Shanghai.
Tt was raining, it was sleeting. it was snowing. It was wretched. So were we the morning we turned our bicycles east, towards Shanghai.
"Better stay till the weather clears up," suggested the Wuhu Consul.
"Rather not, thank you,' said we; must push on.
"Well, go by the Yangtze bank, and you'll fall in with Englishmen at Nanking and Chinkiang and ride by the Grand Canal to Soochow; you'll find none the way yeu propose, Never min li wheel across country and risk it.
And so we struck ff through the chill, sloppy dreariness, with a narrow creek as sur guide, and a flask as our comforter." And we had just youe from Wuhu one hour when three gentlemen from Nanking culled at the British Consulate 10 offer hospitality. A committee of reception had been formed, with the Rev, T. Houston, of the American Mission, at its rend, and they wanted to do us honour. That we learnt days We were sorry to have disappointed the good folks of China's ancient capital, Yet: theirs was the gain, They can console themselves with the satisfaction that three. daring, death-defying adventurers almost visited them. Had we gone to Nanking they would only have recollected a trio of lanky, rough-clad, cold-toed cyclists, as ravenous as wolves, and quits unpicturesque, and Tricking in'all the qualities of heroes.
Innumerable marshes lie between Wahu ud the Grand Canal, and it was a clever ides on our part to take a native boat with us, Else we must have swam, waded, and generally got ourselves in a mess. When we reached n nasty part we boarded the bark and took it easy till a tow-path have in sight. We slept in it at night,—cold ing nights that settled " hoar-frost on our beards. And we had an English-speaking Chinese "boy" with us, a long, rake-shaped rascal, who swore with much fluency.
He came to us with little clothing. We gave him more. We had fresh supplies at Shanghai, and we transferred our tatters bit by bit. He put everything on, and day by day he swelled visibly." At the end of a week we took an inventory of his
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.