is necessary to earn, not the "daily bread," for that they do
not eat, but the daily bowl of rice. There is much fertile land, which at
present is not used at all, and hardly any attention, and much less
skill, is manifested when once the seed is in the ground.

The Neapolitan _lazzaroni_, of world-wide reputation for extreme
laziness, have indeed worthy rivals in the Corean peasantry. The women
are made to do all the work, for by them the crops are gathered, and by
them the seeds are separated with the old-fashioned roller-gin. To borrow
statistics from the Commissioners' Report, a native woman can, with a
roller-gin, turn out, say, nearly 3 lbs. of clean cotton from 12 lbs. of
seed-cotton; while the industrious Japanese, who have brought over modern
machines of the saw-gin type, can obtain 35 lbs. of clean cotton from
140 lbs. of seed-cotton in the same space of time. Previous to being
spun, the cotton is prepared pretty much in the same way as in Japan or
China, the cotton being tossed into the air with a view to separating the
staple; but the spinning-wheel commonly used in Corea only makes one
thread at a time.

The crops are generally gathered in August, and the dead stalk is used
for fuel, while the ashes make fairly good manure. The quantity of clean
cotton is about 85 lbs. per acre, and of seed-cotton 345 lbs. per acre.

But to return to my narrative, luncheon-time came in due course, and as I
was spreading out my napkin on my knees, I reminded the person who had
whispered those mysterious words in my ear, of the promise he had made.

"Yes," said he, as he cautiously looked round, "I will tell you his
story. Mind you," he added, "this man to whom you spoke a while ago was
only one of several, and he was not the principal actor in that
outrageous business, still he himself is said to have taken a
considerable part in the criminal dealings. Remember that the account I
am going to give you of the affair is only drawn in bold lines, for the
details of the expedition have never been fully known to any one. For all
I know, this man may even be perfectly innocent of all that is alleged
against him."

"Go on; do not make any more apologies, and begin your story," I
remarked, as my curiosity was considerably roused.

"Very good. It was on April 30th, 1867, that an expedition left Shanghai
bound for Corea. The aims of that expedition seemed rather obscure to
many of the foreign residents at the port of departure, as