"No," I said sternly.

"You sabe muchee big foolee! allee same!"

And, with this audacity upon his lips, he fled. The next morning,
however, he was as meek and patient as before, and I did not recall his
offence. As a probable peace-offering, he blacked all my boots,--a duty
never required of him,--including a pair of buff deer-skin slippers
and an immense pair of horseman's jack-boots, on which he indulged his
remorse for two hours.

I have spoken of his honesty as being a quality of his intellect rather
than his principle, but I recall about this time two exceptions to the
rule. I was anxious to get some fresh eggs as a change to the heavy
diet of a mining-town; and, knowing that Wan Lee's countrymen were great
poultry-raisers, I applied to him. He furnished me with them regularly
every morning, but refused to take any pay, saying that the man did not
sell them,--a remarkable instance of self-abnegation, as eggs were then
worth half a dollar apiece. One morning my neighbor Forster dropped in
upon me at breakfast, and took occasion to bewail his own ill fortune,
as his hens had lately stopped laying, or wandered off in the bush. Wan
Lee, who was present during our colloquy, preserved his characteristic
sad taciturnity. When my neighbor had gone, he turned to me with a
slight chuckle: "Flostel's hens--Wan Lee's hens allee same!" His
other offence was more serious and ambitious. It was a season of great
irregularities in the mails, and Wan Lee had heard me deplore the delay
in the delivery of my letters and newspapers. On arriving at my office
one day, I was amazed to find my table covered with letters, evidently
just from the post-office, but, unfortunately, not one addressed to me.