eraled by this brilliant sortie, I meander down to the
other end of the village and invade the premises of an old man engaged in
chopping up a piece of pork with a cleaver. The gallant pork-butcher
gathers up the choicest parts of his meat and carries them into a rear
room; with a wary yet determined look in his eye he then returns, and
proceeds to mince up the few remaining odds and ends. It is plainly
evident that he fancies himself in dangerous company, and is prepared to
defend himself desperately with his meat-chopper in case he gets cornered
up.

Finally I discover a really courageous individual, in the person of a man
presiding over a peanut and treacle-cake establishment; this man, while
evidently uneasy in his mind, manfully steels his nerves to the task of
attending to my wants. Presently the people begin to gather at a
respectful distance to watch me eat, and five minutes later, by a
judicious distribution of a few saucers of peanuts among the youngsters,
I gain their entire confidence.

About four o'clock in the afternoon my road once again brings me to a
ferry across the Kan-kiang. Just previous to reaching the river, I meet
on the road eight men, carrying a sedan containing a hideous black idol
about twice as large as a man. A mile back from the ferry is another
large walled city with a magnificent pagoda; this city I fondly imagine
to be Lin-kiang, next on my map and itinerary to Ki-ngan-foo, and I
mentally congratulate myself on the excellent time I have been making for
the last two days.

Across the ferry are several official sampans with a number of boys gayly
dressed in red and carrying old battle-axes; also a small squad of
soldiers with bows and arrows. No sooner does the ferryman land me than
the officer in charge of the party, with a wave of his hand in my
direction, orders a couple of soldiers to conduct me into the city; his
order is given in an off-hand manner peculiarly Chinese, as though I were
a mere unimportant cipher in the matter, whose wishes it really was not
worth while to consult. The soldiers conduct me to the city and into the
yamen or official quarter, where I am greeted with extreme courtesy by a
pleasant little officer in cloth top-boots and a pigtail that touches his
heels. He is one of the nicest little fellows I have met in China, all
smiles and bustling politeness and condescension; a trifle too much of
the latter, perhaps, were we at all on an equality; but quite excusable