and silent, sitting by the bed ; but when he saw me
lift my hands and look consciously around, his
homely features beamed with delight. He sprung
up from my side, spun around the room a time or
two in his paper slippers, hitched up his blue, loose
trousers, and seemed as glad as a country child when
a parent comes home from town. Then he took up
my hand, moved my head, fixed the pillow, and
again spun around the room, grinning and showing
his white teeth.
This little, moon-eyed heathen belonged to that race we send so many tracts and missionaries to across the seas ; and was one of those little wretches that the dear children in the cities of the Pacific pelt and pound on Sabbath days with cobble stones, rotten apples, hymn-books, bibles, and whatever comes convenient, as they return home from church and Sunday school.
At last, this diminutive Chinaman seemed to come to his senses, and shot out of the door and down the stairs as if flying for a wager, and I slept then and dreamed sweet and beautiful dreams.
When I awoke the little heathen had returned. The Prince, more earnest and thoughtful, it seemed to me, than before, was at my side, and with him a sallow, sickly-looking physician in green glasses, and a ruffled shirt. Miners were corning in and going out on tip-toe, holding their slouch hats stiffly in both hands, and making long measured steps as they moved around the bed.
F
