oles raised up also
above their heads, and I did not feel it at all. He told me that these
chair bearers practice for such purposes and that there was no danger
at all. It made my heart stop beating looking back and seeing the other
Court ladies in their chairs way below mine, the eunuchs and servant
girls walking, for fear I might fall off at any time. At last we arrived
at the top of the hill. We helped Her Majesty to alight and followed
her into the most lovely building I ever saw, the best one in the Summer
Palace to my idea (name of this pavilion, Ching Fo Ker). This Palace had
only two rooms, with windows on every side. One could see everywhere.
Her Majesty used one large one to take her luncheon in and the other as
a toilet room. I noticed that wherever we went we found Her Majesty's
toilet room. Her Majesty took us around the compound and showed us the
lovely flowers planted everywhere. One of the young eunuchs told me that
Her Majesty's dainties were ready. That was my first day of real work. I
went out and found two large yellow boxes of different kinds of candies
and fruits, as I have before mentioned. I carried two plates at a time,
and finished in nine times, placing them on a square table near her. She
was talking to my mother then about flowers. I noticed that although she
was talking, she was watching me at the same time. I placed the plates
upon the table very carefully, and already having noticed the day before
what were her favorite dishes, and placed these near her. She smiled
at me and said: "You have done it very nicely. And how do you know that
these are my favorites and have placed them near me? Who told you?" I
replied that no one had told me anything and that I had noticed the day
before what Lao Tsu Tsung liked (according to the Manchu custom one must
address a superior or one's parents in the third person). Her Majesty
said: "I can see you use your heart in everything (in China people say
heart instead of head) and are not like the crowd I have here; they
haven't the brains of a bird." She was soon busy eating, and gave me
some candies, and told me to eat right there in her presence. Of course
I never forgot to thank her, for I thought I had rather thank her too
much than too little. She told me: "Whenever I give you small things you
need not kowtow. Just say: 'Hsieh Lao Tsu Tsung Shang' (Thank the old
ancestor), that is enough." After a little while she finished eating,
and told me to take the