"
"Hi, ho! That's it, is it? What are you going to do with your gold
when you find it?"
"Cally it back to China."
"And when you've callied it back, what'll you do then?"
"Me mally wife, have good time and plenty money to buy lice."
Of course, Ki Sing's meaning was plain, but there was a roar of
laughter, to which he listened with mild-eyed wonder, evidently
thinking that the miners who so looked down on him were themselves a
set of outside barbarians, to whom the superior civilization of
China was utterly unknown. It is fortunate that his presumption was
not suspected by those around him. No one would have resented it
more than Mr. Patrick O'Reilly, whose rank as regards enlightenment
and education certainly was not very high.
"I say, John," said Dick Roberts, "are you fond of rat pie?"
"Lat pie velly good," returned Ki Sing, with a look of appreciation.
"Melican man like him?"
"Hear the haythen!" said O'Reilly, with an expression of deep
disgust. "He thinks we ate rats and mice, like him. No, old pigtail,
we ain't cats. We are good Christians."
"Chlistian! Ma don't know Ghlistian," said the Chinaman.
"Then look at O'Reilly," said Dick Roberts, mischievously.
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