Spring Blossom accepted the
gift with enthusiasm, since a sweet tooth is not a matter of
nationality, and ran immediately to tell her mother, a childish
instinct also of universal distribution. She climbed, as nimbly as
her queer little shoes would permit, a flight of narrow steps leading
to a balcony; while the twins followed close at her heels, and wedged
their way through a forest of Mongolian legs till they reached the
front, where they peeped through the spaces of the railings with
Spring Blossom, Fairy Foot, Dewy Rose, and other Celestial babies,
quite overlooked in the crowd and excitement and jollity. Such a
very riot of confusion there was, it seemed as if Confucius might
have originally spelled his name with an s in the middle; for every
window was black with pigtailed highbinders, cobblers, pork butchers,
and pawnbrokers. The narrow streets and alleys became one seething
mass of Asiatic humanity; while the painted belles came out on their
balconies like butterflies, sitting among a wealth of gaudy paper
flowers that looked pale in comparison with the daubs of vermilion on
their cheeks and the rainbow colours of their silken tunics.
At last the pageant had gathered itself together, and came into full
view in all its magnificence.
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