A Gift for the Children by Pearl S. Buck

Author:Pearl S. Buck
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2019-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

“Of course she did,” Mother said, “but still she wanted a little boy, just for a change and just for once. Besides, there was the name, Brave Boy, all ready and waiting.

“Well, the Chinese father came in, and he was a tall gentleman with black mustache and black eyes and a kind face, and he wore a long robe of silk—”

“A robe?” David asked.

“That is what Chinese gentlemen wear,” Mother said, “and they look very nice, too. And when the Chinese father saw the Chinese mother with her face turned to the wall, he said, ‘Aren’t you ashamed not to speak to your dear little new baby!’

“He bent over the baby’s little bamboo bed and he said, ‘Why, she’s a very pretty little thing. I shall call her Mei-er.’ Mei-er means Pretty-two. And he chucked the baby under the chin and went out again, and sat outdoors in the court and smoked his water pipe—”

“Water pipe?” Peter asked.

“That’s what Chinese like to smoke,” Mother said. “It is a brass pipe with tobacco on one side and water on the other, and the smoke has to go through the water, and that cools it so it doesn’t burn your tongue. Well, the Chinese father sat smoking his water pipe out in the court and we were playing there. We had been playing, kicking our shuttlecocks—”

“Kicking them?” Michael asked.

“That is what we did in China,” Mother said. “We took some small cash, which were copper coins about as big as our quarters over here, except they had holes in the middle. We sewed them together tightly in a bit of rag and stuck three small feathers into the hole, and sewed them in tightly, too. Then the game was to see how many times you could hop on one foot and with the other foot doubled up inward, kick the shuttlecock on your ankle and keep it in the air….

“Plenty Precious could do it the best, because she was little and light … and Precious could do it the next best because she was only a little fat … but More Precious could not do it at all, because she was so fat and besides she was the one who laughed all the time.

“As for me, some days I could do it and some days I couldn’t. Well, as I said, we had been playing shuttlecock in the court and waiting to hear if the baby boy had come. When the Chinese father came out we all shouted, ‘Is it a boy this time?’

“He looked at us, pretending he didn’t understand.

“‘Who?’ he asked.

“‘The new baby,’ we answered.

“‘Oh, that one,’ he said, ‘no, it is a nice little girl, a very pretty little girl, and her name is Pretty-two.’

“We all sat perfectly still and for once More Precious didn’t laugh for one minute. We all knew how the Chinese mother had wanted a boy this time, and she was such a nice mother, so kind and good and pretty, and she so often bought us sesame candy and barley toffee, that we felt sad.

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