it came "bonnie Prince Charlie's" turn, he seemed to hesitate a moment.
Hanny thought she would be frightened to death before all the people. I
think Charles would have been a year ago.

The piano began the soft accompaniment. After the first few notes the
sweet young voice swelled out like the warble of a bird. People were
silent with surprise and admiration. The fair, boyish face and slim
figure looked smaller there on the platform. The face had a youthful
sweetness that nowadays would be pronounced artistic.

The chorus came in beautifully. There were three verses in the solo, and
really, I do not know as the audience were to blame for applauding. The
boy had to come out and sing again, this time a pretty Christmas carol
that they had practised at singing-school.

When the exercises were finished the children were all taken down-stairs
and they looked very pretty flitting about. There was another surprise,
one that greatly interested the little girl. In one prettily arranged
booth were two curious small beings who had a history. They had already
been in Sunday-school on two occasions. A missionary to China, seeing
these little girls about to be sold, had rescued them by buying them
himself. He had brought them back on his return, and now kindly disposed
people were making up a sum to provide them with a home and educate
them.

Hanny pressed forward holding John's hand tightly. They were so
strange-looking. The larger and older one was not at all pretty, but the
younger one had a sweet sort of shyness and was not so stolid. Their
yellow-brown skins, oblique dark eyes, black brows, and black hair done
up in a remarkable fashion with some long pins, and their Chinese attire
seemed very curious. The gentleman with them said there were hundreds
of little girls sold in China, and that women bought them for future
wives for their sons, and treated them like bond slaves. These
children's feet had not been cramped, this was done mainly to the higher
orders. He had some Chinese shoes worn by grown women, and they were
such short, queer things, like some of the pincushions made for the
Fair.

We didn't suppose then the Chinese would come and live with us and have
a Chinatown in the heart of the city; do our laundry work and take
possession of our kitchens; that the blue shirts and queer pointed shoes
would be a common sight in our streets. So the Chinese children were a
curiosity. Indeed, several years elapsed before Hann