FIVE LITTLE BABIES
This is going to be a story about some little babies,—five different little babies who were born in five different parts of this big round world and didn’t look alike or think alike at all.
One little baby was all yellow. He just came that way. His eyes were black and slanted up in his little face. His hair was black and straight. He wore gay little silk coats and gay little silk trousers with flowers and figures sewed all over them. When he looked up he saw his father’s face was yellow and so was his mother’s. And his father’s hair was black and so was his mother’s. And when he was a little older he saw they both wore gay silk coats and gay silk trousers with flowers and figures sewed all over them. But the baby didn’t think any of this was queer,—not even when he grew up. For every one he knew had yellow skin and wore silk coats and trousers. So of course he thought all the world was that way.
But long before he was old enough to notice any of these things he knew his mother loved her little yellow baby with slanting black eyes. And he loved to have her take him in her arms and sing to him, saying:
“Chu Sir Tsun Ching Min. Tsoun Sun
Gi Gi. Koo Yin Fee Min Kwei
Hua Shiang Lee Pan Run Yin.
Fon Chin Yoa Sir. Loo Yi To
Choa Yeo Liang Sung. Tsun Tze
Doo Soo Soo Wei Gun. Tsin Tsin.”
For all this happened in China and he was a little Chinese Baby.
Another little baby was all brown. He just came that way. His eyes were black and his hair was black. He wore pretty colored silk shawls and little silk dresses. And when he looked up he saw his father’s face was brown and that he wore a big turban on his head. And he saw that around his mother’s brown face was long soft hair. He saw that she wore pretty colored silk shawls and long silk trousers and bare feet. But the baby didn’t think any of this was queer,—even when he grew up. He thought every one had brown skin and that everybody dressed like himself and his father and his mother.