|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 21
"Like the pictures on the tea-boxes," whispered little Bessy.
"There's a figure of it in the grocer's window," said her brother, who
had seen more of the world than Bessy; "not a picture, a figure dressed
in silk; and they're square boxes, not baskets, that he's got--wooden
panniers I call them."
"Who else used to stop, Cousin Peregrine?" asked Maggie.
"Street confectioners, Maggie, with small movable sweetmeat stalls,
which they carry on their backs. Men with portable stoves too, who
always have a cup of tea ready for you for a small coin worth about the
twentieth part of a penny. Tiny-footed women toddling awkwardly along,
with children--also cramp-footed--toddling awkwardly after them, dressed
in all the colours of the rainbow, and with their poor little arms stuck
out at right angles with their bodies, to help them to keep their
balance. Even the blind beggars, who go along striking on a bell to let
people know that they are blind, as otherwise they might be knocked
over, even they used to stop and listen to my juggler's jokes, though
they could not see his tricks.
"All this was in the street; but sometimes I got him to come into my own
courtyard to do his tricks there, that I might watch him more carefully.
But watch as I might, I could never see how he did this particular
feat. He used to do it with no clothes on except a pair of short
trousers, for in the hot season, you must know, the lower classes of
Chinese go about naked to the waist. Indeed, hot as it is, they don't
wear hats. The juggler possessed both a hat and a jacket, as it
happened, but he took them off when he did his trick."
"And what _was_ the trick?" asked several impatient voices. "What did he
do?"
"He used to swallow ten or twelve needles one after the other, and 'wash
them down' with a ball of thread, which he swallowed next, and by and by
he used to draw the thread slowly out of his mouth, yard after yard, and
it had all the needles threaded on it."
"Oh, Cousin Peregrine!"
"He used to come quite close to me, Maggie, as close as I am to you now,
and take each needle--one after the other--between the finger and thumb
of his right hand--keeping all the other fingers away from it, stick the
point of it for a moment into his other palm, to show that it was sharp,
and then to all appearance swallow it bodily before your eyes. In this
way he seemed to swallow successively all the twelve needles. Then he
opened his mouth, that you might ascertain that they were not there, and
you certainly could not see them. He next swallowed a little ball of
thread, not much bigger than a pea. This being done, he seemed to be
very uneasy (as well he might be!), and he made fearful faces and
violent gestures, and stamped on the ground, and muttered incantations,
and threw up his hands and eyes to the sky; and presently the end of a
thread was to be seen coming out between his teeth, upon which he took
hold of this end, and carefully drew out the thread with all the needles
threaded on it. Then there was always much applause, and the small coins
used to be put pretty liberally into the hat which he handed round to
receive them."
"Was that all?" asked the young gentleman of the adventure books.
"All what, Fred?"
"All that you thought wonderful."
"Yes," said Cousin Peregrine. "Don't you think it curious?"
"Oh, very, Cousin, and I like it very much indeed, only if that's all
_you_ thought wonderful, now I want you to tell us what _you_ did that
_the Chinese_ thought wonderful."
"It's not very easy to surprise a town-bred Chinaman," said Cousin
Peregrine. "What I am going to tell you about now happened in the
country. It was up in the north, and in a part where Europeans had very
rarely been seen."
"How came you to be there, Cousin Peregrine?"
"I was not on duty. I had got leave for a few days to go up and see
Pekin. Therefore I was not in uniform, remember, but in plain clothes.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|