hinese house-boy worked
in his cabin a portion of every day. The bluebirds came close to sing to
him and so did the red-breasted robins. Irish Nora and the parrot became
very civil, and he grew fond of Charlie and Lucy.

Some of the boys on their way to and from school made his only real
annoyance. Sometimes when his smoothing-iron was moving silently under
his loose-sleeved hand, or he was hanging the snowy clothes on the
lines, they would hide behind a tree or corner, and shy sticks at him
calling, "washee-washee-wang!" He bore it all in an unselfish temper,
until one day a big lump of dirt fell upon one of little Lucy's dainty
muslin frocks as he was ironing it. Then he said something that sounded
like, "cockle-cockle-cockle," and closed all the doors and windows.

At this crisis Charles and Lucy came to his side. They set wide again
the doors and windows of the cabin under the green boughs, and promised
him that they would forever be his true friends and protectors. "It is
time we began to treat him like a wang, as mother wished," said Lucy to
Charlie.

"The American boys throw dirt at me in the street," admitted little
Sky-High, in a reluctant tone--he did not like to bear witness against
anyone in this sunshiny world.

"I will go out with you," said Charlie, "when you are sent out to do
errands. I will stand between you and the dirt. The dirt comes out of
their souls."

"And I will watch around the corners and speak to them," said Lucy.

Sky-High's heart bounded at these pledges of friendship, and he leaped
about in a way that made the parrot laugh--sometimes he had the parrot
in his cabin, and taught it Chinese words. "The sun shines for all, the
earth blossoms for all," he said to the children; "it is only the heart
that needs washee-washee and smoothee-smoothee. Everything will be
better by and by. I talk flowery talk, like home, out here among the
birds, butterflies, and bees."

(Nora said he "jabbered" all day long in the cabin.)

Mrs. Van Buren very soon promoted the careful little Chinaman to have
all the care of the beautiful living rooms and the quaint old parlors.
He brought the flowers and admitted the visitors. He did his work in
admirable taste. It shed a kind of good influence through the house, to
see the little fellow in his fine linens flitting around, so careful was
he to keep all things in speckless order.

The chief drawback was that he still used "flowery talk"; to him the
world was