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 CHAPTER III.

When I was about four my feet were bound. You must know that in China the smaller the feet the more a woman is admired. For over a thousand years the custom has been observed, and only a few give it up, even though, as the common saying has it, "For every pair of small feet there has been shed a bucket of tears." So as my mother wished me to have "little golden lilies," as they were called, she commenced to bind my feet early.

The calendar was consulted for a lucky day (it would never do to commence anything on an unlucky day), and mother brought some strips of calico a few inches wide and several yards long. With these she tightly bound my feet, making them narrow and pointed.

At first I went nearly crazy with crying. No one took any notice of it, and mother tried to console me by saying that no one would marry a woman with large feet. She told me that when she was married hers were only two and a half inches long. Day by day the binding was done until I wished I could die and be rid of the pain. Gradually it became less as the feet ceased to grow, and I was able to hobble about the house.

But with it all I was much more fortunate than little "Pearl," my friend next door. They left the binding