John reappeared with his master's razor, which he quietly slipped--as
if it had been a forgotten fork--beside his master's plate, and calmly
resumed his serving. I have always considered this story to be quite as
improbable as it was inartistic, from its tacit admission of a certain
interest on the part of the Chinaman. I never knew one who would have
been sufficiently concerned to go for the razor.

His taciturnity and reticence may have been confounded with rudeness of
address, although he was always civil enough. "I see you have listened
to me and done exactly what I told you," said a lady, commending some
performance of her servant after a previous lengthy lecture; "that's
very nice." "Yes," said John calmly, "you talkee allee time; talkee
allee too much." "I always find Ling very polite," said another
lady, speaking of her cook, "but I wish he did not always say to me,
'Goodnight, John,' in a high falsetto voice." She had not recognized the
fact that he was simply repeating her own salutation with his marvelous
instinct of relentless imitation, even as to voice. I hesitate to record
the endless stories of his misapplication of that faculty which were
then current, from the one of the laundryman who removed the buttons
from the shirts that were sent to him to wash that they might agree with
the condition of the one offered him as a pattern for "doing up," to
that of the unfortunate employer who, while showing John how to handle
valuable china carefully, had the misfortune to drop a plate himself--an
accident which was followed by the prompt breaking of another by the
neophyte, with the addition of "Oh, hellee!" in humble imitation of his
master.

I have spoken of his general cleanliness; I am reminded of one or two
exceptions, which I think, however, were errors of zeal. His manner of
sprinkling clothes in preparing them for ironing was peculiar. He would
fill his mouth with perfectly pure water from a glass beside him, and
then, by one dexterous movement of his lips in a prolonged expiration,
squirt the water in an almost invisible misty shower on the article
before him. Shocking as this was at first to the sensibilities of many
American employers, it was finally accepted, and even commended. It was
some time after this that the mistress of a household, admiring the deft
way in which her cook had spread a white sauce on certain dishes, was
cheerfully informed that the method was "allee same."

His recreations at