A Tale of Red Pekin

ome day when we go back to England we shall get it all put together and have it published in one big book. It has always been my ambition to write a book, and I am quite sur

in the place of honour on the cover. I was so delighted about it and so was father, but then he always does love everything I do. People say he spoils me,

alk and tell tales of sport and adventure. Of course I know father would have liked me to have been a boy. He must have been disappointed, though he never

e since I stayed with Uncle Paul and Aunt Christine. We went to them w

goda a

Paul is an angel. When I am with him I feel all the time a longing after something better. I told Mrs. Ross about him. Mrs. Ross is my great friend here. She is young and very pretty, and she met Uncle Paul once. When I told her what he made me feel like, she said, "Yes, I know, dear, he makes you feel as if you didn't care how your frock fitted, but when you get away you think to yourself you may as well look as nice as you can." Mrs. Ross has only been married a few months. She came here just after her honeymoon. She has the most wonderful eyes I have ever seen, like the stars in the soft, dark sky. She and I and nearly

ion appeared in the sky; it was a spirit girl, they said, with a lamp in her hand. Father and I went out to see it, but of course we did not see the girl, but only a brilliant light in the sky, and the Chinese, who are very superstitious, imagined the rest. But what caused more stir and alarm than anything else was the mysterious Red Hand which suddenly appeared in Pekin. Mrs. Ross and I saw it on a house one day, and then again on another, and as the people caught sight of these dreadful Red Hands they gesticulat