The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1895-02-10
WANDERING SPIRITS.

warm and balmy. The breeze from the
great Formosa channel flakes the lower
bay with silver dashes and flaunts every
flag upon the numerous junks which lie
in the water edge of that populous city
But this year it was different Gray
clouds hung over the universe, and a
cold and cherries wind from the north
made fire positively agreeable despite
the fact that the place lies almost with
In the tropics.
In small house near Banyan villa
lived q poor Chinese family. The father,
Tan Sin, was away at the time on the
tea gardens of Formosa where he went
every year to earn the little money that
supported his, household. The mother,
All 10, a bright eyed and pretty woman,
was at home nursing the baby. 1t had
been very sick for several days, SO sick
that the ordinary medicines had pro-
duced no result. All Ho had been COM
PEELED to call in an aged and distin-
guished physician from Annoy.
The wise man had examined the in
FAINT, shaken his head, given some mys-
FERROUS drugs, again shaken his head
and gone off in his chair carried by four
stout coolies. Before he went he said to
Tai, the old family servant, THAT is a
very sick child, and am afraid it will
not live until tomorrow.
After he had gone All Ho cooked the
drugs into a tea and administered it in
the patient and mechanical manner
which is so characteristic of the people
in the east.
As the afternoon wore on the baby
grew worse. The little face became wan
and pinched, the eyes closed as if tired
with tho weight of the eyelids, and the
feeble pulse beat more slowly and slow
ly. Tai got ready the simple evening
meal, but All Ho could not eat. 1t was
her only child, and this was the first
time that she had ever been face to face
with the great mystery we call death.
The old servant lit the lamps, and then
remembering it was the night of the
Wandering Spirits lit handful of joss
sticks and placed them in groups of
three upon the mantelpiece in the sick
room, in the ancient bronze vase before
the ancestral tablets and in the vain
scoting of the door opening into the
quadrangular yard. AS she did the last
she looked up and noticed that the sa-
cred talisman which had been fastened
to the wall early in the morning had
either dropped off or been blown away.
When she noticed the fact, she trembled
and began to weep. 1t was her duty to
have seen that the talisman remained
where it was. The moment it fell the
house became open to any evil spirit
that might be passing, and this was the
day and the night of the Wandering
Spirits.
She looked about the quadrangle and
finally found the yellow cardboard in
scribed with the curved characters of a
language that died 1000 years ago,
when greater and wiser race had ruled
in the faroff districts of Quin Lun. She
picked it up and with her palsied fin
gers reaffixed it to the wall. She looked
sideways in through the doorway and
saw All Ho sitting there grooming love
song over the sick child, and saw the
child's face thinner and paler than be-
fore. There came terrible fright over
Tails mind. 1t might be that through
her carelessness some wicked spirit had
entered the house and was about to car
ry away the soul of the little one.
The old woman wrung her hands and
mumbled a prayer to Buddha. Then she
stood still with her old head bowed
down upon her breast and tried to think
Tho medicine had done no good. The
great doctor had done no good. The joss
sticks and tho talisman had been of no
avail. There was no doubt that the lit
tie boy in the room beyond must cross
the sacred river. Then she rememb ered
the great English doctor who lived;in
Kulangsu. He was an eminent man,
who made more money in day than a
Chinese mechanic could make in year.
he lived in a palace and had retinue
of servants in beautiful uniforms who
said that he knew more than all the
Chinese doctors in Annoy together
Once before, when she was sick nigh
unto death, he had taken pity upon her
and had visited her miserable abode. He
had given her costly medicine and shown
her strange instruments, and she had
recovered. This was the only man who
could be of any benefit to her little mas
ter. But could he be induced to come?
All Ho had neither money nor jewels,
and as for herself her sole possessions
were the clothes she wore and another
suit which hung near her bedside.
Would he come? He must comet She
would bring himl She did not know
how she could do it, but inspired by
love she felt that if she could but see
him and talk to him moment he
would come to the house and bring with
him that which would mako the child
strong and we'll once more
1t had grown dark by this time, and
the clouds had become heavier and heav-
Ter. Grasping her old walking stick, she
started ont into the night in search of
the English surgeon.
Tho sick child had grown heavier as
the hours rolled by. All Ho had fallen
into doze, seeing nothing but the ba-
by's face in her arms. OF sudden she
started, looked at the child and broke
into passionate scream. The feeble
pulse no longer seemed to beat, and tho
hands were turning cold. Then sno To-
membered it was the night Of the Wan
dering Spirits and fell upon her knees
with her face toward tlio little Buddhist
altar in the corner of the room. Sho be-
gan her prayer ~ she had been taught
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