TEA 



CHAPTER I 



WE CHAT OVER A CUP OF TEA 



All of you, I am siiro, have many pleasant recollections 

 of tea-parties. At a festive gathering of this kind, you 

 first met the someone who is now your greatest friend ; 

 or you learnt how to play some game which has 

 become your favourite pastime ; or you were recom- 

 mended to make the acquaintance of a book, which 

 has since bcM?n a constant sourot^ of delight to you. 



I hope that to-day's party, at which I have the 

 pleasure of being your host, will be the means of adding 

 much that is interesting and amusing to your store of 

 happy memories. Over our tea, I am going to talk to 

 you about tea, and if you come to feel that you would 

 like t^ know more about this popular comnKnlity. J 

 want to arrange to take you for a holiday tour among 

 the countries that are the native or adopted homelands 

 of the tea-])ush. Brit-fly to sum up my object in 

 asking you to tea with me to-day, 1 am longing to 

 awaken in you a keen desire to see with your own eyes 

 the surroundings amidst which the tea-l)U8h livi»s, the 

 treatment by which it is reared, the motle of life of the 

 people who tend it, and the sc-ries of transformation 

 scenes whereby a little green leaf is made ready for the 



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