, to be relegated to the
worst inn's worst room, and to be generally treated with indignity? This
idea of mine of crossing China on foot was preposterous!

Even Mr. Hudson Broomhall, of the China Inland Mission, who with Mrs.
Broomhall was extremely kind, and did all he could to fit me up for the
journey (it is such remembrances that make the trip one which I would
not mind doing again), was surprised to know that I was walking, and
tried to persuade me to take a chair. But I flew in the face of it all.
These good people certainly impressed me, but I decided to run the
gauntlet and take the risk.

The question of "face" is always merely one of theory, never of fact,
and the principles that govern "face" and its attainment were wholly
beyond my apprehension. "I shall probably be more concerned in saving my
life than in saving my face," I thought.

Therefore it was that when I reached a place called Fu-to-gwan I
discarded all superfluities of dress, and strode forward, just at that
time in the early morning when the sun was gilding the dewdrops on the
hedgerows with a grandeur which breathed encouragement to the traveler,
in a flannel shirt and flannel pants--a terrible breach of foreign
etiquette, no doubt, but very comfortable to one who was facing the
first eighty li he had ever walked on China's soil. My three
coolies--the typical Chinese coolie of Szech'wan, but very good fellows
with all their faults--were to land me at Sui-fu, 230 miles distant
(some 650 li), in seven days' time. They were to receive four hundred
cash per man per day, were to find themselves, and if I reached Sui-fu
within the specified time I agreed to _kumshaw_ them to the extent of an
extra thousand.[F] They carried, according to the arrangement, ninety
catties apiece, and their rate of pay I did not consider excessive until
I found that each man sublet his contract for a fourth of his pay, and
trotted along light-heartedly and merry at my side; then I regretted
that I had not thought twice before closing with them.

It is probable that the solidity of the great paved highways of China
have been exaggerated. I have not been on the North China highways, but
have had considerable experience of them in Western China, Szech'wan and
Yuen-nan particularly, and have very little praise to lavish upon them.
Certain it is that the road to Sui-fu does not deserve the nice things
said about it by various travelers. The whole route from Chung-king to
Sui