known what to do; for Bessie
never even put on her own shoes and stockings. Nellie would have liked
her bath to-day, although she often felt that she could do very well
without it. But she knew that it was impossible to have one, and made up
her mind to dress without washing. Imagine her surprise when she found
that her clothes had been taken away from the corner of the kang where
she had left them, and a little suit of Chinese girl's things put in
their place! They were not new clothes either, although they certainly
did look fairly clean. Just then An Ching woke, and laughed when she saw
Nelly standing without anything on but the little white petticoat she
had slept in, and looking for her clothes.

'Where are they?' asked Nelly.

'Ku Nai-nai came in early this morning and took them away,' replied An
Ching. 'She wants you to put on our kind of clothes. Make haste and we
will go across the courtyard to Ku Nai-nai's room for breakfast.'

Then An Ching awoke Little Yi, who was very much amused to see Nelly
putting on her Chinese dress.

'But her hair won't do,' said Yi.

'No,' replied An Ching, 'we must see to that.'

Poor Nelly! She had to swallow very hard to keep back the tears. What
did they mean to do with her?

She soon found out, however, when they had all taken some Chinese
porridge in Ku Nai-nai's room, and wiped their faces and hands with wet
towels. Ku Nai-nai told her that she was to have her head shaved in
front and the back dressed in a tail like Little Yi's.

Nelly begged and protested and cried in vain. An Ching told her that it
was of no use to cry, and that if she made any trouble or noise she
would be whipped, but if she were good and quiet no one would be unkind
to her.

A Chinese barber arrived, and poor Nelly was obliged to submit to having
her front hair cut away and a small portion of her head shaved. Nelly's
hair was dark, though not black, like a Chinese child's. They all said
she looked very nice, and the boy grinned from ear to ear. Nelly would
have liked to slap him. The barber seemed very well satisfied with his
work and the pay he received. Ku Nai-nai threatened him with all sorts
of revenge if he breathed a word of what he had done, and told him that
if he kept quiet they would perhaps employ him to take Nelly back to
her parents.

When the barber had gone, two carts appeared in the small compound, and
out of one stepped a young, surly-looking man, who, An Ching said, was
her