There were thirty-five scholars in the school at Qui-Chu, and three were girls. The boys played by themselves and the three girls played together.
One day the teacher said to his mother, “I think I [[192]]shall have the girls dress in boys’ clothes next year, if they come to school.”
“Why will you do this?” asked his mother.
“Because the boys do not like girls in the school. They will not play, read, or write with them. They tease them and laugh at them. I fear the girls must leave the school next year, and they are only nine years old. But we shall see.”[1]
When the next year came, the mother was willing to do as her son said. She took some cloth and made boys’ clothes for the three girls, which she put on them to see how they would look dressed as boys.
When the girls were dressed, they looked at each other and laughed. “What will you do with the ear-holes, grandmother?” they asked. “Surely the boys will know we are girls.”
The mother called her son and asked him, “What shall we do with the ear-holes? They look like boys [[193]]now, save for that one thing. I fear the girls can not go to school.”
“I will see,” replied her son. He thought much for two days. Then he went to find an old doctor in the next village, far enough away so that no one would know. He asked the doctor, “Can you close the ear-holes so that girls’ ears will be as boys’?”
“Oh, yes,” answered the doctor, “I can if you will pay me.” Then the doctor came and put something in the ear-holes and colored it so that it looked like skin, and the grandmother was satisfied to send the girls to school.
But the teacher forgot and called them girls’ names. The others laughed at the three boys with funny names, but they did not seem to remember them.