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Page 19
"We are very happy," they murmured, "very happy. This moment alone is
worth all that we have endured. It is true we are fading before we have
ever fully bloomed, and after this we do not know what will happen to
us. But the young girl is right. One cannot quite despair. It seems
impossible that those who really love each other should be separated for
ever."
COUSIN PEREGRINE'S WONDER STORIES.
THE CHINESE JUGGLERS, AND THE ENGLISHMAN'S HANDS.
(_Founded on Fact_.)
Cousin Peregrine had never been away quite so long before. He had been
in the East, and the latter part of his absence from home had been spent
not only in a foreign country, but in parts of it where Englishmen had
seldom been before, and amid the miserable scenes of war.
However, he was at home at last, very much to the satisfaction of his
young cousins, and also to his own. They had been assured by him, in a
highly illustrated letter, that his arms were safe and sound in his
coat-sleeves, that he had no wooden legs, and that they might feel him
all over for wounds as hard as they liked. Only Maggie, the eldest,
could even fancy she remembered Cousin Peregrine, but they all seemed
to know him by his letters, even before he arrived. At last he came.
Cousin Peregrine was dressed like other people, much to the
disappointment of his young relatives, who when they burst (with more or
less attention to etiquette) into the dining-room with the dessert, were
in full expectation of seeing him in his uniform, or at least with his
latest medal pinned to his dress-coat.
Perhaps it was because Cousin Peregrine was so very seldom troubled by
chubby English children with a claim on his good nature that he was
particularly indulgent to his young cousins. However this may be, they
soon stood in no awe of him, and a chorus cried around him--
"Where's your new medal, Cousin? What's it about? What's on it?"
"Taku Forts," said Cousin Peregrine, smiling grimly.
"What's Tar--Koo?" inquired the young people.
"Taku is the name of a place in China, and you know I've just come from
China," said Cousin Peregrine.
On which six voices cried--
"Did you drink nothing but tea?"
"Did you buy lots of old China dragons?"
"Did you see any ladies with half their feet cut off?"
"Did you live in a house with bells hanging from the roof?"
"Are the Chinese like the people on Mamma's fan?"
"Did you wear a pigtail?"
Cousin Peregrine's hair was so very short that the last question raised
a roar of laughter, after which the chorus spoke with one voice--
"Do tell us all about China!"
At which he put on a serio-comic countenance, and answered with much
gravity--
"Oh, certainly, with all my heart. It will be rather a long story, but
never mind. By the way, I am afraid I can hardly begin much before the
birth of Confucius, but as that happened in or about the year 550
B.C., you will still have to hear about two thousand four
hundred years of its history or so, which will keep us going for a few
months".
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