on aunt polly’s table stood a blue china teapot. such a pretty little teapot it was, with strange leaves and figures all over it, and right in the center was a queer little boy with two great birds, one on each side of him. he was dressed queerly too, not at all like the little boys you know. he wore a loose sack with very wide sleeves and a broad sash that went under his arms. his trousers were very wide and he had on the dearest little slippers with curled up toes.
ray liked to look at ah lee (that was the teapot boy’s name) and wondered about him. and as our little boy often visited aunt polly he became very well acquainted with the strange little boy in the teapot.
one afternoon his auntie had company and31 ray was among the guests. after having a cup of delicious tea, made in the blue china teapot, everybody looked at ray and then stole softly into the parlor.
he was lying on his back on an old-fashioned lounge, his hands under his head, thinking about the teapot boy.
imagine his surprise when all at once somebody said, “i think i’ll go home this afternoon.”
“excuse me,” said ray, who was not quite sure, “did you speak, ah lee?”
“yes,” answered the boy in the teapot, “i’m going to take a flying trip home. would you like to come?”
“thank you,” said ray, “i would like it very much, if you don’t stay too late.”
“come along then,” replied ah lee, stepping down from the teapot and the two great birds with him. he jumped on the back of one of the birds and said to ray, “follow me,” and almost before he knew it, ray was on the back of the other bird flying through the air behind the teapot boy. they flew over houses and high church steeples, over the tree-tops and telegraph poles, over deep woods and open green meadows. at last they came to a very large lake.
“let us fly down here and water our birds,” said ah lee, beginning to descend on his great bird. ray did the same, and when they were near enough to the water the birds put their long bills into it and took a deep drink. then they rose into the air again and continued their journey over the land and over the sea.
“is it very far?” asked ray, as they flew along faster and faster all the time.
“we are almost there,” answered ah lee, and in a very few minutes they began to descend down, down, down, until they touched the ground.
the boys got off the birds and ray looked about him. he had never seen such queer sights before. the people around him looked just like ah lee.
they were dressed in soft, bright-colored silks and had long braids of straight black hair.
ah lee took ray’s hand and they walked along till they came to a queer little house with a garden.
“now you sit here and wait for me,” whispered ah lee, and he went into the house while ray waited on a small black stool. he thought the flowers were very pretty about him, and he was just going to take one when a voice called out, “the princess comes to the garden!” ray turned to see who had spoken and beheld a little girl, who smiled at him and held a fan behind her ear. she asked him who he was and whence he came and when he had told his story she said:
“my name is yan lu and i attend the princess.”
“how i would like to see her!” exclaimed ray.
“then follow me,” said yan lu. “i will hide thee behind a great plant and thou canst see the princess when she comes.”
ray followed yan lu and as they went along he could not help looking at her feet. such tiny feet he had never seen! they were so small that she could hardly walk. she took little mincing steps and rested a great many times, looking behind at ray and smiling.
“are your shoes too tight?” asked our little boy, feeling sorry for yan lu and glad that his own shoes were so comfortable.
but yan lu looked down at her little feet and only laughed and then glanced slyly at ray and laughed again. he began to think that perhaps they did not hurt her, she laughed so much about it.
ray noticed that her hair was all done up in rolls and had great pins sticking through it.
“she is really a very odd little girl,” thought ray.
they came to a large plant and yan lu told ray to stand behind it. then she waved her fan to him and took her little mincing steps again and walked off. in a few seconds ray saw a procession coming. he kept very still, and as it came nearer he saw that four tall men were carrying a sort of chair in which a little girl was sitting.
“that must be the princess,” thought ray, and just then he caught sight of his little friend yan lu who walked behind the chair.
when they reached the spot where ray was hiding the four tall men placed the chair on the ground and the little princess arose and stepped out of it. she waved her hand and the men took the chair and walked away. ray was not afraid of the princess, but still he did not want her to see him, so he kept as still as a mouse behind the great plant.
she looked all round and suddenly peered through the leaves at ray. their eyes met and the little princess said softly, “peek-a-boo!”
ray could not help smiling, but he quickly stepped to the other side of the plant. the princess did the same and, smiling through the leaves, whispered again, “peek-a-boo!” then ray came from behind the plant and stood face to face with the princess and yan lu.
