ad been
travelling amongst, but they displayed less of the naive curiosity of
the out-of-the-way places. Evidently the foreigner was no novelty, nor
the camera either. At one village I stopped to photograph a fine pailou,
not to the "virtuous official" this time, but to the "virtuous widow."
A little group of villagers gathered to watch, and would not be
satisfied until I had taken a picture of another local monument, a
beautiful three-storied stone pagoda rising tall and slender above the
flat rice land. These picturesque structures add much to the charm of
the level plain which tends to become monotonous after a while. As far
as one can see stretches the paddy land in every stage of development.
Some fields are hardly more than pools of water mirroring the clouds
overhead. Others are dotted over with thin clumps of rice through which
the ducks swim gaily, while still others are solid masses of green, and
transplanting has already begun.

Although we were now approaching the largest city of West China, and the
capital of the empire's richest province, the roads went steadily from
bad to worse. Made with infinite labour centuries ago, they had been
left untouched ever since, and weather and wear had done their work. For
long stretches the paving was quite gone; elsewhere you wished it were.
The people have their explanation of these conditions in the saying,
"The hills are high and the emperor far." It remains to be seen if that
will hold good of the new government. Certainly nothing will mean so
much in the development of the country as good roads. We were now once
more on the line of wheeled traffic, and the wheelbarrow was never out
of sight or hearing. Enormous loads were borne along on the large
flat-bottomed freight barrow, while on every hand we saw substantial
looking farmer folk, men, women, and children, going to town in the same
primitive fashion.

[Illustration: MEMORIAL ARCH TO A "VIRTUOUS WIDOW," CHENGTU PLAIN]

To save the journey a little for my chair-men, and also for the fun of a
new experience, I bargained with a barrow-man to carry me for a few
miles. My coolies took it as a fine joke, and after starting me off
trotted on behind, but my military escort looked troubled. No longer
striding proudly in front, he showed a desire to loiter behind, although
so long as my grand chair kept close at my heels he could save his face
by explaining my strange proceeding as the mad freak of a foreigner. But
fina