It had been agreed between the Consul and Mrs. Van Buren that little Sky-High might talk with the family; and like her husband she found the Chinese boy “a new book.”  She asked him many a curious question about the “Flowery Kingdom,” and one day she learned that “we never send our finest teas out of China.”  Yes “we” said the washee-washee-wang, as the neighbor-boys called him.

IV.

How sky-high called the governor.

Cheerfully, in his fine blue linens, the little Chinese house-boy worked in his cabin a portion of every day.  The bluebirds came close to sing to him and so did the red-breasted robins.  Irish Nora and the parrot became very civil, and he grew fond of Charlie and Lucy.

Some of the boys on their way to and from school made his only real annoyance.  Sometimes when his smoothing-iron was moving silently under his loose-sleeved hand, or he was hanging the snowy clothes on the lines, they would hide behind a tree or corner, and shy sticks at him calling, “washee-washee-wang!” He bore it all in an unselfish temper, until one day a big lump of dirt fell upon one of little Lucy’s dainty muslin frocks as he was ironing it.  Then he said something that sounded like, “cockle-cockle-cockle,” and closed all the doors and windows.

At this crisis Charles and Lucy came to his side.  They set wide again the doors and windows of the cabin under the green boughs, and promised him that they would forever be his true friends and protectors.  “It is time we began to treat him like a wang, as mother wished,” said Lucy to Charlie.

“The American boys throw dirt at me in the street,” admitted little Sky-High, in a reluctant tone—­he did not like to bear witness against anyone in this sunshiny world.

“I will go out with you,” said Charlie, “when you are sent out to do errands.  I will stand between you and the dirt.  The dirt comes out of their souls.”

“And I will watch around the corners and speak to them,” said Lucy.

Sky-High’s heart bounded at these pledges of friendship, and he leaped about in a way that made the parrot laugh—­sometimes he had the parrot in his cabin, and taught it Chinese words.  “The sun shines for all, the earth blossoms for all,” he said to the children; “it is only the heart that needs washee-washee and smoothee-smoothee.  Everything will be better by and by.  I talk flowery talk, like home, out here among the birds, butterflies, and bees.”

(Nora said he “jabbered” all day long in the cabin.)

Mrs. Van Buren very soon promoted the careful little Chinaman to have all the care of the beautiful living rooms and the quaint old parlors.  He brought the flowers and admitted the visitors.  He did his work in admirable taste.  It shed a kind of good influence through the house, to see the little fellow in his fine linens flitting around, so careful was he to keep all things in speckless order.