the age when ordinary women lose theirs, and her children are celebrated as magnificent specimens of the future generation. We often see in country places matrons of over forty who are still like young women, both in looks and bearing, both in mental innocence and physical power. They have the shy and innocent look of girls; they blush like girls; they know less evil than almost any town-bred girl of eighteen, mothers of stalwart youths though they may be; they can walk, and laugh, and take pleasure in their lives like girls; and their daughters find them as much sisters as mothers. It is not quite the same thing if they do not marry; for among the saddest sights of social life is that terrible fading and withering away of comely, healthy, vigorous young country girls, who slowly pass from nymphs, full of grace and beauty, of happiness and power, to antiquated virgins, soured, useless, debilitated, and out of nature. Of these, too, there are plenty in country places; but perhaps some scheme will be some day set afoot which shall redress the overweighted balance, and bring to the service of the future some of the healthiest and best of our women. Meanwhile the fresh, innocent, breezy nymph is a charming study; and may the time be far distant which shall see her tamed and civilized out of existence altogether. A-TAE. A CHINESE LOVE-STORY. [Edward Greey, born at Sandwich, Kent, 1st December, 1835, served some time in the royal navy, and spent a number of years in China and Japan. He then settled in the United States, where, under the nom de plume of Sung-Tie, he has earned considerable reputation by his novels and contributions to the principal magazines. His chief works are: The Queen's Sailors; Two Kisses; John and I; Church Music Afloat; &c. The following is taken from The Queen's Sailors, a novel which is admirably told in the rollicking spirit of a sailor, and in which the author has turned to good account his experience of Chinese life. The hero of the incident is Jerry Thompson, a blithe-hearted seaman, who has been captured by Tartar bannermen, has made his escape, and is pursued by two soldiers, Păng and Yung.] After going a short distance, he (Jerry Thompson) fell in with a party of tea-gatherers, who invited him to join them. As he had no definite plan for the future, he accepted their offer, and, receiving a basket, was soon toiling up the hillside. The business was one which required the labourers to be at work by sunrise, as the kind of tea they were gathering is not picked when the sun gets too far up. A light fog hung about the hills, and the faces of most of the women were enveloped in wrappers, but as the day broke they took off these cloths, and revealed some very pretty countenances. Upon their arrival at the plantation to which the party were bound, the leader appointed the pickers and carriers: the former were expert young girls who had been trained to the business from childhood, while the latter consisted of the “dull-heads," or men; and as the sailor was supposed to be a poor Cantonese, and as such could know nothing about picking tea, he was directed to hold the basket for a sprightly girl named A-tae. Now, it is usual for the girl who picks the finer kinds of tea to be dressed in much better clothes than her basket-holder, and as A-tae was a beauty, and tolerably well-off, she was smartly attired; true, her garments were not very costly, but they were new and jauntily worn. Her dress consisted of two pieces, the usual loose blue trousers and wide-sleeved jacket, her hair being braided in queues which descended to her waist, while her head was protected from the sun by an immensely wide bamboo-hat. When the overseer directed the sailor to bear her basket she had not cast eyes upon the latter, having been listening to the silly story of a companion, so, thinking it was the usual "dull-head," she waved him to follow her, and turned into one of the rows; then, dexterously grasping a handful of leaves, she cried, "Come here!" and upon his placing the sieve-like basket under her hands, showered the leaves into it with marvellous rapidity. Having exhausted one bush, she was moving towards another, when, catching sight of her attendant, she uttered a little scream, and coquettishly turned away her head. Seeing her agitation, the enamoured basket-holder inquired if she were unwell. "No! I'm Come here, you fright!" The girl worked like lightning, ordering her holder about in a most imperious manner. At last curiosity overcame her, and she demanded the name of her slave. A-tae trembled as she cast a timorous glance towards her basket-bearer, and replied, "I call you Sho" (beautiful eyes), saying which she laughed, and added, "but surely you will not take that name?" "I'll call myself anything you choose to name me.' noticed the two soldiers [Corporal Păng and Yung], accompanied by police-runners, making towards him; so, after bestowing a fervent kiss upon the lips of the astonished A-tae, he sprang over the tea-plants, and sped away like the wind. The poor girl sunk upon the ground, cried, and wrung her hands like one demented. Her companions gathered round, and finding she was in trouble, prevailed upon her to go home. Meanwhile the soldiers and their party chased the agile sailor, running until they got out of breath; and when they last spied him he was darting into a wood, which was set apart for the use of Buddhist priests, and where I am a wanderer and a stranger they felt sure of bagging him during the course of the day. "Then I give you