302 



LAUGHABLE OCCURKENCE WITH Chap. XIV. 



our provisions and baggage out of the largest boat, 

 which could not pass under the bridge, and dis- 

 charged it. Here a laughable occurrence took 

 place which I must notice. One of the men be- 

 longing to the boat was an old man, very obsti- 

 nate and rather despotic in his bearing both to the 

 other boatmen and to ourselves. In China an old 

 man has great privileges in this respect. He can 

 do many things which a younger man must not 

 attempt, and is generally looked up to and hu- 

 moured in many of his foibles. Now it so hap- 

 pened that this old man had made up his mind to 

 be as long as possible on our upward journey, in 

 order that he might have the same allowance of 

 time and money for his journey back to Ningpo, 

 and it was he who had given us so much trouble at 

 Yu-yoau. But fair winds and other circumstances 

 had disappointed him, and instead of spending 

 about three days in bringing us thus far, he had 

 been only one day and two nights. As we had 

 been one of these nights lying at the bridge, and 

 as his way back was down stream, we calculated 

 that he would easily reach Ningpo in a day and 

 night, even if the wind was contrary. He was 

 therefore paid for three days in full, which ap- 

 peared to us to be most ample. But this did not 

 satisfy the old man ; he had calculated on being 

 six days in our service, and six days' pay he was 

 determined to have, nor would he listen to reason 

 or any explanation. 



We had borrowed a table and three chairs from 



