orm. Every house in North China
has one of these kangs, with a little fireplace underneath. In winter
the Chinese burn charcoal in this fireplace, and at night they spread
wadded quilts on the warm brick platform and sleep there. In the daytime
the quilts are rolled up and the kang is used as a seat. The windows
were small, with tiny-squares filled in with paper instead of panes of
glass. There were two large square arm-chairs and a square table with a
tray and some tea-cups upon it. On the walls were scrolls with funny
pictures of men running all over each other, like flies on a cake, Nelly
thought.

When they had waited a very long time and it was getting dark, the
children began to be afraid. The door was locked and they could not get
out. Nelly was a brave little girl, but she could not help crying when
she thought of the anxiety her parents would be in about her.

'Oh dear,' she sobbed, 'why don't they let us out? Let us scream,
Little Yi.'

And both the children shrieked their hardest, until they heard footsteps
hurrying across the court.

The door was unlocked, and the woman who had brought the children there
came in with a very old woman, a girl of sixteen, and a boy of ten.

'What is the matter?' they asked.

'Oh, take us home,' cried Nelly. 'It is quite dark.'

The boy having brought a lamp, the room was no longer in darkness, but
Nelly meant that as it was dark it must be late.

'We can't take you home,' said the woman. 'None of us know the way to
the British Legation except my son, who is not here. He will not be home
now until to-morrow. He went outside the city into the country, and
must have arrived at the gate after it was closed.'

'Then please take us to the door you brought us through and lend us a
lantern, and we can find our way quite well,' said Nelly.

'No, no, you can't. You would get lost,' replied the woman. 'You must
wait here until my son comes home.'

'We won't,' said Little Yi, and made a rush for the door. But the boy
caught her and forced her back on the kang.

'Why do you want to keep us?' asked Nelly.

'It is our custom in China, when we find children, to keep them until we
can hand them over to their parents,' said the woman whom they had
thought so nice, but whom they now considered very cruel.

She was a tidy-looking woman, wearing black trousers bound tight round
the ankles, and the usual blue cotton smock. Her feet were not very
small, and she could walk about fair