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Contents (93)
  1. CONTENTS
  2. MRS. SPRING FRAGRANCE
  3. I
  4. II
  5. III
  6. IV
  7. THE INFERIOR WOMAN
  8. I
  9. II
  10. III
  11. IV
  12. V
  13. VI
  14. THE WISDOM OF THE NEW
  15. I
  16. II
  17. III
  18. IV
  19. V
  20. VI
  21. VII
  22. “ITS WAVERING IMAGE”
  23. I
  24. II
  25. IT WAS A COOL, QUIET evening, after a hot day. A new moon was in the sky.
  26. III
  27. “CURSED BE HIS ANCESTORS,” BAYED Man You.
  28. IV
  29. THE GIFT OF LITTLE ME
  30. THE STORY OF ONE WHITE WOMAN WHO MARRIED A CHINESE
  31. I
  32. II
  33. HER CHINESE HUSBAND
  34. THE AMERICANIZING OF PAU TSU
  35. I
  36. II
  37. III
  38. IV
  39. IN THE LAND OF THE FREE
  40. I
  41. II
  42. III
  43. IV
  44. THE CHINESE LILY
  45. THE SMUGGLING OF TIE CO
  46. THE GOD OF RESTORATION
  47. THE THREE SOULS OF AH SO NAN
  48. I
  49. II
  50. III
  51. IV
  52. THE PRIZE CHINA BABY
  53. LIN JOHN
  54. TIAN SHAN’S KINDRED SPIRIT
  55. THE SING SONG WOMAN
  56. I
  57. II
  58. TALES OF CHINESE CHILDREN
  59. THE SILVER LEAVES
  60. THE PEACOCK LANTERN
  61. CHILDREN OF PEACE
  62. I
  63. II
  64. III
  65. IV
  66. V
  67. “HOW MANY MOONS, LIU VENTI, since our little ones went from us?” asked Pau Tsu.
  68. THE BANISHMENT OF MING AND MAI
  69. I
  70. II The Tiger’s Farewell
  71. THE STORY OF A LITTLE CHINESE SEABIRD
  72. WHAT ABOUT THE CAT?
  73. THE WILD MAN AND THE GENTLE BOY
  74. THE GARMENTS OF THE FAIRIES
  75. THE DREAMS THAT FAILED
  76. GLAD YEN
  77. THE DECEPTIVE MAT
  78. THE HEART’S DESIRE
  79. THE CANDY THAT IS NOT SWEET
  80. THE INFERIOR MAN
  81. THE MERRY BLIND-MAN
  82. MISUNDERSTOOD
  83. THE LITTLE FAT ONE
  84. A CHINESE BOY-GIRL
  85. I
  86. II
  87. PAT AND PAN
  88. I
  89. II
  90. III
  91. THE CROCODILE PAGODA
  92. A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  93. A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER

The young man smiled pensively and reminiscently. More than a dozen young maidens “loved and lost” were passing before his mind’s eye.

“The truth of the teaching!” echoed Mr. Spring Fragrance, a little testily. “There is no truth in it whatever. It is disobedient to reason. Is it not better to have what you do not love than to love what you do not have?”

“That depends,” answered the young man, “upon temperament.”

“I thank you. Good evening,” said Mr. Spring Fragrance. He turned away to muse upon the unwisdom of the American way of looking at things.

Meanwhile, inside the house, Laura was refusing to be comforted.

“Ah, no! no!” cried she. “If I had not gone to school with Kai Tzu, nor talked nor walked with him, nor played the accompaniments to his songs, then I might consider with complacency, or at least without horror, my approaching marriage with the son of Man You. But as it is—oh, as it is—!”

The girl rocked herself to and fro in heartfelt grief.

Mrs. Spring Fragrance knelt down beside her, and clasping her arms around her neck, cried in sympathy:

“Little Sister, oh, Little Sister! Dry your tears—do not despair. A moon has yet to pass before the marriage can take place. Who knows what the stars may have to say to one another during its passing? A little bird has whispered to me—”

For a long time Mrs. Spring Fragrance talked. For a long time Laura listened. When the girl arose to go, there was a bright light in her eyes.

II

MRS. SPRING FRAGRANCE, IN SAN Francisco on a visit to her cousin, the wife of the herb doctor of Clay Street, was having a good time. She was invited everywhere that the wife of an honorable Chinese merchant could go. There was much to see and hear, including more than a dozen babies who had been born in the families of her friends since she last visited the city of the Golden Gate. Mrs. Spring Fragrance loved babies. She had had two herself, but both had been transplanted into the spirit land before the completion of even one moon. There were also many dinners and theatre-parties given in her honor. It was at one of the theatre-parties that Mrs. Spring Fragrance met Ah Oi, a young girl who had the reputation of being the prettiest Chinese girl in San Francisco, and the naughtiest. In spite of gossip, however, Mrs. Spring Fragrance took a great fancy to Ah Oi and invited her to a tête-à-tête picnic on the following day. This invitation Ah Oi joyfully accepted. She was a sort of bird girl and never felt so happy as when out in the park or woods.

On the day after the picnic Mrs. Spring Fragrance wrote to Laura Chin Yuen thus:

MY PRECIOUS LAURA,

May the bamboo ever wave. Next week I accompany Ah Oi to the beauteous town of San José. There will we be met by the son of the Illustrious Teacher, and in a little Mission, presided over by a benevolent American priest, the little Ah Oi and the son of the Illustrious Teacher will be joined together in love and harmony—two pieces of music made to complete one another.