"They're all gone mad sure!" said Nora; "and that boy'll never send 'em
back!"

Mr. Van Buren wished to learn something of the Chinese language as
spoken, and was willing to study an hour every evening with the
house-boy, and Lucy and Charles picked up the funny choking phrases as
fast as their father.

Mr. Van Buren said that Manchuria, the land of the conquering Tartars,
was likely to play a notable part in the history of the future in
connection with the great Siberian railway; and the whole family began
to take an interest in the history and condition of that vast province
on the Ameer, where little Sky-High had lived.

Mrs. Van Buren read aloud to them all the story of Kubla Khan and of
Tamerlane, and of Marco Polo, the great traveler, and about the Mongols,
the Buddhist missionaries, the Great Wall, the long periods of peace and
temple building. They studied the maxims of Confucius and the accounts
of modern missionaries.

For Charles and Lucy to hear these stories of the country that had given
the world fire-crackers and silk, and was, moreover, the land of their
dear little Sky-High, was like listening to the "Arabian Nights." The
winter passed away quickly, delightful with their preparations for the
great journey.

"You said that you had lived with the mandarin of Manchuria, I think,"
remarked Mr. Van Buren to Sky-High one evening.

"With _a_ mandarin in Manchuria, master," corrected Sky-High.