The Little Girl Lost: A Tale for Little GirlsRaper, Eleanor
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The Little Girl Lost: A Tale for Little Girls
Raper, Eleanor
British -- China -- Juvenile fiction; China -- Juvenile fiction; Missing children -- Juvenile fiction
'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 lived in the
country when she was a girl, and it used to set behind different trees
at different times of the year.
'When you are as old as I am, An Ching, you will know more about
things,' said she. 'You would know more now if you spent less time in
looking into the glass.'
And then they certainly would have quarrelled, if Hung Li had not
appeared and scolded them for not being ready; at which Ku Nai-nai
turned upon him and asked in a loud voice what he meant by being rude to
his parent in a public inn. As no Chinaman likes to appear disrespectful
to his mother, Hung Li said no more.
At last they were ready to start again. Nelly could scarcely climb into
the cart, so stiff and sore was she with her long cart ride of yesterday
and two nights on a stone kang with only a wadded quilt to lie upon. But
she did manage to get in, though not without shedding some tears at the
thought that she was going farther away from her parents. And somehow
the cart did not seem to bump so badly to-day, and the stiffness wore
off instead of growing worse as she had expected. She was getting used
to it.
They went along very slowly all day, and put up again that night at
another inn. This time it was a small village, and there was no open
space in front. The children were too tired even to talk. They both went
to sleep almost as soon as they arrived, and slept until rather late
the next morning, for Hung Li did not now seem to be in such great
haste to reach Yung Ching. When they woke they were quite fresh, and
Little Yi was anxious to be off once more; for An Ching said that there
was a river to cross, which she seemed to think rather exciting.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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