British Columbia -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Revenge -- Fiction; Sawmills -- Fiction
"One piecee litty gal velly hansum, belongy Pitt Liber Pete," said
Wong, who was the helper at the Chinee Trimmer. He said it with a
grin, "Velly nicee klootchman alla samee tenas Yingling gal my know
at Canton, Consoo's litty waifo."
She was as pretty as any Consul's little wife, that's a solid
mahogany hard wood fact. But with twelve hours work of the sort of
work that went on in the Mill who could think of running after the
"one litty piecee hansum gal" but the man who didn't work with his
hands?
Wong was a philosopher, and, like all real philosophers, not a good
patriot--if one excepts Hegel, who was a conservative pig, and a
state toady and hateful to democrats. Wong had fine manners and was
a gentleman, so much so that the white men really liked him and never
wanted to plug him, or jolt him on the jaw or disintegrate him, as
they did most of the Chinkies. He returned the compliment, and
sometimes quarrelled with his countrymen about the merits of the
whites, as one might with Americans and others about the children of
the Flowery Kingdom.
"My likee Melican man and Yingling man," said Wong. "Velly good man
Melican: my savvy. Some velly bad, maskee oders velly good. If
Chinaman makee bobbely and no can do pidgin, Melican man say 'sonny
pitch'; maskee my can do, my savvy stick-mula mamook, so Melican man
and Yingling man say, 'Good Wong, no sonny pitch, velly good.'
Melican gentleman velly good all plopa. What ting you tinkee?"
Wong was an enigmatic mask of a man, wrinkled wondrously and looking
sixty, though nothing near it, as hard as solid truth, fond of
singing to a mandolin, great at Fan tan, but peaceable as a tame duck.
He had a kind heart, "all plopa that one piecee man" from Canton, and
one day (not yet) he has his place here, all out of kindness to the
"litty hansum gal belongy Pitt Liber Pete." May his ashes go back to
China in a nice neat "litty piecee box" and be buried among his
ancestors who ought to be proud of him. Blessed be his name, and may
he rank with Konfutse! I preferred him to Hegel. And if any of you
want to know why I refer to him, you must draw conclusions.
But, as we were saying, who could have full time to run after the
"litty gal" but Quin?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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