and
shook his head. Then there came into sight a slow lumbering bullock-cart
with the wheels screaming enough to give you toothache. Why on earth
don't they grease them?

"Perhaps they prefer them like that," said Joyce, and I expect she is
right.

It wasn't long before we reached the steamer, and then what a scene!
When I saw how Joyce was smothered I was glad men don't kiss. You just
shook hands with me and told me I was an object to scare crows with!

When we offered Moung Ohn some money for his trouble he refused to take
it, and went away saying good-bye so gracefully, bowing and touching his
forehead with his hand.

[Illustration: SAMPANS.]

CHAPTER XXVI

THROUGH EASTERN STRAITS AND ISLANDS

In every long journey there comes a time when one feels a little dreary.
So many new things have been seen that the mind and eye are tired. Then
maybe there is just a touch of home-sickness mingled with it, and when
one gets to a part less beautiful than what has gone before all at once
there is a longing to turn and fly back to all that we are accustomed
to. It seems to me that you and I are suffering from that now. We have
left Burma behind, and for two days have ploughed down the Gulf of
Martaban toward Penang in the Straits Settlements. We did not want to
make friends with anyone on board, and were just a trifle grumpy even
toward each other. We felt the parting from Joyce and her mother, who
had made Burma so enjoyable, and we weren't ready to begin making new
friends all at once.

Burma forms the western part of a great peninsula, and stretching out
southward from it is a long arm, the shape of an Indian club, narrower
in the neck and broadening out, to run up finally to a point. Alongside
of the broadest part is the great island of Sumatra, belonging to the
Dutch, who are our principal rivals in this region of the world.

"The captain's compliments, and we're going to set off some rockets to
scare the sea-birds," says one of the officers, suddenly appearing
beside us. "We're passing close by that little island there--Pulo Pera."

Now there is something to see we wake up at once. Sure enough there it
is ahead, a little island rising like a cliff out of the water. It is
evidently deep close in, for we go quite near to it. Just as we are
abreast off goes rocket after rocket, and in a moment the scene is
transformed as if by magic. A dense mass of shrieking, screaming birds
springs to life. The moment b