ARCHIE, who had become greatly interested in the accounts given by his sister of child-life in many lands, began the conversation by saying: "I think I should like to hear about the children of China this evening, Elsie. I remember a little, though I am afraid it is only a little, about Chinese schoolboys. I read some account of a boys' school in China in the book Uncle Frank sent me last year. I wish you would tell me something about the girls. Do they have to go to school too?”
Elsie was silent for a few moments, such a far-away look seemed to be in her eyes that Archie could not be quite sure that she had heard his question. But just as he was going to repeat it, she roused herself and said: "Ah, Archie, you have asked me to tell you a very sad story. The lot of girls and women in that far-off land is often a dark and sorrowful one. Perhaps the best way to explain what I mean will be to suppose that we have traveled all the way to China, and are going to pay a visit to a Chinese baby in its home.
“But first I should like you to tell me if you remember how many people are said to be living in China?”
“No, Elsie, I cannot say that I know the exact number; but I think it must be a great many, for I have read that China is fifteen times as large as England and thickly peopled in almost every part.”
“Yes, Archie, you are right in calling it a great many.' The population of that vast empire is said to be about four hundred millions. But we find it very difficult to understand how many those words or figures really mean.
“Now we must pay our visit.
“The people of China are very poor. The father, being a coolie, or laborer of the lowest class, day after day, for there is no Sunday rest in China, he has to work hard, either in the rice fields or in carrying heavy loads; all he receives as wages being about four pence a day. The house he lives in is built by sticking a few bamboo poles into the soft, damp earth, the walls and roof being of mud and rushes. When the house is finished it looks something like a large basket turned upside down. There are no windows, but an opening is left for a door. This space admits light and air during the day, at night it is always covered with a mat. There is not much furniture inside, only a few mats, one or two stools, a few earthen jars and basins, and a large iron pot used for cooking rice.
“Thousands of the poorer class of Chinamen and their families live in just such dwellings as I have been trying to describe to you.
“One day the father returned from his work to find a little daughter, only a few hours old, lying on a mat by the side of her mother. He was not at all pleased, and said, ‘We did not want a girl, we are very poor; if it had been a son he would have helped to support us when we are too old to work. But we have no rice to spare for a girl. Give the baby to me, and I will drown her.'
“Hundreds of female infants are destroyed in China every year, often by their fathers.
“But the mother pleaded, ‘No, do not drown her. Look at her; do not you see she is pretty? Her eyes are small and quite black, and her ears are like sweet cakes. Some rich man will buy her, when she is old enough, for a wife for one of his sons. She shall have small feet, and we will make a lady of her.'
“And so the unwelcome little stranger was allowed to live. Her feet were not bandaged till after she was old enough to run about and play with other children. Then a message was sent to her parents to ask if they would like to sell her. They were much pleased, and the price was agreed upon. About sixteen shillings in English money was to be paid to her father. But she must have small feet, and so the work of torture began. Her feet were first rubbed with some kind of oil, then all the toes were pressed under the foot and so tightly bandaged as to cause great pain. The poor little girl cried very much, and begged that the bandage might be taken off, but in vain. Her mother told her she would one day be a lady, and never have to go to work in the fields, and she must learn to make the tiny white satin shoes she would be expected to wear on her wedding day. So the slippers were made, worked with gold and silver thread, when finished they are sent to the shoemaker to have small, but very high, heels made of wood fastened on.
“When the time comes for the girl to go to her new home she is placed under the care of her future mother-in-law, who often treats her very unkindly.
“The house is sometimes quite a large one, containing several rooms, the inner always being those of the women. But it needs love to make a happy home, and many women, and even young girls, in China find their lives so sorrowful and unhappy that they try to escape from them by taking large doses of a poison called opium.
“Little more than a year ago, two lady missionaries in China were asked to go and see a girl, only fourteen years of age, who had, they were told, taken a large quantity of opium. When they reached the house where she lived, they found it quite filled with people, laughing and making a good deal of noise. The poor girl, though very ill, seemed much excited, and said she would not take the medicine brought for her.
“They felt so sorry for the young girl, for they knew she had never even heard of the Lord Jesus and His love. But it was a joy to their hearts to remember, even in that strange scene, that their Savior had all power.'
“Kneeling in the midst of that wondering crowd of Chinese women, they spoke to Him in prayer, asking very simply that He would make the girl more quiet and willing to take the medicine, and even while they prayed the answer of peace was given.
“The patient became as gentle and submissive as she had been noisy and excited before, and when the medicine was again offered to her she took it without any objection.
“In a little while she threw up the poison she had taken, and, though very weak and exhausted, seemed much better; so leaving her to rest, the missionaries turned from her to the women who still filled the room, and finding that many of them had not even heard the Savior's name, they read from a Chinese translation of the Gospels the account of how the Lord Jesus awoke the ruler's young daughter from the sleep of death (Matt. 9:18-27); and so were able to say a little about His power and willingness to save all who come unto God by Him.
“But I think I have talked almost long enough for one evening, so we will now leave the subject till to-morrow.”