r of the arm emerges the next
instant, shaking back her long black hair. It is a small girl, who
actually dived under the boys and snatched the prize away! She deserves
it, and holding it on high lies on her back and kicks her way back to
land with her legs. She is a magnificent swimmer. They all follow her
and crowd around her on the shore while she dangles the treasure in the
sun, but no one attempts to take it from her.

[Illustration: BURMESE BOYS.]

At the moment everyone has forgotten that there may be more forthcoming,
and when Joyce holds up the purple monkey only one tiny podgy fellow
sees it, and slipping silently into the water exerts himself
tremendously to get well out before the others discover him. He swims
slowly, for he is very small, and when he is half-way across the others
are after him like a pack of hounds; but he gets the monkey, and turns
his bright eager face up to us radiant with delight. One of the elder
boys carries his treasure back for him, and by the way the little fellow
yields it up readily it is quite evident that he is not in the least
afraid of its being taken from him. His faith is justified, for he gets
it back directly he lands, and then the children dance round the two
lucky ones, singing and making such a noise that a troop of anxious
parents hurry down to find out what is the matter. Those toys will be
treasures for many a long day.

The steamer screeches and we are off once more. Soon we see a great
sugar-loaf hill in the distance, also a perfect forest of pagodas of all
shapes and sizes along the river bank. This is Pagahn, a celebrated
place, now deserted and melancholy. Imagine a strip of ground eight
miles long and two broad, covered by hundreds of pagodas; it is said
there are nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine, but no one could
count them, for half of them are mere heaps of stones, so possibly there
may be one more to make a round number! Pagahn was once a capital city,
and the then Burman king pulled down some of the pagodas to build up the
defences of his walls when he heard that a Chinese king was coming to
attack him; but of course he got the worst of it after such an impious
act, as anyone would guess, and since then the place has been deserted.
Some of the largest pagodas have been restored, which is rather a wonder
in Burma as restoration does not make for "merit." You can see the
snow-white outlines rising gracefully in the middle of the rough line of
u