ANY SILK TO-DAY, LADY?

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21112, 20 February 1932, Page 6 (Supplement)

ANY SILK TO-DAY, LADY?

BY E.M.C.

, MY FRIEND AH POY.

i *' -Any silk to-day, lady ? " "Yes." I nodded, giving a final en- * couraging pat to the carnation I was plant- * i n g> before turning to the owner of the insinuating voice. *. J" 0 m y surprise the smiling brown face grew tense, then radiant, as the old man, leaning impetuously toward me, gasped: " lou live Wellington ? " " Xo! " I replied, shaking my head defi- , mtely. (Wellington, which I had left when fourteen, was over 100 miles away.) \ os! \es!" he asserted eagerly. -*You live Oliental Bay. You live big house with top on! " Remembering the tower that had been niy childhood's sanctuary, I stared wenderingly into the wistful eyes. ! But that is over twenty years ago," I protested. " You can't remember me there." " Yes," he agreed promptly, '-'twentyfour—five year ago. You li'l girl. Your hair all like this " —and the claw-like hands wove a surprisingly realistic picture of a shawl of wavy hair. knowijßjy najne?,"„l asked. know"-name, know face!'- Then with a happy sigh he added, -" No matter name. All years looking—now find. Me welly glad find good friend. Me welly glad! " As he babbled ecstatically a vision of the Chinese vegetable-seller whom, through our school days my brothers and I had teased and liked, crept from some longsealed cell of memory. "Ah Poy!" I ejaculated, and the old man's rapture at finding himself remembered was pathetic. Still mumbling disconnected paeans at having found his " welly good fiend," he spread his shimmering silks upon the kitchen table. . As I fingered them he asked suddenly, • Where you' gold bracelet ?' "bracelet ? " I replied absently. " When you li'l girl you always wear gold bracelet," he asserted. Wondering at his memory, I recalled a gold' bangle I had had and laughingly answered, " Yes, but I haven't any gold bracelet now." "You got motor-car?" he asked irrelevantly. No. No motor-car. Just walk, like you," I replied. Laying both hands upon the table he looked searchingly into my face, murmuring :" No gold bracelet! No motor's car! " Then, after a thoughtful pause, -■ queried anxiously, " You' boss bit mean with you ? " Reassured by my amused denial, he measured •me generous yards of his treasures before demanding that I should " lite " for him an address which would always find me, then, with benediction gleaming in his kindly old eyes, bade me ; a lingering good-bye. Long after a border of stately delphiniums had shut the bent figure from sight, I stood thinking of the loyal and steadfast affection of this alien exile for a child who had gone her heedless way, r forgetting all about him. i A quarter of a century of remembering —searching—just because someone had ' welcomed him, had sometimes shared with him her home-made "lemonade ! \ You truly are my welly good fiend, £ Ah Poy," I breathed, smoothing the silk * that lay upon my arm with something * akin to reverence. Staying in a country hotel some months later I read in the Herald that an aged Chinese, named Ah Poy, had been found dead beside his pack of silk on a lonely " [West Coast road. i Bad news?" queried a table com- ' panion, noting my br.mming eyes. " Yes," I replied regretfully. " I've lost a friend. Mv Chinese friend, Ah Poy."