The Blue Dragon: A Tale of Recent Adventure in China

by Kirk Munroe

  CHAPTER I

  A STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND

  "Chinee! Chinee! Chink! Chink! Chink!"

  These epithets, and many others equally contemptuous, such as "RatEater!" and "Piggy Tail!" were gleefully shouted by a mob of youngragamuffins who crowded about a single youthful figure, early one summermorning, on the elm-shaded main street of Hatton. The lad thus hustledand insulted was a good-looking chap according to the standard of hisown people; though his long-lashed, wide-set eyes were narrower thanthose of his tormentors, his clear complexion held a tint of yellow, thefront half of his head was shaved, and the remaining luxuriant growthof jet-black hair, such as all Chinese have, and of which they are soproud that they call themselves "the black-haired people," hung in athick, glossy braid down his back. He wore a blue gown that fastenedclosely about his neck and fell in severely simple lines, without beltor ornamentation, almost to his feet. Below it could be seen a pair ofblack silk trousers, tightly fastened over a narrow section of whitestockings, that in turn were lost to view in black cloth shoes havingembroidered tops and felt soles. He had worn a round, visorless cap ofblack silk, surmounted by a crimson knot, but this had been knockedoff, and now was being ruthlessly kicked and trampled underfoot by thehoodlums who, having discovered a victim that could be abused withimpunity, were making the most of the welcome chance. Nor were theywithout encouragement in their cruel sport; for a group of men and youngwomen, on their way to the great factory that was at once the mainstayof Hatton's prosperity and an ever-threatening menace, had paused toenjoy the sight of a crowd of American boys tormenting a helplessforeigner, and greeted the sorry spectacle with shouts of laughter.

  "That's right, kiddies!" cried one of the men. "Down with theyellowbelly, and teach him that this country ain't no place fer him norhis kind."

  "Dirty, rat-eating scab!" growled another.

  "Somehow, it don't seem right, though," said one of the young women,with a tone of pity in her voice, as the badgered lad was suddenlyjerked backward and nearly thrown to the ground by a violent pull at hisqueue. "He does look so like a girl, with his blue dress, his littlehands, and his braided hair."

  "Oh, hush up, Mag! You're too soft for anything!" exclaimed another."He ain't nothing but just a low-lived heathen Chinee, like them asruns the laundry over to Adams. They'd take the bread out of honestworking-people's mouths quick as wink, if they was give half a chance."

  Just then the factory bell rang with insistent clamor, and the jeeringgroup of workers moved on. At a meeting held a few evenings beforethey had loudly cheered and unanimously passed a resolution to theeffect that the government ought immediately to deport to their owncountry, at their own expense, all Chinese found within its territory.One of the speakers had declared that, if the government was slow indoing this thing, it was the duty of every American citizen to takethe matter into his own hands, drive out the Chinese wherever found,destroy their places of business, and hunt them to the death if theyoffered resistance. Of course, the children of those men, having heardthis resolution discussed, and its accompanying speeches repeated withapplauding comments, deemed it their privilege to attack, and, ifpossible, drive from their virtuous village every representative ofthe hated race they might encounter; and, unfortunately for him, poor,innocent, helpless Chinese Jo was the first to fall into their joyfulclutches.

  This was the first experience of his first day in Hatton, which he hadreached after dark the evening before. He had come to America, fromhis far-away native land, in company with a dozen others of his youngcountrymen. These others had been sent over by the Chinese governmentto be educated and taught the ways of Western civilization; and Jo'sfather, Li Ching Cheng, a progressive mandarin, who realized the valueof such an education, had seized the opportunity to add his one dear sonto the party, that he might gain the priceless advantage of some yearsof study in the same land.

  Now it happened that in Mandarin Li's district labored an Americanmedical missionary, Mason Hinckley by name, who also had an only son.When this boy was four years old, his parents, desirous that he shouldhave an American training from the outset, had taken him to the UnitedStates and placed him in charge of his uncle and aunt, the Rev. Williamand Mrs. Hinckley, of Hatton, a manufacturing village of the lovelyConnecticut valley. Then, with aching hearts, they had returned totheir lonely post of duty in China, and only twice during the followingfourteen years were they able to visit their boy.

  When Mandarin Li announced that he, too, proposed to send a son toAmerica, and asked if the Hinckleys could not arrange to have himreceived into the same family with their Rob, they gladly consentedto do what they could. Their hope for their own boy was that he wouldeventually return to China, and they realized the value to him of apresent companionship with a young Chinese of education and refinement.So a letter was sent to Hatton, and finally everything was arranged forthe comfort and happiness of Mandarin Li's son. Thus he was sent forthon his long journey, half-way around the world, filled with a joyousenthusiasm over his prospects.

  He and his young friends travelled in charge of a home-returningAmerican, who had promised to see them safely to their severaldestinations in New England. By his advice they adopted English namesfor use in the country to which they were bound, and our lad chosethat of Joseph. As his father's surname was Li, which, in Chinese, ispronounced "Lee," he thus became known to his future teachers and moreprecise acquaintances as Joseph Lee; but all his American boy friendscalled him "Chinese Jo," or "China Jo," or "Chinee Jo," according totheir several degrees of intelligence, and it is thus that we shallknow him as we accompany him through the various adventures which it isproposed to record in the following pages.

