98 



FARMERS AND THEIR FAMILIES. Chap. VI. 



them returned to me as if they had been in the 

 Bank of England. A man of this kind was 

 invaluable, as I was thus enabled to make his 

 house a sort of head-quarters for my collections 

 in the province until they could be conveyed to 

 Shanghae for shipment to India or to Europe. 



On the present occasion he seemed delighted 

 to see me again, and gave me a hearty welcome. 

 Having established myself in my old quarters, I 

 took the mornings and evenings for my outdoor 

 excursions, and generally stopped in the house 

 during the heat of the day. In this way, with the 

 help of my good friend the priest, I entered into 

 engagements with many of the small farmers for 

 supplies of tea-seeds to be gathered in the follow- 

 ing autumn as soon as they were ripe. In a short 

 time all the little boys and girls in the country 

 were making collections of insects, land-shells, and 

 other objects of natural history for me, and were 

 delighted with the few cash they were able to 

 earn in this manner. I was thus fully employed 

 even during the heat of the day, when it would 

 have been imprudent to stir abroad. 



The farmers in China, as a class, are highly 

 respectable, but, as their farms are all small, they 

 are probably less wealthy than our farmers in 

 England. Each farm-house is a little colony, con- 

 sisting of some three generations, namely, the 

 grandfather, his children, and his children's chil- 

 dren. There they live in peace and harmony 

 together ; all who are able work on the farm, and 