“won’t you please tell me your name?” asked ray, and the little princess replied:
“why, my friend, i have told it to you twice. my name is peek-a-boo.”
“are you carried in that chair all the time?” asked ray, and peek-a-boo replied:
“most of the time; you see my feet are so small that i cannot walk very well, they are smaller even than yan lu’s.”
“what a pity,” cried ray; “i hope they will grow bigger.”
“o no, little boy; they are all bandaged up so that they cannot grow!”
“it must hurt,” replied ray.
“well, perhaps it does a little,” said peek-a-boo with a giggle; “but in my country it is considered very nice for girls to have tiny feet.”
“my cousin dorothy is a little girl like you,” remarked ray, “and her feet are almost as large as mine.”
both girls gave a little shriek at this piece of news and peek-a-boo said, “o-o-o! that must be dreadful!”
“o, no, it isn’t,” answered ray quickly; “i think it is fine to have feet that you can run and jump with.”
yan lu laughed aloud and peek-a-boo giggled behind her fan.
“would you like to play?” asked peek-a-boo suddenly.
before ray could answer yan lu whispered something to the princess and she said, “truly i forgot it is the great kite-flying day and my grandfather flies a ship.” she turned to ray and said, “come quickly.” he followed the two little girls down the garden path and all at once he saw the queerest sight. a number of people, old and young, were flying kites.
they were very much interested in it and ray had never seen such queer-looking kites before. they were all sorts and sizes, and all at once peek-a-boo clapped her hands and cried, “there is my grandfather with his great ship.” ray looked and saw an old man with a kite shaped like a great ship, and he was running hither and thither with it like a boy.
it was fun for ray to watch him and he grew so excited that he ran to the old man and asked if he might help.
after much effort the great kite rose in the air and everybody seemed pleased. ray watched a small boy whose kite was so far up in the air that it looked like a tiny white speck. all at once the boy began to draw down the kite, and39 when he caught it ray saw that it was in the shape of a great fish.
when he had seen all the queer kites yan lu whispered:
“you must be hungry, come with me and get some dinner.”
peek-a-boo remained near her grandfather viewing the kites, while ray followed yan lu into the house and sat at a table right beside his old friend ah lee. a small bowl was placed before him and two little wooden sticks. ray forgot where he was for a minute and started to drum with them, but ah lee gently touched his foot and ray remembered that it was not polite to drum on the table.
ray had a dish of chop suee and a tiny cup of black tea which tasted very good indeed.
as they arose from the table he could hear voices singing in another room and it sounded just like this:—
“oo luck ging foo,
chow chow wing choo,
ah lee chee chee,
o chee o chee.”
it sounded so funny to ray that he laughed aloud, but ah lee shook his head and ray said quickly, “please excuse me.”
“are we going home soon?” asked ray, as they went into the garden.
“yes,” answered ah lee, “we are going now.” he took ray’s hand and they ran quickly to the spot where the great birds were waiting for them.
just as they jumped on the birds, ray saw yan lu and the little princess peek-a-boo waving their fans and saying “good-by, come again from the land of big feet.”
ray smiled at the two little girls and rose in the air on his bird.
in another minute he was flying; over lakes and rivers, mountains and valleys, and far over41 a great deep ocean where large ships were sailing.
ray held on to his bird with all his might when they were flying over the dark water so that he would not fall.
again they flew over steeples and house-tops and reached ray’s country. right down to aunt polly’s house flew the birds, but how they got into the house and how ah lee and his great birds got back to their old places on the teapot, and how ray found himself on the lounge, i leave you, my dear little readers, to guess.
however, it was all done so quickly that nobody knew what had happened except ray and the boy in the teapot.
