Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1901-05-18
CHAPTER ONE.

in Now York were anxious that no
blame DC attached To them. Blank
faced Orientais with long pig tails
han"ing down their backs walked up
and down in the middle Of the street.
Now and then some curious white
visitor would step into one OF the
little Gilors and make n purchase to
c,,tv away rs 4 rouvcnir OF China
town. Chinese men and children were
everywhere. The Wonlon looked cut now
and then from behind the curtains on
the upper floors OF TIE tumble down
old buildings.
The one bright cnd shining spot In
all this changing scene was the quilt
ed groom silk jacket Of little siX-yeafS-
old Fun Ting, son of Sing High Ting
who kept q laundry on Columbus ave
me. ana whose wife and son lived IN
Mott street. Fun Ting chung close to
his fathers side and looked with large
round eyes at the many Wrinhieu
faced old men who stopped in their
solemn walk on the pave stones TO
sneak to him in their queer Cantonese
jargon. He answered them II the
same language. much to their delight.
His father. always Of sunny DISPOSE
ton. was sad this morning. He made
His heart was heavy. Up in dark
skv bedroom little Fun ring's mother
was dying She was all alone with the
Young doctor from Hudson street
hospital. and after pressing the hand
of the yellow man she called her huS-
band size mad requested him 10 take
little Fun Ting out for walk in the
sun that he might not see his mother
pass away. And. too, now that she
had reached the end Of her career she
wanted TO die with something of q
Christian atmosphere about her.
though she had lived continually IN
that of her Buddistic husband for the
last ten years. He had taught her
something of the beauty of tire Orien-
tai religion. ami finding it more relent-
Ing than the stiff Methodist doctrine
that she had been brought up in she
had derived comfort from it at such
times as the awfulness Of her past
came to her with overpowering force.
Sing High Ting was not demonstra-
tive. but he loved his wife. He knew
that She was dying. He knew too Chat
for ali MS teachings she was esseltially
n Christian. So going TO a closet he
hunted till ne found q little black
Eible which he placed on the pillow ct
her side and then taking his son in
his arms passed silently down the
stairs.
While Mrs. Sing High Ting lay
STIRRING up at the ceiling the shadow of
her paat life came up to her. and
scalding tears rolled on the pillow as
she thought Of the little New England
farm where she was born and where,
among the oxford hills. Ter cid par
hn no he
green slope in front of the house, the
mighty sweep of the great mountain
back of it. She pictured her mother
ard father. row old and probably
feeble. going about their daily tasks
as they had for forty years.
Then she remembered her own joy
Gus. rebelliouS youth and her Willful-
ness over her first serious affair of the
heart. How she had run away and
left the farm, and with her lover had
come to the city He had promised her
great things. tie had given her moth
ing but dismal flat in Harlem, and
had deserted her in loss than year.
Then came her attempts to earn a liv
ing, her failure, and the dark year and
u half when her life was too miserable
even to remember much of. DiScOur-
aged and i'll, cast out by the Bowery
dive keepers, she had been on her way
to the river when passing the laundry
Of Sing High Ting the flavor Of 4 de-
Icious soup had made her pause, starry
ing rs she was. The Shrewd oiientai rec
OGniZad her stamp, saw that she was
hungry. and told her 70 so IN and eat.
She went-and had never iepentcd it.
He had been very kind to her, even
to marry ing her in Christian fashion
and to surrounding her with all that
money could buy for comfort in a Mott
street tenement. After the misery she
had undergone ct the hands Of the
man she had loved the tenderness of
tho Chinaman was n relief to her. She
had come to esteem him for his good
ness to her. and when their one child
was born his joy over the advent of
the little boy had made her almost love
him. But though she had never really
loved him, she had developed n wild
passion for their child and Little Fun
Ting had grown to the age of six with
the constant attention and care of his
mother. She had attended to his edu-
cation, and he could talk English rs
we'll as any boy of his age. and could
count in English and Chinese far into
the hundreds. While he had q Chris
tian education from his mother he also
had mystic learning from his father
that even his mother did not under
stand, though she had acquired n
smattering of Chinese customs and
words.
And now she was dying. What
would become of Fun Ting? Would il
be better for him to go back to China
with his heather father. or ought she
To send him to the old home among
the hills, that his grandmother might
continue the education that she had
begun.
Everyone in the old town Thought
her dead. No one knew that she was
the wife of n Chinaman Once when
she read in a paper from her homo
state that the old farm was to be taken
away because of mortgage. she had
gone to her husband with tears in bar
eyes ana asked him for eight hundred
dollars. He was surprised but gave II
10 hef without a question. Later she
iau tod him that it was to helm her
la>hcr' and lie had esteemed her mora
ior ire deed. But at tie old faro on
the mountain side no one eye.. dro,n,o1
Nii'it tne money came from Tlo,.