Far Off; Or, Asia and Australia Described: With Anecdotes and IllustrationsMortimer, Favell Lee
Religion
Far Off; Or, Asia and Australia Described: With Anecdotes and Illustrations
Mortimer, Favell Lee
Asia -- Description and travel; Australia -- Description and travel
Chun long rejoiced that she had so firmly refused to marry a heathen. One
day, Miss Grant said to her, playfully, "Has your husband beaten you
yet?" (for she knew that Chinamen think nothing of beating their wives.)
Chun replied, with a sweet look, "O no! he often tells me, that _first_
he thanks God, and then _you_, Miss, for having given me to him as his
wife."
There was another girl at Miss Grant's school, named Been. Sometimes she
was called Beneo, which means Miss Been, just as Chuneo means Miss Chun.
Miss Grant hoped that Been loved the Saviour, and hated idols, but she
soon lost her, for her parents took her to their heathen home.
After Been had been home a short time her mother died. The neighbors were
astonished to find that Been refused to worship her mother's spirit, and
to burn gold paper, to supply her with money in the other world. While
her relations were busily occupied in their heathen ceremonies, Been sat
silent and alone. Soon afterwards, her father, who cared not for her,
sold her to a Chinaman to be his wife, for forty dollars.
Miss Grant heard her sad fate, and often longed to see her, but did not
know where to find her. One evening, as she was paying visits in her
palanquin, she saw a pair of bright black eyes looking through a hedge,
and she felt sure that they were her own Been's. She stopped, and
calling the girl, saluted her affectionately. She was glad she had found
out where Been lived, as she would now be able to pay her a visit.
Soon she called upon her, in her own dwelling;--a poor little hut in the
midst of a sugar plantation. She brought as a present, a New Testament in
English, and in large print. Been appeared delighted.
"Do you remember how to read it?" inquired Miss Grant.
"Yes, how could I forget?" Been sweetly replied.
"Well then, read," said Miss Grant.
Been read, "I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep."
"Do you understand?" inquired the lady.
"Yes," said Been, and she translated the words into Malay.
As Miss Grant was rising to depart, she observed a hen gathering her
brood under her wings.
"Of what does that remind you, Been?"
"I know," said the poor girl; "I remember what I learnt at school;" and
then in her broken English, she repeated the words: "As a hen _gaderet_
her chickens under her wings, so would I have _gaderd de_, but _dou_
wouldest not."
At this moment, Been's husband came in. The girl was glad, for she wanted
Miss Grant to ask him as a great favor, to allow her to spend next Sunday
at the school. The husband consented. There was a joyful meeting indeed,
on that Sunday, between Been, and Chun, and Han; nor was their
affectionate teacher the least joyful of the company.
SIBERIA.
This is a name which makes people _shiver_, because it reminds them of
the cold. It is a name which makes the Russians _tremble_, because it
reminds them of banishment, for the emperor often sends those who offend
him to live in Siberia.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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