Free The Unexpurgated Diary of a Shanghai Baby by Elsie McCormick

crossed ocean, but papa said there wouldn’t be any money in it for firm, as risks were too great.
    â€œHow do you happen to know all this?” mama asked, with squint in eye, but papa said he had to be back to office early.
June seventeenth
    Weather very hot. Wish they would dress me with apron in front and string in back like Chinese babies, or in georgette shoulder straps like mama. Mama asked papa why he wore dark suit on warm day.
    â€œBecause I don’t want to be arrested,” said papa, “I’ve got a suit for every day in the week and this is it.”
    Mama asked papa where all his summer clothes are, and papa said that some are with the amah and some are with the houseboy. Remarked later that he was sorry he had bought transparent raincoat, as chief job of raincoat is to cover up old clothes, but transparent ones spotted bluff.
June eighteenth
    More rain. Hope it stops before Hongkew Park is washed away as have few more remarks to make to Jap baby.
June nineteenth
    Weather warm. Sat on floor in kitchen and watched coolie catch flies to put in new flytrap. When trap was crowded, coolie emptied it out of open window. Flies must have liked trap as all came back. Flies also very fond of rubber on my bottle, but don’t mind very much as amah always scares them away beforegiving it to me. Have swallowed only one so far. Heard mama tell Auntie that papa is too fly, and Auntie said yes, that he is always buzzing around. Wonder if he knows about trap.
June twentieth
    Rain. Mama told papa she had been reading in paper about cutting trees down in Public Gardens.
    â€˜The baby spends so much time down there that he will miss them a lot,” said mama.
    â€œWhy?” asked papa, “Does the amah climb trees with him?”
    Mama told papa not to be any more foolish than he is naturally and said that everybody would miss the beautiful limbs.
    â€œOh, I don’t know,” said papa. “Just take a walk down the Bund during the typhoon season and you’ll see more limbs than you can count.”
    Mama told papa that she thought he had better come up to Tsingtao for August.
June twenty-first
    Weather a little better. Auntie busy pulling out eye-brows and making new ones with pencil. Said she didn’t know what she would do about complexion in the hot weather, as powder always looked like wetflour and melted color showed so badly on shoulders of monkey-jackets.
    â€œI don’t worry any about my complexion and lots of people are wild about me,” papa said.
    â€œYou mean that lots of the people about you are wild,” mama answered.
    Papa said that anyway his friends didn’t spend all afternoon over cup of tea and two macaroons wondering how lady next door could afford sequin gown when husband was only Number 4 in office.
June twenty-second
    Not much doing today. Went calling with amah in house with Chinese baby. Amah gave the baby my bottle to try, but baby didn’t like it. Then amah passed it to baby’s sisters and brothers. Squalled, as thought I might need drink on the way home. Amah filled up rest of bottle with tea. Better than rubber mouthpiece with no connection, but not as good as regular chow.
June twenty-fourth
    Friday. Papa busy looking over clothes brought by washmen.
    â€œHe must have a new customer,” said papa. “Here is a shirt I never saw before.”
    Papa said that laundered clothes in Shanghai areowned on a community basis and everybody wears them in turn.
    â€œI saw one of my shirts on a Bubbling Well car today and another one almost ran over me on a motorcycle,” papa remarked.
    Glad my clothes are washed by amah, as would hate laundry to deal me Jap baby’s kimono.
June twenty-fifth
    Interesting time. Papa came home with friends after mama went out to tea-party. Friends asked if mama was likely to come back soon, and papa said no, not if she once gets to talking, and that coast was as clear as at American