The National tribune., 1894-11-01


do a bit of shopping, and then it was Cald-
| well who found il out. He-gOod fellow
that he was-simply followed at distance
and kept guard
Now, it chanced that certain pair Of mar
row, slanting, black eyes had been keener
than Caldwelfs big, round, brown ones.
| Their owner peri1ed his washee-up shops !"
reputation for promptness by lingering about
the boarding house every night for an hour
| after dinner to learn what his divinity's
movements were to be. Ii she went explor-
ing, so did Fab Chung, and kept an eye on
her. 1t grew more complicated when Cald-
well took to shadowing her too. That gen.
tleman never noticed the ChnamaD, but
Fab Chung did not grin so hard when he
looked ut Mr.. Caldwell, particularly after
he had seen Miss Pearson fasten a rose in
| his buttonhole.
There are some things that change not
neither in America nor in China, and the
heart of the lover is one. Fab Chung might
take the Fourth of July, with irecrackers
! and illuminations, to be kind of American
Feast of the Lanterns "a great religious
festival in fact. There he mistook. Decid
edly.
But Fab Chung was right when he
guessed that the object of his passion re-
garded him no more in the light of lover
than she would some old woman who chose
to wear q pigtail and unusual shoes.
| The change in dress shadowed upon Miss
| Pearson's mind the fact that her laundry
man was man, and her manner toward
him became somewhat reserved. That was
good for the beginning. He wrote her
letter-she took it for laundry list, by the
| bye-in his native tongue, of course-in
which he declared his passion. He knew
| she could not read it, but it was an outlet
for his feelings.
He got his Irish lodger to address the en-
velope. AS it stood, she could read the out
! side, and be the inside, so that made it even.
1t was rather q pity that Fab Chung
could not have learned little more of the
customs of his adopted country earlier.
| The knowledge might have saved him from
making two great mistakes.
The first lay in the fact that he had not
curtained his laundry window.
Strolling down the Bowery one bright
afternoon and enjoying to the full the rush
and roar of life in that Broadway OF the
lower class Gotharnites," Miss Pearson
was amusing herself by counting the differ
| ent nationalities represented In the shops,
and so on. Between two turnings on one
side of the street only she had passed
German delicatessen shop French laundry,
six drinking saloons kept by Irlshmen, a
Swiss wood carver, Spanish Jew pawn
| broker, an italian ballet masters academy,
and one solitary shop-a grOcery-kept by
| q native American. At the last corner she
came upon Fab Chung's laundry. She
stopped at the window 10 admire the scru-
| pulous cleanliness and to watch its owner
| at work.
| Now, the ways of American laundry wo-
men are not as the ways of the Chinese
laundrymen.
The former sprinkles the rough-dried
clothes by dipping her hand in basin of
water and flirting the drops from her finger
| tips. Then she rolls the garment up tightly
and lays it away for an hour or two to alb
sorb the moisture evenly.
Not so the Chinaman. He fills his mouth
with water and deftly elects a tiny spray
| over the garment in hand at the same time
he is ironing it.
Fab Chung lovingly pulling out the
dainty ruffles of a little white apron with
his slender yellow fingers, and ironing with
| ardor, was probably never so thunderstruck
| in his life as when it was snatched from his
/ hands and a lovely little face as red as
rose with anger and disgust disclosed to
! him Miss Pearsons indignant brown eyes.
| The rest of her things lay on shelf near,
| and, scolding as fast as her tongue could
| wag she gathered them up, thrust them
into piece of paper, threw half dollar
| upon the table, and marched away, the
amazed Chung in the meantime standing in
| helpless bewilderment, his cheeks puffed
out with his mouth full of water and his
| black eyes staring.
After that Miss Pearson sent her things
to an Irish woman, who scrubbed them to
| pieces within month, and the laundry Of
| Fab CInnp knew them M more Alas
| His second mistake-a fatal one-sprang
! from a national difference of views regard
| ing death and all things appertaining
| thereto which exists between the extreme
east and the west.
| He sent her most gorgeous and COM
| for able coffin-life size-fOr a Christmas
| present.
Anyone in China would have been fat
| tered no end by such splendid gift. Miss
| Pearson did not seem to like it.
| In fact, she took it as an intimation on
| the Celestials part that the wooden over
coat"-as they are facetiously termed in the
| States-would presently have wearer
whom he, in remembrance of the scene in
the laundry, would willingly provide.
| 1t is probable that Fab Chung would
have been kicked farther down the street
than he was, but that Caldwell, who was
! in the drawing-room when the gift was pre-
sented, had to leave him just then.
Miss Pearson in her agitation seemed TO
require someone to hold her in his arms and
call her his darling, and assure her that
| just as soon as he had time he would Ego
and finish that Chinaman." She would not
let any of the other fellows do it-Matie
did not offer to go-so Caldwell sacrificed
himself Good old fellow! Matte glanced
at them, and looked rather as if she could
have found use for that coffin if they had
not been in such haste to pitch it into the
| street after its heart broken owner.
The little Chinaman crept miserably away,
| wondering at the unciviliZed manners of
| those western barbarians." But even then
"'is 'art was true mot to Poll, but to
| Pearson.
Caldwell married Miss Pearson.
He got his diploma as M. d. and settled
in her old home. They are shining lights
among the Deep Water Baptists there.
| Mrs. Caldwell-in view of her great fa-
miliarity with the Chinese, whereof Fab
Chung's laundry list" framed and hang
ing in her sitting room, is a proofs always
called upon to entertain returned foreign
missionaries" and to preside over the top
| boots and blanket clubs.
Matte has transferred her affections to
her mothers present head boarder." She
is no longer young. She would not mind