Light a Candle: A Story of Chinese American Pioneers on Gold Mountain

Light a Candle: A Story of Chinese American Pioneers on Gold Mountain — page 9
and a store selling goods to Chinese miners Her papa was a respected man in La Porte and educated too He could speak read and write English quite well He'd learned it in a British missionary school in Hong Kong Girls I run this school with rules and one of them is to shush when you're told Ms. Lilley said She shut her book and looked squarely at Mabel and Emma We may be out in the wilds of California but here in my classroom will follow the rules you Yes ma'am Emma said swallowing a knot in her throat Both of you will stay after class to wash the boards Emma hung her head She had never been made to stay after class before except once when Charlie Buckner had tripped her on purpose and she'd pushed his books onto the floor Most of the kids knew not to test her after that But still she adored Ms. Lilley and hated being on her wrong side Ms. Lilley treated everyone the same regardless of their ancestry or whether they wore rich clothes or tattered ones 12