The pain and suffering, as might be expected, was very severe and continued so for about three years. In some families the child would have to stay of nights in an outhouse or elsewhere away from the family so as not to disturb them through the night, while in others the mother or mother-in-law would have a big stick by the side of her bed, with which to get up and beat the little girl should she disturb the household by her wails. Toes would often drop off under binding and sometimes the entire foot. When grown up the women could walk alone with their maimed feet for short distances but usually they needed to be supported by some one or something. "Don't imagine, however, that Chinese ladies are unable to move. They can, most of them, walk short distances. But it is true that the spirit is taken out of them by this species of suffering, and that they are oppressed by a sense of physical helplessness and dependence."[88] =Amusements.= "The active sports of Chinese boys are few. There are hardly any sports, so-called, that develop the muscles and render a lad graceful and agile. The Chinese boy at sixteen is as grave and staid as an American grandfather; and if he happens to be married soon after, he throws aside most games as being childish. At the best, he has nothing corresponding to baseball, football, cricket, bicycle-riding, skating, sliding, or tennis. Nor is he fond of exerting himself. He would rather sit for hours talking and joking than waste time in running and jumping. He thinks it work if his play entails much perspiration. His elders, too, frown upon boisterous games. They approve quiet, meditative lads who are given to study."[89] "Active, manly plays are not popular in the south, and instead of engaging in a cricket-match or regatta, going to a bowling-alley or fives' court, to exhibit their strength and skill, they lift beams headed with heavy stones to prove their brawn, or kick up their heels in a game of shuttlecock. The outdoor amusements of gentlemen consist in flying kites, carrying birds on perches, sauntering hand in hand through the fields, or lazily boating on the water, while pitching coppers, fighting crickets or quails, kicking a shuttlecock, snapping sticks, chucking stones or guessing the number of seeds in an orange, are plays for lads."[90]