The New York herald., 1922-06-18

SuOuiu De SO always. "A mint or the
solidarity I now feel with my hus-
bands family came to me. We were
not separate from them; nor should
we be.
After our mother was gone Chan
King said something Of this sort to
me, quoting what she had said about
my not being western. "But I love
you to be western in this sense" he
told me, that you and have COM
panionship and freedom and equality
in our love. That is what makes me
happiest."
Before hiking and 1 closed the
house in Shanghai to depart for the
southern hills our second son, Alfred,
was born. An American woman
asked me when he was about six
weeks old IL did not feel a sense of
alienation at the sight of the wee
Oriental face at my breast. Quite
simply and truthfully I answered no.
My husband was not in any way
alien to me. How, then, could our
child be SO?
His coming provided me with a
welcome excuse to remain at home
| quietly for a short while. I now at
tempted to learn, at the same time.
both Mandarin and the dialect of
Chan-King' province-a method of
study that hampered me constantly
at first. But my husband was an
encouraging teacher. and began un-
| certainly to use my new knowledge,
trying mostly on my young son. Will
fred. who was the real linguist of the
family. He took my Chinese very
seriously. cannot say so much for
Chan-King. who was greatly amused
at my infection.
Toward the close Of the year 1 de-
cided to take a place as teacher OF
English and history in Chinese
girls high school. Chan-King was
surprised when / told him that /
wished to teach, but he offered no
objection and watched with interest
my progress through the year. /
loved my teaching. Still more l loved
.he girls in my classes. Collectively
and individually I found them su-
premely worth while in spirit and
mind. 1 cannot say how lovely the
young womanhood Of China seemed
TO me. 1 began to yearn for
daughter, and when, toward the close
oil the second term. 1 found that l
might perhaps have my hearts de-
sire, I realized that MY husband
shared it.
w.
In the early fall our mother wrote
and asked US to come south tor the
cold season. She also expressed the
hope that the coming grandchild
might be born in her own province.
Chan King had been encopragingly
strong for over a year. but he had
always found the northern winters
hard. We decided that the time had
come to fulfill our promise OF visit
ing the ancestral home. Chan-King
secured six months leave of absence.
Within ten days we had closed our
affairs temporarily, dismissed the
servants, with the exception of the
l. ~. Cot Il a
our boxes together and bidden our
| friends farewell. The leaves were
| falling on the avenue; the plants
were shriveled at the edges on the
sun porch: the winds blew ON
inously shrill under the caves. Chan
King grew pale and began to cough
again. Out of the teeth Of the terri
BILE Shanghai winter we flew into the
hospitable softness of the south.
BY a large steamship we started
out on what was ordinarily brief
| journey. But by those wartime
schedules changes and delays were
the invariable rule. After three un-
foreseen changes and as many de-
lays we reached a port just over the
line in my husbands province. There
we stopped, intending to go on three
days later by the little, battered.
tramp steamship that puffed noisily
at the dock, putting off dried fruits
and dyes. taking on rice and cloth
and sa1dalwood. But we did not go