leeping-rooms, and sheds for the carts and mules. Ku Nai-nai, An
Ching, and the children were shown into one of the sleeping-rooms. Then
the girls were allowed to stroll about the yard. No one took any notice
of Nelly. Ku Nai-nai explained that she was a southern child whom they
had adopted. She forbade Nelly to speak any English, and would not allow
either of the children to talk to the people of the inn. Little Yi, she
said, was her grandchild.

After supper (bowls of rice only) the women went out and sat down on the
side of the road and chattered. The children came too, and Nelly watched
the sun set. It was the first time in her life that she had ever seen it
go right down behind the earth and leave nothing but the fields in front
of them, all quite flat. She asked Ku Nai-nai if they would be up in
time to see it rise again in the morning. Ku Nai-nai told her that they
intended to start very early, and she could come out and look if An
Ching would come with her. An Ching said she would if she were not too
sleepy. An Ching had never thought of wanting to see the sun rise.
'Foreigners had such funny ideas,' she said.

When the sun had quite set they went in to bed, all four on one kang,
and slept well in spite of the fleas.

Next morning, before daybreak, Hung Li knocked at their door and asked
for their bedding, so that he could put it in the carts. Nelly
remembered the sun first thing, and as soon as she and Little Yi had put
on some of their clothes, they made An Ching come out with her hair
unbrushed. The children ran in front to the spot where they were the
night before, but saw only a grey mist.

'Why, there is no sun!' said Little Yi. 'We are too early.'

'I quite forgot that the sun never rises in the same place as it sets.
We must go round to the other side of the inn,' said Nelly.

An Ching was quite puzzled, and thought it wonderful for Nelly to know
where to look for the sun when she had never been there before.

They went round the inn and found the sun just appearing like a golden
ball. It seemed to come up very quickly, and then all around was quite
light and bright. When they went back to the inn An Ching was very
anxious for Nelly to explain all about the sun's movements, but Ku
Nai-nai said it was time to go, at which Nelly was not sorry, because
she was not sure that she remembered all there was in her geography book
about the sun.

Ku Nai-nai said that the sun did the same thing where she li