new that he would have said,
"My insignificant feet are proud your honored estate to tread!"

Oh, then, but the garden rang
With laughter and joy--ting, tang!
There was never a happier spot that day in the realm of the
great Ching-Wang!
And oh, but it waned too soon,
That golden afternoon,
When the princess played with her Ray of the Sun, her darling
Beam of the Moon!

For when the shadows crept
Where the folded lilies slept,
Out into the garden all at once the prince her father stepped,
With a dignified air benign,
And a smile on his features fine,
And a perfectly gorgeous gown of silk embroidered with flower
and vine.

A fan in his princely hand,
Which he waved with a gesture bland
(Instead of a gentleman's walking-stick it was carried, you
understand),
In splendor of girdle and shoe,
In a glitter of gold and of blue,
With the fair Su-See at his side came he, the lordly Prince
Choo-Choo.

The princess bent her brow
In a truly celestial bow,
Saluted her father with filial grace, and made him the grand kotow.
(For every child that's bright
Knows well the rule that's right,
That to knock your head on the ground nine times is the way
to be polite.)

"And, pray, what have we here?"
In language kind though queer
The prince observed. "It looks to me like a little boy, my dear!"
"Why, that's what it is!" in glee
The princess cried. "Fing-Wee--
Most Perfectly Peerless Prince-Papa, a dear little brother for me!"

[Illustration: PRINCE CHOO-CHOO]

Loud laughed the Prince Choo-Choo,
And I fancy he said "Pooh-pooh!"
(That sounds very much like a Chinese word, and expresses
his feelings, too!)
And the fair Su-See leaned low.
"My Bud of the Rose, you know
If little Fing-Wee our son should be, your honors to him must go!"

But the princess's eyes were wet,
For her dear little heart was set
On having her way till she quite forgot her daughterly etiquette.
"Oh, what do I care!" she said.
"If he only may stay," she plead,
"I will give him the half of my bowl of rice and all of my fish