recognizing the hand of my friend Hop Sing. I opened it hurriedly, and
read as follows:--


"MY DEAR SIR,--I do not know whether the bearer will suit you; but,
unless the office of 'devil' in your newspaper is a purely technical
one, I think he has all the qualities required. He is very quick,
active, and intelligent; understands English better than he speaks it;
and makes up for any defect by his habits of observation and imitation.
You have only to show him how to do a thing once, and he will repeat
it, whether it is an offence or a virtue. But you certainly know him
already. You are one of his godfathers; for is he not Wan Lee, the
reputed son of Wang the conjurer, to whose performances I had the honor
to introduce you? But perhaps you have forgotten it.

"I shall send him with a gang of coolies to Stockton, thence by express
to your town. If you can use him there, you will do me a favor, and
probably save his life, which is at present in great peril from the
hands of the younger members of your Christian and highly-civilized race
who attend the enlightened schools in San Francisco.

"He has acquired some singular habits and customs from his experience
of Wang's profession, which he followed for some years,--until he became
too large to go in a hat, or be produced from his father's sleeve. The
money you left with me has been expended on his education. He has gone
through the Tri-literal Classics, but, I think, without much benefit. He
knows but little of Confucius, and absolutely nothing of Mencius. Owing
to the negligence of his father, he associated, perhaps, too much with
American children.