CHAPTER XI 



FENSIANG-FU AN INLAND TOWN 



IT was on August 17th that we left the village 

 after pouring wet days. It was on the same even- 

 ing that we ignominiously returned, for the river 

 was unfordable. The morning following it had 

 sufficiently subsided for us to cross, and after a 

 long day's travel we reached a crowded inn, where 

 a large mob awaited our arrival. The country was 

 very fertile, and we rode through fields of giant 

 millet, twelve or thirteen feet high, maize, buck- 

 wheat, tobacco, and other crops. George's pony 

 was a troublesome little brute, affected with nerves, 

 and not above letting him down in the middle of a 

 river. I rode a Cromwellian animal which nothing 

 seemed to daunt, while the doctor's mule, though 

 a very useful animal, was afflicted at times with 

 fits of obstinacy which refused to yield to the 

 hymn-like exhortations of its rider. 



The next day we crossed the Wei River, riding 

 across a narrow channel and negotiating the main 

 stream in a big flat-bottomed boat. It was steered 

 by means of a large rudder and six men with 

 enormous sweeps in the stern. Early in the after- 

 noon we arrived at Fensiang-fu, where we were 



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