consideration in his favor, I sent him a warm note of thanks, and said
nothing of my discovery.
As our acquaintance progressed, I became frequently the recipient of
other small presents from him: a pot of preserves of a quality I could
not purchase in shops, and whose contents in their crafty, gingery
dissimulation so defied definition that I never knew whether they were
animal, vegetable, or mineral; two or three hideous Chinese idols, "for
luckee," and a diabolical fire-work with an irregular spasmodic activity
that would sometimes be prolonged until the next morning. In return, I
gave him some apparently hopeless oral lessons in English, and certain
sentences to be copied, which he did with marvelous precision. I
remember one instance when this peculiar faculty of imitation was
disastrous in result. In setting him a copy, I had blurred a word which
I promptly erased, and then traced the letters more distinctly over the
scratched surface. To my surprise, See Yup triumphantly produced HIS
copy with the erasion itself carefully imitated, and, in fact, much more
neatly done than mine.
In our confidential intercourse, I never seemed to really get nearer
to him. His sympathy and simplicity appeared like his flowers--to be a
good-humored imitation of my own. I am satisfied that his particularly
soulless laugh was not derived from any amusement he actually felt, yet
I could not say it was forced. In his accurate imitations, I fancied he
was only trying to evade any responsibility of his own. THAT devolved
upon his taskmaster! In the attention he displayed when new ideas
were presented to him, there was a slight condescension, as if he were
looking down upon them from his three thousand years of history.
"Don't you think the electric telegraph wonderful?" I asked one day.
"Very good for Mellican man," he said, with his aimless laugh; "plenty
makee him jump!"
I never could tell whether he had confounded it with electro-galvanism,
or was only satirizing our American haste and feverishness. He was
|