ten times.

"Well--at last we moored and went ashore. Brace Girdle, an engineer, and
I went to the hotel, and the first thing we heard was--that _peace was
declared!_ I went back on board ship, and I didn't sleep much--I never
was so blue in my life. I knew if they didn't want me that I might as
well give up the ghost, for I could never get away from China. Well--I
worried around all night without sleep, and in the morning I felt as
if I had been drawn through a knot-hole. I must have lost ten pounds. I
went around about 10 A.M. and gave my letters to Pethick, an American
U. S. Vice-Consul and interpreter to Li Hung Chang. He said he would fix
them for me. Then I went back to the ship, and as our captain was going
up to see Li Hung Chang, I went along out of desperation. We got in,
and after a while were taken in through corridor after corridor of the
Viceroy's palace until we got into the great Li, when we sat down and
had tea and tobacco and talked through an interpreter. When it came
my turn he asked: 'Why did you come to China?' I said: 'To enter the
Chinese service for the war.' 'How do you expect to enter?' 'I expect
_you_ to give me a commission!' 'I have no place to offer you.' 'I think
you have--I have come all the way from America to get it.' 'What would
you like?' 'I would like to get the new torpedo-boat and go down the
Yang-tse-Kiang to the blockading squadron.' 'Will you do that?' 'Of
course.'

"He thought a little and said: 'I will see what can be done. Will you
take $100 a month for a start?' I said: 'That depends.' (Of course
I would take it.) Well, after parley, he said he would put me on the
flagship, and if I did well he would promote me. Then he looked at me
and said: 'How old are you?' When I told him I was twenty-four I thought
he would faint--for in China a man is a _boy_ until he is over thirty.
He said I would _never_ do--I was a child. I could not know anything at
all. I could not convince him, but at last he compromised--I was to pass
an examination at the Arsenal at the Naval College, in all branches,
and if they passed me I would have a show. So we parted. I reported for
examination next day, but was put off--same the next day. But to-day I
was told to come, and sat down to a stock of foolscap, and had a
pretty stiff exam. I am only just through. I had seamanship, gunnery,
navigation, nautical astronomy, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, conic
sections, curve tracing, differential and inte