The incident that I am about to relate-happened some dozen years ago, but the vision thereof is still as clear-cut as it was the hour after it occurred, and the impinge of the facts upon my mind is as marked as the bullet dents con the breastplate of an ancient warrior. Some things we forget easily; the remembrance of others will cling' to us whilst life lasts.
Tt was a morning in the middle of May, that I stood on the deck of small honsebost in Canton, and heard The H.-¢. torald and S.C. & C. Garette, the captain shout "let go." It was my purpose to visit one of my inland mission stations. My boat was altogether destitute of Iuxury, and offered no comfort even. The crew consisted of an old man and his wife, their son and his wife, and a swarm of dirty children. Indeed, they were as unkempt alor as Thad ever hired—yet willing withal, and apparently glad to serve.
Innumerable cockroaches hid themselves in every possible chink and cranny of the rotten wood, for the boat was very old, and as soon as darkness suggested safety they appeared in served battalions. At that hour, too, many rats scuttled and tore to and fro, wondering no doubt at the appearance lof the new guest who had come to take possession of their quarters.
But though my temporary home was unattractive, I was at home in it. Years of roughing it had begotten an indifference to mere comfort, and provided I could command a lounging chair, a good supply of old and well-tried books, pens and paper, I reeked not what other things might be lacking. These things I possessed, and always took them with me on these country tours, and what can one wish further?—except curry and rice, The weather was warm, but not unpleasantly so. The face of the plain through which the waters bor: us was clothed throughout with a living green, for the young paddy was waving in the breeze as far as the eye: could reach. On the banks of the canal, orchards of lichi trees were covered with dark glittering leaves, and studded with clusters of ripening ruddy fruit. Banana groves here and there, with their tufted crowns on bare stalks, were in full flower. An occasional lotus pond, covered with the enormous cirealar leaves of China's classical flower floating upon the surface of the water, attracted the attention. Such was the country through which I passed, and its luxurious growth of many kinds was indeed pleasant to the eye.
The trip was quite capable of afford-1g enjoyment to anyone whose tastes ere not too fastidious. We poled our way clear of the thousand boats that always fill the waters near Chinese towns, and turned our prow towanls our destination. The wind and the tide were favourable. We hoisted our single sail, and the strong breeze quickly filled it and bellied out its folds, 0 that we were bowled along at quite a respectable rate of about eight miles per hour.
During the day nothing worthy of notice happened. The sun rose higher, the air became hotter, and, in the afternoon the breeze became more feeble; before sunset it, as it frequently does in these latitudes, died completely away.
Te became evident that at night we should have to forgo the protection of a guard boat. We had passed the Ist on the assumption that the breeze would continue. Alas for the instability of human hopes! Indeed, soon alter six o'clock, the order "pull down the sail" was shouted. It ame]
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.