er, and 'wash
them down' with a ball of thread, which he swallowed next, and by and by
he used to draw the thread slowly out of his mouth, yard after yard, and
it had all the needles threaded on it."

"Oh, Cousin Peregrine!"

"He used to come quite close to me, Maggie, as close as I am to you now,
and take each needle--one after the other--between the finger and thumb
of his right hand--keeping all the other fingers away from it, stick the
point of it for a moment into his other palm, to show that it was sharp,
and then to all appearance swallow it bodily before your eyes. In this
way he seemed to swallow successively all the twelve needles. Then he
opened his mouth, that you might ascertain that they were not there, and
you certainly could not see them. He next swallowed a little ball of
thread, not much bigger than a pea. This being done, he seemed to be
very uneasy (as well he might be!), and he made fearful faces and
violent gestures, and stamped on the ground, and muttered incantations,
and threw up his hands and eyes to the sky; and presently the end of a
thread was to be seen coming out between his teeth, upon which he took
hold of this end, and carefully drew out the thread with all the needles
threaded on it. Then there was always much applause, and the small coins
used to be put pretty liberally into the hat which he handed round to
receive them."

"Was that all?" asked the young gentleman of the adventure books.

"All what, Fred?"

"All that you thought wonderful."

"Yes," said Cousin Peregrine. "Don't you think it curious?"

"Oh, very, Cousin, and I like it very much indeed, only if that's all
_you_ thought wonderful, now I want you to tell us what _you_ did that
_the Chinese_ thought wonderful."

"It's not very easy to surprise a town-bred Chinaman," said Cousin
Peregrine. "What I am going to tell you about now happened in the
country. It was up in the north, and in a part where Europeans had very
rarely been seen."

"How came you to be there, Cousin Peregrine?"

"I was not on duty. I had got leave for a few days to go up and see
Pekin. Therefore I was not in uniform, remember, but in plain clothes.

"On this particular occasion I was on the river Peiho, in one of the
clumsy Chinese river-boats. If the wind were favourable, we sailed; if
we went with the stream--well and good. If neither stream nor wind were
in our favour, the boat was towed."

"Like a barge--with a horse--Cousin Peregrine?"