  They began, as already has been seen, with his very first morning in thenew home that he had reached the evening before, tired from his longjourney, bewildered by the multitude of strange sights and experiencesthat had crowded thickly about him from the moment of landing at SanFrancisco, and terrified at the great loneliness that had come to himwith the departure of his comrades, who had been left, by twos, at otherplaces before Hatton was reached. At the last of these points, only afew miles away, the gentleman who had escorted them from China had beenobliged to send him on alone, after notifying the Hinckleys by telegraphof his coming.

  Rob met him at the Hatton station, looked after his luggage of queercamphor-wood boxes, and took him to the pleasant parsonage that was tobe his home in the strange land. Although Jo talked only broken English,while Rob had very nearly forgotten the Chinese of his childhood,they managed to converse after a fashion, and took to each other fromthe very first. Rob, eighteen years old, brown, broad-shouldered, andsturdy, offered a striking contrast in appearance to the slender ladwho walked, with noiseless, felt-shod feet, beside him, and Jo at onceconceived a liking for the young American, who greeted him so cordially,took charge of him and his affairs with such an air of authority, andeven could speak a few words of intelligible Chinese.

  Rob also was pleased with the foreign lad, whose appearance recalled ahappy childhood spent in company with many such blue-clad figures on theother side of the world. At the same time he was glad that Jo had notreached his destination a few hours earlier; for he realized that thestrangeness of his companion's costume and his general make-up wouldhave attracted much unpleasant attention from the village boys had theybeen revealed by daylight. He determined to urge upon his uncle theadvisability of confining Jo to the house on the following day, or untilhe could be provided with an outfit of American clothing, and persuadedto wear his hair in accordance with American ideas.

  A warm welcome and a good supper awaited the young traveller at theparsonage; and under their cheering influence his homesickness was,for the time being, forgotten. His boxes were promptly delivered atthe house, and from them he took the most marvellous array of giftsfor various members of the Hinckley family that ever had been seenin Hatton. To Mrs. Hinckley he presented several superb pieces ofembroidered silks from Canton, a centre-piece for a table of pale-blu
egrass linen, drawn work from Swatow, a cloisonne teapot from Pekin,and half a dozen tiny teacups of exquisite Foo-Chow porcelain. For Mr.Hinckley he had wonderful ivory carvings in the shape of chessmen, anda wadded silk dressing-gown; while to Rob, in addition to several jarsof Chinese confections, including sugared ginger-root, bamboo-tips,water-melon rind, edible sea-weeds, and palm-leaf buds, he gave acomplete suit of Chinese clothing, such as is worn by the sons ofwealthy mandarins, and selected from his own wardrobe. It was instriking contrast to the simple scholar's gown of light-blue cottoncloth that he had adopted as an inconspicuous travelling costume; forits dark-blue skirt was heavily embroidered with gold thread; it had ajacket of light-blue silk, with wide, flowing sleeves, a wine-colored,sleeveless over-jacket of the same rich material, black silk trousers,with plum-colored over-trousers, a light-blue silk cap, with a crystalbutton on top, silken socks, and gold-embroidered felt shoes.

  Rob gasped with amazement when the various parts of this superbcostume were unfolded before him, and was inclined to regard it withcontemptuous amusement.

  "All these silk petticoats and things for a boy!" he sniffed. "Catch meever wearing such a lot of girl's stuff! And, I say, Uncle Will, thatreminds me--don't you think we'd better get him into American clothes,and have his pig-tail cut off, before he is turned loose on the street.He'll jump into no end of trouble if he shows outside in anything likethese, or even as he is now. It looks funny even to me, and I'll bet hecouldn't walk down Main Street without being mobbed."

  "I myself think that the sooner he conforms to the dress and customs ofthe country in which he is to reside for some time to come, the betterit will be for him," replied Mr. Hinckley. "But, Rob, I don't like theway you seem inclined to treat his gift, and I am very glad he could notwholly understand what you just said about it. A gift of any nature,offered as a token of friendliness and good-will, should be acceptedin the same spirit, even though it may not be just what you would havechosen. I do not know of anything that hurts one's feelings more keenlythan to have a friendly overture contemptuously rejected."

  "Of course, I wouldn't hurt his feelings for anything, Uncle Will,"replied Rob, with a contrite flush mounting to his forehead. "I alreadylike him too much for that, and I wouldn't have said what I did abouthis present if I had thought. I do thank you ever so much," he added,turning to Jo, "for all this silk stuff. I'm awfully glad to have it,and I'll put it away to wear at my first fancy-dress ball, if I ever goto one. Anyway, whenever I look at it, I'll be reminded that Chinese Jois my friend, and that I am his."

  Although Jo did not understand all the words thus spoken, he was sofully satisfied with their tone and the smile that accompanied themthat, a little while later, when he went to bed, he was happy in theconsciousness of having gained a friend of his own age in this strangeland of strangers.