Mrs Spring Fragrance

Jean McLeod is a schoolteacher in Chinatown. After suffering disappointment from her own family and community growing up, she has adopted the community as her own even though she is not Chinese. She is fond of all her students but holds a special place in her heart for Chee Ping, nicknamed "Little Me."While the children offer Miss McLeod presents in honor of the Chinese New Year, Little Me does not offer his teacher anything. His family cannot afford the more opulent gifts that the children of the rich families offer, and he is too prideful to offer a more modest gift like wild flowers or pebbles. Miss McLeod does not want the children to think that she values some gifts over others, so she tells the story of Christmas: “The greatest of all gifts was beyond price. They must remember the story she had told them at Christmas time of the giving of a darling and only Son to a loved people. All the money in the world could not have paid for that dear little boy. He was a free gift” (56). This speech gives Little Me an idea.

On the second day of the Chinese New Year, Miss McLeod visits the home of Little Me. She finds Little Me’s mother, Chee A Tae, kneeling in the corner of the room, distraught. Little Me’s baby brother is missing. The mother had left to bring food and tea to a neighbor, old Sien Tau, and when she returned the baby was gone. Chee A Tae blames bad luck on the baby’s disappearance. Her husband, Chee Ping the First, sends money to his parents every month, but this month he had gambled with the money, hoping to send them twice the usual amount. Instead, her husband lost the money, and now Chee A Tae feared that her baby’s disappearance was their punishment.

Chee Ping the First had been searching for the baby with a group of men, but they come back to the home empty-handed. Miss McLeod organizes the crowd gathering outside the home into search parties, and they all search for the baby into the evening. Miss McLeod vows to continue searching until the baby is found: “The distress of these Chinese people was hers; their troubles also. Had she not adopted them as her own when kinfolk had failed her?” (59).

A cry is heard, and Wang Hom Hing, the father of one of her students, signals that he has found the baby. The crowd rushes toward his signal, and Miss McLeod is surprised to find herself in the house where she keeps her own rooms. Wang Hom Hing has found the baby asleep on Miss McLeod’s bed. He then accuses her of kidnapping the child: “Trust her no more—this McLeod, Jean […] Though her smile is as sweet as honey, her heart is like a razor” (60).

Before Wang Hom Hing can turn the community against her, Miss McLeod pushes to the front of the crowd and defends herself: “Wang Hom Hing […] You know you are trying to make my friends believe what you do not believe yourself! I know no more than its mother does about how the dear baby came here” (61). The crowd does not know whom to believe.

Finally, old Sien Tau, the woman who Chee A Tae had brought food to when her baby went missing, stands before the crowd and speaks in support of Miss McLeod: “McLeod, Jean […] your gracious and noble qualities of mind and soul merit a happier New Year’s Day than this. Wang Hom Hing’s words cannot deceive old Sien Tau” (61). With that, Chee A Tae and the rest of the crowd also voice their support for the teacher. Then Little Me speaks up: “I have one brother. I love him all over. You say baby boy best gift, so I give him to you when my father and mother not see. Little Me give better than Lee Chu and Hom Hing” (62). Finally, it is understood by all that Little Me had tried to gift his teacher his little brother. Little Me is disappointed that Miss McLeod will not keep his present, but she explains: “I like him so well that I put him away in my heart where I keep the baby of my story” (62).