onel?" asked the captain, when they stopped
to examine a locality.

"The average temperature is seventy-five; and that, of course, gives us
some hot days in summer, which is a rainy season. Thunder-storms come
often; and once in a while a typhoon breaks in upon us, sometimes doing
an immense amount of damage," replied the consul. "But the climate is
not unhealthy. If the town had been built around the corner of the
island, it would have been cooler, though we could not have had this
magnificent harbor."

The company had all descended when a stop was made; and most of them
insisted upon walking along Queen's Road in order to have a better
opportunity to look into the stores, and see the street traders, for
most of the Chinese pursue their business in the open air. The stores
were filled with the curious goods peculiar to the East, such as China
crapes, porcelain vases, and other wares, and camphor-wood boxes, proof
against moths. The shop people were well dressed and extremely polite.
Several stores were visited, those indicated by the colonel.

One man, who appeared to be the "boss," sat at a desk with a little
brush, or camel's-hair pencil, for the natives do not write with pens,
and made a tea-chest character in a kind of book for every article sold.
The salesmen were very skilful in handling the goods, and showing them
in the most tempting manner. Mrs. Belgrave bought some things that she
fancied; and then came up the question as to how to pay for them, for
they had no Chinese money. The colonel helped them out by giving cards,
like bank-checks, payable by the steward of the Hong merchants.

Continuing the walk, they came to a money-changer. The commander put
down two English sovereigns, for which he received a bag full of the
current coins, which were not the native _cash_, but the pieces made for
Hong-Kong, as they are made for the island of Jamaica, where an English
penny will not pass. The smallest was of the value of a cash, or one
mill. A cent was about the size of our old copper one, and a ten-cent
piece was a little larger than our dime. The value was given in Chinese
as well as English for the benefit of the natives; and the cash piece
had a square hole in the centre, for the natives keep them on strings or
wires.

The captain gave about a half a dollar's worth of this money to each
person, so that none need be bothered about paying for small articles.
The boys invested a portion of their wealth for a q