“The story of the mandarin plate,” said the little Chinaman, “is also told in my country in a more tragic way; that the lovely girl is the mandarin’s daughter, and that he slays the lovers, and that it is their souls that are seen flying away in the two birds.  But it is the other story that our scholars like.”

VII.

SKY-HIGH’S KITE.

Charles and Lucy wished to give Sky-High a surprise.  They had come into possession of a kite which had been described to them as marvelous, and they got their mother’s permission to take the little Chinaman to Franklin Park to see them fly it for the first time.

Franklin Park is not far from Milton Hill; and the street-cars readily carry the crowds of children to the pleasure-grounds of the immense common of woods, fields, great rocks and elms, and whole prairies of grass.  It is quite free—­the dwellers of close Boston and its bowery suburbs own the vast pleasure-place—­the people could hardly have more privileges there did each one hold a deed of it.  Little Sky-High thought this wonderful when it was explained to him.

The Van Burens had ample grounds of their own, but Mrs. Van Buren and the children liked to go to Franklin Park.  Mrs. Van Buren liked to sit in the great stone Emerson arbor on Schoolmaster’s Hill, and watch the white flocks of English sheep wander to and fro and feed, guarded and guided by shepherd-dogs, and to gaze away in an idle reverie at the Blue Hills under the purple charm of distance.

No one jeered now when the Van Buren children appeared in the street with the little Chinaman.  Nobody cried, “Rat-tail!” Nobody cried, “Washee-washee-wang!” He often rode with them in the carriage.  People looked at him, to be sure, but only with interest—­the fame of his accomplishments in the English language had gone abroad.

It was a beautiful early summer day, the white daisies waving in the west wind.  Crossing the field, from a little green hill the children prepared to send up the new kite.  Out of his narrow black eyes little Sky-High looked at it, as they took it from the package and sent it up.  It seemed simply a frame-work, but presently the American flag rolled out in the sky, as though it hung alone, or had bloomed there.

Sky-High beheld it with pleasure.  Great was America!  He was contented to sit and watch it for hours, or as long as the children pleased.  It was not until sunset that the starry kite was hauled down through the golden air, and Lucy and Charles prepared to return home.

On the way the little serving-man said, “I have a kite in my trunk.  You let me fly it for you some day?  You come with me here?”

So another breezy day the Van Buren children came to the Park with Sky-High.  Lucy danced about in the green world for very light-heartedness.

“You stay at the overlook,” said Sky-High, pointing to the wild-flower embankment surrounded by burning azalias, “and I will show you how Chinese boys fly kites.”