rable consternation among the people.

[Illustration: A CHINESE SEEDING-DRILL.]

We told him that the bicycle from a Chinese point of view was capable of
various descriptions. On the passports given us by the Chinese minister in
London the bicycle was called "a seat-sitting, foot-moving machine." The
natives in the interior had applied to it various epithets, among which
were _yang ma_ (foreign horse), _fei-chay_ (flying-machine), _szuedzun
chay_ (self-moving cart), and others. The most graphic description,
perhaps, was given by a Chinaman whom we overheard relating to his
neighbors the first appearance of the bicycle in his quiet little village.
"It is a little mule," said he, "that you drive by the ears, and kick in
the sides to make him go." A dignified smile overspread the viceroy's
features.

"Didn't the people try to steal your money?" he next inquired.

"No," we replied. "From our impoverished appearance, they evidently
thought we had nothing. Our wardrobe being necessarily limited by our mode
of travel, we were sometimes reduced to the appearance of traveling
mendicants, and were often the objects of pity or contempt. Either this,
or our peculiar mode of travel, seemed to dispel all thought of highway
robbery; we never lost even so much as a button on our journey of over
three thousand miles across the Chinese empire."

"Did the governors you met treat you well?" he asked; and then immediately
added: "Being scholars, were you not subjected to some indignity by being
urged to perform for every mandarin you met?"

"By nearly all the governors," we said, "we were treated very kindly
indeed; but we were not so certain that the same favors would have been
extended to us had we not cheerfully consented to give exhibitions of
bicycle riding."

There was now a lull in the conversation. The viceroy shifted his position
in his chair, and took another whiff from the long, slender Chinese pipe
held to his mouth by one of his body-servants. One whiff, and the pipe was
taken away to be emptied and refilled. After a short respite he again
resumed the conversation, but the questions he now asked were of a
personal nature. We enumerate a few of them, without comment, only for the
purpose of throwing some additional light on the character of our
questioner.

"About how much did the trip cost you? Do you expect to get back all or
more than you spent? Will you write a book?

"Did you find on your route any gold or silve