ised to the
men's shoulders and we resumed our journey.

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.

ON THE ROAD TO PEKIN.

As we got further up the countryside, we saw numbers of gardens full of
peach trees, the fruit of which was plentiful enough, with an occasional
poplar grove, the usual decoration of a cemetery; while the villages
became more frequent, too, and more populous, one meeting us almost at
every mile.

The people that we met, however, received us in a very puzzling fashion,
coming round our cages to look at us, as if we were so many wild
animals, and roaring with laughter at our appearance; even the very
babies crowing with merriment on our being pointed out to them by their
fond parents, much to Ned's disgust, although I joined in with their
hilarity, it was really so hearty and catching!

That night we all slept together in one of the inns along the road,
where, although the bed-place was fixed, it had plenty of moving tenants
before our arrival; and, I'm sorry to say, we carried off a few of them
when we went away in the morning, and suffered in consequence.

But beyond this little personal matter, which is a mere detail to anyone
travelling in China, and the staring of the inhabitants, we did not
suffer much inconvenience during our journey, the old fellow in charge
of us giving us the best food he could get, in the shape of rice and
eggs, the latter of which were sometimes in such a state of perfection
that they deserved to have been promoted to the rank of poultry; and, on
the third day after leaving Tientsin, although the distance between the
two places must be eighty or ninety miles, we saw the walls of Pekin in
front of us.

So our guide, the old chap, told us, at least; but, although the sight
of this celestial city is asserted by the Chinese to "strike awe" into
the beholder on first sighting it, we should not have known we were
gazing on such an imposing object as the capital of China undoubtedly
is!

On closing up with the town, we passed a collection of tombs with stone
tortoises carrying memorial tablets on their backs, and other signs of
mourning, and a josshouse; and we soon after this entered Pekin by a
granite causeway over a tumble-down bridge, passing for some distance
along, the massive walls, which were some fifty feet in height and of
equal thickness.

"Yellow hat" was evidently anxious to keep us as private as possible;
for, he hurried the bearers through the streets, which, though dirt