En Route for Hankow, July 8.
Brr-brrh! Honk-honk-honk!! A look at the clock shows it to be only five in the morning, but here; ig our engineer waiting to start up the launch. I have my on deck, and rolling out from under the mosquito net there is only a dive and a warmth of last night and the cool of the river in the early morning. My bed is packed away as I come on board vid the anchor chain, and a cup of coffee standing on the deck awaiting my attention vibrates to the rattle as the chain is hauled on board, and the boat swings her nose down stream.
A mile of flood water, calm as a mirror save that here and there ripple indicates the hidden and destructive current that animates it in secret, stretches away for miles in front of us. On the horizon lie the mountains, blue-black in the early light, while nearer at hand lies the long lino of the dyke which we have built to save the intervening country which shows so green and peaceful in the foreground. The tapering masts of the junks which have anchored near for the night stand out against the skyline, when suddenly they are transformed. A breath of wind, that herald of the dawn, has rippled the waters, and the boats hoist their sails with a slow creaking of pulley blocks, and float steadily upstream.
We are left alone, but only for a moment, for, with a burst of vivid red, the sun has risen from behind the mountains. A path of gold cast from the horizon, and stretches across the waters to the very prow of our launch. A water bird, black as-night. comes suddenly into view, swims slowly and silently up this splash of glory, and then, even og our mind turns back through the centuries to recall those Jegends of the golden road across the sea to the islands of Ultima Thule, the sun is fully up and all has vanish-the light of day.
The Famine Relief work is over, and we are bound for home! The work: carried out by the Chinese Dyke Office is the first object that receives our notice on our way down stream, and we stop for a Tew minutes to look it over. A member of the local gentry who greets us is profoundly pessimistic as to the value of the work, and states furthermore that the director of the Offies has been called to Wuchang, as they have charged him with the speculation of funds and the improper fulfilment of the work. As we walk round he gives some interesting details of the bandits of the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.