WONG LEE'S CONVERSION.

Otago Witness, Volume 12, Issue 2639, 12 October 1904, Page 82

WONG LEE'S CONVERSION.

(For the Witness.)

\ i J3t Q.'Vxm.

"How differently things strike; you," said the Irishman, whenjtfie brick fell on his •own head. -• Falling. bricks don't strike indifferently,-; so they must strike diffe.rently; / We:casrit "apparent on entry." Wong Lee-got' the wrong view of it, and caused, .himself much anxiety. The. "it" '.was Miss Dolly "Gley," who lived. in' the .same town as Wong Lee. Wong Lee, as his name indicates, is a Chinaman, respectable/, unmarried, keeps several white dogs and a garden. Rather wants a lady to look after his dogs, keep house,.and be married to him. Dolly Grey is young and charming,' and intends going to the mission field. Don't you see the result? A beautiful girl with a missionary bent in the same town as a Pagan Chinee I The Dawsons live just across the road from the Gveys. The families are great friends, and the dfferent members see a great deal of one another. One day Dolly "dley" felt she must . do* something in the missionary line. She was too young togo to foreign countries. Why not try nearer home? in. this mood, while wandering,down the street, she met Wong Lee. Her duty showed out as clear as day. Why not convert Wong Lee? With her hand in her pocket closed tightly on her little hymn book, she started in. She stopped Wong Lee, and spoke to him, quietly, seriously. Wong had spoken to servant girls dozens of times when selling vegetables, but had never been voluntarily stopped and spoken to by a white lady. He listened attentively, and Miss Dolly's spirits rose. She spoke of religious affairs, and Lee thought that if she cared so much for his soul, she must love him. He drank in the religion greedily, and Dolly rejoiced. The yellow man was also rejoicing some. , MissMJolly^'had^ppken several times to Wong. Lee, until' one Sunday he appeared in church, and sat in the minister's,''pew. During the following week he accidentally met Miss Dolly on the way to the paTsonaj»e, and escorted her part way, receiving religious instruction. The heathen one was cunning, and this happened several times. Next Sunday he appeared in church again, and in a new suit, and put sixpence in the collection plate. Soon he began to make the running, and called at the house to take Miss Gley to church. Lee became a nuisance, and Dolly had to dodge him. Sunday morning Father Grey would tell Wong Lee that Dolly was not going to church to-day, while Lee's false one crept down the back street to church as fast as she could 1. Wong believed in lusty wooing, and matters came to a head. One Tuesday Lee came arrayed in his best, and asked for Miss Dolly. Mr Grey met him*. "Oh, Dolly is up country, stopping with her brother." The lone heathen shook his head, and went away. Presently he saw Mary, Dolly's younger sister. "Say, Meriy, where Missie Dolly to-day?" "She is round at the tennis green, Wong." Wong knew better. He had been round there, already, so he trailed along to Dawsons'. "Missie Dlawson, where Dolly Gley to-day?" Miss Dawson was very pretty, and very kindhearted. "I am afraid she is out of town, Wong Lee, but she is writing in a few days, and I will show you her letter." Then Lee gnashed his teeth, and went off. He met me later on, and told me all about it. "Me have all no luckie, glimmie. Me ask Mr Gley where Dolly. Him say she up countly with her blother. Then me ask Merly where slister. She say Dolly at tennis gleen. Dat bally lie. Me just been in gleen. Missie Dlawson say Dally out- of town."

Then the pagan's wrongs came home to him. "What for me get leligious?" he shouted.

''What for me go to church evly Sunday, pay slixiepen evly time? What for me get nve jDound suit? I tellie you — me want to mally Dolly."

Not a hundred miles away roams a heathen Chinee. He still has his poodles, but his faith in human nature is gone.