ws what I am.

The wonderful industry of these people is more apparent in this
mountain-country than anywhere else. The valleys are very narrow, often
little more than mere ravines between the mountains, and wherever a
square yard of productive soil is to be found it is cultivated to its
utmost capacity. In places the mountain-ravines are terraced, to their
very topmost limits, tier after tier of substantial rock wall banking up
a few square yards of soil that have been gathered with infinite labor
and patience from the ledges and crevices of the rocky hills. The
uppermost terrace is usually a pond of water, gathered by the artificial
drainage of still higher levels, and reserved for the irrigation of the
score or more descending "steps" of the rice-growing stairway beneath it.

Notwithstanding the mountainous nature of the country and the dallying
progress through Kan-tchou-foo, so lightsome does it seem to be once more
journeying along, free and unencumbered, that I judge my day's progress
to be not less than fifty miles when nightfall overtakes me in a little
mountain-village. It is the first day's progress in China with which I
have been really satisfied. Nevertheless, it has been a toilsome day,
taken altogether, and when nothing but tea and rice confronts me at
supper the reward seems so wretchedly inadequate that I rise in rebellion
at once.

Neither eggs, fish, nor meat are to be obtained, the good woman at the
little hittim explains in a high key; neither loan, ue, nor ue-ah,
nothing but ch'ung-ch'a and mai. The woman is evidently a dear,
considerate mortal, however, for she surveys my evident disgust with
sorrowful visage, and then, suddenly brightening up, motions for me to be
seated and leaves the house. Presently the good dame returns with a smile
of triumph on her face and an object in her hand that, from casual
observation, might be the hind-quarters of a rabbit. Bringing it to me in
the most matter-of-fact manner, she holds it near my face and, pointing
to it with the air of a cateress proudly conscious of having secured
something that she knows will be unusually acceptable to her guest, she
explains "me-aow, me-aow!" The woman's naivete is simply sublime, and her
sagacity in explaining the nature of the meat by imitating a kitten's cry
instead of telling me its Chinese name stamps her as superior to her
surroundings; but, for all that, I conclude to draw the line at kitten
and sup off plain rice and t