In the fall of 1840, while the Opium War was still going on, my father died, leaving four children on my mother’s hands without means of support.
Fortunately, three of us were old enough to lend a helping hand.
- My brother was engaged in fishing,
- my sister helped in housework,
- and I took to hawking candy through my own village and the neighboring one.
I took hold of the business in good earnest, rising at three o’clock every morning, and I did not come home until six o’clock in the evening.
My daily earnings netted twenty-five cents, which I turned over to my mother, and with the help given by my brother, who was the main stay of the family, we managed to keep the wolf away from our door.
I was engaged in hawking candy for about five months, and when winter was over, when no candy was made, I changed my occupation and went into the rice fields to glean rice after the reapers. My sister usually accompanied me in such excursions. But unlike Ruth of old, I had no Boaz to help me out when I was short in my gleaning. But my knowledge of English came to my rescue. My sister told the head reaper that I could speak, read and write English. This awakened the curiosity of the reaper. He beckoned me to him and asked me whether I wouldn’t talk some “Red Hair Men” talk to him. He said he never heard of such talk in his life. I felt bashful and diffident at first, but my sister encouraged me and said “the reaper may give you a large bundle of rice sheaf to take home.” This was said as a kind of prompter. The reaper was shrewd enough to take it up, and told me that if I would talk, he would give me a bundle