er friends, who would
all be preparing to go to the hills with their parents, and the days
seemed very long. It was hard just to wait, with nothing at all
happening. One day was just like another. There were no Sundays, no
letters, no books, no lessons. The time was not even divided into weeks.
Nelly quite lost count of the date. She only knew it Chinese fashion, by
the number of new moons there had been since the Chinese New Year.

It appeared as though Hung Li never would go to Peking as he had said,
but he did start one day at the end of May, and An Ching told the
children that he intended to see the barber and arrange for them to be
handed over to their parents. He had business to do on the way to Peking
as well as in that city, so that he would be away some time, An Ching
said.

Nelly was very glad to see Hung Li start, and she leaped through the
round hole in the wall again and again, really and truly jumping for
joy. She made An Ching and Little Yi sing their very best and loudest,
until the small court resounded with the strains of 'Art thou weary,'
and Ku Nai-nai, who was rather deaf, and shouted a good deal when she
talked, heard the singing in her room, where she was sitting smoking on
the kang. Little Yi and An Ching soon tired of singing so hard this hot
day, but Nelly was too full of delight at the thought that Hung Li was
actually off to feel any fatigue. She was more like little Nelly Grey of
the British Legation than she had been since that unlucky day on which
she wandered from home. She kept up her spirits and energy for two or
three days, and then something happened.

One morning the two children and An Ching had been singing and Nelly
giving her English lessons as usual, when Ku Nai-nai came out, and in
her usual rough, loud, screaming voice when angry, demanded why they
were wasting time there instead of helping to get the mid-day meal
ready. An Ching had quite forgotten that the old woman-servant was not
well, and was shut up in her room out of the way. The children began to
follow An Ching; but Ku Nai-nai, who certainly appeared to have got out
of bed the wrong side that morning (only you can't get off a kang except
at one side), would not allow Nelly in the cook-house. 'No foreigners
shall meddle with _my_ food,' she said; whereat Nelly was very glad, for
she had only offered to go and help on An Ching's account.

So Ku Nai-nai hustled off An Ching and Little Yi, at the same time
telling Nel