“Who is the Chinese fellow who came off with you?”
“He is one of the boys from my fatherʼs place. He was my special boy till I came home, so they sent him over with me, and he has been at my uncleʼs ever since.”
“It seems rum keeping him over here all this time.”
“Well, he was kept over here for my sake. I had leave out of school twice a week, and spent it with him in order to keep up my Chinese.”
“You mean to say you can talk it?”
“Yes, as well as English.”
“By Jove, that is splendid! I wish they had done the same with me. I suppose I talked it when I came over, though I donʼt know a word of it now, and shall have all the beastly grind of learning it.”
“Well, anyhow, it will be easier for you than if you had never known it. They say if anyone has once known a language and then forgotten it, it is much easier for him to pick it up again. Well, we had better go upstairs now and look after our baggage.”
In a few minutes they picked out their boxes and saw them taken down to their cabin. Then they rejoined their friends until the bell rang. The partings were made with at least a show of cheerfulness.
“I am awfully obliged to you for all your kindness to me, uncle,” Rex said. “I have had a jolly time, thanks to you, and shall always look back upon it.”