ay inspection of the crew. The sailors
and cooks wuz Hindus, the stewards English and Scotch. The crew had on
short white trousers, long white jackets and white caps, all on 'em
wuz barefooted.

We sailed acrost the Bay of Bengal, where I spoze Bengal tigers wuz
hidin' in the adjacent jungles, though we didn't meet any and didn't
want to. And so on to the Hoogly River; one of the mouths of the
Ganges, and on to Calcutta.

Calcutta is over four thousand milds from Hongkong. And oh, my heart!
how fur! how fur from Jonesville. Most fourteen thousand milds from
our own vine and apple trees and the children. It made my head turn
round so that I tried to furgit it.

CHAPTER XXI

As we approached Calcutta we seemed to be travellin' through big
gardens more beautiful than our own country can boast of; rich,
strange, tropical trees and shrubs and flowers grew luxuriant around
the pleasant villas. The English district with its white two-story
houses made me think some of an American village. We went to the Great
Eastern Hotel, right opposite the gardens of the Viceroy's palace.

We had pleasant rooms that would have been pretty hot, but great fans
are swung up in our room and the hired help swing 'em by a rope that
goes out into the hall. It beats all how much help there is here, the
halls seemed full on 'em, but what would our hired help say if we made
'em dress like these Hindus? They wear short pantaloons that don't
come down to their knees and then they wind a long strip of white
cloth round their thighs and fasten it round their waist, leavin'
their right shoulder and arm bare naked. An American family of four
livin' in Calcutta have thirty servants, ten of 'em pullin' at these
punkeys or fans. They don't eat in the house of their employer; but in
a cabin outside.

There is a long, beautiful street called The Strand, shaded by banyan
and palm trees; on one side on't is the park so lovely that it is
called the Garden of Eden, full of beautiful trees, shrubs and
flowers, pagodas, little temples and shrines. Josiah and I and Tommy
went there in the evenin' and hearn beautiful music. Josiah wanted to
ride in a palanquin. It is a long black box and looks some like a
hearse. I hated to see him get in, it made me forebode. But he enjoyed
his ride, and afterwards I sot off in one, Josiah in one also nigh by
with Tommy. One side of it comes off so you can git in and set on a
high cushion and read or knit. I took my kn