Chapter II

Mrs. Spring Fragrance, in San Francisco on a visit to her cousin, the wife of the herb doctor of Clay Street, was having a good time. She was invited everywhere that the wife of an honorable Chinese merchant could go. There was much to see and hear, including more than a dozen babies who had been born in the families of her friends since she last visited the city of the Golden Gate. Mrs. Spring Fragrance loved babies. She had had two herself, but both had been transplanted into the spirit land before the completion of even one moon. There were also many dinners and theatre-parties given in her honor. It was at one of the theatre-parties that Mrs. Spring Fragrance met Ah Oi, a young girl who had the reputation of being the prettiest Chinese girl in San Francisco, and the naughtiest. In spite of gossip, however, Mrs. Spring Fragrance took a great fancy to Ah Oi and invited her to a tête-à-tête picnic on the following day. This invitation Ah Oi joyfully accepted. She was a sort of bird girl and never felt so happy as when out in the park or woods.

On the day after the picnic Mrs. Spring Fragrance wrote to Laura Chin Yuen thus:

MY PRECIOUS LAURA,—May the bamboo ever wave. Next week I accompany Ah
Oi to the beauteous town of San José. There will we be met by the son
of the Illustrious Teacher, and in a little Mission, presided over by
a benevolent American priest, the little Ah Oi and the son of the
Illustrious Teacher will be joined together in love and harmony—two
pieces of music made to complete one another.

The Son of the Illustrious Teacher, having been through an American
Hall of Learning, is well able to provide for his orphan bride and
fears not the displeasure of his parents, now that he is assured that
your grief at his loss will not be inconsolable. He wishes me to waft
to you and to Kai Tzu—and the little Ah Oi joins with him—ten thousand
rainbow wishes for your happiness.

My respects to your honorable parents, and to yourself, the heart of
your loving friend,

JADE SPRING FRAGRANCE

To Mr. Spring Fragrance, Mrs. Spring Fragrance also indited a letter:

GREAT AND HONORED MAN,—Greeting from your plum blossom,[1] who is
desirous of hiding herself from the sun of your presence for a week of
seven days more. My honorable cousin is preparing for the Fifth Moon
Festival, and wishes me to compound for the occasion some American
“fudge,” for which delectable sweet, made by my clumsy hands, you have
sometimes shown a slight prejudice. I am enjoying a most agreeable
visit, and American friends, as also our own, strive benevolently for
the accomplishment of my pleasure. Mrs. Samuel Smith, an American
lady, known to my cousin, asked for my accompaniment to a magniloquent
lecture the other evening. The subject was “America, the Protector of
China!” It was most exhilarating, and the effect of so much expression
of benevolence leads me to beg of you to forget to remember that the
barber charges you one dollar for a shave while he humbly submits to
the American man a bill of fifteen cents. And murmur no more because
your honored elder brother, on a visit to this country, is detained
under the roof-tree of this great Government instead of under your own
humble roof. Console him with the reflection that he is protected
under the wing of the Eagle, the Emblem of Liberty. What is the loss
of ten hundred years or ten thousand times ten dollars compared with
the happiness of knowing oneself so securely sheltered? All of this I
have learned from Mrs. Samuel Smith, who is as brilliant and great of
mind as one of your own superior sex.

For me it is sufficient to know that the Golden Gate Park is most
enchanting, and the seals on the rock at the Cliff House extremely
entertaining and amiable. There is much feasting and merry-making
under the lanterns in honor of your Stupid Thorn.

I have purchased for your smoking a pipe with an amber mouth. It is
said to be very sweet to the lips and to emit a cloud of smoke fit for
the gods to inhale.

Awaiting, by the wonderful wire of the telegram message, your gracious
permission to remain for the celebration of the Fifth Moon Festival
and the making of American “fudge,” I continue for ten thousand times
ten thousand years,

Your ever loving and obedient woman,
JADE

P.S. Forget not to care for the cat, the birds, and the flowers. Do
not eat too quickly nor fan too vigorously now that the weather is
warming.

Footnote 1:

The plum blossom is the Chinese flower of virtue. It has been adopted
by the Japanese, just in the same way as they have adopted the Chinese
national flower, the chrysanthemum.

Mrs. Spring Fragrance smiled as she folded this last epistle. Even if he were old-fashioned, there was never a husband so good and kind as hers. Only on one occasion since their marriage had he slighted her wishes. That was when, on the last anniversary of their wedding, she had signified a desire for a certain jadestone pendant, and he had failed to satisfy that desire.

But Mrs Spring Fragrance, being of a happy nature, and disposed to look upon the bright side of things, did not allow her mind to dwell upon the jadestone pendant. Instead, she gazed complacently down upon her bejeweled fingers and folded in with her letter to Mr. Spring Fragrance a bright little sheaf of condensed love.