ALEXANDER THE LITTLE’S FOREIGN MISSION.

A long letter came from his father; he told how, with some of his officers,
he had gone on an expedition into the famine district. A wretched mother had
come to the party, offering her babe for sale; the few pence were given her.
The next morning, evidently according to contract, the baby was found at
the door of the Captain’s quarters; the mother was dead. The helpless in-
fant was taken to a mission near Canton, where
a few little girls were educated and trained in the
Christian religion by the missionary’s wife; they
were not taught English, unfortunate experience
having proved that a knowledge of our language
worked ill for the converts.

“Poor little girl!” murmured Alexander ;
“poor little Chinese baby! Only think of being
left all alone in a foreign land and not even al-
lowed to speak English ;” and for a long while after
reading the letter he lay silent and thoughtful.

By and by he said:

““T have been thinking, Sister Agatha, that I
snould like to help in the little Chinese baby’s
education. JI might send her my money.” He
had a pasteboard box that contained a five-dollar

“THE LITTLE CHINESE BABY.” gold piece, three Spanish silver dollars and the

savings of his pocket money. “ Papa tells about

the music he heard at the theater »— Alexander shuddered and put his hands

to his ears. “If the little Chinese baby is to be a Christian she will want to

sing hymns, and she could not sing hymns on the gong.” Alexander never, in

childish fashion, supplemented his remarks with an interrogative ; he had settled
the question for himself, beyond dispute.

“ Papa says the mission is poor, and I should like her to have an organ.”

He had become too weak to play with his soldiers, but every morning he
poured out the contents of the pasteboard box — lettered in crooked characters,
«Foreign Mission”” — to see how much interest had accumulated over night.

“I know some mothers who would not care to sell their children at any
price,” he said. “I shall never tell the little Chinese baby that her mother sold
her for twenty cents. It would hurt her feelings to know that she went so
cheap. I shall say it was three hundred cash.”

One day, after long thought, he said :

‘“‘T have decided that it would be a good plan for me to learn Chinese ; it will
be lonesome for the little Chinese baby to have no one to speak to but laundry-
men. Do you speak Chinese, Sister Agatha?”

“Not —not fluently,” answered the gentle Sister, loath to disappoint the
child.