washing. When I went home I expostulated with Mr. Barry, but succeeded
only in extracting from him the conviction that I was one of "thim black
Republican fellys that worshiped naygurs." I had simply made an enemy of
him. But I did not know that, at the same time, I had made a friend of
See Yup!
I became aware of this a few days later, by the appearance on my desk of
a small pot containing a specimen of camellia japonica in flower. I knew
the school-children were in the habit of making presents to me in this
furtive fashion,--leaving their own nosegays of wild flowers, or perhaps
a cluster of roses from their parents' gardens,--but I also knew that
this exotic was too rare to come from them. I remembered that See Yup
had a Chinese taste for gardening, and a friend, another Chinaman, who
kept a large nursery in the adjoining town. But my doubts were set at
rest by the discovery of a small roll of red rice-paper containing my
washing-bill, fastened to the camellia stalk. It was plain that this
mingling of business and delicate gratitude was clearly See Yup's
own idea. As the finest flower was the topmost one, I plucked it for
wearing, when I found, to my astonishment, that it was simply wired to
the stalk. This led me to look at the others, which I found also wired!
More than that, they seemed to be an inferior flower, and exhaled that
cold, earthy odor peculiar to the camellia, even, as I thought, to an
excess. A closer examination resulted in the discovery that, with the
exception of the first flower I had plucked, they were one and all
ingeniously constructed of thin slices of potato, marvelously cut to
imitate the vegetable waxiness and formality of the real flower. The
work showed an infinite and almost pathetic patience in detail,
yet strangely incommensurate with the result, admirable as it was.
Nevertheless, this was also like See Yup. But whether he had tried to
deceive me, or whether he only wished me to admire his skill, I could
not say. And as his persecution by my scholars had left a balance of
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