you have them ready for exchange. We will
publish the fact in the YOUNG PEOPLE, so that you can send the specimens
to each other, and make up the collections among yourselves.

[Begun in No. 19 of HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE, March 9.]

ACROSS THE OCEAN; OR, A BOY'S FIRST VOYAGE.

A True Story.

BY J. O. DAVIDSON.

CHAPTER XIII.

FRANK GETS PROMOTED.

[Illustration: A CLIPPER-SHIP LOADING WITH TEA AT HONG-KONG.]

Frank Austin's duties as supercargo were soon over, and he decided to go
ashore and look about him. The moment he was seen looking over the side,
a clamor arose from the Chinese boats around the steamer, which reminded
him of the chorus of monkeys and parrots at Gibraltar.

"Good boatee, my--no upset!"

"Fast sampan--no can catchee!"

"He good, my better!"

"Come see--here allee best sampan!"

Frank was confounded by the uproar, and not less so by observing that
all the boatmen, and boat-women too (for there were plenty of the
latter), seemed to be exactly alike, so that if he picked one, and
happened to lose him, it would be no joke to find him again. As he stood
hesitating, a good-looking Chinese girl hailed him from a neat little
boat with a staring red eye painted on side of its bow.

"Hi! say! My namee Whampoa Sam; washee, keepee state-loom, row boat, can
do all for two bob [fifty cents]. Come tly!"

Such a list of accomplishments was not to be resisted, and Austin at
once took his seat under the stern awning. The young woman spread her
sail, and turned the boat shoreward, steering it with an immense oar.

Away they went, past huge high-pooped junks that looked like monster
rocking-chairs; past stately English steamers, beside which the little
painted sampans seemed mere toys; past big clumsy rice barges, and trim
gigs pulled by sturdy Western sailors. While threading her way through
this maze of shipping as dexterously as any seaman, the girl found time
to answer Frank's eager questions upon all that he saw, down to the
staring eyes on the bow of her boat, which, as she explained, were meant
to "help boatee see go straight, allee same man's eye." The mystery of
her masculine name, which had puzzled Austin not a little, was also
cleared up.

"My Whampoa Sam _wife_; Sam up Canton side now--can catchee more piecee
dollar there. My row boatee till come back. Work boatee, my, allee same
man. Choy! you no b'lieve? Bime-by pickaninny Sam row boatee too, muchee
ploper. Look see!"

[Illu