this,-Yung-Yung" (goodhumoured face). "And what may I call you?" "Me! Don't you know?" said the pretty girl, looking at Yung-Yung in a manner which made his heart bump again. "What! not know my name?" I do not. here." "Poor fellow. Have you no friends?" "None here. Will you be my friend?" "You don't know my name, yet ask me to be your friend. Speak lower, and look down while you talk, or the overseer will send some one else with me to-morrow." "What is your name?" "A-tae." After casting his eyes about in order to ascertain if any of the pickers were watching, he bent over the girl, who was very deeply engaged in removing some fine shoots from the lower part of a plant, and when she rose, as her cheek came quite close to his, he kissed it gently, and said, "A-tae, I love you." A-tae walked home like one in a dream, and was questioned by her mother, who anxiously inquired if she had "seen a spirit," she looked so scared and pale. She had seen one, the recollection of whom would never again be absent from her mind. She was in love, had been spoken too by a being, one of the opposite sex, who neither commanded nor treated her like an inferior animal. Was it not a dream? Was he not one of those genii who, assuming the appearance of gods, use their fatal beauty to destroy all whom they fell in with? What could he be? Poor little girl! She was sorely tried; so taking a few sticks of incense, she burned them before the picture of the Kitchen god, in The girl gave a nervous little laugh, then order if possible to get him on her side. But asked him what he meant. "I want to marry you.” "Where do you come from, Yung-YungSho, that you speak thus? Would I could be given to one like you; but I shall be, like other girls, sent off to slave for some man of my own class, or sold to a mandarin." (It will be perceived that A-tae was, although a Chinese, an advocate for woman's rights.) "Oh, Yung-Yung-Sho, do you think Buddha knows how badly they treat us poor girls?" "Can't you run away with me?" observed the sailor; "slip off in the night, and go away to a country where the women are thought as much of as the men." she didn't tell her mother about Yung-YungSho. Towards the evening she became very ill; and by night her anxious parents sent for a doctor, who, after writing a prescription, sub. mitted it to them. "How much will it cost?" demanded the father. "Two hundred cash," gravely replied the man of physic. "Can't you do it a little cheaper? we are poor people." "I don't think I can. Let me see. I can leave out the dried rats' tails-they are costly and the alligators' blood may be omitted. Well, say one hundred cash." "That's where Buddha is, Yung-Yung-Sho. There we shall be men. I know all about The mother was a clever woman, and didn't that, and have my Tich papers at home. I'm believe in the doctor's nostrums, so she denot as stupid as most girls. You are a bene-manded how much the gentleman wanted for volent man thus to listen to the nonsense of little me. But why do those Yuen-chae (policerunners) point this way? Are you wanted? If so, flee. That way, that way; up among the rocks, and hide in the caves. Jerry had little time to say farewell, as he the prescription. "Fifty cash." Pay him and let him go, my lord," she observed to her husband, who thereupon handed over the cash, and the doctor departed. When he was out of sight the old woman nodded shrewdly towards her husband, as much as to infer, "trust me for being smart," then having prostrated herself before the picture of the Kitchen god, gravely burned the prescription, and pouring some warm tea upon the ashes, carried the drink to her daughter, and compelled her to swallow it, saying soothingly, "You'll be all right to-morrow. "Oh, my heart, my heart," moaned the poor little girl. "Oh, it is not your heart, A-tae, it's your brain that has become oiled by the sun. You'll be all right now, as it will congeal again;" and having delivered herself of this very Chinese opinion, the old lady withdrew, leaving the poor child to combat a disease as old as the hills, and for which there has never been but one cure since the world began. Nothing but the possession of the loved one will satisfy the poor souls, who, like A-tae, suffer from this awful affliction. No doctor can cure them, possibly the priest may,-but not the man of medicine. When the girl's mother saw her husband the latter did not ask how fared his darling A-tae. She was but a girl, and her death would not cause him to shed a tear, but the mother made up her mind to one thing, as she informed her help. "If that girl gets a little better, I'll take her to Nan-woo," a very sanctified Buddhist bonze, who lived in a hole in a rock situated in the Buddhist grove, distant about eight li from her house. But A-tae became worse, so they bled her. This took away what little strength she had left, and the gossips said she would soon salute heaven. Upon the afternoon of the fifth day some of the women round her bed were speaking about the hunt after the stranger who had been working with A-tae upon the day she was taken sick, and after observing that "he must have bewitched the child," they mentioned something which had a wonderful effect upon the girl, and which caused her to rally from that moment. Jerry, having distanced his pursuers, determined to search for the caves of which A-tae had spoken. It was a smart chase, as the runners knew every inch of the ground; and after having sighted him several times, but to lose him again the next moment, one of them saw him disappear up a sort