storians
have called the Dark Ages had settled upon the Christian world. And
among all the races of men the only nation that was civilized, and
learned, and cultivated, and refined in this seventh century of the
Christian era, was this far eastern Empire of China, where schools and
learning flourished, and arts and manufactures abounded, when America
was as yet undiscovered and Europe was sunk in degradation.

And here, since the year 505, the Nestorians, a branch of the Christian
Church, originating in Asia Minor in the fifth century, and often called
"the Protestants of the East," had been spreading the story of the life
and love of Christ. And here, in this year of grace 635, in the city of
Chang-an, and in all the region about the Yellow River, the good priest
Thomas the Nestorian, whom the Chinese called O-lo-pun--the nearest
approach they could give to his strange Syriac name--had his Christian
mission-house, and was zealously bringing to the knowledge of a great
and enlightened people the still greater and more helpful light of
Christianity.

"My daughter," said the Nestorian after his words of thanks were
uttered; "this is a gracious deed done to me, and one that I may not
easily repay. Yet would I gladly do so, if I might. Tell me what wouldst
thou like above all other things?"

The answer of the girl was as ready as it was unexpected.

"To be a boy, O master!" she replied. "Let the great Shang-ti,(1) whose
might thou teachest, make me a man that I may have revenge."

(1) Almighty Being.

The good priest had found strange things in his mission work in this
far Eastern land, but this wrathful demand of an excited little maid was
full as strange as any. For China is and ever has been a land in which
the chief things taught the children are, "subordination, passive
submission to the law, to parents, and to all superiors, and a peaceful
demeanor."

"Revenge is not for men to trifle with, nor maids to talk of," he said.
"Harbor no such desires, but rather come with me and I will show thee
more attractive things. This very day doth the great emperor go forth
from the City of Peace,(1) to the banks of the Yellow River. Come thou
with me to witness the splendor of his train, and perchance even to see
the great emperor himself and the young Prince Kaou, his son."

(1) The meaning of Chang-an, the ancient capital of China, is "the City
of Continuous Peace."

"That I will not then," cried the girl, more hot