te man within a
hundred or more miles. The country ahead was one immense rice-field,
divided by dykes or banks paved with stones and forming paths for
walking. At some distance we saw a large clump of bamboos with tall
elms beyond, indicating a village, called, as a coolie at work in a
ditch informed us, Fi-Loong. Soon we saw a broad creek with a handsome
stone bridge over it, and on the other side an unusually large house of
two stories, which turned out to belong to the Te-poy, or local
magistrate of the place. The old gentleman himself was sitting outside
of the house having his head shaved by the village barber. He politely
invited us to wait, and after the shaving was over regaled us with a
cup of tea,--rather weak, but refreshing,--and after chin-chin-ing we
resumed our journey.

Can you see our party trudging along? Beyond the village were more
paddy-fields, from which occasionally a great white paddy-bird arose. I
shot one of them, to the great delight of our coolie, who pronounced it
No. 1 good chow-chow; but Charley and I were much more pleased at the
sight of several English snipe. Reaching an old lotus-pond, a shot
scared up these birds almost in myriads, and a good bunch of them
promised a very welcome addition to our dinner. Meanwhile we had been
following a creek, which we now needed to cross. But before long Aling
espied a man in the distance at work with a huge buffalo, and
exclaiming, "Hi-yah! belly good walkee now," rushed off in that
direction. He soon returned with the buffalo and his owner, and
indicated that we could cross on the back of the former. The huge,
ungainly beast threw up his head and snorted when he caught sight of
the "fanquis," or foreign devils, but a pull at the ring through his
nose soon brought him to subjection.

"How much does he want, Aling, to carry us over?"

"He say ten cash can do."

As this sum (one cent) was not an unreasonable ferriage, we nodded; and
the buffalo being led into the water near the bank, I mounted first,
then came Charley with his arms around me, then Aling, who had climbed
up behind. When we were half-way over, Charley laughed so heartily at
the ridiculous figure we made that the buffalo gave another snort, and
threatened to roll us off, into the muddy water, but we landed safely,
and giving the man his ten cash, went on again. The rest of the walk
was without adventure, and we finally arrived at the river-bank just as
the boat was coming around the