stration: LITTLE WHAMPOA STEERS THE BOAT TO SHORE.]

She pushed aside a plank, and hauled out of a box underneath it a little
round-faced "four-year-old," so like a big doll that Frank almost took
him for one, till he saw the child grasp the steering oar in his little
pudgy hands, and actually steer the boat to shore.

"Well," thought our hero, "the Chinese may well be good boatmen, if they
begin as early as that."

But he afterward learned that on the great Chinese rivers thousands of
families live altogether in boats, each of which has an allotted place
of its own. In Canton alone these floating streets have a population of
300,000, and it is common to see two-year-old children toddling about
with small wooden buoys on their backs, fixed there by their careful
mothers in case they should fall overboard, which they do, on an
average, three or four times a day.

For several hundred feet around the great stone quay extended a perfect
army of Chinese boats, clustering together like bees; but Mrs. Sam soon
made her way through them, and Austin leaped ashore. He had hardly done
so when a crowd of sturdy natives surrounded him, with ear-piercing
screams, asking if he wished to "ride in chair." This being a new idea,
he accepted at once, and presently found himself being carried off in a
sedan-chair by four sinewy fellows, who went at a long swinging trot,
like the "palanquin hamals" of British India.

[Illustration: STREET OF STAIRS, HONG-KONG.]

Six more runners were speedily added, for the way now led up a street
made entirely of stairs, like the "Hundred-and-one Steps" at
Constantinople. Then out into the open country, and away toward the
summit of Victoria Peak. Up, up, they went, poor Frank getting so bumped
about that he was sorely tempted to get out and walk; but he reached the
top at last, and saw the whole town, the harbor, and miles upon miles of
the inland country out-spread below him like a map. The trip, when paid
for, proved wonderfully cheap, though the reason given for this made
Frank feel rather "cheap" himself:

"Large piecee man, two bob; small piecee man, _like you_, one bob. All
right--chin-chin!"

During his rambles through the town Austin saw many curious sights. He
was shown through a native bank, where three Chinese "tellers" were
standing ankle-deep in gold, and counting so rapidly that the ring of
the coins sounded like one continuous chime. In another place a house
was being built _from t