“How queerly they're dressed,” said Hannah Morton.
“They seem to be dressed principally in earrings and bracelets,” remarked Marty.
“Miss Agnes,” inquired Mary, “aren't there other kinds of schools besides these little day-schools?”
“Oh, yes. One of the first things that the missionaries try to do is to establish boarding-schools, so as to get the boys and girls altogether away from the influence of their heathen homes. This is the way many converts are made. There are now many such schools and much good has been done by them. You remember we sent the extra ten dollars we had last year to help build an addition to a boarding-school in China.”
“Are Chinese little girls treated as badly as the ones in India?” Marty asked.
“Why, yes,” said Hannah, before Miss Walsh could reply. “Don't you remember the 'Chinese Slave Girl,' that Miss Agnes read to us?—at least read some of it. And don't you know how they are tortured by binding their feet?”
“That isn't done on purpose to torture them,” said Mary. “That's a custom of the country.”
“Most of their customs appear to be tortures,” said Marty.
“Yes,” said Miss Walsh, “the customs of barbarous and half-civilized nations are very hard on the women and girls.”
“Well, it all makes me feel very sorrowful,” Marty declared. “I never thought before, when I've had such good times all my life, that there are so many little girls who are not—a—”