[Illustration: {Woman walking with the support of her maid}]

8. I am glad to say that many parents do not now bind the feet of their
girls. They have learnt that it is both wicked and foolish to do so. At
one school in China all the girls have their feet unbound. They skip and
play about almost as well as Kate and May.

9. You and I think that only dirty, untidy people let their nails grow
long. Rich people in China never cut their nails. They let them grow so
long that they have to wear shields to keep them from being broken.

10. The dress of a Chinaman is very simple. He wears trousers and
several cotton or silk tunics. The outside tunic has very long, wide
sleeves; these are used as pockets.

11. The trousers are loose, and are covered up to the knee by white
stockings. When a Chinaman is in full dress he wears a long gown. The
Chinese boy wears the same kind of clothes as his father. Every man,
woman, and child carries a fan.

12. Chinese boots are made of cloth or satin, never of leather. The
soles are made of rags or paper. We blacken the uppers of our boots.
Chinamen whiten the soles of theirs.

[Illustration: {Chinese boots}]

13. Now I must end this letter. When I come home you must ask me to tell
you about the rice fields and the silk farms and the Great Wall. I have
a hundred more things to tell you about this wonderful land.--Your