d had enough for
one day.

Upon arrival I immediately washed my feet, an excellent practice of the
Chinese, changed my footgear, drank many cups of tea, and often went
straight to my p'ukai. The roads of China take it out of the strongest
man. There are no Marathon runners here; progress is a tedious toil,
often on all fours.

My room at Hwan-lien-p'u was near a telegraph pole; there was a
telegraph station there, where my men showed their admiration for the
Governmental organization by at once hammering nails into the pole. It
was close to their laundry, and served admirably for the clothes-line, a
bamboo tied at one end with a string to a nail in the pole and the other
end stuck through the paper in the window of the telegraph operator's
apartment. But this is nothing. Years ago, when the telegraph was first
laid down, the people took turns to displace the wires and sell them for
their trouble, and to chop the poles up for firewood. It continued for a
considerable period, until an offender--or one whom it was surmised had
done this or would have done it if he could--had his ears cut off, and
was led over the main road to the capital, to be admired by any
compatriot contemplating a deal in wiring or timber used for telegraphic
communication purposes.

Just below the town the river ran peacefully down a gradual incline. I
decided that a comfortable seat under a tree, spending an hour in
preparing this copy, would be more pleasant than moping about a noisome
and stench-ridden inn, providing precious little in the way of
entertainment for the foreigner. Next door a wedding party was making
the afternoon hideous with their gongs and drums and crackers, and
everywhere the usual hue and cry went abroad because a European was
spending the day there.

I imparted to my man my intentions for the afternoon. Immediately
preparations were set on foot to get me down by the river, and it was
publicly announced to the townspeople. The news ran throughout the town,
that is Hwan-lien-p'u's one little narrow street, a sad mixture of a
military trench and a West of England cobbled court. And instead of
going alone to my shady nook by that silvery stream, 1 was accompanied
by nine adult members of the unemployed band, three boys, and sundry
stark-naked urchins who seemed to be without home or habitation. One of
these specimens of fleeting friendship was one-eyed, and a diseased hip
rendered it difficult for him to keep pace with us; o