nives and use them frequently
in their rows. I have passed few cities in China in which I have
suffered so much molestation from the people as I did there; and
travellers should avoid making night quarters there as it was my lot to
do." Time enough has elapsed since the good baron went this way to have
changed all that, but the missionaries at Ya-chou had also cautioned me
against the temper of the people, relating some unpleasant experiences
of recent date. They had kindly given me a note of introduction to two
missionaries who had their headquarters at Cheung-chou who would make me
safe and comfortable in their house. I had sent this ahead only to learn
that the mission was closed, as the people were touring in the district;
and so there was nothing to do but go to the inn as usual.

In the narrow streets of the town there was of course the everlasting
pushing, staring crowd, but I saw no signs of unfriendliness, and Jack's
gay yaps in response to pointing fingers and cries of "K'an yang kou!
k'an yang kou!" ("Look at the foreign dog! look at the foreign dog!")
brought the invariable grins of delight. Later in the day, wearying of
the confinement of the inn, and not unwilling to test the temper of the
people a bit, I went marketing with the cook. Of course a crowd of men
and boys dogged my steps, but it was a good-natured crowd, making way
for me courteously, and when they found that I was looking for apricots
they fairly tumbled over each other in their eagerness to show us the
best shop.

Cheung-chou lies on the southwestern edge of the great plain of Chengtu,
which, although only some ninety miles long by seventy miles wide,
supports a population of four millions, so kindly is the climate, so
fertile the soil, and so abundant the water supply. Two of these
blessings are the gift of nature, but the last is owed to the ingenuity
of Li Ping and his nameless son, known only as the "Second Gentleman,"
two Chinese officials who worked and achieved and died more than two
thousand years ago. At Kwan-hsien there is a temple, perhaps the most
beautiful in China, erected in their memory, but their truest monument
is this beautiful plain, blossoming like a Garden of Eden under the
irrigation system which they devised, and which will endure so long as
men obey their parting command engraved on a stone in the temple, "Dig
the channels deep; keep the banks low."

The people of the plain were as friendly as the mountain folk I h