UPON THE FLOOR"
"HE MUST DROP TO HIS KNEES AND MAKE A PROFOUND SALUTE"
"ON THE UPPER PART OF EACH OF THESE POSTS WAS A RUDE CARVING"
"THE DAY WAS PASSED IN MUCH THE SAME MANNER AS THE PRECEDING ONE"

OUR LITTLE KOREAN COUSIN

CHAPTER I.

SOME QUEER THINGS

Yung Pak was the very queer name of a queer little boy who lived in a
queer house in a queer city. This boy was peculiar in his looks, his
talk was in a strange tongue, his clothes were odd in colour and fit,
his shoes were unlike ours, and everything about him would seem to you
very unusual in appearance. But the most wonderful thing of all was that
he did not think he was a bit queer, and if he should see one of you in
your home, or at school, or at play, he would open wide his slant eyes
with wonder at your peculiar ways and dress. The name of the country in
which this little boy lived is Korea.

One thing about Yung Pak, though, was just like little boys everywhere.
When he first came to his home in the Korean city, a little bit of a
baby, his father and mother were very, very glad to see him. Your father
and mother gave you no warmer welcome than the parents of this little
Korean baby gave to him.

Perhaps Yung Pak's father did not say much, but any one could have seen
by his face that he was tremendously pleased. He was a very dignified
man, and his manner was nearly always calm, no matter how stirred up he
might have felt in his mind. This was one of the rare occasions when his
face expanded into a smile, and he immediately made a generous offering
of rice to the household tablets.

All Koreans pay great honour to their dead parents, and tablets to
their memory are placed in some room set apart for the purpose. Before
these tablets sacrifices are offered. Yung Pak's father would have been
almost overwhelmed with terror at thought of having no one to worship
his memory and present offerings before his tablet.

It is to be feared that if, instead of Yung Pak, a little daughter had
come to this Korean house, the father and the mother would not have been
so pleased. For, strange as it may seem to you who live in homes where
little daughters and little sisters are petted and loved above all the
rest of the family, in Korea little girls do not receive a warm welcome,
though the mothers will cherish and fondle them--as much from pity as
from love. The mothers know better than any one else how hard a way the
little girl will have to travel thro