"Well, that _is_ rather wonderful! Is that what you have
down-stairs, Lucy?"

"That doesn't half tell it, father," cried Charlie. "He's a little
Chineseman!"

"I was in the Consul's office this morning," went on Mrs. Van Buren,
smiling at her husband's astonishment; "and the Consul said to me,
'Wouldn't you like to have a neat, trim, tidy, honest, faithful,
tender-hearted, polite boy to learn general work?' I said to the Consul,
'Yes, that is the person that I have been needing for years.' He said,
'Would you have any prejudice against a little Chinese servant, if he
were trusty, after the general principles I have described?' I said to
him, 'None whatever.' He continued: 'A Chinese lad from Manchuria has
been sent to me by a friend in the hong, and I am asked to find him a
place to learn American home-making ideas in one of the best families.
Your family is that place--shall I send him?' So he came in the Consul's
coach, as Lucy said, and with him an immense trunk covered with Chinese
brush-marks. He seems to be a little gentleman; and when I asked him his
name he said, 'The Consul told me to tell you to call me Sky-High.'
He doesn't speak except to make replies, but these are in very good
English."

"May I give my opinion?" asked little Lucy.

"Well, Lucy," said her mother, smiling, "what is your opinion?"

"He looks like an emperor's son, or a mandarin," said Lucy.

"And what put such a thought into your head?" asked her mother.