They had ridden from Tungchow under a burning sun and at full gallop, and their weedy, miserable-looking ponies looked ready to drop. The latter evidently only yearned (like the Irishman’s horse), for a wall to lean up against and think, and looked almost as disconsolate as their riders, which is saying a good deal.
They stood for some time without making a remark. Then, dismounting slowly and cautiously, one of them approached Tallien, who was assisting us with the packs, and in a mild and quavering voice inquired if he was manager of the hotel; and on receiving a reply in the affirmative, if he and his friend could have a bedroom, and whether there were any objects of interest to be seen in the neighbourhood?
“The Great Wall of China, messieurs,” replied Tallien; “but you’ll find it rather a long ride in one day.”
A STREET IN TARTAR CITY——PEKIN.
“Oh, never mind! we must go and see it. Can you get us a guide at once? We have to be in Tientsin again the day after to-morrow, to sail for Japan.”
It was only with the greatest difficulty that they were persuaded to defer their visit to “the Great Wall” till next day.
At dinner that evening, they were great on the subject of their travels; had been, they informed us, to Gibraltar, Malta, Port Said, Cairo, Suez, Aden, Colombo, Singapore, and Shanghai, giving us their impressions and ideas of each port, and the customs of its inhabitants, in a manner which, in more ways than one, was highly entertaining. They were now going to see the “Great Wall of China,” because their mamma had written to say that the Times said there was none, and she was sure there was, because her grandfather (who was a sailor) had told her so, and he had seen it. Then they were going to Japan, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, and New York, then to Liverpool and then London; “and I don’t think,” said the elder of the two sadly and wearily, “we shall ever care to go abroad again!”
Judging from the ideas this youth formed of the countries he visited, one could not help thinking he would not lose very much by this determination.
They were up and away next morning long before we were stirring, on the same wretched animals that had brought them from Tungchow, and with a guide of their own finding, a rascally Pekinese, who probably made a good thing out of them. Where the scamp took them remains a mystery. I have since heard, they returned the next day quite proud of their achievement, remarking at dinner that evening, that the “Wall was a fine sight.” The fact that it is a long five-days’ journey from the capital never occurred to them, and they left Pekin quite satisfied, having probably been shown the ramparts of some suburban town or village. I have often wondered since if they wrote to that long-suffering paper the Times.