Short Stories
My paké father, as I have told you, was liberal. He asked
me if I wanted Yap Ten Shin for my husband. And I said yes;
and freely, of myself, I went to him. He it was who was kicked
by a horse; but he was a very good husband before he was
kicked by the horse.
"As for you, Ah Kim, you shall always be honourable and
lovable for me, and some day, when it is not necessary for you
to take me by the ear, I shall marry you and come here and be
with you always, and you will be the happiest paké in all Ha-
waii; for I have had two husbands, and gone to high school,
and am most wise in making a husband happy. But that will
be when your mother has ceased to beat you. Mrs. Chang Lu-
cy tells me that she beats you very hard."
"She does," Ah Kim affirmed. "Behold! He thrust back his
loose sleeves, exposing to the elbow his smooth and cherubic
forearms. They were mantled with black and blue marks that
advertised the weight and number of blows so shielded from
his head and face.
"But she has never made me cry," Ah Kim disclaimed hast-
ily. "Never, from the time I was a little boy, has she made me
cry."
"So Mrs. Chang Lucy says," Li Faa observed. "She says that
your honourable mother often complains to her that she has
never made you cry."
A sibilant warning from one of his clerks was too late. Hav-
ing regained the house by way of the back alley, Mrs. Tai Fu
emerged right upon them from out of the living apartments.
Never had Ah Kim seen his mother's eyes so blazing furious. She
ignored Li Faa, as she screamed at him:
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