n soon dries their one and only garment.
But it takes a good while before the line is fixed up to the captain's
liking!

Then the people swarm across the plank into the great barge, or flat,
tied alongside of us, and a shouting sing-song begins as men and girls
alike hurry up and down carrying on board sacks of monkey-nuts. They
work hard and untiringly and always good-humouredly; the popular notion
that the Burman is a lazy fellow is based on the fact that he won't work
if he can help it, but when he has to he does it with goodwill. A funny
little incident occurs. The captain, walking down his own gangway, is
run into by a coolie who is heading up the plank with a sack on his
shoulders; wrathfully the captain sends him and his sack flying, and
they both land in deep water. That is nothing, however, for every Burman
can swim, and no one bears any ill-feeling about it.

Crowds of little boys and girls are dancing and splashing about on the
edge of the water with infinite glee. A mother comes down with her baby
and goes into deep water with the tiny thing clinging to her; suddenly
she lets it go, and swimming with one hand holds it up with the other
while it kicks spasmodically like a little frog. The babies learn to
swim before they can walk.

Joyce is seized with a brilliant idea. "Mother," she cries, "those toys
we bought in the bazaar! Mayn't I give them to the children?"

Taking leave for granted she flies into her cabin and returns with two
gaily painted wooden animals whose legs move on strings; there is a
yellow tiger with a red mouth, and a purple monkey. Joyce stands as high
as she can on the rail and makes the tiger jump its legs up and down. A
yell of delight from the children on the shore shows that she is
understood. They plunge into the water like porpoises, and after a
minute Joyce drops the tiger straight down. It is a good distance to
swim, some fifty yards, perhaps, and the little black heads bob up and
down frantically as the youngsters make desperate attempts to get
through the water.

Good! Go it! Two little boys about equal size are well ahead of the
others and rapidly nearing the prize. It is just a toss-up which gets
it; they grab simultaneously, but their fingers close on empty water.
The tiger has disappeared, sucked down by something into the depths! Has
it been eaten by a fish?

No, there it is, having risen to the surface again some yards distant,
grasped by a thin little arm. The owne