Page:Through China with a camera.pdf/271

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be found living on board the craft. First the grandfather. He does almost nothing except smoke; and his pipe, a bamboo- cane with a knob at the end of it, he cherishes with wonderful affection. On his head is a relic of antiquity as venerable as himself — the tattered framework of a greasy-looking felt hat ; while as for his thickly-padded jacket, it is reported that he removes that garment from his person about once a week, in order to destroy the small colonists that disturb his repose. For upwards of half a century he had been learning to swallow the smoke of his pipe, but with only partial success. Once or twice I fancied that he had fairly choked himself, and was about to expire ; but he came to himself again by-and-by, and was seen puffing more vigorously than before.

As soon as the roofs were drawn over for the night, smoking commenced— the entire crew, Mrs. Cheng and all setting to work in business-like fashion; and as there was no outlet for the fumes, the atmosphere can be imagined much more easily than it could be endured. On the following day we passed a newly- wrecked boat, which had struck a sunken rock and then gone down. We also encountered a second boat dashing down the same rapid with a fatal way on her. She was bearing straight for the breakers, away from the main channel; the helmsman could not alter her course, and so she too struck and settled down, but not before the crew had had time to scramble out on the rocks and make the wreck fast with a cable. At one little village where we went ashore, a number of small-footed women were washing clothes in the stream. At our approach they fled with startling celerity, scaling the rocks and finding foothold where only cloven-hoofed goats might have been supposed to make their way.

On Sunday we reached Yen-ping, in time for service at the