gilded fringes; and with it he wore a golden butterfly with jeweled
wings on his rimless cap.

Even Mr. Van Buren had wondered where a servant obtained such a
glittering robe! One day he described the wardrobe of his house-boy
to the consul. "Is everything all right?" he asked.

The consul laughed. "You don't know China!" he said. "Probably the old
Manchurian mandarin had a fancy for decking out the boy!"

Nora's eyes used to double in size when she saw him in silk and gold and
silver, with the jeweled butterfly waving above his narrow black eyes.
"There's not the loikes on this planet," she would say. "I would think
he'd stepped off a star and landed here! Queen Victory never looked the
aqual of that little hathen varmit!"

It was agreed that Sky-High should be made the Santa Claus of the
Christmas party. He promised to appear in his dragon robe, though he
said it was never worn in public excepting on vice-royal occasions.

"Sky-High, did you ever see a vice-royal occasion?" asked Lucy,
wondering what the double word meant.

"Yea, my little Lady of the Lotus," answered the house-boy. "And once
I was present on a royal occasion in Pekin. The Son of Heaven appeared
that day in all his splendor."

"You waited on your mandarin?" asked Lucy.

"I attended upon my mandarin--yes?" Little Sky-High burst forth into the