today, when it's so hot! We
are entirely unworthy of such consideration! Why, you might make
yourselves ill, not being used to such heat in your honorable country!
Do sit down and rest! This bamboo bed here in the shade of the house
is a cool spot. Daughter, get the teachers fans. Oh, you have brought
them with you! Yes, fans are indispensable in this weather! Quickly
start the fire, daughter, and heat water for tea! Oh--" a sudden
thought struck her, "we have no tea leaves in the house! Daughter, you
run to the neighbors and borrow some. Don't go to any of these folk
nearby. They are all poor and probably wouldn't have any. Go to Fourth
Aunt's, over in the other end of the village."

At home we always kept a crock of cooled boiled water on hand, but
here there was nothing like that; and drinking unboiled water was as
unthinkable to her as it was to us. We protested vigorously that we
would just as soon have "white tea" (boiling water) as tea made with
leaves, but Mrs. Wong would not hear of such a thing. Suddenly an idea
struck her.

"Oh," she said, "I know something much better! Daughter, just run to
the garden and pick some cucumbers! They'll be better than hot tea
anyway, and quench one's thirst just as effectively."

The daughter ran off. After a few minutes the big son came along with
two brimming buckets of cold well water and poured it into the stone
water butt, which had been almost empty. "Do you prefer to wash your
faces in cold water or hot?" Mrs. Wong asked.

"Oh, cold, please!" we both replied, already feeling in anticipation
that cold water on our hot faces; but Mrs. Wong, conscience-smitten,
was already lighting the fire. "Oh, I shouldn't have asked such a
foolish question!" she rattled on. "Of course cold water won't remove
perspiration. No, no, it's no trouble. It will be warm enough in just
a minute."

The hot water was ladled into the basin, and Mrs. Wong looked
inquiringly around the room. I poked my sister. "She's looking for a
washcloth," I whispered in English. "Quick, tell her we have one, or
she'll be putting their already used one in!"

Fortunately the family washcloth hadn't been discovered by the time
ours was produced; and we proceeded to wash. I, being the younger,
dutifully allowed my sister to use the water first. "Don't wash too
close around your eyes," said my sister in an aside to me. "Someone in
the family might have sore eyes, and there might be germs on the
basin."

After