ot soothed, not humored. There are none
to kiss away their tears, they never have toys, and dream no young
dreams, but are brought straight into the iron realities of life. They
are reared in smoke and physical and moral filth, and become men and
women when they should be children: they haggle and envy, and swear and
murmur. When in Yuen-nan--or even in the whole of China--will there be
the innocence and beauty of childhood as we of the West are blessed
with?

Roads here were in many cases of a light loess, and some of red
limestone rock, with a few li of paved roads. Many of the main roads
over the loess are altered by the rains. Two days of heavy rain will
produce in some places seas of mud, often knee-deep, and this will again
dry up quite as rapidly with the next sunshine. They become undermined,
and crumble away from the action of even a trickling stream, so as to
become always unsafe and sometimes quite impassable.

Delays are very dear to the heart of every Chinese. The traveler, if he
is desirous of getting his caravan to move on speedily, has little
chance of success unless he assumes an attitude of profoundest
indifference to all men and things around him--never _appear_ to be in a
hurry.

We are accompanied to-day to Kwang-tung-hsien by the coolie who carried
the load yesterday. He sits by staring enviously at his compatriots in
the employ of the foreign magnate, who rests on a stone behind and
listens to the conversation. They invite him to carry again; he refuses.
Now the argument--natural and right and proper--is ensuing with warmth.
Lao Chang, with the air of a hsien "gwan," sits in judgment upon them,
bringing to bear his long experience of coolies and the amount of
"heart-money" they receive, and has decided that the fellow should
receive a tenth of a dollar and twenty cash in addition for carrying the
heavier of the loads the remaining thirty li, as against ten cents
offered by the men. He is now extending philosophic advice to them all,
based on a knowledge of the coolie's life; the little meeting breaks up,
good feeling prevails, and the loads carried on merrily. I still linger,
sipping my tea. Lao Chang has grumbled because he has had to shell out
seven cash, and I have already drunk ten cups (he generally uses the tea
leaves afterwards for his personal use).

But wrangling about payment prevails always where Chinese congregate. In
China, by high and low, lies are told without the slightest appa