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Page 23
"'Eyah! Eyah!' cried the Chinamen on all the notes of the gamut, as they
fell back over each other. _They thought I was skinning my hands_. I
'smiled superior,' as I took the gloves off, and made an effect almost
as great by putting them on again."
"Oh, Cousin Peregrine, weren't they astonished?"
"They were, Maggie, And unless they are more familiar with Europeans
now, the mystery is probably to this day as unsolved to them as the
trick of the ball of thread and the twelve needles still is to me. By
this time, however, my boat was
'Far off, a blot upon the stream,'
and I had to hasten away as fast as I could to catch it up. I parted on
the most friendly terms from my narrow-eyed acquaintance, but when I had
nearly regained my boat I could still see them in their blue-cotton
dresses and long pigtails, gazing open-mouthed at my vanishing figure
across the rice-fields."
* * * * *
After a few seconds' silence, during which Maggie had sat with her eyes
thoughtfully fixed on the fire, she said, "Cousin Peregrine, you said in
your letters that it was very cold in the north of China. If Chinamen
know nothing about gloves, how can they keep their hands warm?" Maggie
had a little the air of regarding this question as a poser, but Cousin
Peregrine was not disconcerted.
"My dear Maggie, your question reminds me of another occasion, when I
astonished a most respectable old China gentleman by my gloves. I will
tell you about it, as it will show you how the Chinese keep their hands
warm.
"It was on this very same expedition. We were at Tung-Chow, about eight
miles from Pekin. At this place we had to leave the river, and take to
our Tartar ponies, which our Chinese horse-boys had ridden up to this
point to meet us. We had hired a little cart to convey our baggage, and
I was sitting on my pony watching the lading up of the cart, when a dear
old Chinaman, dressed in blue wadded silk, handsomely lined with fur,
came up to me, and with that air of gentlemanly courtesy which is by no
means confined to Europe, began to explain and expound in his own
language for my benefit."
"What was he talking about? Could you tell?"
"I soon guessed. The fact is I am not very apt to wear gloves when I can
help it, especially if I am working at anything. At the moment the old
Chinese gentleman came up I was holding the reins of my pony with bare
hands (my gloves being in my pocket), and as the morning was cold, my
fingers looked rather blue. Having ascertained by feeling that my
coat-sleeves would not turn down any lower than my wrists, he touched my
hands softly, and made courteous signs, indicating that he was about to
do me a good turn. Having signalled a polite disapprobation of the
imperfect nature of my sleeves, he drew my attention to his own deep
wide ones. Turning them back so as to expose the hands, the fine fur
lining lay like a rich trimming above his wrists. Then with a glance of
infinite triumph he bespoke my close attention as, shivering, to express
cold, he turned the long sleeves, each a quarter of a yard, over his
hands, and stuffing each hand into the opposite sleeve they were warm
and comfortable, as it were in a muff, which was a part of his coat.
More sensible than our muffs too, the fur was inside instead of out.
"He was the very pink of politeness, but at this point his pride of
superior intelligence could not be restrained, and he broke into fits of
delighted laughter, in which the horse-boys, the spectators, my friends,
and (as is customary in China) everybody within sight and hearing
joined.
"I took good care to laugh heartily too. After which I made signs the
counterpart of his. He looked anxious. I put my hand in my pocket, and
drew out my gloves. He stared. _I put them on_, and nodded, to show that
that was the way we barbarians did it.
"'Eyah!' cried the silk-robed old gentleman.
"'Eyah!' echoed the horse-boys and the crowd.
"Then I laughed, and the horse-boys laughed loudly, and the crowd louder
still, and finally the old gentleman doubled himself up in his blue silk
fur-lined robe in fits of laughter.
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