n this was done, Nelly's and Little Yi's parents could only wait,
which is often the hardest thing we have to do.

CHAPTER VI

IN CAPTIVITY

By the time that Nelly and Little Yi had been at Yung Ching a month,
Nelly and An Ching had become great friends. Poor Nelly would have been
very miserable but for An Ching, who used to cheer her by constantly
talking about Mr. and Mrs. Grey and when Nelly would be back in Peking.
And An Ching used to tell Nelly about her own childhood, which must have
been very dull, Nelly thought; her marriage to Hung Li when she had seen
him only twice, and how she was carried in a red chair from her
parents' house to Ku Nai-nai's. She told Nelly that Hung Li was very
greedy, and would do anything for money. It was he who prevented his
mother from taking the children home the evening they left the Legation,
as she at first fully intended to do; but Ku Nai-nai was herself rather
fond of money, and did not require much persuasion.

An Ching taught Nelly to sew backwards in Chinese fashion, using a
thimble without an end, like a thick ring, on her finger; and she cut
out and helped her to make a little blue cotton coat which they thought
would fit Baby Buckle. Nelly used to kiss and pat that little coat, and
loved it quite as much as any doll she had ever had. In return Nelly
taught An Ching to knit, with some chopsticks, which they pointed at
the ends, for needles.

The children were rarely allowed to go outside the Kus' compound, and
never alone, but they could play out of doors as much as they wished.
The larger court had the houses or set of rooms in it, and there was a
smaller court which was entered through a queer gateway just like a
large round hole in the wall. This court was at the side of Ku Nai-nai's
rooms, and had no windows looking into it. An Ching, Nelly, and Little
Yi used often to go and sit there with their work, and the children
sometimes played at jumping through the hole. They saw no one but the
Kus and their servant. Even when the barber came to shave Hung Li's head
they were shut up out of sight, and their hair was kept short with Ku
Nai-nai's scissors.

Little Yi was becoming almost reconciled to life in Yung Ching, for
although she was fond of her parents, she did not love them as Nelly did
hers. She missed the large compound of the British Legation, and would
have been very pleased to know at any moment that she was to be sent
home. But she ate, slept, and