Connecticut western news., 1900-11-22
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kU YUM'S LITTLE SISTER
 The Story of . Chinese Child.
BY SIN SIN FAR.

@o~o@o%o@o%o~@o@o&o~o@o@oS Ku Yum lived her little life In large room In the top story of San Fran cisco Chinatown tenement It was panels hanging on the walls and gay mating on the foor-airy and sum- shiny, too. with breeze from the bay wandering through the windows, which opened on to a balcony bright with Towering plants and bowls of Chinese lilies
 ku Yum was scarcely as high as the railing around the balcony, and passers in the street below who might happen to glance up could easily discern her small black head through the rails. It was nearly always there, for Ku Yum liked well to watch the life in the street. Besides. Ku Yum was on the lookout for a little sister. There was nothing in this world that Ku Yum wanted so much as little sister.
 Ku Yum had two small brothers to play with and an old nurse to look aft CT her. She had an elder brother, too but he lived down stairs with her fa- ther and the men who worked in her fathers cigar factory. He was 12 years old and went to the Chinese gov ernment school, so that Ku Yum had almost as much respect for him as she had for her parent.
 One day Ku Yum said to her nurse, 'I wish had little sister,"
 And her nurse replied: You have better than little sister. You have brothers"
 But more badly want what Is like myself than what Is better" persisted Ku Yum.
 l was about o'clock in the after noon. Her father had taken her broth CTS to a hill where they could fly their kites, and Ku Yum was alone with her | nurse. The old woman was stitching rows of imitation pearls upon bright | colored velvet band that was to adorn Ku Yum's head during the first days of | the coming New Year. The little girl sat on a stool learning how to em- | broider.
 ''Tell me a story, Woo Ma," she | pleaded.
 And Woo Ma, the nurse, told her a | story of one who had attained to great honors because when lad of 9 he had cheerfully cut piece of flesh out of his | arm to please his mother, who had ex- | pressed wish to see blood flow. | Ku Yum did not like that story and | insisted that mistake had been made | in the telling and that 1t could not have been the boys mother that had allowed him to cut his fiesh-that 1t must have | been his nurse.
 \ "Oh," exclaimed the old woman, -'what tongue the child has. Listen, then, and I will tell you what you will like to hear," and she began:
 Every year when the almond tree bursts into bloom the Queen of Mercy, seated on lily throne, wraps a spirit sword in cloth of violets and gives it to a dove that flies with 1t into the heavens
 But how can little bird carry any thing so heavy as a sword" asked Ku Yum. examining weapon made of Chinese cash strung together which hung over a couch in a corner of the room, a charm to ward away evil spir- its.
 T said that it was a spirit sword" replied the nurse rather grossly. She did not like to be interrupted
 Some one knocked at the door. It was the tailor's wife from across the street. Her baby boy. who the day be fore had completed the moon," which means attained to the age of one month. had, according to established | Chinese custom, been shaved then for the first time. The result was violent cold, and the mother was anxious that
 Woo Ma. who was skilled in nursing
 sick children, should accompany her
 back to the house. So away went Woo
 Ma, leaving Ku Yum alone.
 Now there were dreams in Ku Yum's
 eyes and longings in her heart. and five
 minutes after the departure of Woo
 Ma saw the little girl slipping quietly
 down the tenement's steep stairs. Up
 on reaching the street she looked
 around wonderingly and perceiving (
 child of about her own age greeted her
 Rut the child frowned and flung out
 her arm as h to strike, and Ku Yum
 walked on, saying to herself, That is , not my little sister,"
 , Two little girls carrying basket be
 tween them smiled at her as they pass. ed Ku Yum smiled back. but did not
 speak, for she thought, ''They are two
 and my sister will be one" : She cast wistful glances into the
 doorways of houses where children
 were playing, but nobody in particular
 seemed to wish for her company. In , deed, some girls mocked at her, and one boy pulled the silk cord out sf bel