How Yin-Dee Changed Her Name
CHAPTER I.
"Lead Along a Brother."
The first thing I know about myself is that I was
born; and that I had a father and mother, too, just
as you have. I thought I had better tell you this, as
I have often heard ignorant country people ask the
missionary if in his country children are born the same
as in China, just as they will ask him if there are a sun
and moon, rivers and hills, there as here. My grandfather
used to say that foreigners belonged to a
country where people had holes in their chests and
were carried about on a long pole by two men. But
he had never seen any foreigners at all.
Of course when I was born nobody wanted me. Whoever wants girls? I was the first child; so my parents were bitterly disappointed. Well, I couldn't help it; and I have often thought how hard it was that I should be badly treated, as if it were my fault. My father said bitter things to mother, so she called me "Yin-dee," which means, "Lead along a brother." After a time they got more used to me, and were not
