“Oh, wirrah, wirrah, wirrah! And why did I iver lave the ould country? And why did I iver come to this haythen land of savages? Shure it was love for the innocent babe that—”
She stopped and turned to look for the baby. Carriage and child were gone!
A frightful scream escaped the lips of the terrified girl. Then she collapsed heavily in the arms of the little “haythen” policeman.
VII
IT would be cruel to dwell upon the sufferings of Norah. She came to consciousness while being carried bodily through the streets by half a dozen of “the finest” in Japan. But she retained consciousness only long enough to give vent to another terrific shriek and then faint again. When next she came to, she was in the “dhirty haythen doongeon,” as she termed it. There Mr. Kurukawa found her, secured her release, and took her home.
But the baby! It was only a little after nine when Norah had gone forth so bravely. By five in the afternoon the search for the baby had not ended. Everybody in the village appeared to have had the baby at one time or another through the day. The little one had been passed from house to house as an object of curiosity. Its clothing was a marvel to all Japanese eyes; its blue eyes were extraordinary; its little wisps of yellow hair the most amazing of sights ever seen in the little town; and its milk-white skin positively unreal. Japanese mothers brought their own brown offspring and put them side by side with the little white baby. They patted its little, chubby hands, and put their fingers into its mouth. The latter never failed to please the Kurukawa baby, which immediately fell to sucking the finger greedily. After a time, however, as no milk was forthcoming from the numberless fingers thus offered, the baby became cross.
Then nobody wanted it any longer.