The Little Girl Lost Part 9

'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 n.o.body 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.

n.o.body 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 cla.s.s 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 G.o.d 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