GIVING DUCKS THEIR EDUCATION. 
125 
above, wliicli I learned from Bishop Boone, the head of 
the Episcopal mission in China. But to return to 
Canton. 
We are on our return-trip to IIong-Kong, and I make 
another extract of something I saw while passing down 
the river ; — 
We were now running along the edge of an exten- 
sive rice-field, and the pilot called my attention to a 
queer-looking boat that was fastened to the bank. ‘ That 
is a duck-boat,’ he said: ^ did you ever see one before V 
“I replied in the negative, and he then pointed out 
hundreds of ducks working their clumsy way througli 
the half-grown rice. 
“^They live in that boat,’ he continued, ‘with the 
man and his family who own them, — the people in the 
middle and the ducks in those side-pens. They are let 
put to feed whenever the boat drifts by a good place, 
and when the man whistles they get back as fast as they 
can. The last one that gets back is whipped.’ 
“ ‘ Whipped ?’ I exclaimed. 
“ ‘ Yes ; he slaps him hard, and then the next time he 
doesn’t come last.’ ” 
I give the above as it was given to me, and as it is 
given to almost every one visiting China, and must add, 
in confirmation of it, something of the kind which I 
Avitnessed m3^self. 
We had left this first duck-boat well astern and were 
approaching a second. The man of this second had 
apparently “whistled,” for his ducks Avere returning 
in an awful hurry. 
“They were apparently making the most desperate 
