said. "But somehow I knew that you would not remain forever blind for see, the face of your mother is happy in the picture. There is a suggestion of a smile about her lips. Ardell would not be smiling if her boy had to remain forever blind. All your life your dear mother watched over you, nor did she fail you when you needed her most."
So they stood and gazed at her picture. Neither of them wanted to speak right then. Hung Long Tom smiled wistfully. His boy would not need him much longer now. He was very very old and yearned for rest. Perhaps eventually he would return to his home in China, to the garden in which the beautiful Lotus Blossom had laughed and died. Maybe in time when his body crumbled back into dust, a chance wind would blow it to that far flung spot where her ashes reposed. Not yet, but some day, when the infirmities of age grew acute he would return home. After all these years the grip of his own country had fastened upon him. Life, stripped of its glamor, is but a little journey.
