wuz bakin' bread and meat and
beans and got into the oven to turn 'em, she knew a little about the
climate we wuz enjoying.

As we ascended the river our ship got a little too near the shore and
kinder run its prow into a jungle where the monkeys hung from the
tree-tops and made fun of us, I spoze, mad at our invadin' their
domain and wanted us to pay, 'tennyrate the muskeeters sent in their
bills, sharp ones. Saigon is a pretty place set in its tropical
scenery; it has eighty or ninety thousand inhabitants and belongs to
France. The natives are small and slower than time in the primer.

Singapore is an island in the straits of Malacca and is twenty-four
milds long and fourteen wide; it is a British province ruled by
native princes under the Queen. Here the days and nights are of equal
length and it rains about every day; it has a mixed population,
Chinamen, Malays, Europeans and a few Americans, mebby a hundred
thousand in all.

We didn't stay long here, but rode out in what they called a Jherry
lookin' like a dry goods box drawed by a couple of ponies.

Josiah sez to me, "I am glad that the Malay coolers wear a little more
than the Japans." And the coolies here did wear besides their red loin
cloth a narrer strip of white cotton cloth hangin' over their left
shoulders. Our hotel wuz a very comfortable one; it consisted of
several buildin's two stories high connected by covered halls; it wuz
surrounded by handsome trees and beautiful ornamental shrubbery and
flowers.

The wide verandas wuz very pleasant, with their bamboo chairs and
couches and little tables where you could have tea served. Birds of
the most beautiful plumage soared and sung in the trees, and
butterflies that looked like flowers on wings fluttered about. You
can't tell men from wimmen by their clothes. They all wear earrings
and bracelets and nose-rings. Josiah sez to me:

"I have always said, Samantha, that men didn't dress gay enough; a few
bracelets and breastpins and earrings would add to a man's looks
dretfully, and I mean to set the fashion in Jonesville. It would take
ten years offen my age. Jest see how proud the men walk; they feel
that they're dressed up; it gives 'em a lofty look."

The men did seem to have a different gait from the females; the wimmen
looked more meek and meachin. We didn't stay long in Saigon, but we
visited the Whampoo garders and found that they were perfectly
beautiful, made by Mr. Whampoo, a rich Chinaman. Th