Mr. Van Buren turned to his wife.
"It came from the Consul's," she said—"from Consul Bradley's."
"Has Consul Bradley been here?" he asked, thinking some Chinese curio had been shipped over. Consul Bradley was a Chinese consular agent, a man of considerable wealth, with a large knowledge of the world, and a friend of the Van Buren family.
"No," said Mrs. Van Buren, "but his coach-man has brought me a kitchen-boy."
"Well, that is rather wonderful! Is that what you have down-stairs, Lucy?"
"That doesn't half tell it, father," cried Charlie. "He's a little Chineseman!"
"I was in the Consul's office this morning," went on Mrs. Van Buren, smiling at her husband's astonishment; "and the Consul said to me, 'Wouldn't you like to have a neat, trim, tidy, honest, faithful, tender-hearted, polite boy to learn general work?' I said to the Consul, 'Yes, that is the person that I have been needing for years.' He said, 'Would you have any prejudice against a little Chinese servant, if he were trusty, after the general principles I have described?' I said to him, 'None whatever.' He continued: 'A Chinese lad from Manchuria has been sent to me by a friend in the hong, and I am asked to find him a place to learn American home-making ideas in one of the best families. Your family is that place—shall I send him?' So he came in the Consul's coach, as Lucy said, and with him an immense trunk covered with Chinese brush-marks. He seems to be a little gentleman; and when I asked him his name he said, 'The Consul told me to tell you to call me Sky-High.' He doesn't speak except to make replies, but these are in very good English."
"May I give my opinion?" asked little Lucy.
"Well, Lucy," said her mother, smiling, "what is your opinion?"
"He looks like an emperor's son, or a mandarin," said Lucy.