"I will go out with you," said Charlie, "when you are sent out to do
errands. I will stand between you and the dirt. The dirt comes out of
their souls."

"And I will watch around the corners and speak to them," said Lucy.

Sky-High's heart bounded at these pledges of friendship, and he leaped
about in a way that made the parrot laugh--sometimes he had the parrot
in his cabin, and taught it Chinese words. "The sun shines for all, the
earth blossoms for all," he said to the children; "it is only the heart
that needs washee-washee and smoothee-smoothee. Everything will be
better by and by. I talk flowery talk, like home, out here among the
birds, butterflies, and bees."

(Nora said he "jabbered" all day long in the cabin.)

Mrs. Van Buren very soon promoted the careful little Chinaman to have
all the care of the beautiful living rooms and the quaint old parlors.
He brought the flowers and admitted the visitors. He did his work in
admirable taste. It shed a kind of good influence through the house, to
see the little fellow in his fine linens flitting around, so careful was
he to keep all things in speckless order.

The chief drawback was that he still used "flowery talk"; to him the
world was a field of poetry, and he spoke in figures whenever he forgot
himself. Mrs. Van Buren was still Madam the Mandarin, and he called Lucy
the "Lotus of the Shining Sea." He received many reprimands for the use
of these Oriental forms of speech; but found it hard to harness his
thoughts to track-horses, especially after the June days began to fill