Page:Siam and Laos, as seen by our American missionaries (1884).pdf/172

 many a winsome darling in our own Christian land.

I do not know much about the earliest years of Leang, save that she lived most of the day out of doors among the flowers and fruit trees; and I think she must have had the birds for her companions, for her merry laugh always reminded one of their carols. When I first met Leang she was a bright child of six or seven summers, for the year in Siam is one long bright summer. She had soft black eyes, and hair that was black also, but all shaven off except one little place on the top of her head, where it had been allowed to grow long, and was worn twisted into a tight, smooth knot fastened by a long gold pin, the head of which was as large as the end of your thumb and set full of precious stones.

She was very friendly, and often visited at the house of one of our missionaries who lived near her bamboo hut, and when Mrs. House started a school for children on her veranda Leang was invited to join them. Here she learned to sing, read, write and sew. In later years she joined the church, and was often in our family and much loved for her winning ways.

When Leang was about seventeen years old her parents thought it time for the maiden to be married. In Siam when a man wants a wife he gets two or three elderly persons who are friends of the maiden's parents to intercede for him and