of ravine, from which they were certain he could not escape. "It is the retreat of Nan-woo, a very holy bonze, and he is as safe in that hole as a rat is in a bottle," observed one of the police. "He is a wizard, and will fly out if all other means fail him. Oh, I know we shan't catch him," grumbled Yung. "How can we fail, your excellency?” replied one of the attendants. "That path leads to a high rock, in which is a small hole, where Nan-woo entered fifty years ago. On each side of the path is a precipitous rock, which no man can climb; therefore your foreign devil, upon finding the path leads to nowhere, will retrace his steps. Let us, therefore, crouch down upon either side of the rocks at the entrance, place a cord across the pathway, await his return, and when he arrives we will lift the line, and trip him up." "Capital, capital!" cried the soldiers. Thereupon the party divided, and crouching down behind the gigantic boulders which lay beside the entrance to the gulch, string in hand, awaited the return of the sailor. They calculated he would possibly have a little chat with the bonze, then, finding there was no other outlet, would fall into their hands, and be captured without difficulty. Every now and then some noise, probably caused by rabbits, would make them start and clutch their line, but after waiting a considerable time, hunger reminded them that they had started upon the expedition without taking breakfast, and they determined to proceed up the ravine, and boldly bring the "eccentric one to bay." Having explored nearly the entire length of the place, they turned a bend in the pathway, and found themselves before the retreat of Nanwoo; but where was the sailor? "I expect he is in there along with the bonze," whispered Yung. "Bosh! How could he get in there? Why, it is five feet from the ground, and the hole is too small." "Ask the hermit if he has seen a man?" put in one of the runners. Upon this Păng, who did not believe in Buddhism, and consequently had little respect for its bonzes, advanced to the opening, and rapping his sword-handle against the screen, demanded if the old gentleman inside had seen a fellow trying to climb up the rocks which surrounded his cell. Fumbling at the slab of limestone which formed the screen before the entrance or pigeonhole of his cell, repeating as he did so the words "o-mi-tu-fuh, o-mi-tu-fuh," the old bonze at last succeeded in pushing the panel into a hole cut out for its reception in the side of the rock, and then asked the soldier what he wanted, upon which the latter repeated his question. The old bonze looked at his interrogator for some moments; at length appearing to understand him, replied, "My son, since first I entered this abode, these eyes have never beheld a man attempt to scale those rockso-mi-tu-fuh, o-mi-tu-fuh." "Come along, Păng; he's cracked. Let us seek the fellow in some other place; or, better still, we will return, or join the first party of rebels we come across, as it will never do for us to go back to our native town and say we have lost him." After a strict search they gave the matter up, and dismissing the police-runners, proceeded to the nearest rebel town, where they were received with open arms by Ma-chowwang, who commanded the insurgents in that district. When the sailor entered the ravine, he imagined it had another outlet, but upon discovering the small oven-like opening in the rock at the end (the same being open at the time), he, taking it for the entrance to a burial-vault, after running to give himself impetus, sprang up, clutched the ledge with his hands, then forcing in his head and shoulders, wriggled through, and dropped upon the floor. Nan-woo was slumbering, but in his sleep repeating the words "o-mi-tu-fuh;" upon which Jerry shook him, then prostrated himself, and, to the best of his ability, repeated the same words to the astonished bonze, who looked at him with horror, aud quaveringly demanded who he was. "Oh, my tooth full! oh, my tooth full!" ejaculated the prostrate sailor. However, at length he got up, and, in his best Chinese, prayed the bonze would save his life, and hide him from his enemies. Nan-woo was a merciful man, and as he had long desired an assistant, or disciple, agreed to shelter the fugitive. Having instructed him to hold his tongue, the old bonze took his position behind the screen, and awaited the arrival of the soldiers; how he got rid of them has been described. When night came the bonze lit a lamp, and Thompson had an opportunity of seeing what his quarters were like. The cell was an irregular apartment, cut out of the solid limestone rock. There was no furniture, but an old mat, while a water-jar, and an earthen chatty, containing a few handsful of dry rice, were the only kitchen articles the bonze possessed. Jerry surveyed the latter for a few moments, then asked if that was what he lived on? upon which the old man nodded, and taking a handful of rice, threw a few grains into his mouth, then drank a sup of water. "Well," exclaimed the sailor in his native language, "here's a go. I've been and signed articles to a toad in a hole, and got to live in a box office, on dry rice and water." Their frugal meal having been partaken of, the bonze chin-chinned his disciple, and with the assurance that no man would dare come up the gully at night (as he had declared it was haunted), the old gentleman dropped down upon his knees, and o-mi-tu-fuh'd at such a rate that Jerry set it to music, and joined in a sort of chorus. "I wonder what the deuce it