends. I shall often remember that woman and her dear
little baby, which she tied to herself so funnily, because I liked them
so very much.
"Poor little Chu!" Sybil then went on. "I shall be so glad to see her
again when I come back to you, but I do not think she will like me to go
away."
"Chu will have to be a great deal at school now. She has her work to do
too, you know."
"How I shall think of you, father, and the Hong-Kong Mission on
Intercession Day, when it comes round, shan't I?"
"Yes, Sybil; and not only on Intercession Day, but always in your
prayers, you must remember to pray very fervently, both for Chinese and
other unbelievers, and not only for me, but for all who are seeking
their conversion."
"It seems a more real thing now to pray for," Sybil said.
"And to give thanks for too. Here in Hong-Kong we have great cause to be
thankful."
"What a dear old lady that was who was baptized on Sunday! but what was
the Christian name she chose? I could not hear it."
"Mong-Oi, which means 'desiring the love' (of Jesus)."
"That was a beautiful name, wasn't it? And there were a number of
communicants for here too. How many native communicants are there in
Hong-Kong?"
"Between sixty and seventy; and what is so comforting is that the
communicants seem to be really devout, and to realise what being a
communicant means for, and requires of, them, and it is no easy matter
at all for natives of China to embrace Christianity. Sometimes they have
to leave all their relations, and suffer much persecution in
consequence."
"When was the Hong-Kong mission begun?" Sybil asked.
"In 1862."
Although the results were far from what the zealous missionaries would
fain have seen them, Mr. Graham was right in saying that the Mission
from the Church of England to Hong-Kong had cause to take hope and be
thankful.
Several men and women were now under instruction both for baptism and
confirmation. The mission schools for boys numbered more than 190, and
for girls more than thirty, and here the children were religiously as
well as secularly instructed.
There were, although only two European missionaries and one native
clergyman, twenty-three native Christian teachers, and 183 native
Christians. The Mission comprised, besides St. Stephen's Church and the
agencies around it in the island of Hong-Kong, many out-stations in the
province of Quangtung occupied by native agents.
The Prayer Book, and, still better, the Holy Bible, translated into
their own tongue, were now circulated among the people, some of whom
were really learning to love and value them; and not only were the
services for the Christians well attended, but every evening the heathen
were to be seen in numbers going to hear sermons that were to be
preached for them.
Well, then, might Mr. Graham go forth to his new work with hope.
"How much you will have to do, father," Sybil said, "if you go to the
Medical Missionary Institution so often, and do all your other work
besides! But the people seem to be very grateful to you. 'Boy' said
yesterday that you were 'a hundred man good,' and I know what that
means: 'The best of men.'"
Mr. Graham smiled.
"I like, and it is good for us all," he said, "to have plenty to do; and
one work, you know, may help on the other."
"I expect mother will help you a very great deal too."
"She is sure to do that." Sybil knew she was.
All day long the child had spent beside her much-loved mother; now, for
another hour, she sat on and talked with her father, receiving good,
kind counsel, when Leonard, who had been closeted with his mother,
listening to her dear words of best advice, came in, with eyes swollen
from crying, and then the four sat together till it was long past
bed-time; but what of that? To-morrow, on board ship, there would be
nothing to keep them up late, when they could make up for to-night, and
go early to bed.
To-morrow came, as happy and sad to-morrows all alike will come; when
the mother gave her children their last kisses, the father their last
kisses and benedictions, and Sybil and Leonard Graham started on their
homeward voyage to England, leaving their parents very grateful for
having such good, kind friends to whose care on board ship to entrust
them.
Both children were to return at once to their former schools, and spend
their holidays together at Mrs. Graham's brother's house, who was also
the rector of a country parish, and where she knew they would very soon
feel quite at home.
Sybil and Leonard Graham, the children of brave parents, were brave
children themselves, and as they had promised not to grieve more then
they could help, they at once did battle with their tears, and before
long were talking really cheerfully with their friends.
"Who knows," Sybil said once to Leonard, when she and her brother found
themselves alone, "but what they might come over for a small
holiday-trip in two or three years' time? and if not, I believe when I
go out you are to go with me for another 'Peep-show' holiday, and to see
_them_!"
"Of course I ought to go whenever I can," Leonard answered, "as I'm
going to be a missionary out there myself."
Sybil had said "them" because she could not yet say, without crying,
those two dear, sacred words, father and mother, which stand alone in
the vocabulary of every language, and have no peers.
Mrs. Graham herself was then alone, shedding bitter tears, which she
had stifled until her children left her, but which she could keep back
no longer.
Yet, though her mother's loving heart was very sad and sore, she would
not weep long, but would, to the very best of her ability, go forth at
once to help her husband--who could not but feel sad now too--in the
good work in which she had encouraged him to embark, counting _all_ the
costs beforehand.
And Sybil, who had said "_I like my father to be a missionary very
much_," would not unsay the words now, though it took both her parents
so far away from her and Leonard. Oh no! since she had seen the great
need that there was for missionaries to China, she liked, even better
than before, her father "to be a missionary!"
[Illustration]
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
Bold text is surrounded by =equal signs= and italic text by
_underscores_.
Text uses uses varied hyphenation on the naming of the cities. This
includes both Fu-kien and Fukien, Poahbi and Poa-bi, and Pei-ho and
Peiho, among others.
Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
Page 31, Illustration caption: MENE changed to MENE (HATA-MENE-TA-KIE)
Page 74, "r st" changed to "rest" (rest of their lives)
Page 178, "Europeon" changed to "European" (the European settlement)
Page 196, "al" changed to "all" (soon. We all)
Page 212, twice the word "Melicae" was spelled with a macron over the
"a". This was replaced with a "ae" for this text version.