s. The mules
are ranged along either side of the deck, seventy mules on each side,
heads facing inward, and with posts and a two-inch plank separating them
from the remainder of the deck, and into stalls of six mules each.
Cocoanut matting is provided for them to stand on, and a plank nailed
along the deck for them to brace their feet against when the vessel
rolls. Nothing could be more happily arranged than this, providing the
mules were unanimously agreed about remaining inside the railed-off
space, and providing the monsoons had agreed not to roll the Mandarin
violently about. With unpardonable short-sightedness, however, it seems
that neither of these important factors in the case has been seriously
considered or consulted, and, as an additional insult to the mules, the
plank in front of them is elevated but four feet six above the deck.

They are a choice lot of four-year-old mules, unbroken and wild,
harum-skarum and skittish. Well-fed four-year-old mules are skin-full of
deviltry under any circumstances, and ranged like so many red herrings in
their boxes, with no exercise, and every motion of the ship jostling them
against one another, they very quickly developed a capacity for
simon-pure cussedness that caused the officers of the ship no little
anxiety from day to day, and a good deal more anxiety when they reflected
on the weather that would be encountered on the Indian Ocean.

The officers of the Mandarin are excellent seamen; they are perfectly at
home and at their ease when it comes to managing a vessel, but their
knowledge of mules is not so profound and exhaustive as of vessels; in
short, their experience of mules has hitherto been confined to casually
noticing meek and sober-sided specimens attached to the street cars of
certain cities they have visited. Three Italian muleteers have been hired
to assist and instruct the coolies in feeding and watering the mules, and
to supervise their general welfare. The three muleteers is an excellent
arrangement, providing there were but three mules, but unfortunately
there are one hundred and forty, and before they had been aboard the
Mandarin two days it became apparent that they ought to have engaged an
equal number of Italians to keep the mules out of devilment.

Uneasy in their minds at the wild restlessness and seemingly dare-devil
and inconsiderate pranks of their long-eared and unspeakable charges, the
officers are naturally anxious to avail themselves of any