means? I used to hear poor Jow a-saying of it. Oh my tooth full (stretching himself, and yawning); don't I wish I had a toothful of grog." When the sailor awoke the next morning he found the old bonze still at it,-"o-mi-tu-fuh, o-mi-tu-fuh!" and he kept it up all day, repeating the words in a mechanical sort of manner, which at times greatly irritated his companion. About ten o'clock a woman came, and asked what she should do to obtain luck. 66 Bring a dish of boiled rice and some tea, and place them in the road before my cell, as an offering to the evil spirits. Do this daily for a week." When she had departed another arrived, and the sailor amused himself, and improved his knowledge of the language, by listening to their wants. At last one came whose story caused the man to be all ears. It was A-tae's mother, who thus detailed her daughter's symptoms. "She has devils in her brain, who speak for her, and I fear she will die." Nan-woo, who had great faith in a youthful constitution, gave the afflicted mother two slips of bamboo, upon one of which was written, "Decline present benefit, and receive greater reward in future;" while the other ran as follows: "Ten thousand devils are not as tormenting as a bad heart." A-tae's mamma read these, and accepted them as the words of an oracle, of course torturing their meaning to suit her daughter's case. "When A-tae gets well, what shall she do?" "Bring me every morning, for one month, a basket of fruit and some young tea, then I will assure her perfect health." Jerry gave a sigh of relief. again somehow," he thought. "I'll see her It was a few days after this that the gossips were chatting around A-tae's mat, and what they said was this: "Oh, Mrs. So-and-so, have you heard the news? You remember how two soldiers hunted the man who frightened this poor child so? Well, they chased him to Nanwoo's hermitage, and the bonze told them that as soon as the thing saw him, it burst into a flame and vanished." "Did you ever?" cried one gossip. And little A-tae winked behind their backs. "Oh, splendid Yung-Yung-Sho, I shall see you again, my lord, my emperor, my deity. I shall live if I can only look upon you now and then. We will be like the Neih, who enjoy sublime love by merely glancing at each other. O dazzling Sho! You shall be my god, and I will burn incense to you day and night. My whole frame thrills with exquisite delight when I hear your voice. My eyes light up like lamps at night when I view you, Sho. Oh, my absorbing god, never look coldly upon A-tae. You will always speak gently to me, will you not? Always be so kind and tender to your little A-tae, who loves you from your queue to your shoes." Thus apostrophized the happy girl, and it was no wonder old Nanwoo's charms worked, for Cupid was directing them; and as musk overpowers every other odour, so, beside love, all pleasures in this life are utterly dwarfed and lost. 'Twas love nearly caused the death of A-tae, and the same potent spell restored her to life and hope. "Now, whether you like it or not, you shall visit Nan-woo next week," observed the girl's mother. "I'll try," dutifully replied A-tae. "I'll go, mother, even if it kills me. I'd rather die than displease my parents." Cunning little A-tae! Little A-tae improved wonderfully in health, and within five days after her mother's visit to Nan-woo announced that she was ready to set out for the sacred-grove. Her parent did not content herself with sending only some fruit and tea, but added sweetmeats and sundry delicacies, including a little rock-salt, which she packed in a neat bamboo basket, and gave her daughter, with many minute instructions as to her deportment. The early (eager, forward) frost kisses it gently, It blushes at the embrace; That was what she should have sung, but she altered it in this manner, for after uttering the words, "From first to last always beautiful," pouring her heart out in melody, she sang, By day my sun, by night my moon, I cannot forget the gentle embrace Soon again I shall behold the bright light of your eyes! Ah me! then pale and trembling As she sang this her eyes sparkled, and a smile illuminated her face. Was she not going to meet her true love, her own Yung-YungSho? Under those circumstances even a plain girl would have looked charming, and little A-tae appeared happy as a bird and bright as a diamond. The girl proceeded at a brisk rate until she came to the entrance of the ravine, upon which she stopped and tormented herself with surmises. "He has fled. He was killed, for my mother did not mention him. I am devoured with affliction; I must go back," she thought, but after a while summoned courage, and walking up the pathway, found herself before the "Ahem!" said a voice, which she knew did not belong to Nan-woo. It was a lovely autumnal day; and as the girl bent her steps towards the hill she mechani-hole in the wall. cally sang a very old Chinese ditty called "The life of a leaf," while her thoughts, wandering more fleetly on, were already with her beloved Yung-Yung-Sho. Strange to say, after the first few stanzas she altered the words in a manner which would have puzzled any Celestial who overheard her. The original song ran as follows: "Of the young bud, covered with down, A-tae blushed, cast down her eyes, and lifting the tribute basket placed it gently upon the ledge, but was too much agitated to speak. "Ahem!" repeated the person inside. "Sho," timidly whispered the girl, still looking at the ground; and ere she could raise her eyes the stone screen was pushed back, and |