Light a Candle: A Story of Chinese American Pioneers on Gold Mountain
true because the schoolroom was the same building as the church Mabel reluctantly sat down You sure could pass as one of us China Mary except for your black hair and slitty eyes She pushed on her temples with her pointer fingers pulling her eyes toward her ears My name is Emma not China Mary Emma corrected her Mabel nodded but couldn't tear her eyes away from the fabric of Emma's dress Where'd you get that dress I'll bet they don't dress like that in China She pushed away a frizzy brown curl poking her eye and straightened out her faded sleeves I was born here in La Porte Emma said her face beginning to grow hot And my mama made this dress for me 9 I'll have to ask Pa about that replied Mabel What does your pa know about me Emma wanted to say but Ms. Lilley shushed the class and said it was time for the spelling test
The students took out their slate boards and nubs of chalk The first word was kindness Chalk clacked on boards and screeched a few times as the students wrote the word in cursive Ms. Lilley had chosen her spelling words carefully to teach the lessons she felt the children needed The next word was generosity Emma heard Sam groan from two rows away Howja spell that he moaned Skip that one Sam Ms. Lilley said You haven't learned to spell it yet From the looks of it Mabel hadn't either On her board was scratched jenerositee Emma sat proudly waiting for the next spelling word She had gotten the first two easily In fact she flew through the rest of the words without a hitch She fancied that she did as good as or even better than Alice whom Ms. Lilley always praised as the perfect student Ms. Lilley read out the correct spelling of each word so that the students could correct their own work Mabel leaned toward Emma 10
When she saw all the words neatly spelled in perfect cursive she said Well I'll be Ma's eyes will pop right out of her head when she hears about you speaking good English and writing it too Erase your boards now Ms. Lilley instructed A swish of cloth followed as the students cleared their slates Mabel continued chatting She says that no China John is born here and if they were it was in a dis ree pew table house Ms. Lilley lowered her chin and stared out from above her spectacles Mabel no talking And certainly not about that Emma felt anger simmering inside her She had met plenty of rude folks in town but Mabel was the rudest she'd ever met yet I live in a nice house up on Pike Street behind the big Chinese store my papa owns Emma hissed through her teeth though she felt like shouting it While it was true that her mama and papa were from China her papa came to California years ago He called the place Gold Mountain He was an honest and hard worker who owned gold mines 11
