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"I think our house-boy knew how to keep a house beautiful, mother, before he came to our country," said Lucy one day. "Well, perhaps he was a wang," said her mother, "and did live in a palace!" "Doesn't Mr. Consul Bradley know about him, mother?" "Consul Bradley says Sky-High's father is a good man, and that Sky-High is a good boy with a bright mind.
One of them, a stately man, nearly seven feet high, suddenly spread out his arms; whereupon Sky-High rushed forward, prostrated himself, and was almost wrapped from sight, as he was lifted in the immense sleeves of silk and gold. Mr. Van Buren was now truly filled with amazement. Little Sky-High's mistress was terrified.
Sky-High's heart bounded at these pledges of friendship, and he leaped about in a way that made the parrot laugh sometimes he had the parrot in his cabin, and taught it Chinese words. "The sun shines for all, the earth blossoms for all," he said to the children; "it is only the heart that needs washee-washee and smoothee-smoothee. Everything will be better by and by.
When near the earth it burst into a hundred stars of seven colors. In all Boston there was no firework as wonderful as Sky-High's. The day after he began to inquire about the next American holiday. Mrs. Van Buren told him about Thanksgiving Day. Then she told him of Christmas, and how the Christmas festival was kept.
"In Manchuria, on the coast, on the Crystal Sea." The kitten came running into the kitchen, and at once leaped on to the end of Sky-High's pigtail. The boy gave his pigtail a sudden whisk. "Pie-cat?" asked he. "No, no!" said Mrs. Van Buren in horror. "We have no pie-cats in this country. Was there an English teacher in your house?"
Van Buren; one a bracelet for Lucy; and the other a charm for Charles. The amulets awakened a great surprise. The little golden bells burned with the red lusters of rubies, and tinkled as though they were dream-bells. "They keep evil spirits away," said Sky-High, with sparkling eyes. "They ring warnings." Mrs. Van Buren rose and put one of the other packages in little Sky-High's hand.
"And what is the wan, Sky-High?" "The mystic sign that warns off evil spirits." "Did I not say there are no evil spirits here?" Here little Sky-High's eyes began to blink. "Why did master put a horse-shoe over the stable-door?" Lucy looked up at her mother. And said Nora, "I would discharge that sassbox of a Chinese at once!" "Have you more crackers, Sky-High?" "In my chest, mistress."
Sky-High's eyes opened with a gleam. "His gifts are gold," he said. "His dragons have teeth of gold. The monoliths in his garden are one thousand, it may be two thousand years old. At the Feast of Lanterns he covers the sky over his palace with fire. You should see his gardens and the gables of his houses! It takes some minutes to speak his whole name."
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